Ingreth and Conchita performing No Te Quedas Golpeada, a play about family violence
Friday: The morning sped by in storytelling with TEATRO (mine was the Ugly Duckling). In the afternoon, after a quick lunch at Luchi's, we planned a mini-surprise party for Ana Pena, who has been working at CASA for over 20 years. I carried the cake, on my head, up the hill. Thank God it did not fall. Shelley came by, and Sandra stayed, but as soon as the cake was cut, whoop, everyone disappeared! In the afternoon, the interns met with Mary Murrielle, former director of Feed the Hungry in San Miguel, who is on board as advisor for the nutrition project. And Friday night, pilates at Yolandas. We worked with medicine balls this time. Talk about a balanching challenge.
Saturday morning: Radio Reyna, see previous post.
Saturday night: hosted a get together at my house.. I cooked rice and beans, and Kelsey made guacamole and salsa. Tim bought chicken from a local polleria - to accomodate the non-vegetarians. We arranged everything in the garden. Woohoo - no rain! Our first guests were Cristina, my neighbor, and her sister, who shared much useful advice about DF, where we want to go. About 3 hours later, Miguel, Noe and Andres showed up, and their friend Toni came thru later. And Miguel brought a little surprise - I now have a Beta fish, a pes, courtesy of PESANE! The gang then went to see Miguels friend compete in La Reina Gay de San Miguel. As Nadine puts it, the gay movement is very sophisticated in San Miguel. Meanwhile, I washed dishes :)
Sunday: Kelsey and I braved the heat and brough all the left over food from my dinner to CASA, where the PESANE promotores were getting ready to jumpoff their summer program. The looks on the faces of Monica and Andres - you would think they hadnot eaten in days. We then hunted for fish food for the pes, and for actual fish to feed me, afterwards spending some time in the jardin. Que padre.
Monday: Paperworrkk... I helped Daniel, CASA's graphic designer, with InDesign.. en espanol... Nice to have some familiar ground, even in a different language. Later, I interviewed Roberto and Diego for the immigration thesis. I have a date with the summer program to interview all the youth participants. Must make copies of questionnaires! (Thats done in special papelarias here, no copy machine on site, thank you). I spent the evening spinning my butt off to to the sounds of Yolanda's master music mix. Hello, strong gluteals. Hello, shower. Hello, BED.
Tuesday: Salustia, Bibiana and I went to Ojo de Aguas to teach the women about the use of soya. They prepared it using tomatos, chile jabanero, and onion - all that was missing was pineapple, Salus advised. (Salus also advised using the banana peel we discarded for compost). The cooking occured at the house of one of the senoras, who happened to lack a bathroom, like most of the women in the community. What juxtaposition, to piss in fresh air with the cow grazing two feet away, but using brand name toilet paper, and industry-strength soap. My memory floated back to my childhood in Ukraine, at "Aunt" Lida's... same set up, plus raspberry bushes, minus TP. Sadly, the soya cooking lesson only lasted one hour, because Don Cruz had to drive back to pick up everyone else, and Ojo de Aguas is very far from CASA. Its very far from most places, I realize, and this greatly contributes to the poverty of the small community, up in the mountains, barely reachable. In fact, every time we are ready to drive away, at least one woman asks Don Cruz for a ride to the next town or to see their husbands, who are working in the fields. And I dare complain about the length of the drive once a week!
Wednesday: I stepped into the CASA clinic, to find out that two girls began life that morning! One, born to Canadian Maria Margarita at 4 am, weighed barely 6 pounds and had the longest eyelashes in the world. "She's my birthday present!" smiled the first-time mother, who will turn 40 in August. The birth was quick: the mother came in at 3:15 am! "I can't believe its all over," she gushed, signing the birth certificate, while I held the newborn.
The other girl was also born to a Maria Margarita, this one Mexican, and 23 years of age. The baby, who already had a 5 year old sister, was born at 9 am, and weighed in at almost 10 pounds. I watched the nurse bathe her (advising her to wash her hands first!) and fill out her file. The mother had much pain, so the nurse, Nieves, hooked her up to an IV, and advised her to eat almonds and alfalfa with orange juice. Luckily, I usually carry almonds for a snack, so I shared them with her. (Make sure you don't give them to the husband! Nieves instructed me, for the husband had complained of hunger).
Kelsey and I will pass Friday night at the hospital, so hopefully we'll witness the actual birth process!
In the evening, I had an appointment with Correo, the daily newspaper that's distributed all over the state of Guanajuato. After meeting with Mary Murrell last Friday, I decided that my nutrition article targetted Mexicansmore than Americans. I think I'll write another article for Atencion, the general gringo newspaper, since, as Mary advises, the gringos here have mucho dinero to donate.
Afterwards, Roberto drove Salus, Omar, Noe, and Jess to present a healthy dating workshop in a nearby community. Kelsey, Tim and I accompanied them. The workshop was held at a Catholic church - obviously, a pretty liberal minded one. I wanted to take pictures, but discovered that I did not have my camera :(.
We drove back to CASA, after dropping a few off at the Mega to go to the movies. I came in to drop off copies of the nutrition questionnaire, but everything was closed - except the house of the parteras, now housing the participants of the summer program. Miguel invited me in for watermelon, and then the girls tried to teach me how to dance the cumba! Muy padre. I had to leave, but promised to spend Saturday night with the kids at the lunada.
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