Only 3 more weeks?!

I hate being one of those people who's constantly counting down to something, but it feels very significant that today marks three weeks before I leave El Paso, especially because I have SO much to do before I go home.

A brief update on my project:

1. Evidently the 5th time is a charm- I finally got an EMS data disk from the state of Texas that functions and was able to do some really fun analyses last week!

2.  I am very happy to report that I did two more prenatal care observations and interviews on Friday morning with an El Paso-based OB we approached about participating on Wednesday! And I have at least one more prenatal care observation and interview scheduled for another El Paso-based OB this afternoon (my supervisor just approached her about participating on Friday!).  Annnd I have a postpartum interview scheduled for Wednesday morning in El Paso! Yay for some progress finally!

3.  I went to Juárez with my supervisor on Wednesday to meet an OB and an epidemiologist from one of the Seguro Social hospitals there.  It looks like I'm going to do "prenatal" interviews with women who qualify when they enter the hospital to deliver and then return the next day to do the postpartum interviews.  This is quite different than what I've been doing, but with my departure date looming it seems to be the only way to include another Mexican hospital in my study.  I will likely be starting tomorrow morning, si Dios quiere.


And a complete side note regarding my trip to Juárez on Wednesday:

As most of you know, since 2007, passports (or other valid documents) have been required to enter the U.S. from anywhere else in the Western Hemisphere (Ah, remember the days when only a birth certificate was required?).  I was kind of wondering what happened if U.S. citizens forgot their passports and tried to re-enter the U.S., and the answer came on Wednesday when someone I crossed with did exactly that.  The woman showed her U.S.-issued driver's license, and when the customs official asked for her passport, she explained that she left it at home.  He asked if she had visited Mexico before, and she said yes.  He asked if she was bringing anything back, and she said no.  Then he asked where she would get shark teeth, to which she responded "Florida."  And then he told her to have a nice day.

Why am I telling you this?  First of all, I felt rather offended that she was able to use a driver's license as her proof of citizenship since you don't necessarily need to be a citizen to get a driver's license.  This is significant because I have a feeling that if this woman was not white, it would've been a whole lot harder for her to prove her citizenship.  I don't need to go into a full rant about white privilege here, but this encounter seemed very significant since I'm constantly surrounded by talk about what it takes to "enter the United States legally."

And secondly, I wanted to make sure that everyone out there knew where you get shark teeth.  Evidently it's something that U.S. citizens know, but to be honest, I probably would've answered "from a shark" or "from an aquarium."  Good thing I carry my passport!