Over the weekend I was invited to the wedding of a sister of one of the nurses in my clinic. The wedding was about half an hour outside of the city underneath a huge tent that was providing shade for over 50 tables full of people eating soup and chicken with mole negro (a traditional type of sauce in Oaxaca that is also commonly served at weddings). After eating, we moved from our table to let others sit and eat. Even though there were more tables than I have ever seen at a wedding, there still was not enough room for all of the friends family and random acquintences who where present.

The music began while people were still eating with a band that played traditional Mexican music. This band was followed by an even more traditional mariachi band. When the mariachi band took the stage everone began clearing tables to make room for dancing. In the first dance, friends and family of the bride and groom dance with baskets of candy, fruit, and tiny bottles of alcohol. A few moments into the dance they begin throwing the items in their baskets to all the guests. Needless to say, this is somewhat dangerous when you have children crawling on the floor trying to get as much candy as they can, adults on chairs trying to catch bottles of alcohol, and pieces of hard fruit flying through the air as well. However, it is a lot of fun. On top of all this there are people walking around throwing confetti on everone. The wedding was Saturday and I am still finding pieces of confetti in my hair, clothes, and purse.

The next dance is when the bride and groom have to dance for their gifts. Once they begin dancing, their relatives bring out their gifts and dance around them while holding their gifts. This is made all the more interesting because traditional gifts here are furniture, washing machines, dryers, dishwashers, ovens, etc. After this dance, relatives dance with items that the newly wed couple will need. Bags of rice, cases of soda, live turkeys, totillas, and candy.

The last set of traditional dances are for people who are not yet married. The first dance is for the single women and the second dance is for the single men. For these dances the bride and groom stand on platforms with a small railing  to hold onto. Surrounding both the bride and the groom are friends or family members who are supposed to protect them from being pushed down by the people who are dancing. In each dance, the poeple who are single create a type of conga line and run around the bride and the groom. The object of the dance is for the single women to knock down the bride and for the single men to knock down the groom. Once again, I don’t think that safety is ever a concern. The family that I live with told me that it is common for people to get severly hurt at weddings. I guess this makes sense when you factor in how drunk most people are by the time these dances begin.

After the traditional dance, a more modern band took the stage and played music the rest of the night. Although this wedding was only a day long, it is typical for weddings to last 3 days and have 3 times as many people in attendence. However, it was the largest wedding I have ever been to, not to mention one of the most interesting and exciting!

The clinic that I work in is in a tiny neighborhood about half an hour outside of the city. There are no paved streets and most of the houses look like what storage units look like in the states: cement brick walls with aluminum siding doors and roofs.  There are probably just as many stray dogs as people. If they aren´t sleeping in the mud next to a building to keep cool than they are cautiously eyeing everyone who passes. Most poeple who know me, know that I love dogs. However, these dogs are not domesticated and I often pretend to throw rocks at them to keep them away (a trick that most people use here).

Inside the clinic is a small waiting room, 3 consultation rooms, and a dentist office. The doctors are highly qualified, it is resources that they lack. Latex gloves are only used for pap smears and births and even then, the patient must purchase them. They only have one thermometeer (which is mercury), all of the paperwork is done by hand because they do not have a computer, there is no novicaine available for dental work… This list goes on and on. In spite of the lack of resources, everyone who comes to the clinic is provided with care which, in a way, is more than can be said about clinics in the United States.

Althought there are many differences, the thing that stands out the most to me is the amount of teen pregnancy. I would have to say that the average age of pregnanacy in the clinic is less than 20 years old. Everyday there are patients who are no more than 15 coming in for prenatal care. This demonstrates not only a lack of resources, but also less education and gender inequality in certain cases.

I don’t have any more time now, but I just wanted to write a little about my clinic! more later!

I am really enjoying work at the clinic. I help to check people in by checking their blood pressure, temperature, height, weight, pulse, and their blood sugar if needed. I am hoping that later on I will get to view medical procedures and help out with other things as well.

The most difficult part of my job is trying to understand the nurses. They speak so quickly that at times I can’t even understand a number or a name that they have said to me. Everyone has told me that it takes some time to get used to how quickly people talk but I feel bad asking people to repeat what they say 50 times a day. I am going to study Spanish for most of the day tomorrow so that next week might be a little smoother.

Yesterday, all of the volunteers went to the mountains which is about 2 hours from here. I slept on the bus ride up and in my dreamlike haze I kept thinking that the air-conditioning was on in the bus. However, when I woke up I realized that the bus had no air-conditioning, it was just the temperature of the air outside that was so cold. It must have been no more than 40 degrees outside when we got the the village we were staying at. Luckily I had packed a hoodie, but it did little to keep me warm, especially with the wind blowing. 

After retrieving keys to the cabanas that we were to be staying in, we met at the tourism office to meet our guide for the 4 hour hike that had been planned. Our guide turned out to be a woman around 40 years old wearing a very traditional blue dress and apron with her hair in braids and her feet in plastic sandals. The only feature that would distinguish her as a mountaineer were her calves which where the size of coke cans. She led us through the mountains and then finally to a zipline at the end.

That night in the cabanas we had fires burning all night to keep us warm. Surprisingly I slept very well due to the number of blankets on the bed along with the warmth of the fire.

