PEPPER PLOTS -CREEPY THINGS-ROYALTY

I spent most of my childhood days(when not at missionary school) romping around the mountain filled with pine trees, spaces of winding paths and trails, open windy patches and random spots of neatly hoed corn rows, hot chili pepper plots, and coffee groves dotting the country side.  One day gleefully sauntering through a pepper plot, the path ran right through it, I picked one and bit in to a very hot chili pepper.  No water and a bit far from home, I kept scraping my tongue with my sleeve.  I believe that is when and where I developed a distaste of the hot and spicy.

THE TEMAZCAL, Steam bath, used by the Indians for relieving tired muscles, etc. One Indian is kneeling by the fire place, the other is standing by the rock entrance to steam chamber

  The town center below and the cottage-like-huts with spirals of smoke also dotted the mountain side,

each one with a temascal, a type of sweat lodge, steam bath used by the indigenous Aztec and Totonoc people.  The entrance looking like an oven.  I found them dreadfully creepy and smelly. Built of rock and cement. You couldn’t stand in them and there is hardly room to sit and yet pregnant women enter them before and after delivery where they were attended by midwives.
"The mother perhaps lying on a straw mat on the dirt floor hut, other members of the family fast asleep on the other side.  Seated the midwife, whose only obstetric education  is that of folk lore and practiced experience. However she is confident of her methods.   They unearth the scissors and string,  Dry the infant with rags lying near by, the cord is cut and tied.  A few drops of lemon juice in the eyes and perhaps a few other gross things are done."  (A shorten, edited version from one of the nurses in a remote village, MIM Bulletin)

 

Becky, at 6 months

A far cry from my 1949 entrance at the Hospital, Latino Americano in Puebla city where one was pampered and Mother was allowed to stay ten days where she was treated like royalty as if she were at some resort.  Dad’s quote “…the hospital stay for Betty and Becky was fit for a queen.”

At the hospital with mother

  Dr Meadows, considered one of the best of doctors in the country, thought it best to keep young missionary mothers who were going out to remote villages some extra time to regain their strength.

Dad with Becky in Zapotitlan

One of the nurses trained at the hospital was Edith Van Reed. (Her story to come in future blog)  She was a very special nurse and a special friend to Dad and Mother those first few years in Mexico.LIVE AS TO BE MISSED: Edith Van Reed click here