Creencias

As a college educated American I am used to believing things because they are scientifically "proven". I want to read the research, understand the mechanism and know the facts, especially when it comes to health. This type of mentality can prove to be a challenge when dealing with people who base their beliefs on a number of other sources. Creencias are commonly held beliefs mostly based on folk wisdom. As we progress through our training we learn about beleifs concerning food, cold liquids, birth, colds, dehydration, HIV/AIDS and all sorts of other stuff. Some of the beleifs are innocuous and some seriously dangerous. As a Peace Corps volunteer we need to pick our battles. The other day a 21 year old cousin of the family came over and we got to talking. It somehow came up that drinking cold liquid is bad for you. I started by trying to understand why...he said drinking cold liquids is bad because your stomach has to heat it up. Similarily, I told my mom I had a sore throat and she said it was probably because we had been drinking so much cold juice. Well, whether you drink cold or room temperature liquid throughout your entire life probably won't make a wit of difference.
Then it somehow started talking about birth control and he started to tell me about a kind of birth control pill that you don't have to take every day, only once in a while. I finally figured out that he was talking about "the morning after pill". I tried to explain that this pill is not meant to be used as birth control, it is only for emergency situations. He then tried to explain to me that it was meant to be used like this and in fact it was even safer than daily birth control pills. Unlike swearing off cold liquids this belief can have a seriously detrimental effect. Unfortunately I didn't really know what to say, and then it was lunch time.
Throughout my service I will inevitably encounter many creencias and probably some of them will be true and prove me wrong. I will also encounter many that pose serious health threats and I will have to figure out creative ways to work with them.