Happy New Year from Guatemala

Happy New Year.....

It is a very happy new year....

And a glorious old year it has been!

2010 for me was largely about preparing for this journey to Guatemala--a long held dream--and then coming here and actually living it.

For me it is a testament to the power of intention. I don't believe any of us really has control over our lives but I do believe we have the power to create and celebrate beauty and magic and so every day I try to focus on all that is beautiful and working well and try to imagine what might be wonderful to create if I could wave my magic wand....

In the past I have been grateful for all that I have in life. These days I feel so grateful just be alive and breathing, with a body that gets to experience all the millions of sensations of life on planet earth and a soul that gets to feel the vibration of life moving through me.

Leo is performing "I use to rule the world" with some fellow classmates and a teacher at the first annual Christmas dinner at his high school in Panajachel. It's the first annual because the school just opened this September. All things considered he seems to be having a good academic year and when asked says earnestly that he is enjoying his school and his time in Guatemala.

L-R: Ester (a local very experienced midwife), Inti (1 1/2 yrs), Mariu (an aspiring midwife), Alicia (local doula and organizer extraordinaire), Corina (visiting midwife from Miami), and me. This was taken at our first official meeting to begin organizing a midwifery school here on the Lake. We are hoping to offer a well rounded midwifery education that includes clinical experience which is not happening right now in Guatemala and rarely has. There are many women here asking for this education so it is very exciting to begin to consider how we can answer that need.

The waiting area at Clinicas Maya where I spend every weekday morning doing prenatal care. Most of the care is provided in Kaqchikel which is great for the families but puts me in a position of asking for translations and probably missing a lot. I do get many opportunities to lend my knowledge and skills and it has been immensely satisfying even though I am a bit on the outside. I especially love it when the midwives bring in their clients and I get to meet them. When they learn I am a midwife the invariably smile and their eyes light up. They can barely say hello in Spanish but a connection is made nonetheless.

Me with Candelaria (the nurse that sees prenatal patients at the clinic) inside the prenatal room. She works 40 hours a week and sees women and children for general complaints as well. There is also a naturopath that works in another room and they both use primarily herbs that they grow in the clinic gardens as treatments. They also use homeopathics and some basic allopathic medicine.

My first meeting with the midwives of San Pablo--all seven of them showed up to meet me! Two of them had already met me in the clinic. Only the one on my left speaks Spanish so she did the translating. Several of them are excited to take me on prenatal rounds around the village and bring me to births. I started doing that last week. This is where it gets really exciting for me.

Leo and his newfound buddy Neo. Yes, Leo and Neo. Isn't that cute? They are cute.

We spent about 5 days in the Peten jungle, the northernmost part of Guatemala near the Mexican border. There was a Mayan solstice ceremony that lasted several days and went around to seven sacred Mayan sites. The last of these was in Tikal on the 21st the same day as the full moon ecplipse. 1200 Mayan priests showed up to spend the night at Tikal, watch the eclipse, and dance around the fire and play marimba for the solstice. There were actually two celebrations--one in the central plaza, pictured here, and our group which was a mixture of Mayans, Ladinos, and Gringos. The purpose of our group was to unify the people of the various continents to focus on healing for mother earth. It is a very big deal for these Mayan priest and priestesses to break down the cultural and racial barriers and share their ceremonies with outsiders. It was a great honor to be there.

Here are a few hundred people gathered for solstice, dancing around the fire, and playing marimba.. a very festive scene indeed. Right in the central plaza of Tikal. Apparently this was an unprecedented event--for the Mayans to be able to publicly display their indigenous religious practices in the original Mayan capital.

Rick, Eliot, and Robin next a to a GIANT ceiba tree in Tikal.

Eliot examining a morning glory in swampy area in a bird sanctuary in the Peten.

