Treek or Treeeet!

Lined up for the catwalk.

I sure woke up this morning to quite the treat. Well, to be honest, I didn't want to wake up at all, but I'm glad I did. I got to take a long morning walk down Camino Real, listening to music, thinking, and watching the world wake up. I was on my way to the preschool I go to on Friday mornings but today, seeing as it's not Friday and all, was special. The kids were celebrating Halloween! This holiday is pretty recently celebrated here, but the school, along with being bilingual, tries to expose the kids to other traditions and holidays etc. So, I scrounged up whatever I could to become Super Erica only to be shown up by a hoard of tiny humans dressed to the hilt!


The woman I report to at the school, Caro, had me announce everyone's costume as they entered the catwalk across the yard. There were lots of vampires and witches, with a few fairies, a Woody, a knight, some ghosts, and several "I-don't-know-what-this-is-so-I-better-make-something-up-which-is-okay-anyway-because-the-kids-can't-really-understand-what-I'm-saying-anyway"'s.

Who ya gunna call!? Ghostbusters!!!

After the modeling show, they started getting ready for a dance. The man in charge had a bunch of pieces of rope that he was showing the teachers how to loop. I thought he was making nooses and got concerned. But actually, they turned out to be Dematerializers from the movie Ghostbusters. Yes, they had learned a dance to the Ghostbuster song. It was epic.


After, classes went trick-or treating at other classrooms. Part of my usual roll is helping with english pronunciation (once or twice in an attempt of avoiding unintentional but obvious swearing), but the title of this blog shows how successful I was with that today. They were still some of the most adorable children I've seen in a long time.
Overall, it was a wonderful morning, topped off by stopping at the usual vegetable tienda and panaderia. Four bananas, two avocados, six oranges, and four eggs for 26 pesos (a little over two dollars). I love Mexico.

The class I mostly hang out with.

On the Halloween theme, tonight I had a new experience. All of my suitemates were going to the dorm halloween party and were insistent that I go. My only problem was, I didn't have a costume. Yes, this was a new feeling. I realized I was getting a little down and wondered why. It is because I am never without a box full of costumes and accessories that I can mix and match with. I literally had nothing. Not even a goofy hat or a shepherd's staff. So I went as a doctor. And now I am going to sleep in my scrubs. Goodnight!

Mexpandable Waistlines Express-

Mexican candy is strange...pretty much everything I have seen is covered in tamarindo and chili powder. Maybe that's an overstatement. I saw some Bob Esponja lollypops sin chili.

Mexico Bites Back

I spend so much time talking about what I eat in Mexico that I figure it's about time to talk about what eats me. Sure, I've got the Mexpandible Waistline going on, but it's not the only one. There are some little critters that are getting their feast on over here. I know I've mentioned mosquitos in previous blogs, but mosquito season is apparently over. However, they have some competent partners that they have just tagged into the ring. I don't know what they are, but by the time they are done with me, I may not have legs to leave Mexico. Sorry Mom and Dad, I'm stayin' here.

It all started in Cuetzalan during that plant hike. Those bites ended up last two weeks, and continued getting worse and pussing and making all sorts of substances I did not want on my legs. The orphanage apparently also had their own little colony of predators. While I'm not sure what they are, I think there are a myriad of species getting their fill on my apparently sweet blood. Some are small bloody dots while others give the impression of spider-bites with spread out and tender red surroundings. The picture of my leg actually shows you the best it has been for quite some time. I wish I could show them to you at the height of the infestation. They were red, and festering, and all things gross and itchy you can think of. But Ladies and Gents, I'm on the heal! And No, the shine is not from a recent Barbie wax, but rather from the Neosporin/Benadryl bath I just took. But, to continue to remain on the positive side, I've had my fill of one of life's small pleasures: Scratching the heck out of an itch.

Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos

This weekend five of us traveled to an orphanage near Cuernavaca, about a 4-hour total trip. The orphanage is called Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos (NPH) and is a part of a whole string of orphanages in several countries in Central and South America. It was founded more than 50 years ago and the one in Mexico that we visited is now located on an old sugar plantation hacienda. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but when I walked in, I was a little surprised. It looked like a little town! There are about 650 children living there ages 3 to middle-school equivalent (which varied, I met a girl who was 20) and 150 in a high school in Cuernavaca. NPH focuses on providing education, health care, and spiritual formation to the kids there. I'm going to go ahead and just list some of the things we learned/saw from the tour:

-The kids are separated into grade levels. "Kinder kids" are all in one huge room with a massive line of bunks. The woman that lives in the room with them has been there 20 years. Wow, what a vocation to be called to mother so many children at a time and through the years.

-There are lots of play structures, basketball/soccer courts, and a pool which helps with the supposedly disgustingly hot summers. It was pretty hot while we were there so I can only imagine...

-They have a clinic with a doctor, dentist, and 24-hour nurse. And a pharmacy!

-All of the kids are required to see the psychologist for the first bit of their stay, and then when they need it.

-One of the things that I thought was pretty cool is that there is this whole separate house area for kids who are a little more troubled or having a hard time. The woman who works there helps the to express themselves in art and other such productive manners.

View of the courtyard and two stations

-A beautiful chapel and courtyard with the stations of the cross. We went to a prayer service with them. Usually they have Mass but the priest was gone. So we read the Gospel and said a Rosary. Boy can those kids say a Hail Mary fast. I don't think I could move my mouth that rapidly if I tried.

-Being an ex-plantation, they have their own farm. They breed and raise animals, have a fish farm with tilapia (Did you know that the sex of these fish depends on the water temperature surrounding the eggs? Pretty fascinating! So they make the water warm at the beginning to make large male fish.) and grow crops. They make 3000 tortillas a day with their own corn. Sustainability is huge because they try not to depend too much on the outside, which can be unreliable.

-Sooo many great climbing trees. I've never seen so many in one place. They could charge and entry fee and start a business.

-Disney princesses are universal.

Apparently the Guardian Angels are near the bathrooms.
Pretty great.

The education they are receiving is pretty solid. Families from the outside pay to have their kids go there. The way the system works is that the kids are split into families, grow up, do two years of service after high school and then they get to go to the university of their choice through a Beca program (scholarship). This is pretty incredible considering that in Mexico, if you don't have money, you don't go to university. There is no federal funding etc.

Our main thing that we did there was plan an activity for the kinder kids. We brought a tons of mini pumpkins to finger paint and also played some games with them. However, for the games, I think they would have rather we just be jungle gyms so they could climb on us. Camp Keep's Arroostashaw (known by other names around the US, such as Atootsitah etc. ) kept their attention pretty well though.

I have to say I was pretty impressed by the facilities and services at this orphanage. I guess when I imagined an orphanage I thought of Annie and her crew dressed in rags and singing Hard Knock Life. These kids are far from living in luxury though. They share clothes, live in bunk rooms, and eat very simply. However, this seemed like a very complete system to help break the cycle of poverty. Orphan to college graduate and a loving family in the years in between.

In this tile painting, Fr. Wassen, the founder, is handing kids up into the tree. The tree depicts the things NPH stands for. Among others, there are pictures of school, family, sharing, playing, bunk beds, culture, and Our Lady of Guadalupe. Fr. Wassen started NPH in 1954 when a child was arrested for stealing the collection at his church. Instead of leaving him in jail, Fr. Wassen adopted him and 8 or 9 others and started NPH!

Check out the website if you want to learn more. It's a pretty incredible organization. Thanks for reading!

Cómelo!

The title of this blog means, Eat it! This was a theme of the week I am about to outline, but don't worry, I won't focus too much on food.

We just got back from the most fantastic week yet. Well, I guess it was a week ago, but I am just now getting to write about it. This was a week-long, ND-sponsored trip, which means everything was paid for, but I would have gladly paid, at least a little, for the experiences we had. And no, it wasn't fall break so it was furthermore ND-sponsored hookie. Baller.  I shall start at the beginning...

