Child Family Health Program Week 2

This week was another great one in Oaxaca! I got to go to a new clinic.  I have been going to Dr Margarita´s private clinic. She is a general doctor who sees everyone from babies to the elderly from all over Oaxaca and surrounding places.  Her clinic is about a 40 mintue walk from my house, so I've been able to see a different part of town. It is very small and it´s just her, she doesnt even have a nurse that helps her out.  As Ive say before, things are every different here healthcare wise.  For example, it was hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that she doesnt even use a computer. She has a type writer that she writes out orders and perscriptions on. Its really amazing. I have enjoyed working with her this week because she is very nice and since its just the two of us, I felt like she was much more receptive to me and helpful with my questions and showed me a lot of cool things.  She is a very good doctor who is nice to her patients and always takes the time to listen to them, which can be rare in some doctors. Tomorrow I head to a new physicans clinic who also incorporates traditional and alterantive healing therapies.  My medical cordinator Dr Tenorio, described her as ¨an angel¨, so I'm excited for this week.

I have started going to a Latin dance studio.  It cost 30 dollors for all the classes you want all month, for up to 5 hours every evening Monday through Friday (talk about a good deal).  My teacher is a dancer that has won all sorts of dance competitions here. He along with several male assitants are there to dance with us every night.  So I went 4 nights this week and have been having a blast.  Friday night I went back to La Candela, the best salsa dance place in town with live music to try out my dancing in real life and had lots of fun.  Saturday some friends and I went to Mercado Abastos, one of the biggest markets around.  We walked around for a while getting lost often. Its an insanely large, busy market.  Anything you could need was there, all fruits and veggies, herbs, meat, live animals, honey, clothes, shoes, dairy; the list does on and on.  I tried a new fruit called a granada, its this greenish yellow fruit that you open up and it has crunchy gray seeds with greenish slimy flesh all around it. Sounds kind of gross, but its sooo delicious, I think it might be my new favorite, and its the season, so I will be buying a lot more of them in the next few weeks.  I also tried a very traditinal drink called Tejate, that is made out of chocolate, cornmeal and sugar.  Sunday we took a bus to Milta a neighboring town that has more Zapotec ruins.  As we were walking towards the ruins, our guide from Monte Alban drove up next to us in his van and offered for us to join him.  So we walked the ruins with him and a nice group of elderly people from the US and Canada. He also took us to a near by village called Teotitlan. It's famous for its hand woven carpets, which is how most of the people who live there make there living.   We visited a weaving family who showed us the process of getting the wool ready and dying it with all natural sources and then how they weave it.  Some of the carpets were absolutly gorgeous, if I had money and a house I would buy one.  Even though the carpets seemed expensive, each medium size one takes one person about 8 months to complete working eight hours a day.  I also read that their standing prices only equal out to a little less then a dollor per hour.  Yet this village is relatively wealthy in comparison to other villages around the area.

I am still humming along with my Spanish, I practice a lot, but Im still far from good! The weather has been a lot warmer and lots of hot sun this week, which I love.  I am starting to get a lovely farmers tan, from all my walking around town. I have a week of more learning and dancing ahead of me

Until next time.......

THERESE