Women, Life and Work in the Desert

Over the past two weeks I have been alone at the healing centre while the healer that I came to aprentice with was off on a spritual pilgrimage. I have been interiewing the women of the nearby town about their lives, their health and their knowledge and relationship to traditional medicines.

I have spent many hours talking with several wonderful women about the tranquil but challenging life in the desert. Most of the women feel that they are very healthy because life is very relaxed and peaceful but say that is is very hard to make ends meet, even for those who have a small piece of landwhere they can plant some corn or have some goats or chickens. The lack of rain makes it a challenge to grow anything at times.

The lack of jobs and any type of employment means that those who do not have a little piece of land with an animal or two, often fed with what we in Canada would put in the compost bin, are truly living by the Spirit, as one resident told me. Living by the grace nd the works of the Holy Spirit. Doing casual labour when it is available, working in the maquiladoras when they are open, living from the money they make from the tourists who visit the area, many coming as apiritual tourists, as I will discuss in a later entry.

It is a precarious life for many. Those who are married and have grown or growing children can count on several sources of income as little as each person may bring in. The single women with children are the ones who really live by the Spirit. One women I talked with had three daughters with three different fathers, none of whom had ever acknowledged or supported their offspring. The mother is in her late forties and when she was pregnant with the first child was told by her mother that she had to fend for herself and take responsibility for what she had done. That was some 28 years ago, and now 3 daughters and 3 grandchildren later, she is still living by the spirit.. doing whatever it takes to support her children and the one grandson who lives with her.

Employment is what this town needs most several women have told me. It is important for the men, but many men go to other towns or `go to the other side`, ie to the United States, to look for a better life, but many of the young single women who do nt have relatives to stay with in other towns or cities are afraid to venture off to the big cities by themselves, to pay rent and be vulnerable to assault and loneliness. It is difficult at times to rely on the Spirit.

Lessons Learned: 1) In some places a decent job is a luxury, 2) living by the spirit should be a choice not a necessity, 3) Some things chang but in some places many things remain the same. The lives of women in the desert fo rmany remain as they have been for many years...

Stay Tuned. Staywell and walk with Spirit, in Beauty and Truth, Spirit Traveller