Tingambato and the trials and tribulations of week 9

Let's see. Today I went to the town of Tingambato which is about a 45 minute bus ride from Patzcuaro, on the free road to Uruapan. It was a lovely, but nauseating drive through mountains and Avocado fields. I was officially in "green gold" aka Avocado country. A quick rant about avocados- Did you know that most of the Avocados we eat in the US are Hass Avocados. And 90% of the Avocados imported from Mexico come from Michoacan! Que Chido! While Hass is a large popular fruit, it actually less flavorful than the smaller species of avocado. Also, our word Avocado comes from the Spanish word Aguacate which comes from the Nahuatl word for um.. well.. you can look it up. Also it is good to know that avocados have 60% more potassium than Bananas! And they have the highest fiber content of ANY fruit! Ok, I am done ranting.

Ok, back to bussiness. The town of Tingambato is known for the archeological site that dates to between 600- 900 AD. It is a pre-perepecha settlement that resembles Teotihuacan in its layout. It is unique because it has a ball court and step pyramid which are rare in this area. It was pretty cool! It was also kind of funny to travel alone today. I must have had a sign on me that said either "I am lonely, talk to me" or "I am friendly, talk to me" because many times throughout the day people would just come up and talk to me. For example, one 70 year-old woman adopted me on my way there and decided that I needed to sit next to her while we waited for the bus and also on the bus ride. It was unexpected, but very nice.

An update from the rest of the week: Yesterday I went shopping (get excited!), hiking, and shelled fresh walnuts. Walnuts are crazy! If you don't know how they grow you should look it up- there are so many layers of protection!
Most of the week I have been busy with meetings, presentations, literature reviewing, and shadowing. On Thursday, I was lucky enough to shadow Brenda at the Clinic. I was a very very interesting experience. I got to see lots of vaginal infections and pregnancies. Did you know that your stomach (when pregnant) grows one centimeter for every week of pregnancy! Also, I got to hold a one month old baby girl! I don't think I have ever held a baby that young before, the whole time I was worried I would drop her or not support her head enough- it was stressful. (See picture above of Brenda with the parents). On Friday, we were supposed to have a presentation on "Woman know and respect your body" in Arocutin (See picture above), but the person in charge of the mayor's office forgot to unlock the room for the presentation. So, we waited for a while outside the office and then we were forced to reschedule.

Overall, life here without the other interns isn't so bad. I have been studying lots and watching lots of Arrested Development. My mom comes in less than a week! Hooray!

Mexico City!

Sorry it has been so long since I last updated. Sean was here visiting me last week and then we visited D.F. for an awesome adventure in the big city (Mexico city=Distrito Federal.. think Washington D.C. but for Mexico). Since we packed as much stuff into 2.5 days as possible, I will give you the highlights. However, I am slowly uploading all of my photos to my flickr account if you want to see more. Overall, Mexico city was hot, congested, a little dirty, interesting, exciting, and beautiful.

Thursday night- 5.5 hr bus ride to Mexico city. Lots of old Mexican movies were played. We also were served a sandwich and Juice (take that Delta). We checked into our hostel around 11pm.

Friday-
Teotihuacan
(which is about an hour outside of D.F.) We got to climb the pyramid of the Sun and Moon. (The pyramid of the Sun is the third highest pyramid in the world!) Although the Aztecs inhabited this area, the original builders of the pyramids and city are still not fully known. But the two main pyramids and the "street of the dead" are one of the most visited and most breathtaking archeological sites in Mexico.
Virgin of Guadalupe Sack cloth-
A must see for any Mexican Catholic. If you don't know the story, check out this link. Fun fact: the Basillica of Guadalupe is the most visited Catholic shrine IN THE WORLD! (Be impressed). The Virgin of Guadalupe has come to represent Mexicans and is very important religiously as well as culturally.
Dinner- Argentinian food = lots of meat.

