Cultural Differences

I've been here a whole two weeks today! I thought I would tell of some cultural differences I've discovered since arriving here.


1. Greetings: while walking, you must greet everyone who you cross paths with. But instead of saying "hola" (hello) they say "adios" (goodbye) - or good morning/afternoon/night. If I forget to greet somebody Odilia nudges me until I say something. I could never greet everyone on State Street!


2. Number of Kids: 2 or 3 in the States (and it's ok if you don't have any), but here 8-10 children is normal. Odilia has 12! She says it's because nobody wants to use birth control.


3. Clothes: everyone wears the same thing for 2-3 days or more until it's too dirty to wear. It makes sense! Men wear jeans/pants and t-shirts and women wear a corte (skirt), güipil or blusa (blouse), faja (long belt), delantal (apron) every day - all ages! I'm going to a wedding on Saturday of Odilia and Santos' godchild and am going to wear traditional clothes so I'll be sure to upload some pics :)


4. Honking: In the US, you honk when there's danger. Here, you honk at everyone you pass to say "hello!" Santos says if you don't honk, the person thinks you're mad at them. Half the time the horn in the steering wheel doesn't work so they have another little red button near the radio that I press sometimes when we pass people. Today Odilia and I were in a truck where no horn works so she had my roll the window down and yell adios to everyone we passed.


5. Refridgeration: doesn't really happen. Some people have fridges, but we don't. That means that whatever shrimp, meat, and cheese we buy at the market stays at room temperature until we eat it. And of course there isn't a freezer - I miss having ice water! When the family wants soda, they buy it right when they want to drink it because the store next door has a fridge.


6. Who you live with: your parents (with their rules) until you get married and move into your husband's parent's house with his entire family. If you are a man, you stay with your parents forever. It's rare for somebody to have their own apartment or live with friends like I do in Madison.


7. Drinking: There are a couple of village drunks. There is no such thing as "having some wine with dinner" in this town. The kids that are around my age couldn't believe it when I told them that drinking on the weekends with friends or on a sunny afternoon is very normal in Wisconsin. I've only had 2 beers in the last 2 weeks - a new record! :)


8. Showering: Plan ahead to heat water up on the stove. Then add cool water until it's a good temperature. Then carry it to the bathroom and use a plastic bowl to pour it on your body and bathe. I prefer bathing in the temascal.


9. Laundry: Scrub laundry in the pila, then hang it out to dry and hope it doesn't rain for a few hours. One of my sweatshirts took three days to dry because it's so thick!


10. Gold: Few wedding rings but EVERYONE has a little gold or silver in their teeth. Usually just outlining a few in the front, but some people have gold stars on their front teeth. It is a flashy fix, but I'm very thankful for dental care in the United States.


11. Indoor Hallways: Rare to come by. In most houses, you have to go outside to get to the other rooms. Usually it's covered by some sort of roof (mostly tin), but not always. For example, I have to walk outdoors to get from my room to the kitchen, bathroom, living room, and other bedrooms. It's not a problem unless it's pouring rain!


12. Counting: In the US, we consider one week to be 7 days and two weeks to be 14 days. But here, they count "today" as one day. So if today is Thursday, next Thursday is in 8 days and two Thursdays from now is in 15 days. 


13. Shaving: The girls don't usually do it here, but they don't have a lot of body hair and rarely expose their armpits so it's not really needed. The other day Odilia asked me why I shave my legs and not my arms. And I really didn't know how to answer - it's just like that in the United States!


14. Friends: Nobody has had a friend come to the house or left to go over to a friend's house, although everyone has friends. I guess they see their friends at school, around town, and outside but house time is family time. 

Kids Kids Kids

11 chicks hatched here a couple of days ago - here they are eating with mom!

bath time awww - these cats are always sleeping in this basket under a table in the kitchen

Yesterday we went back to Comalapa to pick up the veil and go to the market. We stopped by a little store to pick up some snacks and I found a Coca Cola Light! So happy. We also visited another Aunt of Odilia's who is a curandera (curer/medicine woman) - there were lots of pigeons and flowers at her house and an alter with candles where she does her healing. 

Had a Coca Cola Light!! Almost as good as Diet Coke but not quite...

