Tortillas in the Blood

Another lovely week in Guatemala.  I am starting to settle into my routine here.  Most days I work at the

tortilla making

clinic from 9-2 and then spend the rest of my day studying, reading, napping, or knitting.  This week I've been trying to learn how to make tortillas.  You know it's meal time here when you start to hear the rhythmic clapping of hand slapping tortillas into perfect little circle.  My host mom, Cruz, probably makes upwards of 150 tortillas a day.  My first few attempts were pretty terrible, and after the 5 year old produced a better tortilla then me I told Cruz I though it was in their blood and that's why Audrey had made one so easily.  She laughed and we kept working and a few minutes later I produced a tortilla that almost looked normal.  At this point Audrey turned to me and said very seriously "tienes un poco Sanger", you have a little blood.  Me and Cruz just about died laughing.  Maybe there's hope for my tortilla making yet.

Audreys perfect tortilla

A tortilla made by Cruz on the Left and my creation on the right

 Every meal here, no matter what it is, is accompanied by hot, handmade tortillas. I am slowly but surely becoming addicted, and the Guatemalans most certainly are!  You should see the look on a patients face when we tell them they have diabetes and can only eat 4 tortillas a meal.  They never seemed to concerned that we are telling them they have a serious health problem, they just keep say "4.  Just 4?"  Other then tortillas there is a lot of meat, beans, potatoes, eggs, and weirdly enough, pasta.  Most is accompanied by some sort of tomato sauce and lots of salt.  Recently a giant gunny sack of avocados showed up at our house (the family tree was ripe) so we were having avocado with every meal  for awhile which was pretty great.  The jocote fruit is also in season currently.  They are walnut sized and taste vaguely like mango.  My family puts them on a skewer, dips them in chocolate and then freezes them and sell them to the local kids for 15 cents each.  So yummy!

The wood stove.  Most people cook on these
here but we also have a gas stove.

As I am the guest I generally get a heaping bowl of whatever is being served.  I have finally managed to talk my hostess down to just one egg a morning instead of the original 3.  It was hard work, but after a bought of stomach trouble I told her that the doctor said I couldn't eat so much and she finally accepted it. Along with my egg I also get a cup of oatmeal or cream of wheat every morning.  It's a little different then at home; they grind it incredibly fine and make it extra liquidy and then you drink it, and yes, it's kind of weird.  Everyone here seems to greatly enjoy it including the kids which completely baffles me. You can't even get kids in the states to eat the stuff covered in sugar and fruit, let alone drink it.  There is also coffee which they grow, roast and grind themselves and everyone from the 3 year olds up drink day and night.  I will never get over the 5 year old demanding coffee at dinner time and then chugging a mug of it without anyone batting an eye.  I don't drink a lot of coffee so the first morning I had some my hands started shaking and I think it scared my host mom because she never offers it to me anymore.  "Can't trust the crazy gringo, she might drink too much and give herself a heart attack."

After all the eating I've been doing I've been trying to exercise a bit, but it has proved to be difficult as the town is on the side of a mountain and the only road it generally over 45 degrees steep, aka past my running abilities which are lacking to say the least.  I have resigned myself to running in circles around a soccer field, which is pretty much the only flat place around.  The other day some kids came down and stopped to watch me.  After I stopped running they shyly came up and asked "are you exercising?"  In the same tone you might use to ask someone "are you flying?"  When I said yes they just stared at me in awe.  After that I had to climb back up the hill to town and about 2 minutes into my 15 minute climb I realized I had greatly underestimated the amount of energy I was going to need for the hill.  I guess maybe that's why no one exercises here, they need their strength to make it home.

The sauna!  I have to stoop to get in!