Day 1:
Monday afternoon we set out toward Cuetzalan en route to a little town called Zacapoaxtla. We got there just in time to make it to the nursing school, take some classes, have some dinner (pan dulce and coffee would end up being a large part of two of the three meals every day on this trip. No complaints here) and sleep in our hotel. Libby and I got to share what looked like an adorable honeymoon cabin room.  There was so much plaid.
Zacapoaxtla is a small little town nestled in a beautiful and green mountain range. I immediately had a town-crush on this place. It is quaint, friendly, and clean. For the next two days we were to work in clinics in pueblitos located on the hills surrounding Zacapoaxtla and take some classes with students at the local nursing school. My classes this first night were on diseases and pharmacology. The pharmacology class was all about organic chemistry! We were all so excited. Seriously. That night we played Bananagrams, which, if you have not played, I highly recommend. It was quite fun and hilarious and all the laughter felt great.
Oh and did I mention Zacapoaxtla is super cold? So, snuggled under three or four plaid blankets, I enjoyed some much needed rest.

Day 2:

Outside of the clinic. These mountains go on forever. 

This morning we woke up super early to eat and go to the clinics. It turns out we were there for National Week of Vaccinations, so Malia and I got to go to a couple preschools in the area of our clinic and hand out yogurt-like stomach vaccines to all the kids. We were supposed to be helping out with weights and heights, which I did a little, but all I wanted to do was play. And we learned a song!
Alla en el Jardin!
Hay un pato blanco
Que se mueve así (moving hips)
Así así así!

And then the duck did some other motions that I don't really remember. But you get the idea.

Dr. Benjamin and I

Day 3:
Today we went back to the same clinics in Zacapoaxtla. Instead of going to the preschools, I stayed in consults with Dr. Benjamin. He was very nice, talked to me a lot, explained everything and let me help. I took the blood pressure of every patient and at the end got to help remove a mole on a lady's breast. I held back skin with the clamp and cut stitches etc. We talked a lot about medicine and the situation in Mexico. He is big on preventative medicine and general practice. He also likes teaching (he is one of the teachers at the nursing school). He said teachers are much more respected in Mexico.

Observations: One thing that struck me both of these days was the approach to family planning. Given the 95%+ Catholic population, the doctors are not offering information on natural family planning at all. I asked about it, and they just proudly showed me their pamphlets with at least 10 different times of contraceptive methods, but no NFP. It seemed as though the only natural method they mentioned to me was the rhythm method, which really does not work for many people. I got the impression that a lot of woman didn't seem to think they had a choice, even though, as Catholics, they did not want to use artificial birth control. No one is teaching them the other option. I watched the doctor take out of a woman one little birth control contraption that was essentially blocking her fallopian tubes because she wanted to switch methods to injections. Her beautiful little 2 year old daughter scribbled on a paper on the procedure room floor right under her mother. It was an eery contrast. I am in no place to judge the woman, and it really is a difficult issue, especially in towns such as this. Some of the students went to clinics that were handing out condoms to 13 year old girls because the kids just have sex when there is nothing else to do. I started imagining myself living in the community, offering extracurricular stuff, talking about such issues and teaching women NFP. So there's my personal exploration for the week.

Us with most of the nursing school. This lasted about 20
minutes with each group of students and staff wanting their
own picture. And we were standing in wet concrete. 

This night was a blast. First, before we left the nursing school, we had a hug desmadre of a picture taking session with the students. Our trip then continued on to Cuetzalan. This hour-long bus ride was fantastic. We were packed like sardines into a little combi bus that took us on windy roads through the dark mountains. We played some great car games and again, I hadn't laughed that hard in a long time. Our new hotel was yet again precious. We ate some food (yup, pan dulce and coffee) and went exploring.

The bus ride. Who would have thought that transportation
such as this might end up being the most dangerous thing
in Mexico.

Cuetzalan is a little bit bigger than Zacapoaxtla, and a tad more touristy, but still a very small rural town. The cobblestone streets were steep and slippery when wet, but quite beautiful.   It also has its own famous regional wine, which we

were able to discover this night. Who knew you could basically just ferment anything and call it wine? There was even peanut butter flavor. We tried two that night. One was sweet and pretty delicious but the other was like drinking fermented and chunky prune juice. Blech. Later on we went to the most beautiful cemetery I've ever seen. It was late at night, so that in itself was a little surreal. There was no order to the grave layout and each one was unique. Crosses were everywhere and at the end was a church with huge letters saying "Puerta del Cielo" (door of heaven). Many of the graves were super old, but almost all had some type of flowers on them. The dead seemed very well loved.

