La Clinica

I haven't mentioned anything about medicine or speaking spanish here yet. Last week I was going to cultural competency conferences where I learned all about Mayan culture and history. I was the only one at the conferences so it was really a private history lesson where I could ask anything I wanted and could have him explain anything I didn't understand. Thursdays there is a medical conference that all the medical students from Pop-Wuj are supposed to attend. This week a midwife came to explain the herbs used to help women cope with everything from morning sickness to hemorraging problems. If you want a hilarious story about that, ask me about volunteering... but I'm not writing about it.
My first day with the midwife was yesterday. Ronnie, the guy in charge of the medical program, drove me there and then explained how to take the busses back to Xela when I was done. The midwife is a very cute older lady who I could just see put everyone at ease with just one word. I got to try to find the head of the baby on each woman that came in and then watched with awe as she just would flip the baby around by just massaging the woman's stomach. I also got to feel what a 8 week pregnancy feels like as she informed the woman that she was expecting. A baby had been born at 2am so I watched as she used a match to burn the end of the umbilical cord and then held the baby as she explained to the dad why I was there. Everyone at the clinic was incredibly nice to me and would ask all about Xela, the US, and how hard it was to learn spanish or english. Many of the women only spoke the Mayan language Mum. I found it hilarious, for some reason, that the woman would speak Mum to Ana and then she would speak spanish to me and then I would translate it to english in my head. I saw some other really fascinating cases and I hope to see and learn more tomorrow.
I was supposed to catch a minibus to San Juan and change busses for Xela there. However, I was extremely lucky and found a direct bus from Ana's door to Xela. I jumped on the bus and sat down to a woman holding a one year old and had a nine year old asleep at her side. I started talking to her and she turned out to be the sweetest woman. She told me all about her kids and asked me many questions about what I was doing in Buena Vista and Xela. She loved my story and I think she felt slightly protective of me since I was traveling alone that day. We exchanged numbers and she was adament that if I ever needed any help or found myself in San Marcus I was to call her. Such wonderful and nice people here.