Centro Equitación Terapéutica de Tabasco, Mexico

3 december 2011 - Villahermosa, Mexico

 

Rianne in the world, I purposely named my blog… and for good reason! Because I didn’t have a clue what exactly I was going to do on my journey and where in the world I would end up.
The journey has brought me unexpectedly to Villahermosa, where I’ve been staying the past couple of weeks. And now I feel it’s time to move again, to a new place, a new project, new people, new children, new surroundings! I’m leaving tomorrow, Sunday evening, bussing it during the night to Mexico City (again! ;) ) and from there another hour to Tepoztlan.

But first, let me give you a little impression of the place and family with whom I’m was staying here!
Patricia is the Dutch lady I met spontaneously in a museum in Palenque. After a 5 minute talk, she invited me to come stay with her family and learn about horse therapy! Rafael is her husband and therapist of the centre. Alexandra (almost 5 years) is their daughter, although I’m still confused about where the Mexican genes went while shaping her appearance (not to say that I do notice some in her behavior ;) ). Gabi (Gabriela, 32y) and Mári (Maria, 21y) are the two Mexican girls who are ‘in training’ with Rafael. They learn how and give the therapies together with him. To form yourself a bit of an image with the rest of the story, check out:

Family life at Centro de Equitación Terapéutica de Tabasco: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1jJGmmqkPA

Equino Terapia – Horse (Equine) Therapy

“Manos arriba! Enfrente! Lados! Abajo!”, “Toma la pelota!” or “Cuentame los conos! 1 – 2 – 3 – …”

Horse therapy is fun, interesting, hard work, varied, challenging and rewarding! The spectrum of challenges the “jinetes” (clients) have is wide; the exercises and activities that you can do with them on/with the horses are extended; and the amount of things you have to pay attention to during the therapies are many.

Again I’ll start by giving you a little impression of the therapies with videos and a bunch of pictures (see the photo album under the “Foto’s” button at the top of page or at the bottom of this message):

Therapy Juan-Jose (12y, autism): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbeGTItPjqk

Horse therapy is a very versatile form of therapy, effective in treating all kinds of physical (also sensorial), emotional, cognitive (psychological) and social difficulties and disorders.
Just an impression of this, is the wide range of challenges our “jinetes” have: Autism (the whole spectrum), Cerebral Calsy (Cerebrale Parese), Syndrome of Down, mental retardation, Epilepsy, Syndrome of West, Parkinson, language problems and all kinds of co-morbid issues and/or problematic conduct.

The horses are a great tool in therapy for all these problems for many reasons. Among them are the vibrations of the horses: they have the ability to change our own brainwave patterns and stimulate neurons to work more effectively, rehabilitate themselves and make them connect (better) with each other. Another is that it can be easier for children to make contact with horses then with people, to build on trust, practice having control and working with ‘authority’ at the same time. Overall, it’s a great motivation for the children to work on themselves and with others, because they love riding!

A great example of progress stimulated by the therapy is that of the beautiful little lady Tamara (6 years old) with Cerebral Palsy (CP). CP literally means paralyzing (palsy) of the brains (cerebral), in which the paralyzing can exist in a small part of the brain up to a large part of the brain. CP manifests itself in posture- and movement disorders (spasms), balance disorders and movement unrest, oftentimes accompanied by mental retardation (since there is brain damage) and epilepsy/convulsions. In short, we see that the children have little control over their body parts. But we also see that it’s possible for them to regain control, little by little! The vibrations of the horses are (scientifically proofed to) improve flexibility, muscle strength, balance, a better posture, mobility and reaction time.

When Tamara started therapy, she wasn’t able to lift her head, sustain her neck in a normal position, lift nor balance her body, and hardly using her arms and legs in a functional way. Now, she is able to lift her neck and upper body, makes more use of her arms and legs (almost standing by herself!) and is able to keep her head more steady on her neck, which allows her to look more at people and throw them beautiful smiles :)

Therapy Tamara, working her neck, upper body and later also her legs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSy6GKfb8wA

What makes the therapy especially effective is Rafael’s personal manner of working with the children. The knowledge he gained through the years, mainly by his profession of masseur, includes awareness of the positioning of the meridians in the body. He uses the ‘energy’ or ‘pressure’ points to elicit certain (reflex) movements and gives little massages every now and then to relax the child or elicit other responses. I find it very interesting to learn and see in effect what this contributes to the therapies!

Before coming here, I think I’ve sat on a horse about 4 times in my life. I thought horses to be interesting, but never had a big passion for them, nór fear to be around or on them. So upon arriving here and getting all excited about the therapies, it was of course a good idea to learn how to ride these special amigos as well! I loved it from the first moment!

