Adios Amigo

Dear Puerto,

I came here not knowing what I was looking for, but searching for something.  And here I found so much more than I could have ever imagined: self-trust, confidence, joy, and peace.  I spread my wings, and you showed me I can fly.  It hasn't been easy - you made me work for it, some of the hardest days of my life, but also some of the best.  This has been a journey of my spirit, through the highs and the lows, I walk away with a stronger connection to myself, my God, and my sobriety.

I'm not sure I will be back.  This experience has been sacred and one I will pull out time and again in gratitude, but you've already given me all that I need from you, and it's time to continue walking my path with your spirit gifts in my basket.  Hopefully, I've been able to add a little sparkle to your endless sunshine.  I thank you, from the bottom of my happy little heart.

Que te vaya bien,
Con amor,
Steffie

So Mexican

On Sunday morning, I went with the abuelita of the family to help her do her weekly shopping.  The market is filled with novelties, like pig heads and chicken hearts and all the fresh fruit, veggies, and flowers one would expect from a colorful and noisy Mexican market.  Here are me and Dona Zoila at the mercado.  I love her.  

That afternoon was Pachi and Julia's bday party (the two girls, whose birthday's are just days apart).  What a fiesta, complete with face painting, pinatas, break-dancers, tons of food, and a hilarious clown.  In this photo, you can see my family on the left - Sol, Roger, Julia, and Pachi (with a fairy painted face :).

Yesterday I went to yoga at a new place, each yoga palapa more beautiful than the next...

One more post to come on Saturday before I return home, and so much to squeeze out of these last 48 hours...maybe even one final surf session to break in my new rash guard that my host family gave me as a good-bye gift...I'm now official. :)



 

With only one week left...

I'm at my favorite coffee shop, Casa Choc, and down the street Barcelona is playing Madrid in a soccer match on TV and I can hear them cheering and screaming from here.

It's another hot, sunny, beautiful day in Puerto and I spent my morning in the best possible way.  I went to volunteer my time with teenagers who want to learn English and cannot afford private classes.  They were so excited and nervous and I could tell they loved having me there - a real American to practice with.  I taught them all the important words, like 'so cute', 'very cool', and 'you guys are awesome'.  Turns out that's how I talk and they were like, um, what?  One told me in broken English that I am very nice and pretty, and I was so touched.  Afterwards, the teacher told me that I changed their lives.  I don't know about all that, but it sure felt good to hear. :)

This past week I got to meet another partera (midwife) and she was wearing a Chicago t-shirt (classic).  She was so happy to talk to me, and show me her herbs and gave me a big hug when I left.

I spent time in the local administrative office for Seguro Popular (their local public health system).  It's amazing how well they track statistics and trends without really any technology.  It's all done with pen and paper until it finally makes it to the main office in Oaxaca to be tabulated.  I chatted with these giggling nurses there, who record and distribute everything having to do with vaccinations.  They were hilarious, and we were laughing the whole time.

I also attended a couple trainings for doctors and nurses in their last year of residency during which they are doing their 'year of service' and have to work in one of the local Centros de Salud (many of the clinicians I met in the clinics were in fact these doctors and nurses).  The training was about how to put in the subdermal implant for birth control, and they went ahead and did some demos right on the spot...

The previous week I spent in Chila again, but this time in the clinic instead of chinche-hunting.  I was a part of two 'platicas', which are discussions with the local women (who are required to attend to maintain their level of financial support from La Programa de Oportunidades) based on family planning.

I also watched in fascinated horror as this insanely huge abscess on an old man's back get sliced and drained of pus for like a half hour, and met a little boy who had so many cavities in his teeth I could actually see them as black shadows.

Aside from all the medical stuff, I'm still getting to the beach.

Here is the sky the other night after the sun had set from the beach, La Punta.

