Making it all work

Monday was a day of meeting with the Doctors and finding out what they are comfortable with.  They are both very trusting of our midwife skills and open to having us practice with little supervision.  They are not really concerned about being sued or loosing their license.  It doesn't happen very often here in Oaxaca and a Dr. has to do something very heinous to loose their license.

So, we communicated with halting English and Spanish, a translator and the google translator.  We accomplished what we needed to, made a list of things to do before Wednesday and we will meet again on Wednesday.

Today we are working on our transport options.  As the birth rooms are upstairs, we are going into town to look for a stretcher to use to get a mama down to a waiting vehicle.  The stairs are narrow and long, but the doorway seems to be large enough.  We'll get the stretcher, put me on it, and then have the girls try to navigate it down the stairs.  We may need to move the whole birth center down stairs.  This would be really hard, as they have set it up so beautifully as it is.  Still, the moto I encouraged them to consider is be prepared for the worst, and hope for the best.

We got the protocols for Casa Compasiva printed off finally and they are ready for the Dr.s to go over them.  I copied my Montana protocols and Oaxacaized them as much as I understood. I am sure they will need to be revised further as time goes on.

The sunsets are very beautiful.  Maybe because of all the dust.  It is easy to look at the ruins on the opposite side of the hills and look at the sky and think what it was like a thousand years ago, when the Indians were living here and no one else.  The sunset was the same.  The wind, ever present in some form, the cactus and scrub brush the hills, the dirt. All that was the same.

I walked 2 kilometers in the fast approaching dusk last night, getting to the Quezada's home just as it was dark.  The city comes alive at this time, instead of closing up.  All the shop doors are open and people are walking along the roads.  The road to the Quezada's is dirt, of course, with deep ridges from last years heavy rains.  The rains will start again in another month.  It is pure mud then, I am sure, as the ground is silty.  Actually it is a sandy silt mix with lots of rocks popping up.

The birds are chattering excitedly as the morning sun is just about to peep over the mountain.  They roost in the eves under my window. The males are pretty red birds that if you are quick, you can see them.  I have only successfully captured one on camera from a distance.  If you walk by, they fly out and scatter to the nearby trees. They are about the size of sparrows.   The larger white birds with spindly legs are are cow-poop pickers.  They are actually very pretty and look like something you'd find on the coast.