More Mexican Life :)

Friday was another pretty laid back day. Everyone was getting antsy because there had not been a birth in a really long time, well at least I was getting antsy… With Aurora gone I felt a little bit weird, I felt like I had to re-find how I fit into the family, but that’s ok. Not much happened on Friday. We had some visits and that was about it. I started to feel a little homesick this day, I think just because I had been gone for so long, I was now the only gringa, and there was really not a whole lot to do.

Saturday was a really fun day. The WHOLE family came over for breakfast. That included the two oldest sons and their wives and all of the children. It was a big crew! And of coarse when I say they came over for breakfast that means we ate around 1:00pm and just called it “desayuno.” After we ate, the oldest two son’s families’ invited me to go to a “temescal.” I didn’t know what it was and they tried to explain it to me, but there was no way I was going to understand, I just had to go. They told me it was kind of like a sauna, but boy was it NOT. I mean, yes, it was a hot room that you sit in and sweat a lot, but this was VERY different.

We pulled up to this random, almost farm looking place and I was very confused… I was expecting us to go to something like a spa. We got out of the car and walked down this grassy path to these little mud/igloo looking things. They had some little shacks built around them with cloths hanging everywhere. So the women and the men split up and we all went to go change our clothes. They said I could bring a bathing suit if I wanted, so I did, but everyone else just got naked and put a sheet over themselves. I decided to leave my bathing suit on… haha. So I followed everyone as we crawled into this mud igloo. I was SO disoriented when I first got in. One thing I did not realize was that it was going to be pitch black inside there. So I crawled in and kind of freaked out because I had no idea what is inside this thing, where I was going, or what I should do- not to mention that its all of the sudden a bazillion degrees!! Of coarse in this crucial moment where I am freaking out, I suddenly cannot understand any Spanish! Thank goodness one of the sons speaks pretty good English and was able to give the poor, confused gringa the simple instructions, “Just sit.”

After a little while I was able to figure out what was going on. It’s just a pitch-black, super-hot, mud-igloo that you sit in and sweat. They had buckets of hot and cold water that you could poor on yourself, pieces of Aloe Vera plants that they call “savila” (or something like that) that you rub on your skin, and these special flower/bush thingys that you brush (well more like whack) each other with. Pretty weird right? Oh yeah and they have these different chants that you can sing and breathing exercises you can do. It is supposed to be a kind of body “de-tox”. So it was all pretty surreal because it’s just so dark and so hot. You have the freedom to come in and out as you want and go back to the changing rooms. We did that a few times and that was nice. Whenever someone would come in or out it would let light in and that is when I would realize how weird it all really was. There were little kids in there, very very old ladies, men, women, everyone… and they were all naked… rubbing plants on themselves and each other… and chanting and humming… and sweating profusely… I don’t know… it was sooooooo weird! It all actually felt really awesome though. I really felt great afterwards. Nobody smelt bad either too, we all smelled really fresh from all the plants that we put on our skin. They told me that the “temescal” is a really really old tradition that was started from like the Aztecs! (I think, don’t quote me one that, but its like thousands of years old). Anyways, that was pretty cool.

Later that day, actually at night, one of the sons, Daniel, and his wife took me out for some Cuernavaca nightlife! One of the other sons, Juanito, came too. We had a great time! We got to talk and laugh and dance, it was really fun!

By Sunday we were all wondering where all the babies were! We wanted some births! Haha, but no, there were none. I hung out with the family during the day. Angelina gave me some lessons in medicinal plants and then we made mole. Mole is a pretty typical Mexican dish, it actually just a sauce that you put over rice and beans and chicken. It is special though because it is made with chocolate! It is very interesting. It is like this spicy, chocolately, sauce. Very different, I kind of liked it haha. After we made and ate the mole I went to church with the family. It was pretty interesting. It was hard for me to understand parts, but it was a good experience overall.

Monday was a VERY busy day. We had visits ALL day long. The clinic is only open from 9-5, but if there are people still waiting after five, they will still do the visits. And on Monday we did visits until 7:00pm with very few breaks! And then we had a girl who was in labor who stayed after that! Thankfully she had lots of family and was not that far in labor, so we could all rest a bit. Her water had broken at 5:00am that morning and she had been having contractions all day. When we checked her in the evening when she came to the clinic she was only 1 cm dilated. This was a little disconcerting, but the baby was doing just fine, so we had no reason to worry. They have three steps that they use to help move labor along if it is needed. First, they give the woman a few homeopathic pills to suck on, this helps the women release more oxytocin. If they need something a little more, they have this AWESOME tea (that I am going to get the recipe for) made from the special plants that they have that helps to release even more oxytocin. The tea is amazing and works really well normally. The third step would be to give the woman and IV of synthetic oxytocin (or pitocin). You see this in hospitals very regularly. We went through the 3 steps with this woman, but even after all of it and many hours, she was only dilated to 2.5 cm. It was sort of a group decision by the family and the suggestion of Angelina and Esteban to transfer to a hospital. The baby and the mom were totally fine, it was not an emergency at all, but most likely in a few hours the baby would need to be out. And by the way her labor was moving she was not going to have this baby in a few hours. We all headed over to the hospital around midnight. Once we were there, there was not much Esteban or I could do so we went back home. I have not heard how things went, but my guess is that she probably had a C-section and she and the baby are probably fine.

So then today is Tuesday. I was really exhausted from the day before and woke up a little late. There was not that many visits, but there was one prenatal class. I would not really call it a class though, it was just one lady. I sat in that for a while, but then started to feel really tired and kind of weak, so I went up to my room and ended up sleeping for almost 3 hours! Crazy! I went back down to the “casita” (that’s what they call the little clinic) for a few more visits and then we got a girl in labor! Yay! She was already 8 cm dilated! She was a very calm, little lady for sure. She would be having a contraction and would just sit and talk to me or to her husband anyways! It was incredible! Within an hour or so the baby was already crowning! She barely even said ouch… it was crazy! The baby just slipped right out at natural as can be, she didn’t tear or anything. It was so beautiful! Her and her husband were very excited. It was a beautiful baby girl J. Her husband did not want to, so I was able to cut the cord! Yay! I felt so special haha.

Births are so beautiful.

There is probably going to be a birth tonight! A lady came in around 6:30pm in very early labor and so we told her to come back when things start to progress. We will see though! Yay!