Time with the Comodrona
Monday morning I headed to the Comodrona´s alone since Sara has left me for a week of fun traveling. While I was there, Ronnie and Tami showed up and he realized that she can just stay with me. I felt miserable because I had caught a nasty cold from the kids at the Guaderia (I guess... who knows where these things come from) and Ana felt bad for me. All the sudden, Ana came back from the other room saying there was an emergency birth that we needed to go to immediately. Tami and I entered the birthing suite and a woman was in active labor on the bed. The poor woman was obviously in a lot of pain and out of breath. Ana told me to grab both of her legs and pull back... she let both Tami and I feel how dialated the woman was and then we were all just trying to help her push. As soon as the baby came out, Ana ordered me out of the room since I was sick (totally makes sense... I don´t want the newborn getting my cold!). From what I saw, the baby was a girl but looked a little blue. Later I found out that the baby and the mother both had a cold. Ana therefore did not wash the baby again and only worked on getting the baby warm. A little later Ana came out with the mom and baby to put in the recovery room. The whole process is just so beautiful and Ana just knows her exactly what to do (it always seems). After the birth, another woman came in to be examined and I correctly found the head, hips, and figured out the age of the baby. Ana only said "I guess little by little you are learning something" and then laughed. Tami and I decided to leave and Ana wondered if I needed anything for my "gripe." I said Sure why not... and she went into her garden and picked me some leaves, then sent her son up another tree to get other leaves. She told me to take the calypso leaves, the leaves of the orange plant, and some cinnamon and boil it right before bed to make me better. OK sounds good to me.
That night after class I had my mother here make me the tea. She kept commenting that calypso leaves are really strong and this should totally help me. I drank the tea (and also took a double dose of Sudafed Cold Relief) and went to sleep. In the morning, I felt much better... the world will never know which worked haha.
Tuesday we tried to go to the museum again and it was closed, again. We shopped around, looking for presents and books... and just ended up coming back to the school to just hang out. I went home for lunch and packed my bag for the night because I had decided to spend the night at the Comodrona´s and see what her life was like at night. My host mother packed me a dinner to go (refried beans and cheese paste on a roll mmmmm) and I headed out. Because Buena Vista is two bus rides away, Amy and I decided to leave the school at 430, run some errands, and get the bus as soon as we could (because of the danger of traveling at night and the fact that busses can just stop running at anytime).
Amy and I got to the clinic around 630pm and Ana was still seeing patients. After a little while, she asked if we would like to have dinner with her family. She made us a soup and corn tortillas and kept insisting we try her tomatillos. I know from my family that I don´t like tomatillos but she was very insistent and made me taste it. They were SO GOOD!! Not salty and from papas like the other ones I´ve had, but sweet... mmmm. Her husband is hysterical and the two of them kept me laughing for hours. I found out that Ana has been the midwife here for 20 years and just figured out that she has delivered 11,000 babies in her time here. Already the babies she first delivered are having kids themselves!! She´s also only 38 years old... so amazing to already have done so much! After dinner I played games with a swivel chair and her 4 year old son, and the two girls (8 and 12) that Ana has taken in because they don´t have families. Ana has 5 kids of her own AND kids that she just takes in. Wow. Franklin, the 4 year old, is out of control but kept me laughing as well. By 9pm Amy and I were wondering when these kids would go to bed so we could watch some TV in English. I drew the line when they started watching Barney and turned on CNN haha. I cannot handle Barney in English, let alone Spanish. Anyway, Amy and I had to share a bed (a very rickety top bunk) and Ana said she would come get us when a woman came in. Sigh... no women came in the entire night. Ana was basically shocked. She hadn´t had a night with no births in an extremely long, long time. Just our luck.
In the morning, Ana saw some patients and I told her it was time for us to go. It was my last day there, sadly. She got really excited and told me that she wanted to do something first, I had my camera, right? I said, yep I have it... but why? She just had us follow her into her room and she started taking out the traditional Guatemaltecan women clothing. She then dressed me and Amy in the traditional clothing claiming "Now you are officially Guatemaltecan!" I told Ana that her clothing was a lot more difficult and more involved then our American clothing and she proclaimed that we would have to learn quickly how to dress if we wanted Guatemaltecan novios. She mentioned her son liked Americans... hahaha. We took pictures with Ana and she presented me with some traditional linen to have as a keepsake. We also exchanged addresses and numbers. I will hopefully be able to send her some medicines when I get back, but they use a bizarre package service here and I´ll have to find where in the States they are located. All in all, my experience with Ana was amazing and I feel so lucky to have been able to see how she practices medicine and learn from her.
That night after class I had my mother here make me the tea. She kept commenting that calypso leaves are really strong and this should totally help me. I drank the tea (and also took a double dose of Sudafed Cold Relief) and went to sleep. In the morning, I felt much better... the world will never know which worked haha.
Tuesday we tried to go to the museum again and it was closed, again. We shopped around, looking for presents and books... and just ended up coming back to the school to just hang out. I went home for lunch and packed my bag for the night because I had decided to spend the night at the Comodrona´s and see what her life was like at night. My host mother packed me a dinner to go (refried beans and cheese paste on a roll mmmmm) and I headed out. Because Buena Vista is two bus rides away, Amy and I decided to leave the school at 430, run some errands, and get the bus as soon as we could (because of the danger of traveling at night and the fact that busses can just stop running at anytime).
Amy and I got to the clinic around 630pm and Ana was still seeing patients. After a little while, she asked if we would like to have dinner with her family. She made us a soup and corn tortillas and kept insisting we try her tomatillos. I know from my family that I don´t like tomatillos but she was very insistent and made me taste it. They were SO GOOD!! Not salty and from papas like the other ones I´ve had, but sweet... mmmm. Her husband is hysterical and the two of them kept me laughing for hours. I found out that Ana has been the midwife here for 20 years and just figured out that she has delivered 11,000 babies in her time here. Already the babies she first delivered are having kids themselves!! She´s also only 38 years old... so amazing to already have done so much! After dinner I played games with a swivel chair and her 4 year old son, and the two girls (8 and 12) that Ana has taken in because they don´t have families. Ana has 5 kids of her own AND kids that she just takes in. Wow. Franklin, the 4 year old, is out of control but kept me laughing as well. By 9pm Amy and I were wondering when these kids would go to bed so we could watch some TV in English. I drew the line when they started watching Barney and turned on CNN haha. I cannot handle Barney in English, let alone Spanish. Anyway, Amy and I had to share a bed (a very rickety top bunk) and Ana said she would come get us when a woman came in. Sigh... no women came in the entire night. Ana was basically shocked. She hadn´t had a night with no births in an extremely long, long time. Just our luck.
In the morning, Ana saw some patients and I told her it was time for us to go. It was my last day there, sadly. She got really excited and told me that she wanted to do something first, I had my camera, right? I said, yep I have it... but why? She just had us follow her into her room and she started taking out the traditional Guatemaltecan women clothing. She then dressed me and Amy in the traditional clothing claiming "Now you are officially Guatemaltecan!" I told Ana that her clothing was a lot more difficult and more involved then our American clothing and she proclaimed that we would have to learn quickly how to dress if we wanted Guatemaltecan novios. She mentioned her son liked Americans... hahaha. We took pictures with Ana and she presented me with some traditional linen to have as a keepsake. We also exchanged addresses and numbers. I will hopefully be able to send her some medicines when I get back, but they use a bizarre package service here and I´ll have to find where in the States they are located. All in all, my experience with Ana was amazing and I feel so lucky to have been able to see how she practices medicine and learn from her.
posted by Sarah at 2:39 PM
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