Saturday through Tuesday

Saturday 7/10/2010 Saturday

We arrived in Guatemala City to be whisked into the large, accommodating diplomatic room where we were comfortable while sub groups went out to baggage claim to find our bags and make sure they were on the truck to a small community in the Guatemalan mountains. Surprisingly, none were missing.

We then boarded buses tour very nice hotel in Guatemala City and were warmly greeted by hotel personnel and a lovely spread of food including delicious finger sandwiches, cookies, and fresh juices of papaya, pineapple and watermelon.

Sunday Morning 07/11/2010:

We rose at 5 a.m. to wake up calls and were treated to a wonderful spread of anything you could possibly want for breakfast and then some. We left the hotel in Guatemala City at 7:30 a.m. knowing that it would be the last night in a comfortable bed until Sunday the 18^th. We load into buses that hold 20 people because some of the towns that we go through don’t have streets wide enough for larger buses.

Our ride up the mountain takes nearly eight hours. This long trip gave us plenty of time for visiting and getting to know our group from many parts of the U.S. and our high school translators from Guatemala City. The trip could have been accomplished faster, but the trip is made in 4 stages based on the availability of toilets that will accommodate the 100 plus people on the buses. The first stop is Katok which is a popular stop with many people traveling this highway. It is an assortment of several restaurants, shops and vendors. As we pile out of the buses in route to the restrooms we are greeted by the vendors selling mostly produce like cashews, almonds, blackberries and strawberries. Most of us are too intent on our mission to stop and look at the produce until we have some relief. The next stop is Chi Chi, an abbreviated name for Chichicastenago. It is market day in Chi Chi and the town is filled to the brim with vendors selling everything that you can imagine. I am always stunned when I see the meat vendors with their wares hanging in the open air or freshly killed chicken lying on a table. It is enough to make a health inspector from the U.S. go catatonic.

The last stop was particularly long supposedly because there was only one bathroom but I suspect it was because the gas station had a T.V. outside under a thatched roof that was entertaining many folks from the town with the World Cup. Our group gladly joined in the viewing of the game and the cheering as the Netherlands and Spain fought it out. The international group joined together in cheering or groaning with each missed chance or save. Unfortunately, we saw no goals before we had to get back on the bus.

The ride up to our mission location is beautiful. We went through and around mountains and rivers. We did see evidenced of the recent rains including the road washed out in several places where we went slowly over dirt roads and at on e point of the journey up through the mountains we turned a corner and there in the middle of road was one lone bolder bigger than an SUV. Our skilled bus driver slowly crept around it on the left side missing it by only inches to the cheering busload.

Looking out across the mountains we could see trails of treeless dirt where the waterfalls had flowed during the downpours that came with the recent hurricane.

I am awed by the beauty of the countryside and the simplicity of the people inhabiting it. Today the low clouds make the mountains even more awing and mysterious. I am comforted that in spite of the hurricane and the rain that the mud houses remain.

We arrived at the hospital in the rain and still there were people waiting to be seen to hope to have surgery this week. We had to forgo our group picture for the time being. We each went to our assigned areas to unpack the 50+ bags we had brought from the US plus the 50 plus totes that had been brought by HELPS from Guatemala City from storage. All were quite busy setting up the kitchen, operating rooms for surgery, eye clinic, dental, post op, recovery, pharmacy, sterile equipment and our own rooms where we would be sleeping on cots for the next 7 nights. Some went out to triage the patient s there were already waiting. Some of the stovers went out into the community to see where we would be working that week. There was even an emergency C-section and an emergency need for a pediatrician while we ate sandwiches in our newly set up cafeteria that had just been scrubbed and mopped by our folks. Many worked late into the night getting everything set up. It is amazing how all comes together with a wonderful team spirit from folks that hardly know each other To end the long day, many who had finished their tasks participated in worship , singing and sharing led by our Chaplain to kick off our week of “waiting”.

