Rain.....Rain.....Rain........

Well, if you have seen the news, you know we have had a lot of rain! We are entering our rainy season but the storm Alma, which later was changed to Arthur when it passed over Nicargua, has brought us more! Many parts of Guatemala have experienced mudslides and I have read where a few places have been declared a disaster. We will try and stay as dry as we can.

We all met at Clinica Caris this morning and loaded the trucks (in the rain) sang a song (in the rain) and then prayed for safe travels and good clinics.........then headed out in the rain.

Gaspar, Juan and I had an educational day so I helped prepare them for their next exam. I think they will do well :)

After our class, I walked to the hospital to check on our little patient, Carlos. They told me he was in bed 5 but when I got to the pediatric unit there was a different patient in that bed. I was confused and then another visitor started talking to me so I thought maybe she knew Carlos......well, she did not and she was complaining her baby was not getting good care. I apologized and told her I did not work there and she needed to talk to the nurse.

I went back out to see if I could get another bed number but I could not find anyone. This lady was still running around trying to find someone to help her baby. I can't express how terrible a helpless feeling is........sometimes it is so bad...........I would never just walk away at home but this is so different. It is not my hospital.....then I saw one of the staff members go for what looked like their emergency cart.

I returned to the information desk to see if anyone had returned.....nope......so then I returned back to pediatrics and saw 4 doctors or nurses over this baby's crib. Other family members were trying to calm the lady..............it was not a pleasant environment and there was nothing I could do.........very frustrating.

So, home for the evening. When Tomas returned the truck, I practiced my K'iche' on him.
I asked him where he was going and who was in his house. I got so excited he could understand me. Of course, the guys are so nice they would never tell me how bad I really sound.

Ok, we are headed out to different clinics tomorrow. Josefina and Marcos will head to San Jorge and our team will head for Mactzul VI. Our clinic on Friday has been cancelled due to the rain and the mud in that area. We will come up with a different plan for the day.