Happy (belated) Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day Mom! Monday was Día de la Madre (Mother’s Day) here in Guatemala and it’s a pretty big holiday, celebrated with fire crackers, serenades, parties, and gift-giving. I went to a Mother’s Day party on Saturday which was pretty fun. Only the mothers were supposed to participate in activities. They played games like throwing tantrums and breaking open a piñata. The kids also had a really cute drama they put on where the kids went to school and then came home and the principal had to tell the mom whether the kids had been bad or good. My partner and I also wrote out poems and read them to the oldest women at the party. We also had cake and paches (tamales made with rice and some special seasoning). Everyone was super nice and we now know more people in our community. The celebration continued on Sunday night when a bunch of older kids serenaded some moms in the community, which was followed by firecrackers. This happened around 3 or so in the morning. Then Monday a lot of the kids had the day off from school, which I would think is something most moms would probably not like because it just means more work for them during the day. Everyone gave gifts, had cake, etc. My mom was dressed up and was wearing the necklace and earrings my host sister had given her. It was a pretty good day.

Also this past week I was kind of sick for a couple of days. So I think now is a good time to address perceptions of health and treatment here in Guatemala. I’ve had some pretty interesting experiences with health. One big thing here is always wearing sweaters or jackets if it’s a little chilly outside, because if you don’t then you’ll get sick. Also showering at night will make you sick. Even asking doctors why people here get sick, they’ll tell you that it’s because people have wet hair at night. Sickness is not really perceived as spreading from person to person. Rather, it’s always because of something you ate, exposing yourself to the cold, even eating cold foods on a hot day. I have also heard the thought that worms come about when you don’t get something that you really want-my host brother really wanted pizza and my host mom didn’t give it to him, so now he has worms. So my host brother gets pretty much whatever he wants, when he wants it. These thoughts on health make the Healthy Schools program extra challenging because germs aren’t always seen as the cause of illness so people don’t always understand why you need to wash your hands. Often it’s just up to God to decide whether we are healthy or not, so people don’t really think they need to do anything to preserve their health.

Health care in Guatemala is divided into health posts and centers in smaller areas and then hospitals in larger towns and cities. Health posts in small areas are usually manned by a nurse and a doctor, sometimes more personnel if the town is bigger. I haven’t used their services because the Peace Corps prefers that we go through our medical officers because they have been trained in the U.S. But, I have experienced a Guatemalan hospital, but it was a private hospital (one that the Peace Corps uses) and it was much like a hospital in the U.S. I was there for some tests and an overnight stay for something that turned out not to be serious-I was pretty much the healthiest person in the hospital that night. The nurses were really friendly and the doctor who was in charge of my tests was really nice. He was trained at the University of Michigan so we joked a little about the Ohio State-U of M rivalry. The tests were performed with up-to-date equipment, the food was really good (and I got to choose), and I had a t.v. in the room I shared with another patient. It was painless as far as hospital visits go. Peace Corps took really good care of me throughout the process, I just hope I don’t have any more hospital visits coming up. In public hospitals, you wait a long time to see someone and they often give you medicines. It’s so easy to get medicine here because you don’t need a prescription to go to a pharmacy and pick something up, so pharmacists are always trying to get you to buy something that you don’t really need or get some sort of injection. There are also guys that come on the bus selling different syrups and pills to take to get rid of parasites or to help the nerves and goodness knows where they’re buying these concoctions from nor whether they have any medical background, but people buy their medicines.

I am also becoming more Guatemalan by the day. Last week a microbus passed by heading up to where my partner and I needed to go. It was packed and there was barely enough room to squeeze the rest of us in with no chance of being the least bit comfortable, but we didn’t even hesitate to get on. It was a very uncomfortable twenty minute ride and when I got to my stop, my legs and back were achy, but we got there a lot sooner than we would have if we had waited. I am also adopting different hand gestures, like raising a finger instead of a hand to say something or waving my index finger back and forth to say no. My English is also failing me more often and instead of saying I am hungry or thirsty, I say I have hunger or I have thirst.

As for work, we’re continuing with our first school visits and we’re planning on a training session with all of the teachers (250+ of them!) the end of this month. We’re breaking it up into three different sections, so it will be a bit more manageable. I’m also starting to get ready to paint some of the house where I’ll be moving in the beginning of July. Things are thus moving on pretty smoothly. Not much else to report for now. Hope things are going well as summer comes.

Take care everyone!

Christie