Graveyard at night.

Days 4 and 5:
In Cuetzalan we were to learn about traditional medicine and observe in the hospital. The hospital we were at was called an Integral Hospital, in which traditional medicine is offered, but doctors are also present to step in or give opinions if wanted or needed. We got to meet and talk to some curanderas (healers) and parteras (midwives) who were all little old ladies in very traditional dress. One activity basically consisted of getting massages by these women. I didn't think they were really all that different, but they were noticeably special because of the woman's hands which were so warm, soft, used, wise, and loving.

Sign out front of the hospital

The partera on the right is one of the best in the area, if not the
country. She was so willing to talk to us and share her
work and stories. One incredible thing is that she birthed
her own six children. Alone. What a tough cookie.

And then we all teamed up on the curandera to give her
a massage. I wonder how often she's had that experience.
I hope she liked it.

We also had our own Zumba class taught by an instructor that came to the hotel. Zumba was a lot more fun with the entire group, and by golly did we leave it all on the floor.

The next day, we switch hotels, and my mom and brother came to visit! Oh man it was so great having them here. Just an hour or so after their arrival, we had a two-hour Temezcal experience together. A Temezcal is a vapor bath used in traditional medicine. After receiving an incensing by Margarita, the lady who led us through the experience, we entered the Temezcal. First we had to kneel, forehead to ground, and say Ometeotl, a word that acknowledges the duality of God, female/male, sun/moon, earth/heaven etc. We entered left to right and sat around the hot

The Temezcal by daylight. We fit roughtly ten sweaty
people in there.

 stone pit. First we began by saying what we were offering to the Temezcal. The point was to leave our toxins, impuritites, worries, hate, anger etc. behind in the bath. Next, the hot rocks were brought in. There needs to, at the end, be 52 rocks, for 52 weeks of the year and some other symbolic things. It turns out 52 is a pretty special number and we saw it several other places that weekend.  One of the girls welcomed some of the rocks by marking them with a medicine rock. Margarita would then throw herbed water on the, filling the closed hut with steam. I've never dripped so much in m life. We chanted a song and I got to play some maracas. In between sets of 13 we drank some cool and delicious tea. Margarita guided our experience with some words and teachings. Here are some:
-we must live in the present
-the temezcal bath is the womb of the earth
-our bodies are the manner by which we are here
-do everything thing with love
-only construct with your hands, never destroy

My mom and brother loved it. It was a great welcome to Mexico.
Later that night Lisette planned a surprise birthday party for Andy and myself. It was so sweet. She put together party bags and we had pie and played pictionary-telephone. Another great game with lots of laughter.








Day 6:

First we went to see some ruins. There was something about the number 52 here too.

We went to a reserve that went on as far as we could see. This was some of the most green I have ever seen anywhere. Every view was breathtaking. 

We went on a plant tour. Our guide showed us the traditional uses of many of the plants and trees. We ate several of them. Cómelo! 

So it was either these little buggers or something else, but we all got eaten alive on this tour. I thought the bites might go away, but now, a week later, they are the worst them have been. It looks as though my legs are suffering from the boils plague. Each boil looks as though it is about to give birth. 

We learned how to make cups out of the massive leaves in the forest in order to drink fresh spring water. It was delicious!  And to think that the main advice people told me when I said I was going to Mexico is to not drink the water... 

Oh look! We found a waterfall! This was the moment many of us had been waiting for since August. 

The water was icy cold, but there was nothing to stand in our way. The current was pretty strong too but it was fun trying to swim upstream...and then give up and swim around to the back of the waterfall.

Everyone was so happy.