I don’t know what horseback riding classes normally look like, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t have one :D I just mounted Grio and hoppa! There we went! By taking moments to mount when possible, observing Rafael and Mari when riding and a rare comment from Rafael or three, I think I got the basics down :) After the first 3 days Rafael said: let’s go to La Palma (the little suburb of Villahermosa where we live)… by horse! I looked at him surprised and asked “you think I already can?”. “Yes, why not?” So there we went!
Unfortunately there were no more possibilities to leave the centre by horse again, but I absolutely love mounting, especially in canter/gallop, in our horse paddock (paardenbak). Even more fun were the times when I mounted together with Mari – we have two horses :)
I’ve also tried some therapy for myself, which is very relaxing I must say ;)

Día de los Muertos – Day of the Dead (Allerheiligen) – And the weirdness of Mexicans

Although Halloween is not celebrated that much, Día de los Muertos al the more so! In Mexico it’s even an National Holiday, taking place on November 1 (honoring of children and infants) and November 2 (honoring deceased adults). I had the opportunity to spend these days with Gabi and her family.

Although the origins of these traditions can be traced back to the indigenous cultures (e.g. the Aztecs, about 2500-3000 years ago), I found myself immersed in the Catholic way of celebration. This is the predominant type of religion in Mexico and throughout Central-America (people oftentimes just assume you’re Catholic, and normally it’s easiest to leave it this way ;) ).

On Día de los Muertos, family and friends gather to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. This often includes building private altars honoring the deceased with “ofrendas” (offerings) and going to the cemeteries to be with the souls of the departed. The idea is to encourage the souls to visit, so that they will hear the prayers and the comments of the living directed to them. With this as its ‘essence’, traditions can vary a lot from place to place.

Gabi’s family, specially her mom doña (“madam”) Celia, was very eager and excited to tell and show me all about their traditions. I found myself making “Pivipollo” (a delicious typical plate) within the first half hour, trying all kinds of food she kept coming out with for me and having interesting talks about the “alma” (soul) and “espiritu” (spirit). Later we went next door to visit Celia’s sister Irene. As had happened when I arrived at Celia’s place, I received a very hospitable welcome from Irene and her family. Immediately they pulled out pictures from all nooks and crannies (“hoeken en gaten”), to show me the rest of the family members and the relatives represented on their altar. Irene enthusiastically explained and showed me the different components on their very complete altar:

The Christian cross and an image of Virgen de Guadalupe (Virgin Mary, which can be found in pretty much every household, church, bar, restaurant, randomly in the streets, market etc.), pictures of the deceased, a glass of water for the souls (to lessen their thirst after their long way down from heaven), a bit of salt (to scare away the bad ghosts/spirits), orange Mexican Marigolds (“Flor de Muerto” – flower of the dead), sugar skulls (a common symbol of the holiday and typically used here in Mexico to decorate the altars), candles and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed (and sometimes even toys etc!).

As you can imagine, we spoke about Anouk a lot as well (if you don’t know who Anouk is, please check my previous blog). When I bought flowers for Celia, she immediately decided that these would be placed in their altar for Anouk. My dear late friend was also represented at our own altar (see the first two pictures in the photo album “Anouk”).

Celia and Irene also took me to the cemetery, where we admired the beautifully cleaned and decorated graves. Lots of flowers, pictures and candles! Although in a few parts of Mexico families spend the whole night beside the graves of their relatives, here in Tabasco people normally have a picnic there. This time is not only used to remember the departed loved ones, to celebrate them and tell (funny) stories about them, but also as an excellent opportunity to exchange the latest gossips :) Besides the bigger candles in glass, they burn “vela’s” (little thin candles). Tradition is that the family keeps these vela’s burning all day, and makes sure there’s always someone ‘sitting up’ with the souls of the departed while the vela’s burn (they take turns). As we walked over the cemetery, the ladies with me made disapproving comments about the vela’s that were left burning without any family around… this poor souls were thought to be “mal cuidado”, badly guarded.

There were still some families there, and Celia and Irene were happily (and without question ;) ) bringing me in contact with them… impressing the families with saying my picture of them would make it all the way to Holland, to show the people there about the beautiful traditions in Mexico (yes, they are quite proud people ;) ).

To top it off, I was also taken to a “Rezo” (“prayer”, rezar = to pray). This is a catholic tradition dedicated to remember and honor a deceased; to show them they’re still in the minds of the people staying behind and that their family is being supported. Everyone is invited to join in these two hours of prayers and songs, an event held 5 times spread out over the day. The most interesting part to me was that everyone gets food and a drink after the rezo. I thought it a beautiful idea to spend the time together, talk about life and remember the departed… but to my surprise the food was served in takeaway boxes with a big plastic cup of Coca Cola (also known as the “black water”) and the gathering was once again used to catch up with each other and exchange the latest gossips.