Alter at Odilia's Aunt's house

Peluche - cute dog of the Aunt's

After Comalapa Odilia and I went to a house where three women were pregnant at the same time! It is common here for many family members to live together - when a woman gets married, she moves into her husband's house with his parents and the rest of his family. There were 12 kids at this house, all fascinated with me and asking me how to say tons of words in English. Odilia had delivered almost all of them and now she was going to deliver these next three! They were also big fans of the camera. I would do one woman's prenatal control and then send them into the temascal for the massage with Odilia while another one entered for another control. It was the first time doing three whole prenatal exams without Odilia there to double check anything! 

2 boys in the room I was doing the controls - it has two beds pushed right up against each other for a big family to sleep in together

Guatemalan kids

Afterwards to went to Tecpan for some atol de arroz con leche (hot rice pudding drinks) and I took a couple of pictures. I was so tired after all of those exams and all those kids!

Tortilla making in Tecpan

Center of Tecpan

Today Odilia's friend, Alfredo, the photographer, came to her house. He came with us to one visit on the other side of her pueblo but couldn't go inside because Odilia said the woman was strict. I, of course, got to go in since I was doing the exam! Afterwards I asked Odilia if we could go to Chimaltenango to a store where her oldest daughter works (Estella) because she had told me about locally made Artesian clothes, purses, and other various things and I wanted to check it out. We got a ride there from somebody who was headed that way and I ended up buying a lot of things! For some reason the employee gave me a HUGE discount on everything and I got a jacket, a sweater, one big purse and one small purse for me, a purse for Odilia that she wanted, a headband, and a scarf... all for twenty five dollars. In total! It took a bus, a mototaxi, and a long walk to get back to Odilia's house, then we went to one girl's house who Odilia had never met before for a check-up. She is due in 10 days and has another midwife that hasn't come for two weeks and she was in pain and had questions - Odilia to the rescue! We checked her out (she was fine) and Odilia gave her some tips and exercises to do every day to make the labor easier and quicker when it happens.

baaaaa

Paxorotot (my village)

Odilia and I in the parque of Chimaltenango

Walking back to Paxorotot

Mototaxi!

Odilia and Alfredo

Busy Monday

So many visits today - 8 of them! Odilia didn't go in the temascal with all of them so the prenatal visits went quickly, but it was still a lot of women to see. I did all of the physical prenatal controls (measuring, doppler, blood pressure, palpating). I wrote down little details in my journal so I wouldn't get everyone confused.
1. Maria Luisa - a 30-year-old due on 6/20/12, but Odilia thinks she will have it around June 4th (the full moon) or June 11th (quarter moon). Odilia gave her an injection of "liver extract"... packed with vitamin B!
2. Flori - a 26-year-old due on 7/18/12
3. Dilma - a 21-year-old prima due on 6/24/12, but Odilia thinks maybe she'll have it early and I'll still be here. Odilia and I got the truck stuck in the mud at this house and it took 4 people, rocks, and sawdust to get the truck out! 
4. Silvia - a 21-year-old prima due on 8/25/12
5. Irma - a 30-year-old due on 9/21/12
6. Albertina - a 35-year-old prima due on 7/31/12... baby is in the nalgas position (butt down instead of head down) so Odilia showed her some exercises to do for 15 minutes 3-4 times a week to turn it upside down
7. Petronila (who already had the baby) - they still haven't picked a name!! The excess umbilical cord fell off this morning. Petronila fainted when she got out of the temascal and I had to help carry her to the bed.
8. Claudia - I didn't write down her information, but I know she is young and it's her first baby. It was raining so hard at this point and she had a tin roof that I could barely listen to her blood pressure it was so loud! When I was palpating this baby, it started to move around and kick - so awesome!!


After all of the visits we came home and had lunch and Odilia helped me set up a clothes line to dry my clothes on. A woman who is very poor comes to the house every Monday to do laundry for Odilia's family to make a little money and have lunch, so she washed my clothes. I'm very thankful because I'm not sure I would be the best at washing my clothes in a stone sink with a bar of soap!
Later in the afternoon, Odilia and I set up a fake, practice birth - there are no dolls in the house so we made a fake baby out of a plastic juice bottle and put it in a sock. Odilia drew a picture of different sized circles and I had to determine how dilated each one was, in order to know for a real vaginal exam during a real labor. I also had to coach her through her fake labor and catch the "baby," then quickly suction out the mouth and nose and cut the umbilical cord. Hopefully we can do a couple more practice rounds before the next birth so I can take on more tasks during the real thing! 

