Fotografias de la clinica mobil

Today we had "mobile clinic," where we actually went and did a clinic out in the community. This one was at the house/clinic of Dona Anna, a local midwife who delivers pretty much every baby in her town of mostly indigenous Mayans.

Unfortunately, the Blogger app that I have right now will only let me post picture en masse (rather than one at a time so I can write a little about each one). If anyone knows of a better one, please let me know! Anyway, the last picture is of a sauna, which Mayan women will traditionally use sometimes when they're pregnant and definitely following delivery to cleanse themselves. I'm told this tradition dates back a very long time. The first picture is of the beautiful, colorful, hand-woven and embroidered clothing that the indigenous women wear. The blouse is called a huipil. The skirt is a large amount of very warm, tightly woven fabric that is tight at the waist with a belt. They often wear a colorful apron over this.

The pieces of cloth on the head are to keep sun out and to pad things that are carried on the head. I found out that the reason for head-carrying is that it allows you to carry things that are too heavy to carry with your arms or back alone. Before placing something on their heads, indigenous women will twist the fabric and coil it on their heads as a padding.