As faithfully Catholic and moderately conservative the family seemed, at night, when everyone gathered at Celia’s place, the story boxes opened (“historias de la cantina” – “pub” jokes) and what came out were almost purely sexual jokes… and particularly descriptive and quiet vulgar too! As I was the newcomer and ‘guest of the evening’, all stories were directed to me and it proved to be a great excuse for everyone to get out their best stories again (probably told many times before). Although I tried hard to understand all the jokes and laugh a bit at appropriate times, my head was exhausted from a long day of focusing on Spanish. I also don’t really like these kind of jokes anyway, so I was happy Rafael was able to “get us out” and back home after a while.

Because that’s a whole different topic… all these unwritten, unspoken courtesy rules! Especially here in Tabasco (as I've been told) and in other parts of Mexico, appearance and (superficial) politeness are very important to the people. Though varying by state and what ‘class’ (level of social economical welfare and education) of people you’re talking about, since the ‘class system’ is still very evident in the majority of the country. A telling example is that people oftentimes spend most money and work on the front of their house, in contrary to the other parts or interior.

Strangely enough, punctuality (as you probably know from the ‘stereotype’ of Mexicans most people have), does not seem to occur in most Mexican’s dictionaries. Though I would think such a concept in line with politeness (courtesy), it is not a commonly shared value. I stopped surprising myself bit by bit about the fact people are often late for therapies and still expecting to be ‘served’ as normally. And when they’re running late or when not coming at all, it’s most natural to not let anyone know about this. Even when they decide to quit therapy completely! Same goes for some employers. No little message or phone call, just no showing up while others are expecting you. As you can image, this happens only to a bigger extend when it’s not a formal appointment! The most crazy example so far was that of my first weekend here with the family:

The “compadres” (godparents/”co-parents”) invited us to a barbeque at their place that Sunday. With a joke, they changed the appointment and invited themselves into our home. They would come at 1 pm and bring the food. At around 4.30 pm that Sunday, while we were still waiting for our guests and hadn’t eaten anything for that reason, they showed up… without food and as if nothing strange had happened! Luckily we still had some food in the house. Rafael started preparing while the moms, me and the kids went swimming at the neighbors’. When coming back around dinner time, with dinner ready, the compadres decided they were tired and going home straight away… hungry as we were, we ate all the food ourselves!

Coming back to the courtesy rules: it’s absolutely not done to say anything about this to the people in question. “You might offend them” is the reason always presented when (to me seemingly) strange situations are dealt with in silence, a joke or a politely correct answer. For example, when someone is talking with you, you’re not really supposed to break off the conversation, even though you really have to leave! Let me tell you, it is quiet hard to get out of many conversations in a polite way, and oftentimes I just use my “foreignness” and “not knowingness” to excuse myself anyway ;) Of course people will understand when you really have to go somewhere, but it’s still a bit of an uncomfortable happening. As this culture is full of many paradoxes, it’s strangely enough also very common that people hardly ever really listen to each other in conversations. You can’t get out of them, but while in a conversation, people are constantly interrupting each other and a story about a topic hardly ever gets fully told.

Another example of this Mexican weirdness is when the neighbor shows up with her kids (which happened quiet some times), you can’t tell her you actually have many other things to do and it might be better to meet tomorrow… you just let them invite themselves into your home, feed them, give them drinks and entertain them until they go away… crazy!!

All this fear of offending people also causes and is caused by the (in my view) very indirect and dishonest/non-authentic way of communicating many people maintain here. There’s not a lot of real trust in one another, and with all that fuss about appearance and reputation, there’s always a lot of gossiping going on. All of this I’ve seen in Guatemala as well, so it was easier to understand. But still, the manners in which people are treating each other here was and is still strange and a bit sad to me, and makes me appreciate our manners back home even more! Working professionally with the lack of punctuality and notifying one another raises quiet some frustrations I must say. I see it a lot in Patricia, who still finds it hard to adjust to these habits of others (which I can imagine!).