Tonight I am planning on going out to eat with some of my friends and then we want to see Harry Potter. Eating at a restaurant here, like most things, is very inexpensive. At most I may pay 60 pesos which is less than 6 US dollars. Drinks are typically 30 pesos and dessert 10-20 pesos. This makes it difficult to rationalize not going out to dinner or out for drinks.

Tomorrow, I am going to Monte Alban, one of the biggest ruin sites in Mexico. More later!

I met my family on Sunday and they are wonderful. I live with a woman and her daughter, Chantel who is 15.  She also has a son who is in college and will be back in August. He is studying English in Toronto right now. There is also a dog, Sid, who is adorable.

The house is beautiful and I have my own room and bathroom. For Oaxaca, my family is one of the few families that are part of the upper class and can afford hot water, a car, and a beautiful home.

Today, I went to the clinic where I will be working and met the doctors and nurses. It takes me 35 minutes to get there by bus plus an additional 20 minutes of walking. The clinic is located in a very rural area where some of Oaxaca`s poorest people live. The clinic is very small but very clean and beautiful. All of the services are free and becasue of this people travel for miles to get there. The waiting room was packed with people waiting to be seen. As a result of so many patients, many of the volunteers are helping with simple medical precedures such as taking vitals, giving vaccines, drawing blood, and one volunteer is even helping with pap smears and breast exams. Everone was so nice and I am excited to start working there tomorrow.

In a typical day I will wake up at 6 and eat desayuno at 6:30 with mi mama. Usually we will have fruit, quesadillas or eggs. I have to leave at 7:00 to be to work at the clinic at 8:00. I work from 8-1 and then get home for la comida, the largest meal of the day. Today we had soup and tortillas with quesillo which is a special cheese in Oaxaca that is similar to string cheese. Later I have Spanish class from 5-8pm before retuning home again for la cena. La cena is the smallest meal of the day but I get to have hot chocolate every night made from real Oaxacan chocolate and milk along with either a sandwhich, waffles, or more fruit.

I am enjoying everything here and feel very at home. I will try to upload pictures soon. I tried asking the guy at the internet cafe how to do it on this computer but he had no idea what I was talking about… hasta pronto!

I am finally here in Oaxaca after an 8 hour bus trip. The surrounding area is very similar to New Mexico and Arizona with canyons, cactus, and various rock formations. I sat next to this old woman on the bus who was eager to point out various points of interest including churches, sheep and field workers. Passing through the rural areas of Oaxaca it is easy to understand why it is the poorest state in Mexico. There were endless houses made of siding and leftover scraps of wood, many of which did not even have a roof. The small areas for farming consited of plants that seemed to be struggling in terrain which is more suitable for cacti. Rather than the tractors and sprinkler systems that are available in the United States, there were rows of workers and mules hauling plows.

Oaxaca City is much larger than I had expected it to be with all of the usual places and builings that are found in Mexican Cities: the Zócolo, churches, restaurants, music, and internet cafés. I won´t meet my family until Sunday, so until then I will be staying in a hostel with a few other volunteers, exploring the city. Hasta pronto

The city is incredible. After getting lost in an endless market on the moring of my first day, I am now able to navigate the historic part of city well. Being able to speak spanish has helped more than I would have thought. Unlike the cities of Cancunn and Puerto Vallarta, there are very few people who speak English here. I have spoke more spanish within the last two days than I have in an entire year.

Yesterday I went to Las Bellas Artas, the museum of fine art where they are currently featuring the work of Frida Kahlo. It was beyond anything that I had expected. 8 rooms dedicated to not only her most famous pieces, including Las dos Fridas and La columna rota, but also letters, sketches, and personal items. There are also several murals by Diego Rivera and other famous muralists of that time spanning across the hugs walls of the building.

I met four university students and I followed them around the museum. Not only were they funny and patient with my Spanish, but they also knew everything there was to know about the pieces. Like these students, almost everyone that I have met has been friendly and offer advice and often times walk me to wherever my next destination is after asking ¿Estás solita? (an enduring way to ask me if I am alone).

Today I started out by walking to the Zócolo (the large plaza where the federal building and the aztec temple are located). The most amazing thing about the Aztec Temple is that it is literally located in the mist of a huge metropolis. You can see most of the ruins from the sidewalks that pass by. I went into the famous catedral and walked around it as well. There are not words to describe how amazing the building is. I´ll post pictures soon.

Later in the afternoon I took the subway to the museum of anthropology.I am very proud of myself for taking the subway which is notorious for being fast paced, quick and uncomfortabely crowded. However, it was worth the trip to see the museum which is one of the most extensive in the world. Housed in this museum is the Aztec sun stone, Olmec heads, and the stone which the aztecs used for human sacrifies among many, many other things. I must have been there for four hours staring and the relics that I have seen in my text books so many times, convincing myself that they were real.

Tonight I am going to go to the opera at Las Bellas Artes. Only $15! Everything here is inexpensive and all museums and other sights are free if you are a student or a professor. However, I did´t bring my student ID so I have had to pay. At most admission is only 4.50.

Tomorrow, I leave to Oaxaca.

¡Hasta luego!

It’s almost 2:00am and my apartment is almost packed and clean. I keep running through everything that I have packed searching for something that I may have missed. I’m truly impressed with the fact that everything I need for ten weeks fits in a backpack. I think that this must be why I feel that I have forgotten something…

 Waffles is fast asleep on an empty shelf of my bookcase. Watching her reminds me that I should go to bed so that I wake up with enough time to get coffee before going to work at 8am.