A picture speaks a thousand words, so 'nuff said. :)  

Semana No Santa

I am in for a very low-key weekend.  I am down to my last peso (and, incidentally, it is my lucky peso that I found on the ground when I got here, so I am not spending it), and I went to the bank yesterday to get money.  They were closed.  They are closed until Monday, which means that I have the opportunity to figure out how to live muyyyyy simply.  I mean, I have everything I need - two meals a day from my host family, clean water, books, music, the internet, legs to take me to the beach...I shall survive.  And maybe learn a thing or two in the process about the spiritual benefits of austerity.

In any case, I'll never go hungry - the abuelita of the family is this cute old lady who LOVES to talk about nothing, for example, the mango trees in our yard.  There are, apparently, ten different types of mangoes here in Puerto.  I happen to love talking to her and activity participate in chatting with her whenever I can.  As a result, I am the beneficiary of many fresh mango gifts, so that I may taste and experience the difference between the types of mangoes...I can have mangoes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  Perhaps I can even sell a few for a couple pesos.  The possibilities are endless.

Yesterday I talked to a couple of locals, who really do not appreciate the Mexican spring breakers.  They both commented that they don't know why this week is called Semana 'Santa', when this week is anything but saintly. Sol told me that when she went surfing yesterday morning at 8 AM, there were still tons of drunk Chilangos (as are called the vacationing people from Mexico City) milling about from the night before, and she said the playa smelled like cerveza.  

I, however, got to witness something very holy on my way to Spanish class yesterday.  In front of the half-finished cathedral I found a crowd of people watching a live-reenactment of Jesus being hung on the cross.  To be honest, the human Jesus freaked me out just a little.

This morning while I blog, Pachi (as they call Maria Paz) is sitting here playing games on my I-phone. She is obsessed with it, and as a result I am pretty sure I am her favorite student who has every stayed in her house (I'm not ashamed to use to technology to get into people's hearts).  The phone is essentially hers now, and I borrow it every once in a while.  Here are me and Pachi hanging out on Saturday morning in mi casa. 

Happy Easter, everyone!!! xo

   

Sah-Hey y Yo

Sah-hey (as Sage's name is pronounced in Spanish) is leaving today.  We had a great few days together, filled with yoga, beaches, walks, sunsets, and a hilarious Zumba-type work-out class (the students were the two of us, and a gray-haired bigggg dude with no rhythm).  Our friend Maria invited us to her house on Sunday, a little oasis in the middle of nowhere on a secluded beach.  We spent the day and evening lounging, talking, eating, napping, and releasing baby turtles into the ocean.

This week is Semana Santa, and the town is filled to over-flowing with families on spring break.  This is Sage waiting in a huge @ss line at the Super Che (or as Sage calls it, Mexican Costco).

I got home from Spanish class on Monday and found a dude up in the top of one of the palm trees in our yard.  He had shimmied to the top with just a rope to cut down the coconuts so they wouldn't fall on our head (problems in paradise).  Look close and you can see him in the tree.

It was so good to have Sage here - so needed.  Now I'm perfectly positioned to enjoy my next few days off doing yoga, surfing, walking, journaling, reading, and resting in the spirit of solitude.

Otra Dia en Paradiso

Not much to report, but I know my dad is looking for a post to know that I am, indeed, alive :).  Today was my last day in Santa Maria Colotepec, and I have next week off due to Semana Santa (their holy week before Easter) and Sage is coming today!  She will be here until Tuesday, and I'm looking forward to having a piece of home here in Puerto.

I will post more when I have any updates!  

Star Light, Star Bright

It's been a beautiful weekend.  Friday night, Sol and Roger invited me, Jade, and Alex (the three tenants) to come with their family to a 'meet and greet' at a hotel in La Punta.  I wasn't clear on what 'meet and greet' means, but apparently it means that all the guests stand in a circle, and each person introduces themselves and tells where their from and why they are here.  It was a little strange, but actually quite a good party trick because after everyone went up to everyone else, with like a ton to talk about.  I met a couple yoga instructors, and a local minister at the Surfers for Christ church (kay), and Catfish Keith, who is apparently some sort of pseudo-famous blues player, and before I knew it my 'chill' weekend turned into a full social calender.

