PASO DE OVEJAS
By Delbert Blickenstaff 

Paso de Ovejas (pass of the sheep) is the name of a town of about three thousand people in southern Mexico, between Mexico City and Vera Cruz.  The American Friends Service Committee, Quakers, developed a public health work camp in the surrounding area doing malaria and hookworm control.  I became involved in the project in 1942, spending five ½ months in Mexico. 

My twin brother, Bob, went down first, and then Glen Fisher and I went two weeks later to join a group of about twelve workers.  We lived in a house in the center of town situated along a cobblestone road that Cortez built when his army marched through the area.  Our project directors were Paul and Jean Johnson, the only married people in the group.  All the rest were single men.  One was a doctor who taught us how to make slides with a drop of blood which he would examine and look for malaria parasites. 

Most of our time was spent digging ditches to drain swamps where mosquitos bred.  Also we built some privies to help with hookworm control.  Many people went barefoot and would pick up hookworms through their feet.  One day I was standing along the side of a ditch when I suddenly felt a lot of stings on my legs.  I looked down and saw that I was standing on an ant hill and the ants were running up and down inside my jeans.  I had to take them off and turn them inside out to get rid of the ants.  I was more careful after that. 

Occasionally we would go to Vera Cruz to shop and to go swimming in the Gulf of Mexico.  We traveled in a large van, probably a Dodge, that had a stick shift and had to be double clutched when shifting from one gear to another.  I was one of the few fellows who could accomplish this with a minimum of grinding.  Also we would visit our Spanish friend whom we called Mama Benito.  Our favorite meal at her house was aroz con pollo, rice and chicken.  Some years later Mama Benito and her daughter came to visit us when we lived in Chicago. 

I still remember some of the songs that we sang in Mexico: “Cielito Lindo,” “Solamente Una Vez,” “Jailisco,” “La Cucaracha,” etc.  One time we went to a party where there was a lot of dancing.  I finally used my most proper Spanish and asked a girl to dance with me, saying “Quiere usted bailar?” (do you want to dance?)  She said “no,” and I started to walk away.  Some man, maybe her father, grabbed her arm and almost flung her at me, forcing her to dance with me.  It wasn’t much fun since she had already told me that she didn’t want to. 

Every night we slept under mosquito nets to protect us from malaria, and generally we stayed healthy.  However after we returned my brother Bob found that he had been infected with malaria, and he had a recurrence.  I tried to make a joke of his trouble by telling that he sneaked out at night to visit the Mexican girls.  Some people didn’t appreciate my attempt at humor. 

We made many friends in Paso de Ovejas, and I would like to go back to see if our house still stands on the cobblestone road.  Adios. 

Delbert Blickenstaff, M.D.