Saturday- Sean was visiting his ex-boyfriend who lives in D.F. so I explored the city with two guys we met at our hostel (less scary than it sounds, I promise).
Zocalo - the main city center surrounded by the National Cathedral and Palace. It was also the city center for the original Aztec City of Tenochtitlán.
Templo Mayor- This area was a parking lot until 1978 when the main Aztec temple was discovered to be buried underneath. They removed the parking lot and you can see significant remains of the temple today (there is also a good museum).
National Palace- Full of LOTS of Diego Rivera Murals
Church where Cortez is buried
Frida Kahlo Museum- Located in her blue house in Coyocan.. definitely vale la pena.
Dinner- Meatballs stuffed with hard boiled egg- strange but delicious!

Sunday-
Chapultepec - GIANT park full of museums, ice cream, lagoons, and picnics.
National History Museum- Located in a "Castle" within the park. The highlights included Napoleon's death mask, Guadalupe flag used in the revolution, and learning about things that aren't taught in American history books.
National Anthropology Museum- An amazing new building also found in the park, it was so big we had to focus our time so... we explored the "top three" civilizations in my opinion- Aztec, Mayan and Purepecha!
Modern Art Museum - Gotta see some more Frida before we leave!

So.. I think that is about it.
Also, I met a really friendly woman on my bus ride back to Patzcuaro who is moving to Morelia from Mexico City to open an "events hall". She was great and so friendly- She even offered to share her torta with me!


Also a quick note about the metra- It costs 2 pesos (<20 cents) AND it was clean AND I never had to wait more than 5 minutes for train AND it went everywhere! Sigh. If only Chicago could be like that...

Week 7 updates

Lots has happened since I last posted. Last week was Katrina's last week here- so I am now officially the last intern standing. I have about 3 weeks left which I predict will be pretty lonely, but it does give lots of time to read and study for my GREs in September.
On a more positive note, my friend Sean (Dickson)is here visiting! He is staying with me for the week and taking day trips around Michoacan while I am at work and then this weekend we are both going to go to D.F. (Mexico City) for an epic adventure. It has been really nice having him here- not only is he a great cook, but it makes the transition of the other interns leaving a lot less lonely.

Work is going well. Over the past few weeks we have collected over 350 maternal health surveys! We are trying to get around 10 surveys from every small community and more from the larger communities. This means that I have had a chance to see A LOT of surrounding region. For example, yesterday I went with Jacoba to Tupataro and to Presa. Presa isn't really even considered a pueblo it is so small it is a "Ranchero" which from what I experienced yesterday.. means a few (20ish) houses within about 2 miles of each other, kind a clumped together every so often. It was quite an adventure. The combi dropped us off in what seemed like the middle of nowhere and then Jacoba pointed to clump of houses in the distance and said that is Presa. The highlight of the adventure was not the crazy "backpack sunburn" I got but when we stopped at one house and they gave a bunch of peaches from their trees. They were pretty delicious if a little bug eaten. (Most of the pictures above are of my adventures through Presa)

In other news there is a threelegged dog that is now my new best friend (technically it has four legs, but one is hurt so she hops around on just three).She is adorable and for some reason has taken a liking to me. Whenever I am walking out of my house she will come out of nowhere and join me for the walk down. In my mind, I have named her Annabelle... because she kind of looks like one. I took a picture of her this morning when she followed me home (See above).
Speaking of animals- Audrey adopted a kitten name Theo! It looks adorable and now I am even more excited to come back to Chicago! :)

Midwifery Lessons

Today, Katrina and I were lucky enough to accompany Brenda while she visited Otelia. Otelia is a 77-year-old traditional Purepecha midwife who has assisted in 1,000s of births at her home. She has never lost a mother and only one baby died under her care- a pretty good track record if you ask me. She is hard of hearing and prefers Purepecha to Spanish, so her daughter helped translate. She taught us how to make a herb "cocktail" that helps with birthing pains and taught us how to "massage" the mother so that she releases the placenta after birth. Most of what she does is so amazing and logical it often puts Western medicine to shame.

For example, she has exercises that a woman can do with her rebozo(scarf/shall) if her baby is breech to turn the baby around... and if the baby doesn't turn she delivers it feet first! (Delivering vaginally a Breech baby can be done it just takes a skilled practitioner- something that most OBs aren't taught how to do, they just do a C-section). She also told us how she never does a vaginal examine during pregnancy because they don't have gloves or the proper sanitation equipment- WOW! She can tell by how the woman is breathing and acting how far along in pregnancy she is.
Overall, it was an amazing experience learning from such a knowledgeable source. It was definitely a highlight of my summer so far!

