La Última Semana

For a special treat this weekend, we went 3 hours into the bush to see Samuc, a national park of beautiful falls. 

We were able to do some swimming and hiking that day, and for me that was delightful because I LOVE water. I also love jumping off high things into water.

The best part of the trip though, was riding in the back of a pickup, and 4 wheeling it up into the mountain. 

It was a wild ride, and very exciting!

We weren't sure about making the trip though, because there had been some unrest in the area last fall. The townspeople were taking over the park from the government and it was rather violent. 

Thankfully, things have settled down enough that tourists are able to make it all the way in without getting mugged or robbed.

We did however get held up by children.

There were a bunch of "toll stops", where the local kids decided to block the road until we gave them money. These kids had to have been under 10 years old, but they were rather entrepreneurial. At one stop, all the kid wanted was water and cookies. Elvin bought some cookies for the way back, but he was gone by then. Everyone else just wanted money. 

So we had a wonderful and restful day in the beautiful waters of Guatemala.

This week we are finishing up with our Girl's Health Talks in the schools. Becca and I conquered our fears about public transportation, and took the buses to Mocohan and Chicoy this week so far, all by ourselves. I think we were both nervous since we are just single girls, with light hair, and we get cat-called a lot. It certainly didn't help that Elvin warned us to be careful so that we wouldn't get robbed or kidnapped. When a Guatemalan warns you to be careful, I suppose that should be taken into consideration.

It all went smoothly though, and we are proud to say God conquered our fears, and kept us safe.

The talks have been going very well. We included: basic hygiene, body parts, changes in puberty, and the difference between worldly love, and God Love. 

A lot of these girls don't know anything about their bodies. They get scared when things change, and their mothers can't help because they do not know anything either. I am so thankful for the chance to talk with them about these things. 

The teachers had been saving a special gift for each of the girls for after the talk. They had bags that had been filled with new underwear, soap, and re-usable sanitary pads, that could be washed. These had been handmade by women in Canada, and this was the perfect opportunity to hand them out. 

The girls were SO excited to get this gift, they were oo-ing and aah-ing and showing each other their loot.

Puberty is hard, and I am blessed by my education (thanks mom!), and the country I was brought up in, where health is one of the most discussed subjects in school. 

God, please bless these girls, and give them a life filled with hope, joy, and health.

Here I am, Send Me.

This is my new friend Becca, she is here as a translator. Remember how back at the beginning I was lamenting about not having friends here? Well, God has surely answered that prayer. I have lots of friends, and Becca is definitely a Kindred Spirit. 

What a week. we sure had fun in the clinic this week. Not least of which means that Becca and I have the same sense of humor, and use it accordingly.

We took a day to do the girl's health talk at Mocohan. We had about 20 girls from 9-13 years old. They were split up a bit according to age, which helped us to tailor the talk to their respective maturity levels.
The kids seemed interested, the older kids more so than the younger. (The boys were playing soccer outside the window, which was a little distracting to them.). We brought in our old friend Birtha, who we renamed Beatriz la Matriz, which is "Uterus" in Spanish, and added her new friend Mama Pecho (a breast). It was quite hilarious to hear the girls talking about Beatriz on their way out.

We addressed the issue of puberty. Unfortunately, it happens to us all, and we must deal with it. (Oh Eve...).

Many people here have no idea what happens during this period. They don't know that their bodies will change, and that it is normal to have menses. When it happens, they think they are dying. Many of the parents don't know much about their bodies either, which is why we have been giving them health talks as well.

The ministry is going to be packing my last week here with many more of these health talks. We will be doing the same one in almost all the schools. It is going to be crazy fun!

This past week we had a few days of clinic with a very small team from Canada. Half the team went to do a work project, and a doctor (Christy's Dad!), a pharmacist, and a med student came to help in the clinic.
I spent my time in the pharmacy with Isaias and Elvin.

Elvin and Cesar are eating lunch while waiting for Isaias to show.

Isaias brought his son along too, and we attempted to "train up a child in the way he should go" - converting him to a love of all things medicinal. It wasn't too hard, he thought it was the greatest thing in the world to count out the number of meds needed for a prescription.

This little Chica desperately wanted to help in the clinic, so she came and watched us for a while.

Since I wasn't in on the consults with the doc, I didn't get to hear many stories, but from what I heard, we had a lady with newly diagnosed cancer who was not doing well at all. The doctor put her in for a referral to an oncologist, but did not sound very hopeful.

We also heard from the woman we visited last week who was supposed to go to the hospital to give birth. She did go to the hospital but there were complications and she was sent to Guatemala City, where the baby was delivered safely. We are planning on following up with her this coming week.

Right now I am sitting, looking out the window with coffee in hand, feeling sad that my time is drawing to an end.
Guatemala has become home to me. It has reached in and hooked my soul.
I know I'll be back.
I also know that there are many things to look forward to this summer at home in the States. I will enjoy my time here while I can, and when God tells me it's time, I hope I'll have ears to hear where he wants me next.

 Isaiah 6:8, "And I heard the voice of the Lord calling, 'Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?' Then I said, 'Here I am, send me.'"