And of course the beautiful, beautiful Lake Atitlan. I can help but taking pictures of it. It's just so stunning. We were noticing when we were at Lake Peten-Itza, next to our hotel in the Peten how peaceful it was up there. Equally beautiful for sure but so so tranquilo. We stayed an extra couple of days just to soak it up. Here at our beloved Atitlan the energy around the lake is often described as intense. Maybe its the unknown depth, the underground rivers, the towering volcanoes, the steep terrain that we all have to walk just to get around, the close proximity of the neighbors or just being sandwiched between the steep mountains. For example, New Years day (or any other holiday or other excuse to celebrate) is one big fiesta with music and more music on impressive sound systems... and lots and lots of firecrackers. Not the cute little poppy ones but the big bombas and massive skycrackers. They've been going constantly for two days. My kids have gotten into as well, with Leo's help! If you're not into the party, forget it. You live inside the party. At the moment, I am hearing the marimba band from Guatemala city and there is no point in going to to town square to listen because I can hear it like it's in my own yard. I'm actually enjoying quite a bit.. thankfully!!!

So the point was that this place has a very intense energy about it, particularly San Marcos. I certainly felt it when I came here. A lot of people come here to do healing work because there are so many holistic therapists in this town. It was described to me that because so many are doing healing work here that it's just "in the air" and people pick up on it without realizing what's happening to them. That was certainly true for me. For about the first three and a half months I was "processing"--emotionally and physically--which of course are all intertwined. It became a part time job for me, really, no kidding. I am still on that road but I am able now to get out and connect with more people and start working on my project, and that is a wonderful place to be.

I apologize for not being able to figure out how to organize this blog well but below you will see a picture of part of the village (where we went today for new years day tamales) from way up high (we live much lower) and you can see the steep terrain I'm talking about. Also, you see Eliot taking a guitar lesson with Diego. We love him. He teaches Eliot songs in Spanish and Kaqchikel and he gives me lessons in Kaqchikel. Eliot is doing fantastic. I have a long way to go! The last picture is of Robin one morning when he got very enthusiastic about planting squash seeds in the garden. He went out there and started digging without even changing out of his pajamas!

That's all for now...please keep sending your wonderful comments.

Sarah

sarah's guatemala blog: Hello from Guatemala

sarah's guatemala blog: Hello from Guatemala:

When we arrived in Guatemala in the plane, we were just getting out of our seats and Robin asked, "Are we in Guatemala?" I said, "Yes, we are." Then he looked pensive for a moment and asked earnestly, "Why not am I speaking Spanish?":)

We arrived in Guatemala at the beginning of September- Rick the kids and myself. Rick went back home two weeks later to work (he'll be back here in November) so I have been in a huge process of adjusting to a new life here and being the only parent in the house. Leo is a big help on the weekends. I have a wonderful woman helping me every day and just recently have been able to leave the kids with her for long stretches.

Leo takes the boat all the way across Lake Atitlan (pictured here) every day to go to high school. He's studying the usual high school subjects and has just taken on an independent study in local mayan and geological history which I am quite happy about and he seems excited about it too.

Eliot has his ups and downs with school but overall he likes it more and more as time goes on.. It's all in Spanish so it's challenging for sure.

He and Robin have been enjoying climbing the jocote tree in our yard, pictured above.

I had the idea before I came that all the kids would go to school, I would hire help, and I would get straight to work at the clinic, 5 days a week. Robin had other ideas (he ultimately did not want to go to school) and this month and a half have been just about settling in physically and then dealing with one thing after another with the kids so I have been really focusing on being a mom which is a good thing but not so much what I had in mind.

I have also been taking my spare moments in the wee hours and when I can leave the house (like now) to go deeply inward to refine my vision for my life and my work. It's an ongoing process and well worth the investment. I'm getting clearer that my work as a midwife and a mother is but one expression of a deeper desire to create a life of health, balance and service and that I have a contribution to make in creating a world where the well being of mother earth and all people, particularly women and children is put up as the highest priority.