However, Jade, Alex, and I decided to ditch all the plans, and head to Chacahua Lagoons National Park.  It was like planes, trains, and automobiles trying to get there (ok, well more like bus, taxi, boat) but totally worth it.  Chacahua is known for it's gorgeous lagoon, home to tons of birds and wildlife, which you have to boat through in order to get to the beach, which is known for surfing and not much else.  Like, it is really known for 'not much else' - it's a place you go to get down to basics and get away from it all by staying in a bungalow on the deserted beach.

Lagoon boat ride to get to beach, going through Mangrove canal.

View through our bungalow window where we stayed.

The absolute kicker for me was walking home from dinner to the bungalow and looking up at the night sky.  It was breath-taking, there were so many twinkling stars.  I literally laid down on the beach and just gazed up for a while, listening to the ocean in the background.  I remembered when I was like 4 or so, my mom gave me a purple satin star to hang over my bed (I'm pretty sure it had pink and turquoise little stars hanging from it, my other two favorite colors) to wish upon.  As I laid there on the beach, I felt the magic of that purple star exploded times infinity, that little girl and me reunited in our unfolding life and all things possible.  

Day 23 and Counting...

It's the end of my third week in the health centers.  I'm still going to yoga, going to the beach, eating fresh fish and fruit, going to my little cafe, having Spanish lessons...

But this week the novelty sort of wore off, and I was left missing the comforts of home, e.g. hot showers (oh, I don't think I've mentioned we have no hot water in my house?).  I realized this week how incredibly uncomfortable are some of my situations here: for example, starting each new week in a different clinic - it's like starting a new job every week, with all new people, all new (unknown) tasks, and all in a freaking different language.  I started thinking, that's it, this is too hard, why do I make everything so HARD on myself - the rest of the world comes to Mexico and chills the f-ck out, while I am working my ass off .  That's it, I'm booking an early ticket home.

OK, so I thought all that for about an afternoon, and then I got over it, and realized that this is exactly what I signed up for: personal challenge, growth, sticking out a commitment to myself, learning a language, getting out of my comfort zone, and I remain so blessed for this opportunity, and decided to flip my perspective into a list of all the things I appreciate about home, all the things I have to be grateful for, and will look forward to coming back to, in due time.

And I still get to go surfing in the warm Pacific Ocean waters this weekend, so I am just going to shut up now.

Other than that, my week was mostly spent signing up owners to get their dogs vaccinated.  The way people treat their dogs here is awful - I literally heard dogs scream this week, a sound I've never heard before, by the way the dogs were handled (in some cases carried upside down by a leg).  I was so upset, and all the people around me were laughing.  Before I knew it, the words, "Para mi, no es chistoso" came out of my mouth (to me, it's not funny), and everyone stopped laughing.  In retrospect, I realize I have no right to judge; the dogs here are raised outside - they don't sleep in the house, and are not used to being handled, so are really freaked out and are not able to be carried the normal way.  It's a cultural norm.  But it's just so sad - all these dogs that I thought were strays, street dogs, actually have owners.  They are just totally neglected.

On our way to one of the pueblitos to vaccinate (think, like, 15 households in the whole village), we had to cross the river of Santa Maria Colotepec (the town I'm working in this week) in our ambulance.  They were all so proud of the river, like, wait until you see the river!  We got to the river, and I was looking for a bridge, as we continued to drive, not over it, but through it, if that gives you any indication of how impressive this river is (it's like 5 inches deep).  Anyway, it was cute how excited they were, and, yes, the river was pretty.

In addition to the dogs, I'm now a pro at all vital signs, including how to measure someone's blood sugar (like, I poked someone and actually drew blood).  Yes, I'm being safe, mom. :)  Leaving the injections to the pros, however.