So Much To Do, So Little Time

This little chunk of delight got to hang with me and the nurses while her momma was getting seen by the doctors. I just wanted to take her home with me!! (Don't worry, I gave her back to mom...)

We finished up the clinic in good order last week, and went straight from that to preparing for a women's health talk at the church in Purulha. 

Me and my gigantic poster gettin' ready for the Women's Health Talk.

Some beautiful Mayan ladies walking in Purulha

The women seemed to enjoy the talk, but I was fascinated by their ooos and ahhs when I did my sugar game. We had 5 sugary drinks that are popular here, Fanta, Cola, RapTor energy drink, and some others. We measured out in teaspoons how much sugar was actually in those drinks depending on how many grams there were. Fanta has 82 grams of sugar down here (yummy!), so that calculated out to 16.5 teaspoons of sugar approximately. That is a lot of sugar! 

Unfortunately having super sugary drinks is very common here, and no one drinks water. So, of course I had a big emphasis on drinking more water and limiting sugar intake.

So we had fun at the health talk, and I got to hang with one of our translators Julie afterward. She taught me how to make Pupuses, which are tortillas stuffed with cheese. They were quite yummy.

My time here is speeding ahead like crazy. We did take some time to "rest", which really means hike up a huge mountain to see some Quetzal birds. We must have been too noisy because we didn't see any. 

I also have a new friend here. She is an interpreter from the US, and she is down to hang with me for three weeks. We have our first big project on Friday. 

We are going to talk about puberty to a bunch of schoolgirls who don't have any education about the anatomy of their bodies. It's definitely going to be a challenge, and will stretch both of us to make it both age-appropriate, and fun. 

You have to have fun if you are going to talk about the uncomfortable topic of taking care of your body. 

They were going to have us do it tomorrow, but since we only learned we are going to do the talk yesterday, they let us take today and tomorrow to prepare. (Whew!)

We took a break from working on our talk to visit a patient today.

This lady is due to give birth any day now, but really wants to give birth at home. The problem is, she is old enough to be high risk, and she lives at the top of the mountain with no access for cars. We hiked for a good 30-40 min up the mountain. It was a tiny path only meant for walking, and was super steep. If she were to have any problems giving birth, there would not be any way to get her off the mountain in time. So we were there to help her feel more comfortable with the decision to give birth at the hospital. Her blood pressure was a little high today, but she was very nervous, and was doing a bunch of housework. We encouraged her to have more rest in bed, and arranged for someone to be able to help her when her time came. She was pretty isolated where she lived.
My prayer this week is for her to deliver safely, and that she and the baby would be healthy.

Mocohan Clinic

What a busy week.

We had a team of nursing students here last week. They were a lot of fun, still learning a lot, but they were getting the hang of it before the end of the week.

We had a doctor and a nurse practitioner here with the team, and they each took a few students to do scribing in the computer, and to learn from them. The rest of the students either had triage rooms, or helped me. I was on pharmacy duty this week. We also had a few students doing health talks every day.
I had Elvin and Isaias helping in the pharmacy and with registration, but I was the English speaker, so any questions about the medications were my job.

It was challenging, because we didn't always have the medication that the providers wanted. Sometimes we didn't have enough of that particular drug. We did end up getting a shipment of medication in the middle of the week, which was wonderful and very utilized.

Towards the end, I admit I was getting a little frustrated because our prescriptions weren't printing, and sometimes we would be late in figuring out that someone needed a certain medicine. We worked together to write out the scripts, and sometimes the girls would give me a list of meds that the person needed so that we would not miss any. That definitely helped.

I didn't get a chance to sit in with any of the patient visits this week, which was a little sad, but it was fun being the pharmacy girl. I got to get to know the Guatemalan staff a lot better, and really began to feel like a part of the family.

The crowning moment for me was when Isaias (who is happily married by the way), said "You can make good coffee! Now you are ready for a husband!". Of course they all started to tease me and asked when I'll live here for good. I felt so loved and like they were my big brothers. It takes a while for this culture to accept white people because they are so used to having teams come and go. If you are willing to stay and live with them, they start to warm up to you. I finally feel accepted here. 

I even got to ride in the Guatemalan van instead of the Gringo (white people) van. 

We stopped on the way home one night and got roasted corn. It was dry but delicious.

They put salt on the lemon and rub it on the corn! yummy!

We had the chance to challenge the Guatemalans to a game of Futbol during lunch in the middle of the week. I played with the Americans because they needed help.

The Guatemalans creamed us though.

The whole week was a bit of a whirlwind. We saw about 300 patients total, and prayed for each one. We had two girls who were most likely being sexually abused, and it was hard to figure out what we could do for them. We wanted to get them to see a psychologist, or maybe get a social worker involved. At the moment we are still trying to follow up with them. 

I think my favorite part of the week though, was our final debrief with the team. One girl shared that she had lost her faith before coming here, but that God really reached out and pulled her back this week. She told us that she never wants to let go of God again. That was really encouraging. I hope to keep her in my prayers in the coming weeks. She is going to need strength as she goes back into her normal world, and nobody will have experienced what she has experienced. My prayer is that she goes and tells people about the God who is strong to protect and guide, and never leaves.

