Today, I'm a little more removed from the above holidays, and more aware of it being the celebration for Jacmel's patron saint...all night and all day there has been loud music, cars and motos going by at absurd speeds (I always expect to hear a crash, but only have a couple times in 3 months), and lots of business in the streets. I slept in this morning and spent the day lounging and knowing (with excitement) that the coming days will be my last in Haiti...probably forever. I did laundry, made some Haitian coffee in the espresso pot on the the stove, packed a little, saw a woman in early labor, and made a delicious salad out of leaves from our moringa tree, fresh squeezed limes (also from our tree), sea salt (from the region), basil from our garden, and tomato and toasted sesame seeds from the street market. Yummmm
The last few days have been quiet. Jan and Betty-Anne left and Melinda came back this afternoon from her trip to Taiwan. So for a couple days, I got to be in charge of the clinic, which was exciting, though I was relieved we didn't have too many customers :)
I've really realized what a difference community makes, at least in how I experience the world. Before all the visitors came, I went about my day, doing laundry, clinic, class, etc, talking with lots of people, but maybe not connecting too deeply on a daily basis. It was fine, but with Jan and Betty-Anne and Dave and Kristen I had so much fun and felt so much more like myself, which is funny, because who am I to be but myself if I'm all by myself? I felt though that different parts of me came alive to interact with all the different people and the different situations that presented themselves by vitue of living with more people. Thus by having others to share my experience with it became deeper and more expansive...I got to feel like more that just a midwife hanging around, waiting for births.
Even though I had people here with me before--the apprentices, Ninotte, and Melinda--I didn't feel like I connected too deeply with them--be it for language or world view differences or simply because people were busy with their own lives outside the clinic, so it was surprising and awesome to feel like I was part of a tribe again with our visitors! (Do I sound like a lonely house-wife or what?) It's great what a difference sitting down to eat with others makes. Being able to just stroll around at night and go to the beach and actually do things since I had people to do them with was also fabulous and liberating! All this being said, I do enjoy the alone time too, and throughly enjoyed getting lost in and finishing the book: Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (highly recommended) since they left.
Now Melinda is back, we've got a woman in labor, and I'm hoping the next few days fly by in not too exhausing a fashion....maybe have a couple babies, a day of postpartums, then a day of class, then a day of prenatals, and then I'm off to NYC on Thursday! :)
PS I also wanted to note 2 new things I've learned recently:
#1 Twins are considered evil until proven otherwise in Haiti. Thus, parents have to sort of "denature" them by doing various things, usually envolving the saving grace of Jesus Christ of course. One of the apprentices is a twin and said that she used to do evil things as a child, and had powers until her mom "messed her up." Another person in class stated that her father was killed by a twin. Apparently the powers only exist while both twins are alive, so it was historically common to kill one of the twins at birth. Also it is not common that the twins will try to kill each other, despite the fact that they would loose their powers if they do so. As someone explained to me: "don't we all do things that aren't good for ourselves just because we are drawn to do it?" True...
#2 Some people believe that if a woman's water does not break in due time, that it will come out her mouth in the form of vomit and then she must rinse her mouth with vinegar so that her teeth don't rot
No comments:
Post a Comment