This morning we were driven to a community called Panamaquip, set high up in the mountains with Jurassic Park views. We had to stop the truck at a point where the road ended and hike up to the village... I can't imagine living somewhere so isolated. There is a small one-room clinic there where we set up a table for interviewing women outside and performed exams inside the dimly lit room. There were about 5-10 kids playing with us, a combination of children of the mothers we were seeing and kids who walked by the clinic and decided to join in - so unbelievably adorable and fun. They were all singing songs and performing dances for us - some local jigs and even a Justin Bieber tune. The power of his bowl cut knows no boundaries. The primary language here is Quetzechal, but all the kids speak Spanish, as well, so we had some fun trading words between the three combined languages. Definitely my favorite day here so far.
I'm insanely stoked... because of my background and incessant filming, Dr. Chaperone asked me to create a video about the trip and what the students learned in place of writing a paper. This will mean I need to interview the other girls about their experiences being down here immersed in the culture and doing nursing work. I'm hoping she will let me interview her, as well, but she is very camera shy and hasn't let anybody take a photo of her yet. I only have about an hour left of footage on my videocamera, so I will have to edit somewhat as I go.
After lunch we went to a second community called San Martin where we did a few exams in women's homes. In one of them, the father of the baby came home - the first time I have seen the husband present. He was so excited, concerned for his wife, and a really sweet guy. Dr. Chaperone had him do the doppler exam so he could be involved - such a special moment the first time they heard their baby's heartbeat.
The average age of most pregnant women I see is late teens /early 20s depending on the community. Many women do not believe in birth control because of their religious values so unless we are in a more "progressive" educated village, girls tend to get pregnant very young. It wouldn't be the least bit unusual to see a girl my age with 4 or 5 children, something that seems so unspeakable to me. That is not to say they are unhappy, though.
For last night's "reflection", we had a guest speaker, Dennis, come talk to us about the education system here and a non-profit organization he runs to sponsor local students whose families are not able to afford to send them to school - CFCA. Tonight, a man named Felix came and talked to us about his work with a non-profit that provides resources and support to families who are born with kids that have cleft lip and palate - Evelyn's Baskets. He travels around the country in the back of chicken-buses (the trucks we are transported around in) to meet the families and teach them about caring for their babies and the options they have for surgery. He was a really neat man - besides helping the org, running the hotel we are staying in with his family, raising kids and being a husband, he is also a professional clown on the weekends. Supreme.
"Let's go wash our machete so we can cut that mango." - quote from one of the girls today. Living the dream.
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