December 27th: Week 9
This week was incredibly slow. We were only open Monday-Wednesday as Christmas Eve and Day were Thursday and Friday. We had very few patients as people were traveling or preparing for the holidays.
Nearly every baby up until about 6 months wears on this island wears a red beaded bracelet. I have asked a few mothers what the bracelet means and they say something like “to keep them safe.” This made no sense to me so finally I asked Mario. She said he had been curios too as it is not a tradition on the mainland. He explained basically wearing the red bracelet protects infants from “mal ojo,” or “the bad eye.” In this superstition, if a baby is looked at the wrong way in the first few months of life they may get sick or die. I suppose the “mal ojo” concept gives people a something to blame for infant mortality.
Infants do not receive names normally until a month or two, or sometimes five. I wonder if this practice stems from a hope to not get too attached to a baby who statistically may not survive. If the baby does not yet have a name, maybe it is not considered a thriving person yet, and therefore not as sad if it dies. Or maybe they are just lazy namers.