Other fun oddities of rural Mayan villages include the bathing situation.  There is a shower in our house but I've never seen anyone actually use it besides myself.  Instead everyone has a sauna in their homes.  3 times a week they heat up the sauna along with a giant pot of water which they scoop from and dilute with cold water and then pour over themselves.  The sauna is heated by an open fire in the corner and can consequently be a bit smoky.  The whole room is only about 4 feet wide by 4 feet tall and 6 feet long and the ceiling is covered in stalagmites of black soot.  The first time I went in all I could think about was this study I read once about how women in China are all getting lung cancer from cooking over coal fires in unventilated spaces. The doctor assured me however, that their isn't a particularly high rate of lung cancer here so I have come to greatly enjoy the tri-weekly sauna now that I know it's not going to kill me.  Luckily it is the "cold" season so it's in the 50s at night and actually feels nice to be warm.  I can't imagine going in there in the hot season, seems like you might sweat so much you'd counter act the benefits of bathing. When I told them we have saunas too in the states but their for relaxing in they just laughed and laughed.  Silly gringos don't even know how to use a sauna!

I guess I'll leave it at that.  Only 2 more weeks here.  On my to do list before I go are, hike up a volcano, and give someone an injections! Love to all.

Watch Out For Snakes

someone headed down to the boats from town

After my second week at the clinic I am starting to get the hang of things.  Most people have either a cold, an intestinal parasite, arthritis, diabetes, or nigua ( an insect that get inside your skin and lives there.  I'm always impressed by how calm people are when we tell them it's an insect causing the bumps.  I'm not sure if they just don't get that the insect is INSIDE their skin or they just aren't worried about it).  It's amazing how different their concept of health is.  On one hand they will come in with a cough they've has for one day with no other symptoms and want medicine.  Then on the other hand they'll come in with a bad case of nigua with itchy bumps covering their entire body including inside their mouth and throat and when you ask them how long they've been like that they will casually say "oh on and off for two years."  They do to seem to have a good understanding of what is and isn't a health concern.

my room

the town of Santa Cruz from above

The meds are free though, and we give them out generously, so people come from all over the area.  There are other clinics around but they either cost money or have no meds, so we are a local favorite. We start seeing patients each day at 9 and are usually done by 1 or 2.  People line up from 730 on to get a number and we try and cut people off at 40 patients a day.  We had one lady last week who got there late and they told her we were out of numbers for the day and she did not like that answer so she sat there all day giving us the dirty eye, determined to be seen.  Unfortunately for her the lady in charge is just a stubborn and took great joy in sending her home at 2 when we closed without letting her see the doctor.  There is definitely some bias towards people from our village versus other villages.  This lady was from San Pedro, a town know for its pushy citizens so she didn't have much of a shot at getting an exception.  Gringos on the other hand get bumped up in line, but they pay a hefty fee, just under 30 bucks for a consult and whatever meds they need.

growing some veggies

the fields on the side of the hill

I have been trying to exercise and went for a hike up the hill behind town last week.  Mostly I just got lost trying to find the trail up the hill and ended up walking around in people's fields.  They grow corn and squash and a few other things on the side of the hill which has to be at least at a 45 degree angle.  After my fail hike we had a guy come in whose dad had been bitten by a coral snake (incredibly poisonous) and was trying to find anti-venom.  I had no idea that there were poisonous snakes here.  The ladies at the clinic assured me if I stuck to trails I would be fine and of course all I could think about was my hour spent bush whacking around the hill. I think I might be done hiking here?  The doctor tried to tell this guy to take his dad to the hospital but the guy went on some rant about how the hospital wanted too much money for the anti-venom and how he wanted to find it cheaper.  As a very cheap person myself I understood where he was coming from but thought maybe this wasn't the time for saving 20 bucks because as he said "my father will be dead by 6 pm if i don't get the venom."  It was 130 when we saw him.

Besides now being afraid to go in the forest because of the snakes (we don't carry the anti venom at the clinic in case your wondering), I have also treated enough cases of nigua  that I am trying to avoid plants as well (the insects live on the plants and transfer to you when you touch the plants).  There is also apparently a big algae bloom in the lake that has caused a spike in cyanobacteria and is making people sick, so I have yet to swim.  It seems medical knowledge is putting an end my fun!  The good news is whatever I get I have a free supply of meds!

