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