I also felt like I was reaching a stagnant point with my Spanish this week, like, I felt like I wasn't getting any better.  And then today all the sudden, this afternoon actually, it feels good, like flowing, and I think it just needed to reach a tipping point of saturation or something.  And, of course, I need to remember to be easy on myself, and know that being surrounded by Spanish all day long - at work, in my house, on the street, in Spanish class, has to be doing something.  Bueno, like the Mexicans say: Tranquila, todo bien.

El Temblor...I'm Alive!

All anyone is talking about today is the 7.6 earthquake that happened early this afternoon on the border of my state (Oaxaca) and Guerrero.  In the Puerto area, we only felt something more like a tremor.  I was in the health clinic in Santa Maria Colotepec (about 30 mins outside of Puerto) when it happened, and we had to evacuate the building after the room shook.  I think the phone lines might have been down (or flooded) for a bit, but everyone here is ok!

Not to be overshadowed, my day today at the clinic was amazing.  I learned how to take someone's blood pressure, and how and where (upper left quadrant so as to avoid the sciatic nerve) to actually administer a shot in someone's bum (I really hope they don't ask me to actually do one).  Even cooler, I got to find a fetal heart beat in a pregnant woman, and I now know all the signs of problems with a pregnancy, and how to calculate a Probable Date of Birth given the start of the women's last menstrual cycle.  Tomorrow we are doing dog vaccines at the clinic!  I hope I get to do a couple of those actually.

To top it all off, I just finished playing a game of Spanish Pictionary with Maria Paz (the 5 year old that lives in my house).  She was a worthy opponent, if that tells you anything of my Pictionary skills.    
        

Deserted Beaches, Ancient Midwives, and Spiritual Water-Skiing

Thursday was my last day in the field with tropical insects.  We visited homes to help teach the locals how to prevent the spread of disease and ended the day on a stunning deserted beach near Chila, with some prickly local foliage. :)

Friday afternoon, Sol took me to a pueblo to visit with a 'partera', the traditional mid-wife of the Mexican culture.  A partera uses only natural herbs to heal her patients, and specializes in pregnancy and childbirth.  About 20 years ago, the government recognized that parteras were too deeply ingrained in Mexican culture to ignore, and so they began a certification process that allows a partera to be covered under their social healthcare insurance, and a women will only receive a birth certificate for her child if he is delivered by a doctor or certified midwife.  This helped reduce the tetanus that was transmitted by cutting the umbilical cord with dirty knives, etc.  Absolutely every woman in Mexico, insurance or not, is covered 100% when pregnant, so midwivery is becoming a dying vocation, because women now just go to the hospital (where Cesareans are the prominent method for childbirth).  Their will be no one to carry on the wisdom of this particular midwife:  

She is 90 years old, and still in practice, and started working in the trade at 20.  She has delivered just about every person in her pueblo, plus many more come to see her, including a local religious sect called Los Hermanos (the Brothers), which from what I gather is like a Mormon fundamentalist group who allow no medicinal assistance, even herbal.  They pray fiercely over the delivering mother, who sometimes dies from dehydration because no water may be given during the birth.

According to my partera, no woman or child has ever died in her care.  She has 11 children herself, 2 of which she delivered BY HERSELF.  No husband, no mother even, to help her.  She has 40 grandkids, and 40 great grandkids, and she doesn't know how many great, great ones.  She is the god mother of 100 babies.  She talked about how in the old days she would make house calls and have to walk to Puerto...the walk was three hours there and back on the beach, which at that time was filled with wild animals, including jaguars, wild boars, and crocodiles.

Here are photos of her, including her hair which is down to her knees (the other woman in that photo is Sol, my house mom).  The bed you see is the delivery bed, where women will traditionally hold a rope hanging from the ceiling while squatting to deliver the baby.  The shack you see is the room that the delivery bed is in.

