View

10.3.07

Today I get to meet the 2 directors of the Center for Adolescents, which is a bit up the street from the mid-wife school. It's in a gorgeous building, overlooking the city, with a central fountain garden, dance hall and various huge offices and class rooms. the light strikes all with this soft protective glow and I am reminded of how the built environment affects us all. The wild blue air sweeps through the doors as I'm given a tour and pebbles crunch underfoot as we wander the grounds. I'm given the low-down on familiy planning in MX, which I haven't been aware of for a long time and it seems teh current administration has cut the budget, and yet is still inserting IUD's into unkowing women's wombs. For family size, catholicism and machismo, birth control is a difficult subject to broach, yet abortion easier to obtain. I'm hoping to help them find new ways to broach subject and tomorrow will finally get out into the field.

I love these mid-wive students, so eager and interested, palpating bellies and filling out minisculy printed forms, their clients perching primly on folding chairs in front of their desks as the supervising mid-wive directs the interview. I miss this field and working with women's issues.

More walking around town and a beer at dusk as I watch more tourists in the Jardin. The library is a lovely place where kids are doing their homework and a few gringos read trashy novels. A roasted chicken for dinner tastes nothing like the Whole Foods bird in a bag and a soft bed on a warm night is welcome.