I can't waste any more time despairing over all the issues coming to a head in this world. We are either going to sink or swim and I for one plan to get busy learning how to swim. I'm placing inner peace and the skillful means of outer peace as a high priority in my life in order to undo and heal generations of abuse and neglect. I want the intergenerational wounding to stop with me and the healing to begin here and now.

Here in San Marcos I have had the blessing of a lifetime in the opportunity to utilize the skills of the amazing array of world class body workers and healers that this place attracts.

I am seeking to embody the next stage of humanity's evolution--a living being who is consciously living in a state of divinity. I want my work in the world to be an expression of this consciousness instead of a reaction to all the trauma. I want to keep my head above the clouds with a clear vision far into the future.

All of this has taken up a lot of my focus so I keep asking myself--wasn't I supposed to be working with midwives? Isn't that why I came here? And yet I know that piece will come. I'm needing right now to get more grounded than I have ever been in my life.

I have had the opportunity to go into the clinic a few times to see people for whom the on-staff nurse wanted a second opinion- one woman with an infection, another with a suspected breech which wasn't, two others with transverse babies that I helped to turn, a 13 year old who had just started her menses, and a few others...

One woman is worth mentioning. She had a classical cesarean scar, which makes for a greatly increased risk for vaginal birth because of possible rupture. She had one homebirth after that but she didn't like how the midwife treated her and was seeking other options. She came to the clinic because she heard about me and wanted to know if I would attend her. At first I said I was available and then later that week thought about it a lot and talked to a friend. Her baby was also measuring 10 cm smaller than it should be and she was almost due. I realized I was in no way comfortable with the situation but my desire to be culturally sensitive prevented me from saying anything at the time. She came back again the next week to see me and I told her I thought she would be better off in the hospital and to my relief and surprise she agreed and said she had been thinking that herself. I felt bad telling her to go the hospital because I am not totally confident she will get the best care there and yet she really isn't appropriate for a home birth. She also told me that there are only two midwives left in her village while there used to be many more. They have all died and the two left are in their 80's. What will they do when these women pass?

There is a midwife in another village that is actively seeking to start a bonafied midwifery school with the help of a foreigner here. Apparently she has 30 women who want to sign up as soon as it is started. I have not met her yet but know that she is the main person I need to talk to before I start really "getting out there."

So I am learning about the local situation and culture, poco a poco, and know that my full on involvement will come soon enough.

The lifestyle here is very easy and simple which I am loving more than I can express. It is such a breath of fresh air to be in a place where material things are not dominating the landscape and people are not in a hurry. It's hard to explain because there's a way in which when you live inside of a culture you can't really see how it is affecting you. That's the value of traveling, as I see it. To get a wider perspective.

About the photos:

In one of these photos Eliot and Robin are being quetzals-notice the colorful long tail feathers. It's the national bird and the money is named after it. The bird is super colorful and has gorgeous super long tail feathers.

In another photo, Eliot and Robin are looking at a monkey that they were playing with at the nature preserve. The monkey got so friendly with Eliot that he actually stole his money pouch! (we got it back with a ladder and the help of taxi driver.)

Also pictured left are Josefa, Alicia (two new friends) and Robin in our house.

The bridge that the kids are standing on is a hanging bridge that runs through the nature preserve.

Here is a beautiful poem I came across recently that speaks to me:

...from Blessings by Julia Cameron

I accept the gift of my vulnerability...

I am willing to be vulnerable to love...

I am willing to reveal myself in all my human beauty and frailty...

I am willing to be as I am, both perfect and a work in progress...

I am willing to be unfinished, unpolished, in a state of change...

I am willing to accept myself as I am and I am willing to allow others to see me as I am...

I am willing to be unveiled and undefended...

I am willing to be seen and understood...

I am willing to view myself and others with compassion...

I am willing to view myself and others non-judgmentally...

I am willing to be the human being, complete in myself, without the need for accomplishment to justify my worth...

Blessing myself just as I am, I lovingly open to all I can be.