Monday 7/12/10

Personally, I was too tired to write anything and many others were also exhausted from the first day. But, looking back, it was a great day out on stoves, mixing cement to transform dirt floors into cement floors and playing with the shy children. When we were white washing the walls, we could see the bugs flying out of the mud walls of the houses and the dark insides of the houses became bright and inviting. We tromped in the mud and water at the houses where we worked and when hiking up and down the mountains going from house to house around the countryside. So, at the end of the day our busload of Stovers stopped at the market and went to a special store that sold rubber boots like the Guatemalans wear for our next day out. They cost 50 Quetzals or $6.25.

Back at the hospital there were surgeries for hernias, hysterectomies, C-Sections, prolapsed uteruses, DNCs, a needle in a ladies’ hand that had been there a month. The story is that the lady picked up a bunch of clothes and the need went into her hand threat and all. The eye clinic was busy as was our dentist and the medical clinic.

All were very grateful for a delicious meal of local carrots, green beans, lasagna and brownies from the newly set up kitchen crew. Amazing what they had accomplished!

At worship, during the sharing time, we heard that the doctors were thankful for the nurses, the nurses were thankful for the young translators from Guatemala City, the stoves team was thankful for the kitchen team for our sack lunches and wonderful dinner, doctors were thankful for pharmacy, etc., etc. We are a group, happily dependant on each other.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

It did not rain again today which is a blessing to the Stoves team; before we came the area has had record rain and flooding! One of the three stoves teams had the joy of praying with a family at their house over lunch and blessing their house.

At the hospital a pediatrician diagnosed one child with chickenpox, one child had neuro-fibroma (elephant man) (blogger not responsible for medicine misstated), another child had deformities of all four extremities and was referred to a plastic surgeon. A mother came in with pregnancy induced hypertension and had a C-section losing a lot of blood. Two of the team members gave blood for the patient. The baby had meconium, but when mom and child were transferred out to another hospital the child was breathing on its own and so was the mother. A nurse accompanied the pair to another hospital and the ride in the ambulance on the windy mountain roads was so bad that she had to have a shot of for her nausea when she returned. Surgery also did a lap-coli and removed a cyst from a child’s head. The report is that the nurses are working really well together.

Some of the patients’ families attended worship tonight. They all sang with us in Spanish from our worship song book which is in English and Spanish. The high school students from Guatemala translated the scripture and the sermon about “waiting” as it was said. We heard that waiting is serving. During the sharing several of the translators talked about how this was such a heart opening experience for them to serve in their own country. One translator in the recovery room heard of a man that had been here all day with nothing to eat. She had a apple that she was planning on eating during the night shift. She decided to offer it to the older man and cried as she told us that he was so grateful. The students’ instructor told us that the Guatemalan people do not express emotion in public. Tonight these young Guatemalans did and it was beautiful. They told us it is an honor to serve. The students explained how they were grateful to us for coming to their country because it gives them an opportunity to see their country through our eyes and get to know other less fortunate people in their country. The translator on our stoves team explained how she met a 16 year old today who was just her age and was coming home from school; she taught her how to say Hello in Tagalig (the Mayan language of this area). She was thrilled to share a few moments with her.

A GYN doctor had a patient in clinic that said she had an intrauterine device for birth control that was placed many years ago and she had been told that it was lost in her body. Her husband and she wanted to have children. One of our OBGYN doctors had brought an ultrasound; the device was just where it was supposed to be and the GYN easily removed it; the patient and her husband were off to make children.

Pharmacy reports that they are busy and getting used to the names of the patients but all is well. They have had a few incidents of folks coming to the window and claiming to be people that they are not; apparently they talked to other patients and found out what they were prescribed and then came to the window to ask for the drug…but thwarted again…

Just left the OR…It is 10:00 p.m. and they still have another hysterectomy to go…they’ll be up till midnight in surgery again tonight.

We have heard that the volcano erupted again today but is nowhere near us or where we will be in Antigua for Rest and recuperation.

Spirits are high…folks are happy and glad to be here. There is peace and joy all around this place.