Hold a Bowl of Blood with both Hands

...or a list of things that I love about San Cristobal, Chiapas, and my work here.

*Walking out of my house along a street of beautiful spanish colonial buildings, then through a Mayan settlement to walk by a beautiful mountain river and up a hill covered with pine and madrone trees, to have a fantastic view of San Cristobal and its Guadalupe Church

*When a woman tears after giving birth that we apply seaweed topically to assist in the mending of the tissue. Thats right, vaginal sushi!

*Mayan women who wash their laundry in the river, and then leave everything to dry atop trees and shrubs along the shore while their children laugh and tumble in the grass.

*Hearing the same stupid norteño song everyday, ten times a day, until you have to admit that now you love the song.

*A month after a woman has given birth we provide a "closing" which includes an herbal bath of seven plants (including rosemary and laurel...the rest are unknown, and the ancient market woman will not reveal the secret!) in which the whole family gets in. This is really special because bathtubs are nearly unknown in Mexico. Afterward the woman is given a massage, now which includes Mayan Abdominal Massage, and then a rebozo massage in which a Mexican shawl is used to rock the woman and close her hips. Its a perfect integration of western medicine and traditional healing techniques.

*Fresh popped palomitas (popcorn) in the market for 1 peso (ten cents!)

*Having the opportunity to learn women´s health and midwifery care in a very free environment unavailable in the US. I am constantly amazed at the experiences the patients at Luna Maya have shared with me from their prenatal care, births, postnatal care, well woman care, etc. I have learned how to do PAP smears, identify vaginal irritations post birth, assist with lactation, care for women during birth, and approach mexican women in a more culturally appropriate way. To top it all off its a constant spanish lesson! Added to this is my joy of sharing my work with the Mexican women. I have had the opprtunity to provide sessions (I´m now a pro at teaching Abdominal self care massage in spanish!) and teach workshops.

*Spending a weekend in Oconsingo and Palenque where my experiences included:
1. Being stuck in a bus station for three extra hours because the road was out due to a rainstorm. While there I had a conversation with a young woman on her way out to work in a hotel in Cancun. She told me everything she knew about US culture which included the fact that we ALL have blue eyes in the US, and that it is sunny and warm in the US all the time. I unfortunately had to tell her the truth!
2. Finding a guide to take me and a couple of Spanish freinds into the jungle of Palenque an abandoned Mayan city. We hiked through the mud until we found an entirely forest covered temple...it made us think that this must have been what it was like when the first anthropologists had come into the area. Later, our Mayan guide, descendant of a Mayan Shaman, proceeded to give me a traditional Mayan treatment that consisted of him pushing a crystal and a jaguar tooth into various points on my forehead and joints. He told me that I think to much, often considering three topics at the same time, and that I need to learn to connect myself more to the earth. What do you think?

Lastly, I thought I would just answer a question that a friend asked me in a recent email, whether my work here has given me more or less hope for the fate of humanity. My answer is more hope. I beleive that by being involved in an organization that is breaking down the traditonal stereotypes and roles of what a woman is in mexico is priceless. Being involved with "humanizing birth" changes interfamily relationships and promotes more understanding in the larger global community. The road is difficult, similar to anyroad or side walk that you find in Mexico or Latin America. Sometimes you have a clear flat path to walk on for a few feet, then you realize a family is walking toward you and you must decisively choose who goes to the inside and who to the outside of the three foot wide track, then you have to jump off the bank to avoid a large crack, and then quickly get back up again to avoid the taxi speeding at your back. There are lots of obstacles, but you eventually get somewhere...you also realize that the road that you took was alot more fun than just walking blindly down a perfectly poured concrete slab.