Week 4 Jueves

A huge relief today when we get Daisy weighed at the local hospital. She’s put on half a kilo in ten days. If she continues at this rate she will weigh as much as a baby elephant by the time she’s two.

There’s a lot of comfort in being able to put a little spot on the growth chart that takes her back onto the ‘normal’ scale for a child her age. She’s still not taking masses of formula, but clearly it’s enough just to tip her into a quicker growth rate.


We also make a visit to the local old people’s home, with people from the church who take round tea for them on a Thursday afternoon. It’s quite an experience. Whereas an old people’s home in the UK tends to be warm and stuffy, this place is open and cold, with rooms leading off what is basically an outside courtyard.

Mariet explains that it is unusual for an old person not to be looked after in the family, and it is a ‘shame’ for a family to put someone in an old people’s home, so the people here are essentially either abandoned or have no relatives.

It also becomes clear that there is no distinction here between homes for the mentally ill and old people’s homes. We meet Marie, from Chamula, who is clearly not that old, but also not that clear about what is going on. She still wears the traditional green ribbons in her black plaits that the women wear in Chamula, and talks about being abandoned by her family.

We meet a lady who is nearly 100, and blind. She is almost the only person in the home to have grey hair. You almost never see white or grey hair here – so I’m glad I got mine coloured before we came otherwise people would think I was ancient!

There seems to be little to do in the old people’s home other than attend chapel services or watch telly. I just hope they give them enough blankets when it gets really cold in the next few months. It’s funny that a culture which is so worried about children getting cold should be so unconcerned about the welfare of old people.

We celebrate Daisy’s weight gain by having a Chinese takeaway with Mariet and Enrique, which does not in any way resemble the sort of Chinese takeaway we have at home. It comes with a little packet of chillies in sweet and sour sauce and they seem to charge us extra for the take-away containers. This is Mexico, after all.