Mom and Robert and Waterfall. I was pretty pumped with this entire situation, to say the least

That night we went to a restaurant bar, had some dinner, and listened to some live music by a psychologist playing guitar and singing. To my surprise, he called me up to sing for my birthday. Hey Jude. I didn't realize how bad of a singer I was, but I had the help of the audience, so it worked out okay. I hope.
I finished the night at another bar with my mom and brother listening to some great Mexican trio. It was fantastic.

All in all, Cuetzalan was fantastic. I was so glad to be able to spend some time with the fam and I'm glad they got to see a very different part of Mexico from Puebla. I miss them already!

I'm sparing you on a Mexpandable Waistlines for now because this has already been a beast of a blog and I can't think of one in particular. Oh wait, I just did. Well, maybe soon. Just know that our waistlines were Mexpanded on ND's dime all week. And, even in Mexico, I was able to have my traditional carrot cake for my birthday.

I see dead people...

Ok, ok before you freak out about what in the world Mexico has done to me, even amongst all of the things I have learned so far, I have not developed a sixth sense. This just happened to be the first, and possibly insensitive, title I came up with. Because it's true! Well, it was last weekend. Let us start at the beginning...

Friday and Saturday of last week we were to take part in a conference about death in Mexico put on for us by our friendly folks at UPAEP. The conference was to all Friday and Saturday and therefore, we would be missing classes. Needless to say, there were some hitches and complaints because, of course, Notre Dame students never want to miss classes. Ok, they legitimately some people couldn't, but I DID!!! Anyways, the objective of this conference was to learn about death in Mexico; the sociology, the traditions, and the perspectives of a doctor. First we went to a museum that used to be the first hospital in Puebla. It was pretty crazy just imagining the pretty much open area filled with beds and sick Spanish and indigenous (of course confined to a separate room) back in the 1500's. Next we listed to a lecture about el Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) which is celebrated on November 2nd. Yes, it is celebrated. One of the phrases is "La vida del muerte"-death is active, with music and dancing and of course, eating.

At the left here is  a traditional bread made for this day. The center represents the head and the pieces coming off of it, the rest of the body. Since the bread represents the body of the deceased loved one being remembered, it is a privilege to be invited to eat it with the family. They also make ofrendas or altares devoted to their dead and which consist of offerings of anything formerly enjoyed by the person, including food. It is said that when the smell of the fruit offered is gone, that means the dead has come and taken the offering. I could go on, but it's still a month away and I don't want to ruin the surprise of that blog entry.
So anyways, we had a brief coffee break and then went to make traditional plaster skulls. We each only did a step of the process, so right now I have an unpainted paper mache-ish skull sitting on my desk. I forgot how much I liked soothing and repetitive crafts. And skulls.
We went to lunch, had another lecture about the psychology of pain and called it a day. The last lecture
was given by this captivating woman, who was trying so hard to keep us awake, but our full stomachs and end of the week fatigue led her to have to make us stand up and do exercises in the middle of her presentation.

That night, I actually ended up sleeping at UPAEP with Regan, another ND girl. We are both in the Theology class with Padre de Simone and he told us about "Adoración Nocturna" that happens monthly, and this week was for the women! So we showed up at the chapel with sleeping bags and backpacks around 10pm for what was to be a beautiful night. There were about 20 women and a nun there (who was a woman too...but I thought I should specify). Basically, we started with an hour all together with the Blessed Sacrament and then took turns the rest of the night to keep watch for an hour, until a closing Mass at 6am. Okay, so when I said I slept at UPAEP, I sort of lied; it was really only about 3 to 4 total hours of sleeping bag on a classroom floor. It was harder than I thought it was going to be to stay awake. I was already going on 4ish hours of sleep from the night before and was participating in a conference all day. I kept thinking of the Agony in the Garden and how when Jesus returned to his apostles he asked Peter "Could you not stay awake with me for one hour?" All in all though, it was so wonderful to have the opportunity to do be in Adoration for the first time since coming here, and it was great meeting some pretty awesome women.

Fueled by an omelet and extra-large coffee, we awaited the rest of our crew to show up for the second day of the conference. This started with a lecture on the sociology of death:

And finally, the main event and purpose of this blog title. The Morgue. We first got set up with some gear. I felt pretty legit, except that every time I breathed my glasses would fog up. I knew there must have been some veteran trick for avoiding this, but I, a novice, was in the dark.