The last paradox I’m seeing and will share with you now, is that, even though Mexicans are truly very hospitable, they also seem to be afraid of everything that is unfamiliar (cultural trait of xenophobia I think I’ll call it ;) ). I do want to add again, that it can make a big difference where you are in the country. The differences in e.g. culture, traditions and language within this country are not hard to imagine when you realize that Mexico is 47 times bigger than the Netherlands. Even its 31 states are oftentimes bigger than our cute little country! Internet also tells me there are up to 62 native (Indian) languages still spoken in addition to Spanish. The further up north you go, the more influence there is from the USA and the more wealthy, educated and open minded the people seem to get. Of course, like everywhere on this continent, it also makes a big difference if people are living in cities or in little countryside villages (where religion, traditions and certain beliefs are more conservatively preserved).

Anyhow, after the second day at Gabi’s family during Día de los Muertos, I was glad I could very politely escape another night of Spanish sex-jokes after some karaoke ;)

A new adventure, a new project!

And now it’s time to leave what they call “the city of two lies”. Villahermosa: it’s not a “villa” (village, it is indeed a city) and it’s not “hermosa” (which translates as “beautiful”). I’ll have to say I agree with this statement :)

Although I know I won’t buy my own “training horse” when being back home, I learned loads, will most likely go for some more mounting when possible and will definitely keep this special form of therapy in mind for referring when working with children in Holland. Now, after two months of only speaking Spanish (ok ok, and some Dutch at times), I’m also looking forward to give my head a break and turn a bit more to English again!

This will happen at the place I’m moving to tomorrow, Sunday evening! It’s called Tashirat, located in Tepoztlan, and is a “non-profit organization dedicated to the service of humanity” (founded in 1994 by an American lady). As quoted from the website: “In Tashirat we teach the fundamental tools to strengthen and balance oneself physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually…” More information can be found on: www.tashirat.com

I came to know about the project through Antares, a girl I met at the Vipassana silent retreat (see blog Mexico-Holland-Mexico). It then sounded very interesting, and when looking up more information during my stay here, I knew immediately this is the place where I want to go next!

Tashirat appears to me a beautiful and valuable initiative, to which I would I’d like to contribute by offering my services. It also seems to combine everything I’d love to see put into practice and learn myself:

Tashirat is a community that works on sustainable development, cultivation, focuses on healthy and balanced nutrition, they ‘are’ an orphanage and have a free school, and are in essence also an Ashram where they offer courses on spiritual subjects and nutrition. Everything is done in English and Spanish, with most children from the orphanage being almost bilingual.

To get a little peak at the project, I can recommend you this fun newsletter:

http://www.tashirat.com/tashirat-kids-newsletter-octobernovember-2011

So… that’s the info I have right now and furthermore… I don’t really have a clue yet what I’ll be doing there haha! On to the next adventure!

To end this long story (thank you for staying tuned all the way!) another exciting thing: I got invited by a Mexican friend to come and spend Christmas with him and his family! I know Christian from my time in Australia, 4 years ago, and am very happy I’m going to meet him again!

If everything works out with the project, I intend to stay there for the coming weeks. With taking a ‘Christmas holiday’ to visit my friend :) As I understand, there’s hardly any phone signal or internet at Tashirat, which is located about 5-10 minutes from the town of Tepoztlan. But don’t let this stop you from sending messages, I love love love them! It’ll only take a bit longer before I can answer them :)


My love to you all y muchos abrazos fuertes! (big big hugs!)

 

Foto’s

5 Reacties

  1. Conny:
    4 december 2011
    zoooooo dat was weer een geweldig (lang) verhaal! Prachtig die filmpjes en foto's ook Rianne. Veel plezier met het nieuwe project!
  2. Felice:
    4 december 2011
    Lieve Rianne, wat beleef je fantastische avonturen. Je laat je mooi leiden door je intuïtie, zo knap dat je nu weer een fijne plek hebt gevonden om te verblijven! Erg leuk ook om de filmpjes te zien, dan zijn we echt even daar. Heel veel liefs, ik mail je snel. Kus Felice
  3. Anne:
    4 december 2011
    Hey lieve Ri!
    Wat een heerlijk uitgebreid verslag weer, heb er van zitten smullen haha :)
    Wat heerlijk dat je nu weer de volgende stap gaat zetten, het klinkt in ieder geval erg goed, en ook zelfs een aders voor de kerst!!
    Geniet er van, heel veel!!
    dikke knuffels en een kus
    Ann
  4. Marloes:
    6 december 2011
    Mooi om al die cultuurverschillen zo te ontdekken:) Ik vond het ook heel leuk om erover te lezen.

    Je aankomende project klinkt heel echt als een heel leuk project, dus veel plezier alvast!
  5. Els Fuhring:
    19 december 2011
    Hallo Rianne,fijn om weer eens wat van je te horen. Je zoektocht is nog niet klaar, dus verder trekken maar!
    Kusje,tante Els