Para Las Mujeres: The beginning...

Nearly six years ago, I attended a birth conference in Asheville, where my interest in childbirth really began. A short black and white film was presented, and though its content was simple, I was struck with intense emotion and found myself in tears. In Mayan past, the midwifery tradition was strong but the practice is slowly being forgotten. The short clip, an obscured view of a woman in childbirth and her midwife performing a manual inversion of a breached baby with few resources, few tools -- the greatest resource = the midwife's tender hands -- was moving! It seemed to stir an understanding, deep in my heart, of the power and strength of women's bodies to harbor this miracle -- the miracle of life. This single event catapulted me into a mission to meet one of these miracleworkers. So, with only one semester of Spanish One under my belt, I booked a flight to Guatemala and underwent this journey solo. Four weeks of travel in Central Guatemala was the perfect prelude to moving to Chapel Hill, where after my return I would begin 14 months of studies in nursing. Guatemala was going to be my grand adventure.

The following email entry describes much of my experience then. Mateo makes an appearance in it, since it was at this time, in 2005, when I cross paths with him again, 3 years after our first encounter. Funny how the world works.

Sent: Wednesday, April 6, 2005 11:35:23 PM

Subject: Hola de Lago Atitlan, Gautemala

Whew! finally the chance to email. it{s only been 10days but already i feel comfortable and feel as though i{ve experienced alot. i{ve turned 5 shades darker since i've spent most of my days outside, with my shoulders the darkest. guess i should buy some sunscreen.


Sweet Mama T drives me to the Atlanta airport.

from the airport in guatemala city i took a taxi to antigua,,,the quaint touristy town i mentioned in the previous email. the guatemalan culture is so colorful, whether in its clothing or in its storefront windows and doors. i went wild with my camera in only the first 2 days, shooting nearly 2 rolls. YIKES. off to xela (shay-la) also known as Quetzaltenango where i would study spanish for one week...i rode on the infamous "chickenbuses," the buses the locals take from village to village. what an experience. i{m convinced that all the dirty old school buses of north america end up here.

the very colorful and sometimes gaudily decorated public transport is cheap, costing me only $4 for a 4 and a half hour bus ride. these buses do us all the favor of releasing thick clouds of black exhaust making it difficult to breathe fresh air. i don{t believe fresh air exists here. and though the sign at the front of the bus says 65 passenger capacity, the drivers and their ayudantes (helpers) easily squeeze in twice that, asking families to double stack themselves. it's incredible. the acrobatics of the ayudantes (who collect the fare and help with your bags) are what fascinated me most. with the bus still maintaining a good 25-40mph, before the bus comes to a screeching halt, the ayudantes maneuver their way from either the front sliding door or the rear emergency door to the top of the bus to gather your belongings...because although the bus is packed, he seems to remember when and where everyone plans to get off. the bags are hurled from the top of the bus into the street´'s gutters. and if you{re lucky, the driver allows just enough time for you to get off before peeling out. the ayudantes are great at what they do! several times i began to doze off, which in riding around the highland mountains may not be the best idea. since the roads are so curvy, it is essential to grip onto the seat in front of you at all times to avoid ending up in the lap of your neighbor. the guy next to me didn{t take that into consideration since he spent most of his nap essentially lying on top of me. needless to say i ended up in xela in one piece....

Chickenbus Esmeralda

Mi companero

... the school week was great. i learned a good bit of spanish despite not studying much outside of class. (though, i{m losing it very quickly, growing comfortable in the very touristy lago atitlan where the world{s hippie{s seem to convene.) in Xela, i found a quaint little coffee shop to make my home for studying, just one block from my homestay family. (surprise. surprise. even in Guatemala I'm feeding my addiction.) my family was very accomodating but i ate a shitload of beans, nasty white toast with margarine, and cornflakes with warm dry milk nearly everyday. not much in the way of veggies or fruits or unprocessed meat or non instant coffee for that matter. but they were loving and very welcoming. the school itself, PLQE, is great. i would recommend it highly to anyone interested in language immersion. i was greeted my first day by an ex SUWSer by the name of matt rudolf. (anyone remember him?) strangely enough he is the acting coordinator at the school for this month and was leading the orientation. he is of the micah generation. what are the odds?

the week of study ended quickly with a graduation, one in which i had to perform a wonderfully silly poem i wrote in spanish to demonstrate what i had learned, since the book i wanted to read from, "donde viven los monstruos" (where the wild things are) is too advanced for me. we ended the evening with foosball and a family style dinner: un plato tipico de Guate. it was divine. and on a day when i started to feel homesick because i lacked real connection with the students of the school (since at PLQE i was scheduled to study in the afternoon, when only 5 out of the 25 other students studied), i finally felt like a part of the school and made some good friends.

the following night, my new Canadian friend ashley and i took on the role of social coordinators and mustered up a good 16 students for drinks, billiards and dancing. didn't get to shake my bootie much since mi amigo christian and i were busy beating some chapins at pool.

(Email continued in next entry.)