Giving Light

To give light in Spanish means to give birth, which is very fitting as I saw my first live birth this week. Being a community health volunteer has its perks since I get to witness things that I wouldn’t normally see in the United States, namely a birth. This is how it went down:

Jessica, ob-gyn nurse: We have a patient at the health post that is going to give birth pretty soon.

Me: Cool. Could I come and watch?

Jessica: Sure, that would be fine. You can even take photos for us.

And boom, I’m right in on the action. Again, I cannot say enough how many things I do here that would not happen in the U.S. and for many of them, I’ve very thankful to be here to witness them, and photograph them to boot.

Being the youngest in a family of four, I’ve never had any younger siblings; nor do I have many young cousins, so I’ve never seen a woman giving birth before. And for those of you that know me, you know that I want to have a big family (4 or 5 kids tops), so it might be handy to see a woman in labor just to see what I would be getting myself into.

My nurses and I were hanging out at my house watching our one and only TV channel (Peruvian PBS basically), when the patient’s husband came running over to us to let us know that her labor had started. So up and out the door we went to the awaiting patient. Luckily we only had a good 10 steps to go as I live right next to the health post.

Now like I said before, I’ve never seen a birth, so I’m not sure what I was expecting. But from the movies (Shout out to “Father of the Bride”) and TV shows that I’ve seen, the typical position for a woman in labor , from what I’ve seen, is on her back, so I was a little surprised to see the woman squatting while her mother held on to her. Supposedly this position is ideal as gravity works with you instead of against to, so here I was, camera-in-hand as I stood awkwardly to the side witnessing her fight her contractions.

The nurses had laid a plastic mat on the ground to brace for “impact” of the baby covered with a few cut-up food bags to make the clean up easier. Jessica was kneeling all the while shouting “Empuje! Empuje! (Push! Push!)” while checking to see the babies progress. Before I knew it the mother pushed her last push and the baby just slid out, but again, my warped expectations told me that the baby should be crying by now, but instead there was just silence.

Doli, the other nurse, took the baby to the table immediately to start cleaning it up and taking the fluid out of the mouth and nose, but still, no crying. Minutes pass by and the baby was still not breathing and was quickly turning purple. Jessica immediately took over and started massaging the back and giving it small smacks to try to get the fluid out of the lungs, and even going so far as to start mouth to mouth breathing. Then after my prayers had been said, the baby miraculously started coughing up fluid and slowly opened its eyes. God’s miracle.

The grandmother, who was laying her daughter, who just gave birth, down to rest, came over with a smile. She sneaked a peek between the baby’s legs then walked over to the door and said with a smile to the awaiting family members “Tenemos una otra cocinera (We have another cook).” Putting Feminism aside, I simply laughed.

As time went on, the baby girl continued coughing up fluids and testing out her arms and legs in her new environment. And slowly, but surely, color came back to her cheeks and fingers. The family was then able to come in and I witnessed her family welcome her into the world.

While this birth turned had a happy ending, unfortunately so many other births in my town don’t. I was kind of surprised at the nonchalant attitude of my nurses when discussing how just the other day a baby died during labor. When I asked why that happened, they said it was mainly because the parteras or midwifes here don’t have much formal training. And all I could think of was that if this lady gave birth in her house, which many women do, her baby might have easily died if the partera didn’t know what to do when the baby came out.

Death is such a part of life here, that it doesn’t surprise people that much if a baby dies or not. And coming from a very developed nation, I keep on thinking how this would not happen in the U.S. And yes, I think our health care system is very messed up, but one thing they do well is give adequate care to patients and do anything they can to prevent a death.

Witness this birth has given me a new outlook at life and death in the sierra and also the idea to have a possible training with the midwives in the future. But the one thing that hasn’t changed is I still want those 5 kids. Well, maybe just 4.

A photo is worth a thousand words...

Finally heading back to the campo after a weekend full of water fights, paint wars, good friends, and awesome food.

Just wanted to show you a small piece of my weekend:

Me and "mis chicas"

Imagine "Gangs of New York/West Side Story" mixed with paint and that is Carnaval

The Aftermath

More to come soon!

School for Thought

6 weeks, 32 students later, and less patience later, my “Vacacciones Utiles” is finally over....and I couldn’t be happier. Don’t get me wrong, I love the little kiddies, but they were definitely a lot to handle. Most days were great and I felt like I was really teaching them something, but other days not so much…so I would say it was more of a love-hate relationship.

