So needless to say we dressed up in ridiculous, colorful clothing... Hair in ponytails, wild make-up and all only to be soaked by the worst downpour we've seen since being in the country... On the way out to the village we had to make a detour off the highway because of mudslides that
covered the whole side of our two lanes (And by the way, Guatemalans have no qualms driving the opposite direction down a one-way highway! Just u-turn in the middle of the road and head in the direction you came from while dodging the oncoming traffic... Yikes!)... We finally made it out to the village safe and sound and began sitting in on our third day of midwifery training from the ACOM midwives...Today we covered labor and delivery and post-partum care... And I am absolutely convinced I should be coming back to Guatemala to have Antonina deliver my own babies one day... What gentle loving care these women receive! The Mayans definitely got a few things right! The midwives, rather hilariously, acted out a delivery... Cristina (one of the three ACOM midwife instructors) was so funny putting the fake baby under her skirt in the vertex position... Such an actress! She would walk around fake moaning in pain, cursing her fake-husband and begging for help from "mi mama"... As she was fake-delivering she even moaned out, "Oh my-my-my... My esposa is out with another woman instead of being here!" Needless to say all us young American gals gasped, double checking to make sure we'd gotten the translation right... But the Quiche midwives just sat there chuckling and nodding as if this was a common occurrence and well known joke amongst the women...
The training overall was amazing... Massage seems to be a part of everything (which I'm not at all opposed to! Ha!)
and the midwives are wonderful at letting the mothers run the delivery... They work with such love and care for the women they treat... I didn't realize how much that was lacking from our western medical deliveries until I heard about the care that goes into each and every woman's delivery... Every birth is a special celebratory experience shared amongst the women in the village... Their sense of community is absolutely inspirational; one woman's pain or joy is shared by all...It rained all morning, to the point that I was a little panicked we wouldn't make it out of the village (about an hour of muddy, pot-hole ridden roads stood between us and the main road!)... After leaving the village successfully, we headed to Hilda's home near Xela to get a traditional Mayan sweat bath...
It was absolutely amazing! The tamazcal is the traditional Mayan sweat lodge that plays an important role both in Mayan religious ceremonies, and (interestingly enough!) in post-partum treatments for new mothers... We stripped down to bathing suits/underwear (or less once inside! Gotta love being in a group of all women!) and I LOVED it... The tamazcal is heated by water poured over scalding rocks in the center... While inside you meditate, sing, and beat yourself with "holy aloe" branches soaked in steaming mineral water... I was one of the first in and the last out... It felt wonderful to sweat out all the toxins and stress of the last few days!
I was thinking about it on the way home... And I am SO incredibly lucky... At the age of only 21, I have had the privilege to sit in a ritual tamazcal sweat bath with Mayan midwives, to hike the Ruins of Pisac in Peru, to join in a Massai marital dance... I've traded stories with people that speak Quiche, Swahili, Masaai, Spanish, Quechua, and Mam... I've met people that have completely different religious beliefs and perspectives... Who worship mother earth, God, Jesus Christ, the goddess Ix-Chel and more... What a rich and interesting life, and I'm only beginning! Haha! Now there's talk of a plan to go salsa dancing... So the rest will have to wait... :-)
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