This was an exciting week to work in the garden. Oseas brought a variety of herbs from Panajachel to San Juan to be planted. We were eager to see the garden progress. In order to make room for the medicinal plants, we had to cut down a few coffee trees. We learned it would be a sin to cut down trees with a lot of berries, which we called “berrylicious trees” so we only chopped the trees that weren’t producing a lot of fruit. The remaining stumps were taking up herb space and needed to be removed before we could plant the herbs Oseas brought. All five of us worked all morning and averaged about 1 stump removal every 45 minutes. We reboosted our energy during a lunch break and after lunch we returned with our friends Fredy and Chema to continue stump removal. To our surprise, what took us 45 minutes only took them 6 minutes. We were lucky to have their help. Together we quickly removed all of the stumps so we could start planting our first set of plants.
Our arms were very tired by the end of the day but we saved up enough energy to construct books later that night. The books were information guides on the medicinal properties of plants. We planned to give the books out later in the week, so the locals could have information about herbs they may have in their own houses.
Later in the week we had a workshop with San Juan L.L. Community on medicinal plants. The information presented in the workshop was similar to the information in the books we made, but was more detailed and was also presented in Tzutijil, while our books were in Spanish. We advertised this event using posters around San Juan but attendance was lower than we hoped for. In response to this, we thought of different advertising strategies for our medical clinic on Thursday. We decided to set up a table at the library with samples of the natural remedies and an information sign. We had crowds of people eager to see our products and it was nice interacting with the people of San Juan.
We continue to hold English lessons on Tuesdays and Thursdays and they have been going well. It seems like we have higher attendance each week, because the kids bring more friends or cousins to learn. Our nature unit this week was especially exciting for the kids. Instead of writing words on the whiteboard or making flashcards, we hid labels in English on flowers, rocks, soil, etc. for the kids to discover. Their excitement towards the lesson was rewarding.
The health clinic took place in the Puesto de Salud. Although we had never noticed the building, everyone in San Juan knew the location. We were unsure what to expect from the community and the healers, but we were all very satisfied with the outcome. There was a constant flow of people into the health clinic and we found places where we could be the most helpful throughout the day. We took notes for the healers, greeted incoming patients to make them feel welcome while they waited, and we also advertised the event at the library.
At the clinic we had a bone setter, a midwife, and a healer. The three of them worked with adults and children. We saw a variety of sicknesses that we treated with different natural remedies .We saw some stomach aches treated with oil massages while others received prescriptions of mixed herbs that were made into tea. Although we did not make all of the products we gave out, we fully appreciated all the hard work that goes into making them. The herbs we planted in San Juan will soon be used for these kinds of natural remedies.