Where are the patients?? They are baking bread!

Gaspar, Juan, Martina, Marcos and I headed to Chutzurob this morning. Usually there are patients waiting outside for us but today it looked different. When we asked where the patients were, we were told everyone in the community is baking bread for Semana Santa next week. It is their holy week and it is full of activities and food........

We did have ten medical patients and one dental patients. I enjoyed the day because most of the patients but did not have a place of worship or they were listed as costumbre. These are opportunities that we need to take advantage of. When people are sick or hurting, it is a time that Christians can bolding proclaim the love of Christ and God's desire for a relationship with them. We invited many of the patients to worship with The Church in Chutzurob and the members there will continue to pray and extend their hand of love.

After the patients were seen, some of us hiked to a small store for something to drink........as you can see, the store sold several Cokes.



Tonight Kemmel, Lisa and I will have dinner with Jane who started Evelyn's Baskets of Love and Life. She arrived in Guatemala yesterday and has already connected with some babies that have needs. Her photo and email is on the front of the blog if you are interested in contacting her. She brings baskets for babies who are born with cleft lips and palates. She educates the mothers on the needs of these children so they can get the proper nutrition that they need for surgery.

Tiffany's thoughts........

I have been wanting to share this with you. It was written by a nurse anesthetist who was recently down for a surgical clinic. Her names is Tiffany and this was her second trip to Guatemala to participate in a surgical clinic. I enjoyed reading her thoughts and hope you will too..........I also look forward to her next trip down as I am sure she is planning one :)

Friends & Family,
Well what you do say when you have been smack dab in the center of God's work? It is just amazing!!!! For those of you who were thinking of me and praying for me while I was in Guatemala, I am eternally grateful. Everyone on the team and the patients felt your prayers. We were able to do about 40 surgical cases - about 1/3 kids plastic surgery (cleft lips and palates) and the rest gynecological surgery (hysterectomys etc). With this being my second time there, this trip wasn't as "shocking" as my first, but yet more heart wrenching. I love these people. Even though I am back here physically, my heart is still there. And I find myself trying to manipulate schedules to get back there quickly.

For fun, here's a list of "Ten Things Gleaned from Guatemala."

1. God is just as busy in Hendersonville as He is in Guatemala! I am just too distracted when I am home to see it!!!
2. Guatamala is all four seasons in one place, you just need to drive around a little.
3. God is bigger than a blood bank! We had a bit of a scare with a patient that had some post-operative bleeding. She probably lost half her blood volume. I remember thinking, "Good Lord, we don't have access to ANY blood products!" Well that same Good Lord made it possible to give her back 300 ml of her own blood and miraculously provided us with some albumin to give her. The patient did exceptionally well. It was a total God-thing.
4. Mission trips are even more fun with a dear friend. Thank you Lorie for being a good roomate, travel buddy, precious friend, and sister in the Lord.
5. DOLOR is pain in spanish. DOLAR is money. Big difference! I know those sweet patients think I am such a goober with my country accent spanish as I go around inadvertently asking for money while trying to assess for postoperative pain in the recovery area!
6. I have now come in contact with some of the most grateful humans on the planet. I was putting a spinal block in one of my patients this week and when I laid her back down, she was crying. The spinal had gone right in, so I was shocked to see her reaction. "Perdone, Senoirita, no tiengo meida …" In my poor broken spanish, I told her I was so sorry for hurting her. She said that she was not crying tears of pain but tears of joy because she was so thankful for all of us and what we were doing for her. WOW.
7. Latex grows on trees. It's not man -made, but I am sure that you already knew that.
8. I am the most selfish person I know! This sobering realization is all over me as I drive down the road in my car with my seat warmer on and drinking a smoothie. My patients are back there with a dirt floor, tarp roof, no running water, and possibly hungry. Yet they are very, very happy.
9. God's love and peace truly does surpass all understanding. And, it transcends all language and land barriers.
10. Take a mission trip - "you'll live right for one week out of the year, so you can live better the other 51." (not my quote, but Scott's- isn't that good?).

Clinic in Chuisiquel

It was an early day for all of us........especially Manuel and Tomas who drove to pick us up this morning. We left Chichi at 0530 and left Santa Cruz at 0600. Our travel time was quicker than in January since we did not have to ask directions or back track some of the roads.

This is Emily and Brittany before we started the clinic. The view was not as clear as it was last time but it is still pretty and very peaceful. We began with a short devotional led by Fransisco, Anastacia and Tomas that went with us.

Fransisco translated K'iche' for me while Anastacia and Tomas prayed with the patients and shared scriptures with them.

I want you to meet two friends that Josefina made today........Maria and Maria.

We had 23 patients today and it was a good clinic.

After we had seen all of the patients, they wanted us to visit a nearby spring. The owner of the land paid Q205 about 25 years ago for several acres. Someone is wanting to buy the land from him now and is offing him Q250,00. He says that he will not sell. He says the spring provides sufficient water to five homes who are Christians. The two black lines on the right side of the photo are hoses that carry the water to these houses and are held down by the rock..........amazing. The owner of the land wanted us to thank God providing this area with water.....something that they realize is a great blessing. A prayer of thanksgiving was offered.

You have heard my stories about mounting the P.A. system on the trucks and wiring them to the car battery to announce our clinics. Today, a car battery provided power to the P.A. system in the church building or the house of prayer.


We arrived back in Santa Cruz about 5pm and it was a good day. Tomorrow Emily and Brittany will return to Antigua with Lisa and Kemmel and then return to The States on Saturday. We enjoyed having them with us for what seemed to be a very fast week. We wish them the best in their studies and hope they will return to visit again.