Malia, Libby, and I ready to rock and roll.

They eased us into the whole thing. First we looked at some of the models they had lying around the room, then passed around some human femurs. I tried to sword-fight someone with them, but it was deemed a bad idea. The first shock of the day came when our med-school student helper brought over a glass jar with a floating baby in it. It was less than 20 weeks and was so small. I didn't really like that part all that much, but it was cool to see how developed a baby is, even at such a young gestational age.  Next we learned how to do sutures! It ended up being pretty fun. We learned two methods of tying, one with the clamp and another with our fingers. I think the hemp bracelet making over the years helped me to catch on quickly and I was soon picturing myself as a surgeon. Though, don't get me wrong, it's a lot harder than the pro's make it look and I was pretty much just as fumbly with the needle as a crab with mittens would be. We cut open and explored some pig hearts and probed our fingers through the valves to follow the path of circulation. And practiced sewing parts up! Grandpa Joe, I was thinking of your own pig valve! I'm glad I wasn't the one who sewed you up though.
And Then, the Body. They had taken two bodies out at the beginning of the session to let them dry off so the whole time they were just chilling in the corner of the room. I tried not to make eye contact. But then there I was, standing by the head of this previously cut open woman who's face was turned toward me. I felt accused. We cut open some of the stitches, probed around a bit, took out one of the lungs, put it back in, followed the connections of some of the organs and pretty much just played Eye Spy until we used our newfound skills to sew her back up. Layer by layer. The med school girl that was helping us was obviously very smart and very accomplished. I think it was mentioned that she had one some awards or something. Anyways, when I asked her how old she was, she said she was 19. That blew my mind. She was probably only a couple of years away from graduating from medical school. It got me thinking, that if our system was the same and we just went directly to med school, I might have just stuck out the whole doctor thing. We would have immediately jumped into learning about medicine and the human body and other such things infinitely more interesting than the crystal structures of transition metals. And it would be almost over by now and I would be doing rotations in a hospital. Four years really does make a big difference. Really though, I'm grateful for where I am right now, having had the opportunity to discover some of my passions, and being in utter uncertainty of where my life is headed (live the question, right?). It was just a thought...

Back to the point, all in all, it was pretty cool, but between the smell and, well, the fact that this woman dead, I was ready to be done. No one fainted, no one barfed, so overall win.

We proceeded directly to the casino we watch ND football games at and I fell asleep by the time we were...by the time the game started getting a little less exciting. I won't comment too much on football in this blog. In truth, I don't have too much to say. Except, it was a rejuvenating nap and good end to the day.

Between the learning about death, the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, and the morgue, this post really could be titled something like, In the Flesh, o algo asi. It was quite the experience of the human body and overall a great weekend.


Mexpandible Waistlines-
Well this edition just fits mighty fine with the overall theme of the post.
First, I don't think I've described cemitas yet. They are a poblano (the adjective of things/people associated with Puebla) sandwich with bread that looks like a burger bun, but sooo much better. They usually have meat, avocado, chilis, maybe beans, maybe cheese, and maybe lots of other things, it just depends. They are wonderful.
Well, except this one. I mean, it wasn't terrible, and I'm never one to waste food so I did eat it all. But I maybe only enjoyed it when I wasn't directly thinking about what it was.

In the theme of the weekend, I had a cemita de lengua. Tongue. To be honest, I don't even know what kind of tongue it was. Probably a cow. Maybe a sheep. Quien sabe...Libby and I were in Puebla walking around on Sunday and we decided to track down a cemita to stave off the hunger-grumps. "Ohhh let's go somewhere with lengua!" she raved. She had tried it with her host family and said it was just like really lean meat. I can see where she would be right, but we went to a hole-in-the-wall cemita counter and ended up getting a sort of soggy cemita with tongue on it for 17 pesos. This maybe wasn't the best thing to do after spending a day playing with animal organs and human bodies but yea...I think you get the idea.  You know, I'm kind of getting nauseous writing about this, there's not really much more to say about this one, so I'm going to call it a blog.