Finally, yesterday I went to my friend Casey's house, which is about 12 km outside of town on the Laguna de Manialtepec, a mixed fresh and salt body of warm water surrounded by mangroves.  She is engaged to a guy from Mexico City, and they live on a sprawling property, with their main house and two bungalows for rent (but which are hardly rented).  They have beach front property and in the afternoon, before a delicious meal of fresh camarones empanizados (fried shrimp :), we got our work out in on the paddle boards.  Paddle boarding was so fun, as you use your core to balance and your upper body strength to row.  Then, the crown jewel of my week, I got to water ski in the lagoon.  I had the hugest smile on my face as I carved through the wake with the sun setting and the mountains in the background.  I was like, holy sh*t, I'm water-skiing on a lagoon in southern Mexico...thank you, God.  So incredibly present for the experience, and so, so grateful.

Chinche-Hunting

Today we went chinche hunting.  Why we are hunting for an bug that can give us a deadly tropical disease I have no idea, but Norberto (the retired insect-enthusiast) is determined.  Of course, HE has close-toed shoes on. We hike up into the forest, with Norberto and his machete, and watch as he searches for the mysterious chinche.  After about a half hour, we sit down and make ourselves comfortable as he continues his relentless search (we couldn't have helped him even if we wanted to, because there was only one machete, obvi).  Two hours later, the search turns to mangoes, and the next thing you know we are picking fresh mangoes from a tree and eating them like lollipops, and Norberto is using his machete to cut open coconuts for us.  We like this kind of hunting much better. :)

After we finish the hunt with no mention of our failure to find the chinche, we go to a little boy's home who has the disease of chagas.  He basically has a death sentence, with a life expectancy of only about 15 more years, as he has already had the disease for five.  He is only 7.  We ask his grandmother about healthcare, and she explains there is no reason to even go, all they do is wait for hours, the doctors may not even show up, and they can't afford it anyway since the government took away their welfare.  Of course she has chickens running around the yard and a gnarly-looking goat.  At the end of our morning on a whim I ask Norberto if I can come to his Catholic mass on Sunday and he says yes.  So I have that going for me, which is nice.

However, I start crying in frustration in my Spanish class this afternoon because the teacher can't understand something I said.  Of course, it is ONE thing, but in my deep desire to be the best Spanish speaker EVER, I have failed myself.

The universe answers by introducing me to four high school Mexican girls on my way home from class.  Nervously they ask if they can interview me for a high school project to improve their English skills.  In very shaky English we start the interview, and they are so cute, trying so hard to get it right for the video (and, I presume, the grade).  Their questions go something like this:  Did you eat hot dogs yesterday? Did you have friends? What was your favorite 'some word I can't understand despite the three times we did the interview'?  They are super grateful for my time, and it all reminds me to not take myself so f-ing seriously.

More than I ever wanted to know about the life cycle of a mosquito...

This week I am working with La Agencia de Paludismo (Malaria) studying tropical diseases caused by vectors (in this case, mosquitos and an insect the size of a cochroach called a chinche).  Yesterday, Maryann and I met with Norberto, who served over 35 years for La Agencia, and is now retired - he has an unbelievable amount of passion for his job and excitement for these insects, and actually called mosquitoes beautiful.  We spent four hours discussing their entomology, and how they are controlled by La Agencia to prevent the diseases they cause - namely, Malaria, Dengue, and, to me, the most fascinating...

Chagas is caused by a parasite carried by the chinche, who live off the blood of animals.  They are an amazingly designed insect, because they have a special antiseptic that they use to numb their 'victim' before they actually bite, so the animal (or person) can't feel it, during their sleep for example.  The chinche removes about a thumbfull of blood and then, with it's belly full, proceeds to defecate as it is feeding, and the parasite lives in the chinche's poop, which then enters the bite wound, and begins to circulate through the blood.  The amazing thing about this disease is that, because of the cost of medications, it can only be detected and treated in the first 6 weeks (the person will have symptoms like a mild flu, so it can be hard to diagnose), because after that, the parasite moves to the person's heart to live dormant for about 18 to 20 years, at which time, the parasite flourishes and the person will die from the complications, usually from a heart attack.