Emily and Brittany meet Mactzul III

I picked up Emily and Brittany and then we drove to pick up Gaspar and Juan. I was disappointed in the clinic today due to not many patients. We did not hear of any special events which often prevents us from having patients but there have been more free clinics in the area.

Brittany offered to take vital signs so she is checking this lady in before her consult.

These ladies prepared our lunch. We walked over to visit and I took them some photos that I had printed for them. Our lunch consisted of fried chicken, salad, rice, tortillas and a lemon drink.
Emily has some new friends. Francisca is the older girl and the students from ACU will remember her. Her face continues to heal and she seems much happier.

You can't find any child more precious.

After clinic I needed to go to Santa Cruz to print more photos. Emily and Brittany went along for the ride. We got the photos done and enjoyed some icecream.........delicious.........a trip to Guatemala without visiting Sarita's would be a sad trip.

Tomorrow we will leave Chichi at 0530 to arrive in Chuisiquel around 0830. We will take two trucks and some church members from this area. We should have a great clinic.

Educational day for the promoters

OK, before I tell you about our class today, please identify what you think this drink is and the answer will follow...... Today we had the nutritional class for the promoters. We had 20 people in the class and it was very interactive. We think that everyone enjoyed it and more important, they learned something.

We started the morning with Juan leading some singing and Gaspar reading some verses from Isaiah. We had a special prayer for a previous MET student, Brett, who returned 2 weeks ago with ACU. His brother is now in the hospital and we wanted to offer a special prayer for his healing and for the comfort of his family members.

Josefina started by talking about the different food groups and having a balanced diet.

She then divided the class into three sections and each group had several photos of foods. They needed to identify the food and then classify it as fruit, vegetable, protein or carbohydrate. We just needed to make sure the class understood the differences in food groups. We found out that this discussion was very important for them to have.


This is one group discussing their photos.

Here is another group debating over what are fruits and what are vegetables.

This group seemed to have a better understanding and they moved through their photos quickly.

We think that everyone enjoyed the class. There was a lot of interaction and many questions.

The above photo was the only one that the students could not identify. No one realized it was coffee.............they thought it was Brahva, a very popular beer here in Guatemala. It was a few minutes before everyone regained their composure so Josefina could continue the class.

For lunch we had chicken, rice, steamed potatoes and tortillas...........a very flavorful meal but also a very unbalanced meal...........one that gave us more opportunity to teach.

Tomorrow we will have clinic in Mactzul III and hopefully some patients will return with their lab work.

Update on events

Where did I leave off?? I did not have internet for 2 days so I am a little behind.

On Saturday we had clinic in Mactzul I with 21 medical patients and 2 patients for dental cleaning. Lindsey and Camilo helped and unfortunately it was their last clinic with us......and ironically, Mactzul was their first clinic with us.

After we had loaded the truck, there was one chair left. Camillo tossed it up on the truck and then had a fantasy that he was a sea captain........this little boy also wanted to drive the ship so Camilo shared the helm.
This mother wanted her photo taken with her child at the clinic......and I actually got a small smile from her.

Sunday morning I left early for Antigua and arrived in time to worship with the Antigua Church. I was also with Neva, Glenn and two students that will be with us for one week. They are Emily and Britany from Missouri and they are medical students. I will post some photos of them later.

The Semana Santa activities are continuing in Antigua. This is one of the alfombras they were preparing for the afternoon parades. When I passed through the first time, they had just cleaned the street and were laying down the stencils. They then fill it with colored sawdust and pine needles and sometimes use flowers and fruits for decoration. The man on the far end is misting it with water to help it stay in place and not dry out.

We enjoyed lunch again at The Sky Cafe. Yes, I know we ate there last Sunday but we wanted Emily and Britany to also experience it.

We headed back to Chichi and got the ladies settled into their room at the El Arco. Lisa and Kemmel came to visit and gave them a walking tour of Chichi.

Monday was a day off so I went to the apartment and cleaned. Camilo and Lindsey visited for a few minutes.........good luck with school you guys!! Linsey will soon finish the PA program at Harding and Camilo will be studying architecture.

Lisa called and invited me for dinner tonight. We had a delicious soup and bread. After dinner, they took the girls back to the hotel and then Lisa made a house call to see a sick child.

Tomorrow Emily and Britany will be in Chichi with Dr. Tom, the surgeon that we refer patients to. He recently completed his Guatemalan service in Guatemala City. I will be in Lemoa with Josefina and it will be one of our educational days with the promoters. It will be a great day for everyone and we pray that Lisa and Kemmel have safe travel to The City.

First day in Chichi

Our activities in Xejox were cancelled today so Kemmel let us use the day for other things. I stayed home and prepared photos for our nutritional class on Tuesday. Covering about 70 photos with plastic is not difficult but time consuming.

About noon I wanted to Chichi to get a few things....batteries, soap, cereal.......nothing real exciting. On the way I checked out a laundry service that is new in the area. They charge by the basket and not by the pound as they do in Antigua. It is something that might come in handy. I also checked out another place that the Dunham's told me about. He sells something like frozen juice on a stick. I know there is a proper name for them but.........ok, so it is fruit juice on a stick. He only had pineapple and it was real good. Later in the year he will have other flavors.

I want to introduce you to Katie..............up close and personal.

Katie needs to check out my luggage before I am allowed to unpack :)

So far, so good..........tomorrow we have clinic in Mactzul I. I have photos to take to them and I think they will enjoy them.