Also, when we left Otelia's daughter gave us hummingbirds made out of the reeds the grow in Lake Patzcuaro. Puacuaro (Otelia's home town) is famous for this handicraft so it was a beautiful gift to remember such a unique experience.

Poisoning and puppies

Hmmm so a lot has happened in the past few days. Since Mark left, I have been busy working and entertaining my Dad and our family friend Willis (who lives in Guanajuato). My dad flew in Wednesday into Guanajuato and then drove into Patzcuaro Saturday afternoon.
On Saturday we explored the Patzcuaro and drove up Estribo to the look out (See picture above).
Yesterday in the morning we drove to Cuanajo- a town famous for hand painted furniture and then to Capula- a town famous for the Catrina dolls (See above) and pottery. We were lucky enough to come into town when they were having an artisan festival so we got to see lots of examples of hand painted pottery and Catrinas. It was all so beautiful! I wish pottery was easier to get home!
On the way home we stopped at a roadside eatery between Quiroga and Capula. It was full of people (usually a good sign) but I am pretty sure that is where I got food poisoning. About 40 minutes after we ate I got pretty sick... which continued until about 10:00 last night. Vomiting, diarrhea, chills, stomach cramps... food poisoning is terrible! Thank goodness I feel better this morning.

In other news I found a puppy in my yard this morning (See picture above)!I woke up at at around 7am with a dog outside yoweling at the top its lungs. I finally got fed up, so I went outside to see what was happening and there was a puppy in our laundry closet outside! I have no idea how it got there since we have fence around our yard... but I fed it and gave it a blanket to sleep on. A few hours later we decided that we should let it outside and hopefully it will find its way home. It was sooo cute. I was so sad to let it go... but it left our door about twenty minutes later so hopefully it found its way home.

Food Poisoning

Sick as a dog... I have never really understood what that phrase meant (are dogs sick?!) but I feel like it sums up my current condition. ugh.

Mark's Visit

So here is a quick recap of what I have been up to these past few days-

Thursday- Mark arrived at 10pm!

Friday- Hike up Estribo (the mountain I live on) in the morning and exploring Patzcuaro during the afternoon. Highlights include: giant agave plants, crazy blue bugs, and Spanish colonial adobe buildings.

Saturday- (See picture below at Church and above). Mark, the gang, and I went to the Volcano Paracutin. It is about a two hour drive from here around winding crazy roads but definitely vale la pena (worth the pain). Paracutin is a volcano that erupted in 1943 and is considered one of the world's seven natural wonders. The story goes that one day a farmer was working in his field when he came across a giant crack in the earth that was spewing gas. Two weeks later the volcano Paracutin had grown from the grown. Two towns were completely destroyed by the volcano. The only thing that remains is a Church (The picture below and above). It was really cool to be able to climb around on the lava and explore the Church. It is pretty amazing that lava left so much of the Church intact. The altar was amazingly not harmed by the lava- so many people leave offerings there. We didn't get to go all the way to the volcano because it was 7 hour horseback ride... but exploring the lava was pretty cool.

On the way back we stopped at national park in Uruapan. The park was centered around a river that was full of cool waterfalls. Another cool feature was that the pathways around the river had these amazing water elements- like fountains and water running along the sides. It was very cool.

Sunday- We went on Purepecha Pyramid tour in Tzintzuntzan and Ihuatzio(See Mark pictured above).

Monday- We jumped on a bus and went to the lovely city of Morelia. Since it was a Monday most of the "good" museums were closed... but we did get to see the Museum of Judicial Power AND the Museum of 16th century religious art (aka the crucifix museum). Do I know how to show Mark a good time or what?

Tuesday- We spent the last day doing what most Mexican tourists do- Go to the Island of Janitzio. As expected it was pretty touristy... there was a Mariachi band on the boat ride over that serenaded us and LOTS of store selling stuff. It was a lovely way to end a great trip.

*I am slowly adding all the pictures from Mark's trip to my Flickr account (see link on the right). So be sure to check them out!

** Also, since I have already written about most of these sites before I didn't want to bore everyone again. But if you are curious about a location you can check out my older posts!