My primary kids were my first headache, since I didn’t know quite what to do with them. I’ve never had much experience with little ones, and I was probably frustrated because I was trying to teach them too much. But once I let go of my dream of having them actually speak my language and instead focused on English vocab, things went a lot better, especially when I started incorporating drawing into my class.

While even though the kids loved their drawing time, I was amazed at their lack of creativity and not just in drawing, but when we played other games as well. I blame this partly on the school system here, since the basic formula for teaching here is writing stuff on the board and having the kids copy it down. That’s about it. So when I tell kids to draw whatever they want to draw, they ask me “How? What should we draw?” And when I answer, “be creative,” I get blank stares back. Most of the time, the kids would run and find a book to copy a picture from. I can’t tell you how sad this makes me feel, since I feel like creativity was all about my childhood through playing house during recess to making “bomb squad” videos with my swimming friends. I don’t know what I would have done without it.

My secondary kids were originally the class I looked forward to because I could do more advance stuff with them like verb conjugation and grammar, but eventually they became my new headache. At times I felt like I was a ring leader trying to control my wild animals! I believe part of that has to do with the fact that I don’t speak their language, and hence couldn’t always think of a good way to control their rowdiness, but the other part has to do with good ol’ fashion hormones. Ha. Yeah for those. A lot of my time was spent trying to stop the boys from annoying (aka flirting) with the girls and vice versa. Good Lord.

Things I learned through my first go-through with teaching English? Simplicity is key. Flashcards are a god send. Never underestimate the joy of Bingo. And 5 days is waaaaay to much.

I am definitely thinking of continuing teaching English in my town, since there is no English teacher to speak of, but I think it’s going to be on my terms this time. One to two times TOPS a week, and the teacher better be there in attendance to quiet down the students.

So that’s about it. I survived my first time being a teacher. All those times of pretending to be a teacher growing up finally paid off. But overall, I’m pleased with how things. Even if my kids didn’t learn any English, at least they got to do something different and have fun in class, and I suppose in the end, that’s all I could ask for.

The festivities have finally arrived...

...Roll up your windows…

...look before you cross the road...…

....because Carnival is finally here!

Ever since we first learned of our sites in Cajamarca, Carnival was one of the first thing that was mentioned. It just so happens that my department, Cajamarca, is home to one of the best Carnival festivities in Peru…so lucky for me!

Now I’m still learning what Carnival is about, but what I’ve deduced is that it’s a lot like “Mardi Gras” in the states, but I think done on a bigger scale. It also has a special twist to it, which is water balloon fights…all…the…time. I believe the first water balloon was thrown at me in mid-January, and the festivities don’t officially start until February 12th, so people get really excited about celebrating it here.

Usually I’m not targeted in my site, but when I venture down to Bambamarca, our combi is usually under fire to a few suspecting kids down the road who are waiting with water balloons and water guns in hand. I didn’t realize what was going to happen at first, but luckily I had my host brother sitting next to me because he had the bright idea of rolling up the window….and just in time too because moments later, our combi was pounded with water balloons. Thank god for having a seat inside.

But on other occasions, I haven’t been so lucky. It’s usually a 50-50 chance of getting a seat inside the car, and last weekend as I was headed back to Bambamarca, as the car slowly turned around a corner we were like sitting ducks! And before we knew it, had water balloons tossed at us. Luckily I saw one coming and ducked just in time, but my friend next to me wasn’t as lucky…as she got it right in the face. But a few minutes later we were all soaked as some kid had sprayed us with a hose…so as you can see, no one is safe during Carnival. My plans are to fill up water balloons and give them to the people in a combi, so that we can all nail those kids coming into town. They won’t know what hit them.

This coming weekend I’m heading down to Cajamarca, our capital, which is where the heart of Carnival is. I don’t know exactly what to expect, but what I do know is that one day is completely devoted to water balloon fighting and the next day, paint fighting. Yes, I said paint. Apparently people throw paint and sometimes even oil and eggs at people…I honestly don’t know what is going to happen, but what I do know is that it’s going to be a lot of fun.

I’ve met some Peace Corps volunteers that absolutely loathe Carnival, but to me, I think it’s a chance for everyone to be a kid again. And since I feel like a kid most of the time, this festival is right up my alley. So wish me luck! There will be lots of crazy pictures to come, that I am sure of.