Work Day in Lemoa

Today we had a work day. We cleaned out the pharmacy, our boxes, counted recently obtained medicines, labeled medicines.........whatever needed to be done.

Here Lisa is going through her set of medicines.

Josefina counting and going through her medicines.

It was the last time of the year that we would all be together as a team. Kemmel went and got us pizza and it was very good! After we killed the pizza, Lisa brought out desert which was cheese cake........now that was something!!! Thank you, Lisa and Kemmel!

We finished up for the day. I rode to Chichi with Glenn and Neva. Then I went shopping for some rings to send to a friend.

Within 30 minutes they had closed the road back to my house for a celebration. They were playing music in the street, the street was roped off and the crowd was gathering. There were about 30 costumed people dancing in the street. This guy really caught my attention!!

This good boy was dancing around with his badges on his vest.

This was one of the animals. It was quite a gathering!

We have three more clinics for the year and I will keep you posted..........then we are headed for The States!

Highland ABC Celebration!!!

What a day!!! We had a great celebration!! This was the first time we had the ABC Celebration here in the highlands. Our ABC Children are in 8 communities and there are 274 children in the program. We had 800 people in attendance today and I think everyone really enjoyed the day of celebration!

The guys put up tarps to provide shade for the crowd.

Kemmel welcomes everyone and gives some direction for the day.

Voces Acappella sang for us toady. It is always a special treat when they are with us.

I took so many photos, it is hard to select ones to post. There were prizes awarded for first, second and third places. Those photos will be posted in a newsletter that will come out later.

Even with all of the activities taking place, some children could not resist the pool.......no matter what color the water was!

There was soccer and basketball games going on. It was fascinating that these girls can play basketball in high-heels........and I mean, HIGH-HEELS!

This photo is very special to me. Neva had bonded with some of the girls from the Xejox area and then wanted a photo with them. This is the area that South Fork visited for the first time with us in 2007. Now, they have the ABC program! That story is a success!

We had many vendors through the day. Guys were selling choco-bananas, ice cream, peanuts and some ladies set up small stores to sell their goods. One guys stopped to watch the basketball game and decided to dip out some of his ice cream for himself and take a break to watch!

Lunch was provided, which was pepian chicken, rice and tortillas.

It was nice to see each community enjoying the day together while also enjoying the fellowship of the other communities.

We look forward to the ABC Celebration of 2010. I think it will be even bigger and better!

Clinic in Mactzul I

Today we had clinic in Mactzul V. It was a good clinic in many ways.

This is Juan Rafael. I introduced him a few weeks ago when he was in our educational class. Here is he is checking in one of the first patients of the day. He will return to school in early January and we wish him the best of luck with his classes!

We had 10 patients. One patient that returned was a baby that Lisa and Neva has seen in a previous clinic. The baby appears to be very healthy and is gaining weight! There is a great photo of the baby and Lisa on Neva's blog at http://www.berkeygn.blogspot.com/ There is nothing more exciting than to see a patient doing well!

This baby kept his mother busy during clinic. Maybe that is why he had the colorful hat on.......she could not lose him while he crawled all over. After he found someone to open his bag of chips, he ate them and then continued with his activities.

After clinic we went to Martina's home for lunch. We had a special invitation because there is going to be a dinner later in the month and we will already be in The States with our families so we joined Martina and her family today.

We had a wonderful meal of chicken soup, a special chili and hot tortillas. You may recognize Martina in the front, wearing back and white. She does look different than when she is in her scrub top........isn't that a common comment? "You look so different than when you are wearing scrubs.......I didn't recognize you!"

Her mother, Manuela, is in front of Kemmel. Her dad, Miguel, is wearing the green shirt to Kemmel's left.

Sometimes, people ask questions like, "How well do you really fit in, in Guatemala?" Well, when you are invited to eat with a family as we were today, when they tell you how comfortable they are with you in their home and that you are welcomed at any time.........you will understand. We pray that God blesses their home in the year to come, with material things but even more importantly with spiritual blessings.

ABC check-up in Mactzul V

This morning all of us met at Mactzul V to have a check-up of all the ABC children in the area. We saw 65 children. We only missed one and that was due to illness.

The health promoters checked in each family and then Glenn and Neva did the weights and the heights of each child. We were encouraged and also excited that all of the children had gained weight. We were equally excited to find that 100% had passed the year of school and will move on to the next grade.

These are the children of Tomas, our health promoter.

There is much more information and photos on the day. Please see Lisa's and Kemmel's blog at www.kemmelandlisa.blogspot.com/ and also Glenn and Neva's blog at www.berkeygn.blogspot.com/.

It was a very exciting day and we are thankful that the ABC program is successful. Thank you to all that participate, knowing that you are blessing the life of a child physically and also spiritually.

If you have not heard of the program and want to hear more, please email me at, fscubarn@aol.com. I will be happy to send you more information.

Thursday........good day!

This morning I was at home working on the educational plan for 2010. I think the possibilities are exciting. Our Health Care Promoters will learn much more and then eventually they will be teaching others to teach the information. The knowledge will spread and the people will be healthier physically and we also include spiritual teachings.

Lisa, Glenn and Neva had 28 patients at the clinic so I went to help them. There were several regular patients that came. The young man from Mactzul VI came that we saw last week. He looked like a lot different and it was for the better! He could walk and he actually was smiling! He still has a way to go but he will slowly get stronger.

Juan and I went to visit Armando. He is getting stronger but still needs to use his walker. They are doing some construction in the house and he told us that he is able to do a little of the work. When I first met him, he would not have been able to do this. It is nice to see him somewhat stronger.

This is Armando's wife and baby. The baby is one month old.

Smile for your first photo!!

So, it was a great day. It is good to patients progress and do well.

We had a patient at the clinic today that had stomach problems. I noticed that she was costumbre but I invited her to go to worship with me on Sunday. When I asked her, she said, "No I am costumbre." I told her that she was still invited. I wrote my number down for her and I told her I would meet her on Sunday if she called. I pray that she will call me..........she speaks primarily K'iche' so this could be interesting.

Tomorrow we are off to Mactzul V to check out the ABC Children.

Tuesday in Lemoa

We all met in Lemoa today for education/ work day. Lisa and I talked about education for 2010.

The guys started painting the clinic and then we joined in.

Tomas painting away!!

Marcos and Juan painting.

Manuel painting.

Lisa trimming out the doors.

The clinic looked much better and we got quite a lot done for the day.

Monday in Clinic

We had a busy clinic with 32 medical patients. Several of the first were babies that are being evaluated for cleft lip and palate repairs in February.

This is Amelia, who if she returns with good lab work, will have her lip repaired in February. Josefina checking out Amelia.

We get a slight smile for the camera :)

We have been lucky for the last few weeks to have Aury working with us while she is on her holiday break from school. She has now completed her first year of dental school in Guatemala City and we are very excited for her!

Below is Maury, Aury and Martina. Maury was our first dental assistant. She is now working as an office assistant. Aury is now in Dental school. Martina is now our dental assistant.

It was a busy day but a good one.