Another day trip

Yesterday I went on another day trip with Odilia and Santos. But first, here are some pictures that go along with my previous blog posts: (jeez I love having fast internet now!)

Beautiful roses in Guatemala City - for you, Mom!

2 of Petronila's sister-in-laws that LOVED taking pictures. I got out my camera when Petronila and Odilia were in the temascal and they freaked out. They kept doing different poses and with different combinations of people, then would run to my camera to look at the pictures, giggle uncontrollably, and run back in front of the camera for another picture. I took like 50 pictures but here are just a couple.

Monkey face

Guatemalan kids are so cute!

2 more girls at Petronila's house

A cat at a pregnant woman's house that posed perfectly for me.

A woman weaving a wipil - the type of shirt that most Guatemalan women wear in the villages. This woman told me it takes three months to make just one!

My pueblo - Paxorotot. You can see all of the hills, houses, farms, and the crazy thunderstorm about to come in (it rains a lot here every afternoon and night - and it's soo loud because of all the tin roofs!)

Church we drive by every time we leave the pueblo going one way - there is only one road that goes through the town. This isn't the church we go to on Sundays, though.

Day Trip to Chimaltenango and Comalapa

Instead of going to mass yesterday, Odilia and Santos serviced a church group who wanted to go to a place called Chimaltenango. Santos drove their big school bus and Odilia drove their microbus/van thing (I rode up front with Odilia). "Apocentos Chimaltenango" is the amusement park-type place they wanted to go, complete with a big lagoon with paddle boats and rowboats, amusement games, food, a zip-line type thing across the lagoon, pools, and pony rides. The group went there to baptize some of the younger church members and spend the day there. It looked like fun for a young family, but I'm glad we didn't stay there because it didn't seem like there was too much to do for an adult and it was cold and rainy. Odilia, Santos, and I left in the microbus to go to the pueblo where Odilia was born, called Comalapa. Comalapa is famous for having lots of painters and other artists there - so there is a wall when you first drive into town with the entire Mayan history painted. Pretty cool! We walked around their market, saw the house where Odilia was born and the house Odilia and Santos lived for a short time when they first got married, and visited Odilia's Aunt Macaria. The aunt was so nice and gave me a centro de mesa (table runner) typical of Guatemala as a gift. We also went to a place where they make wedding veils and other materials because Odilia and Santo's godchild is getting married this Saturday (I get to go to the wedding!) and it is the godparent's job to buy the veil, crown, double-necked rosary for the husband and wife, and the bouquet. I found it very strange here that all wedding bouquets are fake flowers with glitter and paint on them - I asked Odilia if they ever have real bouquets and she said no, because the fake bouquet lasts forever as a memory of the wedding. I didn't particularly like the bouquets or the veils! I find it funny that the bride trusts the godparents to pick out a veil that will go with the rest of her dress and outfit when Odilia hasn't even seen her dress! They used me as a model and we had a good chuckle. Afterwards we went back to the amusement park to pick up the family and take them home. Odilia and Santos had to take a family member to the airport last night and didn't get back until midnight - Odilia just woke up and I've already been awake for 2 hours ready to go on prenatal visits! We are leaving soon though :)

Comida d' Marta - a cute restaurant where we had breakfast (and then later returned for their lunch buffet!)

Fake wedding bouquets

Modeling the veil and bouquet - HELLO!

church in Comalapa

Aunt Macaria and me with my new table runner

Painted wall that tells the story of the Mayans

One of Odilia's favorite paintings

Lagoon with a swan and paddle boats at Apocentos Chimaltenango (park)

Vendors at the park

One of the pools - with no lifeguard on duty, eek! 

