On the road again...

I was talking with my sister last week telling her that I am so ‘agripada’. What is that? Gripe… the Spanish word for every cold, flu, or allergy symptom . I pretty much knew that my immune system was going to stall after traveling 12-13 hours every Friday and Saturday in October. The schedule kind of went like this… Friday morning. wake up at 6am, leave on the motorcycle taxi at 7:15, get to Santiago at 8:10, take a public car to the bus station, get on the 9am bus to Loma de Cabrera. Arrive at 12:30pm. Get off the bus and yell Restauracion until some random guy says over here. Load up in the car/truck/van that is going up the mountain and arrive in Restauracion at 1:30. Yes, that is 6 hours of travel!  Wake up at 6:30 am on Saturday morning, get to the corner by 7am to catch the bus going down the mountain and repeat the 6 hours of travel back home. So, just what would make me endure this travel schedule?

Me and my trusty motoconcho -Rafael, better known as Fe. 

I gave my word that I would help with a prenatal class back in May. So, four weeks ago I made the first trek from Baitoa to Restauracion, a small town just 10 minues from the Haitian border. That’s where I met these sweet ladies.  Some of them live in the rural countryside others come over the border for class.  After trying to take attendance on day one I realized that almost all of the ladies are illiterate, as they

looked up at me and asked would I mind writing their name for them.  Some spoke Spanish, but most spoke Creole. Wow, how in the world are we going to do a prenatal class.  We really had not anticipated that almost the entire class would be Haitian women. Honestly, I don’t know that they understood  more than a word  or two that was said.  What I do know is  that non-verbal communication is universal. Smiles, hugs, and true love and concern breaks every communication barrier. So we started out with about 12 women and by week four we were up to 21 women! Most kept coming back, some delivered along the way, some brought friends and Dr. Ricardo told me that they were understanding something be/c some started showing up in the hospital with the warning signs we talked about…. It hurts when I urinate, my baby isn’t moving, etc, etc.

So, yesterday I said goodbye as we wrapped up our last class. The ladies agreed to a group picture so we huddled up outside! Last night I reviewed the pic and I noticed the smallest thing. The ladies are smiling., Like really SMILING. If you have seen many pictures from the Caribbean these ladies don’t like to smile in pictures. Everyone is always so serious when they take a picture. It’s just the smallest, oddest detail, but to me it’s important. Sitting in this classroom, inside this church, learning about their babies and more about their bodies I hope these ladies felt safe, loved and cared for. Life for most of them is full of hard, difficult realities. We talked about rest after having a baby but for many of them they will be back out walking miles a day carrying tubs on their head, trying to sell flip flops, avocadoes or peanuts, anything to have a few pesos for dinner.  I can only pray and hope that the smile that brightens their face is reflective of having a few moments of rest on this hard journey of life.