Embarazos Adolescentes

Disclaimer: Once again, this entry is not intended to ridicule or devalue people's lived experiences. I apologize in advance if it may seem that way.

Going back to ampliar the list of twenty things you're approximately 1,000 times more likely to see here in the D.R., I've realized once again how trivial and not necessarily deserving of their own blog post some of those things are.

However, teenage mamas definitely fit the bill.

It's something that struck me, slapped me squarely across the face within my first week here. Seeing girls that couldn't be any older than 13 or 14 walking down the street, huge with child. And after having conducted ten interviews in El Fracatán, and having personally met some women who aren't much older than me who have four, five, six kids, it's become real and profoundly disturbing.

On Thursday, I talked to a woman named Yajaira who is 23, has five youngins, the oldest of whom is ten years old.

Do the math.

Two important questions I ask in my interview are:

- How many kids do you have, what are their names, and how old are they?

At this point I'm normally just concerned with getting their names spelled right ('cause they tend to be rather...imaginative), and I'm not thinking too hard about how old they are and what that means for their poor mother.

- How old were you when you had your first kid?

Upon asking Yajaira this question, she replied, matter-of-factly, "Trece". Trece = thirteen. I reply, "¿Trece?", and she responds, matter-of-factly, "Sí, trece".

My body language said, "Well, moving on now..."