Kids looking for fish in a river that goes around the park

An update on the past few days

On Wednesday, I really wanted to sleep all day long after the eventful birth night, but I’m so happy I went on the trip with Odilia and Santos. It took an hour or so to get to Sololá, a cute pueblo complete with a plaza de armas. Santos had a meeting there with the co-op he works for, so Odilia and I tagged along so she could show me the city. After eating breakfast and having Odilia try her first ever McDonalds-style hash brown (which she loved, of course), we took a bus to a pueblo called Panajachel, winding down a road with a view of this HUGE lake surrounded by mountains and three volcanoes. It was so beautiful! The lake is called lago do Panajachel. Odilia and I took a boat ride on it to get to a pueblo called San Marcos, one of many towns scattered in valleys around the lake. The first boat ran out of gas so we had to transfer to another one… Odilia is scared of water and doesn’t know how to swim so she was freaking out! I, lover of boats, water, and sun, was loving every minute of that boat ride! Once we got to San Marcos, I fell in love! It was touristy, but I can see why. There are little paths throughout the little shore town leading to all sorts of mind-body therapies. Massages, yoga classes, meditation centers, homeopathic medicine shops, everything. The town was so peaceful and sunny with tress, plants, and flowers EVERYWHERE. It smelled so good! Every once in a while I would get a glimpse of the huge lake and mountains and it became even more impressive. Odilia first came to this town to pick up a student form Australia who visited there first. The student had met a local there named David and introduced him to Odilia when she came. On that visit, Odilia bought MMS (miracle mineral supplement) a liquid homeopathic medicine for Santos’ diabetes and it worked incredibly – the MMS drops controlled his blood sugar without insulin or Metformin or anything! So, this is the reason we came to San Marcos – to find more of this medicine for Santos. David, the local that the student knew, met up with us when we got off the boat. All Odilia could remember about the place she got the remedy was that it was a round building with a massage place next door and the “doctor” was a white man named Mark or Max or Marcos or something like that. What an adventure it was to find that place! We walked all over this tiny pueblo with David and after talking and calling lots of people, we found the medicine – but never the original location. We bought three bottles of MMS and 3 bottles of “activator” from a nice Swedish man who had lived there for five years. Odilia took down his information so she wouldn’t have to search so blindly the next time!

David was really nice and a man of many hats – he works as a translator, writer, painter, as well as many other things. He was nice enough to invite us to his house so the three of us took a mototaxi up, up, up – all the way to my dream house. It was high up on a hill/cliff/mountain, triangular with tons of windows and a big porch with the most gorgeous view of the lake possible! Odilia and I had a beer on the porch swing (my first since I’ve been here and turned 22) and I was on such a happiness high it was wonderful. Odilia and I, celebrating my first birth, enjoying a Guatemalan cerveza and overlooking the most beautiful lake possible. 

Sololá

me and Lake Panajachel

Odilia and I on the boat ride

One of the meditation centers in San Marcos

"faith"

I love these little bell flowers!

Odilia and I on the balcony... What a view!

David invited us into his house and we got to see all of artwork. I remarked how much I liked one of the paintings and he gave it to me! Unfortunately we had to leave this paradise house after just a short visit because it was already late and Santos was done with his meeting. Plus, it was starting to get dark and thunder and Odilia was nervous about the boat ride back.

Once back in Panajachel, we met up with Alfredo, a Chilean photographer who is making a book about Odilia and midwifery/childbirth in Guatemala. He lives in Panajachel with his wife, who is American and Japanese, and their 4-year-old daughter, Sofia – renting a furnished apartment for $300 a month. Boy, do they live the life! Their daughter was born in Japan, and they’ve lived in Chile, Mexico, and now Guatemala. They speak Spanish, English, and French fluently and their daughter does, too. They just alternate which language they speak to her every few sentences – such a good idea to start teaching language at a young age. I got to see some pictures Alfredo has taken of Odilia working for his book – really cool! He wants to take more so he is coming to her house in a week or so. Odilia, Santos, Alfredo, and I went to a restaurant called “Circus Bar” In Panajachel for pizza – just what I had been craving. Then we left for home. Upon arriving at the house, I went in the temascal (since it was Wednesday and temascal days are Wednesdays and Saturdays), and then was sound asleep by 8 pm, exhausted from getting less than 3 hours of sleep the night before. It was the first time I slept through the night without waking up from barking animals!

On Thursday Odilia and I went back to Petronila’s house to check on her and the baby. Petronila went in the temascal and almost passed out – she is still so weak from the birth. The baby also went in the temascal for a short time to get his frist bath! Afterwards, Odilia dressed the baby (they still haven’t picked a name), checked Petronila for healing progress, and we left. Odilia gets 500 quetzales per birth – less than $80.

