A STORY TO TELL......

Well, I am half way home.  I have one foot in each culture, still speaking Spanish, using pesos, throwing the paper in the basket instead of flushing it down, but eating a (Mexican) Subway.    I have 4 hours in the airport in Mexico City following a beautiful flight on a sunny day up and over the green mounts of southern Mexico.

 Especially, following all the rains, the landscape is rich, lush, the verdant carpets of green rolling up the mountain and down again right into our laps.  The ride to San Cristobal in the combi was very pleasant, except for the severe aching in my right knee, and the inability to straighten it for 2 hours, without putting it across the legs of the little Tzeltal gentleman next to me.  He would have been horrified.  The ride to Tuxtla this morning in Pablo's truck was equally pleasant, with Pedro driving and ample room to stretch my leg!   The ride from San Cris is down, down, down to the capital, Tuxtla, a city of 440,000.   It is cold in San Cristobal, hot in Tuxtla.

I have time to reminisce again on my time here.  And the story I want to leave you with is about Antonia and Angel, an "elderly" couple, he 67 and she 63.   

They left their village, Huactemec in the jungle, near the Lacandon villages of Naha and Esperanza, at 1:00 in the morning.  They walked and made their way to the road where they connected with some sort of vehicle that took them to a main road, and on to the clinic in Ocosingo.   They arrived at 7 AM with a knock on the clinic door as Lidia and I were opening.  They are Christians, Presbyterians, even, and so had heard about the clinic, and wanted to come to

follow up on her "sugar".   They were dressed nicely, each carrying just a very small plastic bag.  She was barefoot, and later told me she didn't like to wear shoes because she trips and falls when she wears them.  They were very pleasant.  As we talked, she said she had not been feeling well, stomach, headache, bad vision, etc.  They had traveled a month before to a clinic in Palenque, only about 2 hours away from their home.  She had a blood test, and her sugar was very high.  No medicines were prescribed, and even if they were, they would not have been able to buy them.  

  Her blood sugar on this day was over 500, off the meter.  For those of you who do not know, normal is 80-100.   By rights, she should be comatose.  It had probably been this way for a very long time.  But the body, and the Tzeltal people, have a great ability to adjust.  Her body had adapted to this level of blood sugar, and she is still functioning, though weakened from all the damage the high sugar has done.   In the absence of the Doctor's counsel, I prayed and debated prescribing an anti diabetic  medication.  I certainly didn't want to cause more damage or perilous side effects from a rapid drop in her sugar.  In the end I decided to give her the medicine, using the lowest dose we had available.  

But for a little Pozole (a hard to digest corn drink), they had not eaten since the day before.  I fixed a little to-go bag, consisting of 2 apples, 2 platanos, a bit of cheese, crackers, and Glucerna.  Would you believe, Pablo,a diabetic, had Glucerna in his possession!  They were a gift from one of the Americans.

 

And so, we sent them on their way, with a prayer, medicine, a peec-neec, and instructions to return in 2 weeks to meet with the doctor.   They promised they would.  

There are so many stories like these in the hills of Chiapas.   These are what I think if when I am there and when I am home.  

Carolyn