Well that's all the exciting things I can think to tell you about.  I am in the city of Antigua for the weekends, photos below. I found a tortilla thing stuffed with cheese for breakfast and topped with guacamole which was pretty exciting.  I have my heart set on a big Juice smoothly for lunch.  

repurposed old school buses from the states are decked out for a second life all over the country

early moring flower delivery in Antigua

a local woman and her kids in Antigua for the day

another hillarious bus

a particularly amazing fountain in Antigua

Where are you Rhinita? Come home, I love you!

A tragically appropriate photo of the lost hero from last fall.

         I left Missoula a few weeks ago and headed to Seattle to see some friends.  It was a fun stay until the last day when I went to leave and my car was gone along with my carefully packed backpack for Guatemala that was safely hidden in the trunk.  I made it down to Portland via my dad and instead of relaxing for 6 days before my flight to Guatemala I spent the time frantically scouring the goodwills of Portland for all the things I needed.  Bit of a rough start to the trip to say the least.  Luckily I have wonderful friends and family who kindly donated items and spent countless hours driving me around portand buying things.  Rhinita (my car) has not yet returned.  I am hoping she has escaped her captors and is homeward bound as we speak. 

looking back at Santa Cruz from the lake

I made it to the tiny village of Santa Cruz de la Laguna Sunday.  The village used to be down by the lake, but after one to many floods they moved up the hill.  Since then the gringos have taken over the lake front property.  They think the locals are crazy for living up on the hill and the locals think they're crazy for living down by the lake, so really it works out pretty well.  The town is just a bunch of houses, a school, our clinic and a couple of tiny tiendas that pretty much only sell Coke.  Their's one guy who has a cart selling fried chicken, and on the weekend my host family also sells fried chicken.  Apparently people really like fried chicken, or maybe they are just happy to have something they don't have to cook.  I would have though 2 chicken stands directly next to each other would have saturated the market, but no one seems to think it's a problem.

my house

I am living with an older couple.  They have 7 kids and all but the last one is out of the house and married.  They are incredibly kind and are very polite about my terrible Spanish.  This is a Mayan village so everyone speaks ketchecal, the local dialect of Mayan.  Everyone who has gone to school speaks Spanish as well, but it is there second language and at home they speak ketchecal.  It's fun to listen too and I have so far learned to say hello, so I'm of to a roaring start with my ketchecal!

the clinic is on the 2nd floor

The clinic is run by an American Doctor name Craig.  After 11 + years runny the clinic he has a lot of insights to share.  His method of teaching is throw you in and see what happens.  I managed to get him to let me shadow another student for my first 3 days and now I am taking medical histories and doing the reporting. Basically there are 3 awesome Mayan ladies who are trained to take the medical histories, then report them to the doctor who tells them what meds to give and he also examines the patient if needed.  When there are students here the poor assistants have the unfortunate task of translating into ketchecal for us and sitting there while we slowly and painfully butcher both Spanish and the medical process.  They are incredibly patient and kind.  I intend to buy them gifts to make up for my Spanish.  The worst is when you have a patient that speaks Spanish so you have to speak directly to them and can't hide your terrible Spanish behind the translator.  Most people are pretty polite about it.  I did have one lady my first day give me a look like, um is this a joke?  Why is this "Doctor" person not capable of speaking?

the offending church

There are about 3 or 4 churches here in the village all of whom enjoy blaring music like it's fiesta time all the time to encourage people to come worship.  We keep getting patients in the clinic complaining of hearing loss and if they're under 80 then inevitable they live next to a church or are in a church band.  We have at least a block buffer between the churches and our house, so up to this point I've found it charming.  So far it had only been at night, but apparently the Catholics think that Saturday morning at 6 am is as good a time as any for party worshiping.  They went non stop for over an hour complete with a lovely 5 minute bell ringing session just in case anyone anywhere was possibly still sleeping.  So, thanKs to the Catholics I got an early start to my day.  I took the boat across the lake to the thriving metropolis of panajachel to see the sights.  Mostly I am just enjoying gringo people watching.

Hope everyone is well and has a happy turkey day!