Carmen just called from Puerto Rico with an update for the first day of outreach.
Carmen and Hilda met up today to hit the road in search of places to talk to about HPS. Donna arrived in Puerto Rico at the crack of dawn, so she, Ashley and Richie stayed behind the first part of the day to catch up on some sleep.
Carmen was impressed with Hilda’s sense of direction and has dubbed her “the human GPS.” Hilda, who is a retired nurse from the NIH, is such a go getter. Today she and Carmen went and passed out information about HPS at a hospital, three dentist offices and several doctors' offices. They also visited a radio station and an office serving people with disabilities.
Often their visits were unannounced. If Hilda sees a sign for a doctor’s office, she stops in and gives them a brochure. At one point the two of them saw a man sitting on the sidewalk, so they stopped and asked him where all the doctors’ offices were in the area. He directed them to quite a few.
In one office the pair encountered a secretary whose 14-year-old daughter had done a school report on HPS. They have no one with HPS in their family – the option was actually on a list of suggested topics from the teacher. Can you believe it? The mom is going to try to bring her daughter to the conference on Saturday.
At another point the duo stopped in at an office of tourism to get a map. Of course they told the lady in the office about HPS – somehow the topic of Goodsearch came up and now the tourism office in this town in Puerto Rico plans to use Goodsearch. How great is that?
By the way, for those of us enjoying nice temperatures, the HPS outreach crew is walking around in 103 degrees.
Read the complete post at http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/LivingOnTheFrontlines/~3/368649946/puerto-rico-report-hilda-earns-nick.html