aaron goldman on tarahumara

Having just finished reading the excellent book "Born to Run", it brought back
my personal experiences in Copper canyon with the Tarahumara Indians.
My first venture was with a medical group that consisted of 2 nurses, 1
doctor,1 optometrist, 2 dentists and 3 volunteers that served as helpers of
which I was a member. Our first visit was to a remote village where as far as
we knew it was a first visit by outsiders to that community not on a map and
did not know what to expect. we arrived on Friday evening to find nearly 200
Tarahumaras waiting for us at a spot with no drinkable water and no electricity,
Fortunately we brought a generator (that required constant surveillance but
one of the volunteers was a sharpy who kept it running). We worked from
sunrise to sunset for 2 days. I took vitals, helped in the pharmacy handing
out prescriptions as dictated by the drs. Out of the 150 that we had time for,
there were zero cases of high blood pressure, zero with high pulse rates, 80
needing glasses (we used a trial and error method and handed out donated
glasses),120 needing worm pills (good for 30 days but then what), 75 needing
tooth repair, and 25 pregnant women. Infant mortality rates must be one of the
highest in the world. It was a terrible experience to watch a baby die in her
mother's arms because the child refused to breast feed. This woman had walked
20 miles to no avail. I conjecture that the children were so healthy and
outgoing was because they survived their early childhood. Most of the clients
hiked between 5 and 30 miles to come to our clinic. There was no change of
expression among the adults, even one man who had 4 teeth pulled. I did
succeed in getting a laugh when we passed out the 200 bandannas that we
brought. I had a heck of a time tying one on my head before one of the elderly
women came to my rescue, which met with laughter and applause.
Our second visit was to a village of about 1000 but inhabited by mostly
Mexicans. We did not see a single Tarahumara that first day but the second day
there were no Mexicans present and we served roughly half of the Tarahumaras
that showed up. The results were similar.
My second series of visits was to help finish an orphanage built adjacent to a
one room elementary grade school house. The mexican government provided a
school house with a basketball court in various locations in Copper canyon
strictly for the taras. A group from Holland built the foundations for the
orphanage and left a youg woman in her early 20's and her boy friend to spend
one year to finish the job. She knew zilch about carpentry but got help from
some Tarahumaras who helped build a second story, a kitchen, and a nurse's
office. A nurse would make a visit once a week but had no running water or
electricity. There were 20 upstairs rooms plus 2 closets and 2 bathrooms that
needed doors. This required an expert carpenter and my friend and excellent
runner,Dale Goering managed to do the fitting during our weekly stay. There
were eight of us who installed plumbing,painted, put in walls, etc. etc.The
idea for the building came from a neighbor who had 9 orphans living with him
and his wife. He was my age(72 at the time)and recognized as a hero because he
kicked the ball 200 miles over a 40 hour span. Someone told him of my 200
mile run at ATY and when we met he gave me a hug that I will never forget
because Tarahumara do not show emotions much less a stranger. We got along
well as I ate the Tarahumara food (by necessity). A subsequent trip finished
the project when we installed electricity, pumped in water, and got the place
in shape. An opening ceremony that I could not attend but was attended by
the Governor of Chihuahua province took place 2 years ago.
One big highlight for me was to run with a Tarahumara. There was a woman who
lived in a very nice home(relatively speaking)nearby who spent 6 months in the
US learning medicine. She had no prior education and was sent by the Mexican
government to give medical help to the needy. She spoke no English but somehow
we communicated and she told me to show up at 6am the next morning
to go with a runner who knew the trails. It turned out to be a 12 year old
boy whose name was also Arun. We went on a wonderful 2 hour run through the
mountain and he was very kind to keep me in sight the whole time. Afterwards
we treated him to a special breakfast of bacon and eggs that he really enjoyed.
One more note re McDougall's book. When Caballo(aka Micah True) had his
marital difficulties and went to Eastern Maui he hooked up with a guy named
Smitty who got him into running. Turns out that Smitty was a running colleague
of mine in Las Vegas,NV in the early seventies. Smitty never owned a car and
ran from Vegas to Los Angeles to do the Culver City Marathon and then ran
back. He owned a bike but every time I saw him with his bike he was running
along pushing it. He died in Maui , living like a hermit but kept running.
Aaron Goldman