Ready to Roll!

Next week we have a very large medical team coming in.
This means it is time to pack up our equipment and go to Mocohan to set up in their large gym.

Mocohan is located about 20 min south of Tactic, and is one of the poorest sections of our ministry. There are a lot of families there that do not have food, and alcoholism is in almost every family. The children come to school, and when they worship the Lord in the morning, their songs are so sweet. They know that they are in a safe place, that they will get a meal, and that God is present.

Since we have enough people, we are setting up a clinic here, for people who cannot make it all the way into town.

It took a while to get everything together, but once we got everything on the truck, and drove all the way there, oh the smiles we got! I got mobbed.

I like getting mobbed by little children.

So here is what our clinic will look like next week. It's so exciting!! 

We've got our pharmacy set up, and behind the curtain are about 6 exam rooms, 2 for the doctors and 4 for the nurses. 

The men did some good hard work getting all the lines up and computers calibrated. Go Team!

The team should arrive in town tonight, and we will get started nice and early on Monday. 

Lots of prayers needed for the coming week! Thanks everyone!!

When There Is No Doctor

The day started out normally.

I came into the clinic with Elvin and Christy, we did our Devotional, and split up to work on our separate projects.

I grabbed the next bag of glasses to put into the computer system, because yes there were more glasses hidden away.

I surpassed 2000 glasses by mid-morning. We took a break for lunch.

Then the crazy happened.

Two girls came in, one was limping, holding her stomach, wincing at every step. Her chief complaint was that she had severe pain from her back to her front in the epigastric area, with some pain in her shoulder. She said that after she ate, her stomach got really bloated, and she started having this pain.
She did indeed have a very distended abdomen, with hyperactive bowel sounds. She just had a lot of gas. She told me that this has happened before, that she did not know what caused it. She had eaten beans, eggs, and cheese for breakfast though.

I walked out of the room to check to see if we had any gasX or alfalfa for her gas pain, and she was happily chatting with her friend while lying on the table. So I gave her some tums since that was what we had, and sent her, limping back to class.

No sooner had I sat down to the computer than a whole crowd of teachers come rushing in carrying an unconscious student. He had been convulsing in the stairwell, and it was unknown if he had hit his head.
I tried to wake him up, but he was not responsive for about 5 minutes. He was breathing, and had a good pulse though, so I finished getting vitals while rubbing his sternum. Some of his family members work at the school, so they all came in too to check on him. He opened his eyes after about 5 minutes, but was very confused, did not know his name, where he was, and could not follow instruction. When he closed his eyes again, he started mildly twitching. It only lasted a few seconds, but I am pretty sure he was seizing.
I was scared for him, but it definitely looked like he had had a seizure.
His family told me that this has happened before, that he had a neurologist look at him. Apparently everything had been negative.
He needed to go to the hospital, so the Principal tried to get a hold of his parents, so they could drive him an hour to the nearest hospital. At this point, he was starting to remember his name and birthday, and recognized his grandmother.
His parents were not answering the phone, so his aunt and grandmother decided to take him home in a taxi, so they could decide what to do.
I firmly told them that he needs to be seen by a doctor as soon as possible so they could put him on medication. I told them what to do if he seizes again, and how to watch him constantly. I was concerned about the possibility of concussion too, so I educated them on watching for that also.
The taxi came, and he went home with his relatives.

Another student had come in also during this time and was patiently waiting his turn to see me.
Just as we were about to get him into the system, the girl with the gas pain came back in. She was limping, supported by three people, gasping in pain.

So I brought her back again, did another full assessment, and again determined that she just had a giant ball of gas in her stomach, and it was radiating to her shoulder. I had her lay down for a few minutes, since she was comfortable in that position, and went to take care of the boy who had come in earlier.

He was easy, just a sprained wrist, so we got him all squared away quickly.
While I was out, the girl was chatting with her friends, not acting in pain at all. So I let her lay there for a few minutes, then I tried massaging the gas out of her belly. We figured out that she may have an intolerance to a certain food, so I told her to make a food diary for the next few weeks, to see if this happens again. She was happy with that, and went back to class with her teacher.

I took a deep breath, and caught up on my paperwork.
Afterwards I realized I hadn't really asked God for help in taking care of these kids. The girl probably had something going on besides the stomach pain, that we could have prayed about, since she was in pain when I was paying attention to her. I failed in that.
God, please take care of her, and give me another chance.

The next day, Elvin called the boy with the seizure's parents, and they did indeed take him to the hospital (Thank you Jesus!). The doctor said that there was the possibility of a tumor, so we are still praying for him.
Another praise was that a girl I had seen weeks ago with a possible appendicitis actually did end up having appendicitis. She had been taken to the hospital, had an operation, and was doing well at home. Thank God that He gave me the wisdom to see the symptoms.

It is definitely hard here, because we do not have a lot of equipment, we don't even have oxygen. God is good though, he helps us to make do with what we have. God please continue to guide me in this. I am no doctor, but You are the Great Physician. Thank you for your hand on this place.