Today, we went to a laboratory to see these parasites under a microscope, then we went to have hand made sopes to get ourselves nourished before a trip to the river to find the larvae of mosquitos.  Tomorrow we 'get' to find the adults. :)

    

Day is Done

It's been a nice weekend...started off watching the sunset on Friday from Playa Principal and Zicatela...

and ended it with the sunset today at La Punta...

Of course the photos never do it justice.  It's amazing to me how powerful the sunset is, how enduring.  The amazing peace I feel as it dips over the horizon, marking the close of a day in God's creation, putting the small stuff into perspective.  A time for grounding, going inward.  It never gets old.

Friday was an early evening of dinner at a little taqueria with the Aussie girl and then home.  Saturday I slept in a little and then went to Dan's Cafe and met Caitlin, who was super nice.  Then I went to yoga at Vida Yoga, and it's the first time I've ever done 'perro abajo' (aka down dog) in Spanish.  The yoga studio is beautiful and open air with a view out to the sea.  After, I spent some time reading on the beach, and then went out to dinner with my house mom, Sol, at her favorite place for tostadas, and they were amazing.  Last night was my first night out on the town, and Caitlin took me to Cafe Babylon, Kabalah, and Sativa before I called it a night at 2 AM (which is EARLY for the peeps here...there is a bar here that doesn't even open until like 3 or 4 AM, sort of like Spain was).  It was great to practice my Spanish in a social setting...it's here that I get to learn the slang lingo...buen onda (which means 'good vibe') and que chido (which means 'cool').

Today I went for a walk in the Centro where I haven't really explored yet.  I stopped into some shops and then came home for lunch, before going with my house family to La Punta where Sol did some surfing, I got my ass kicked by some waves (like scary, I had to get out of the water), and we saw the sun set.  Off to my new work location tomorrow.  More on that soon!

15 Mexican Minutes

So today was my last day at the clinic in La Barra.  The doctor said to me, oh, you should go with the nurse to go see the lagoon.  I was like, cool, how far is it.  She said, 15 minutes.  Well, it turns out 15 minutes in Mexican means 2.5 hours there and back.  I thought I was going to die.  It was so far, and so hot, and I had nothing - no sunscreen, no water, no money, NOTHING.  I had to walk there over a bridge that had a median like a foot wide (with buses flying by me), and the way back he told me was shorter to walk THROUGH the river, so I was like, yes please.  I doubt it was shorter.  But I got to walk through a river so that was cool.  I'm totally sunburnt now, and started crying out of despair on the bus ride back from the clinic, but now it seems funny and totally like an adventure.  My photos from the 15 minute walk are here...you can see the bridge I had to cross and the river (which, ok, admittedly only had like five inches of water in it and was really pretty), and my beautiful sun burn.

I'm writing this blog from my favorite little cafe (CasaChoc - Andy was here :), sitting in the shade and drinking an iced coffee.  I come here most afternoons before my Spanish class to catch up on email, etc.  A couple new observations: we have a mango tree in our yard that's literally dropping fresh mangos to the ground all the time.  I asked my house dad about it and he showed me where a long stick thing is to pick my own if I ever want to.  So that's cool - fresh mangos in my yard.  Speaking of my house dad, it is so funny, because his uniform everyday is 'shirtless with board shorts'.  I've never seen him in anything else.  What a life, seriously.  Every morning I watch my house mom leave to go to the beach for an hour from 7 AM to 8 to go get her surfing in for the day.  The entire family compound is all about SURF.  There are boards everywhere, the uncle even has a surfboard repair shop right next door.  Pretty awesome really.

K, off to Spanish class now, and then going to watch the Puesta del Sol (sunset :) with my aussie friend, Jade.  Hopefully some good photos to load from that.  Tomorrow morning I'm trying my hand at surfing again, so I can fit in with mi familia :).  I told my family today at lunch how happy I am to be staying with them.  I was like totally dorking out with tears in my eyes, all sentimental and probably really just completely fried and dehydrated from my 'walk', but it was sweet nonetheless.  They said they were really happy to have me too. :)