Petronila's baby boy :)

Odilia had a doctor’s appointment in Tecpan at 8 am but we were late so she missed it. We did, however, go to the Ministry of Health for a big comadrona (midwife) meeting. There were about 50 midwives there and were presented about a vitamin powder for kids. Afterwards, Odilia and I spent the whole day in Tecpan, buying lots of things at the market (Thursdays are the biggest market days) and running errands. Afterwards, we went to a woman’s house that is not yet pregnant but trying to become pregnant. Odilia went in the temascal with her for the same massage she gives to her pregnant clients and told me it helps with ovulation and conception. Afterwards, we visited one more woman who is pregnant and I did her prenatal check-up. Pretty good day!

Market in Tecpan

Blouses that all the women here wear - at the market

Yesterday we went to Guatemala City because Santos had some business to do there. The city is big, busy, and polluted – not my favorite part of Guatemala, but it was still interesting to see. Also, Odilia and I had nothing to do all day but go with Santos in the car and chat. She told me about how she became a midwife, which is a very long and beautiful story that I will write about some other day. After Guatemala City we stopped in Tecpan for some more errands and Odilia bought me cream for all of my nasty bug bites. They are of all shapes and sizes and I’m really not sure what they are from! Mosquitoes, flies, spiders, bed bugs… probably all of them. Oh, and ants! Today Odilia and I were laying in some grass while Santos did business with the vegetable company he works for (Fruitesa) and I got attacked by ants on my lower back. It actually hurt a lot! I taught Odilia the phrase “ants in my pants” because quite literally I did have ants in my pants, and she loves it. After the day trip we visited one woman for a prenatal visit, then came home for dinner and rest. I recognized the mother-in-law of the pregnant woman so we chatted for a while. It is nice that people are starting to know who I am and are interested in what I’m doing here. They always ask me three questions: where I’m from, if I’m married or single, and how many siblings I have. I always say I’m from the US since nobody knows where Wisconsin is. Everyone is always shocked to find out I only have one sister – here people usually have 6, 8, 10 kids or more. Odilia has 12! 

Today I slept in until 8:15 and it felt soo good. Odilia, Santos, and Meme, their 15-year-old son, went to church for a meeting about Meme's confirmation, but I got to sleep in. I was supposed to meet them in Tecpan at 9 am, but after breakfast of spaghetti and hot dogs she called and said to stay home because it was raining so hard. I finally figured out the internet situation hence the many blog posts and photo uploads all of a sudden! I am a bit sad I'm missing Brat Fest the second year in a row but oh well, always next year! Someone have a brat for me, will you? 

When Odilia got home we went to Petronila's for another check-up and to help her breastfeed. She looks so much better today! When she and Odilia went into the temascal, 3 little girls (sisters of Petronila's husband) sat on the bed watching my write in my journal without saying a word. Finally they started talking and asked me how to say all of these words in English, laughing at everything I said. One of them, an 11-year-old, told me her aunt said the new baby came from an airplane and I had to play along! Odilia told me later it was good that I did - most kids are sheltered about sexual education and reproduction here. She was surprised when I told her about Human Growth and Development classes starting in 4th grade at my school. I was surprised that she, as a midwife, hasn't told her youngest children where babies come from! After Petronila's we went to a woman nammed Rebecca's house, due on June 15th. Hopefully I'll get to see her labor and birth before I leave, since I'm now hooked :)

Photos, finally!

Moreno/Miguel (8), Daniel (6), Pancho (11), Valentina (9), Lupita (4) playing with the bubbles I brought

Odilia cutting up the chicken for my birthday - with all 5 pets of the house staring and hoping she drops a piece! (I took this from the loft where my room is)

Me, Odilia, the Grandma and her friend - cutting the tails off the pea pods

Dia de la familia at the kids' school - Odilia impersonating a dog and winning dishes for it!

Birth!

Odilia weighing the baby

New baby that I witnessed come into the world!

Listening to the babe's heart and lungs - yay nursing! (Petronila, the mom, is passed out in the back)

Odilia and I with the baby after the birth :)