Worship and Heading to Antigua

Sunday morning we rise at five am to finish packing and head to Antigua for a couple of days of well deserved R&R. After we disassemble our cots and stuff our luggage we haul everything to waiting trucks. The halls of the hospital are clogged first with people hurrying this way and that and then with bags and luggage.

Everyone puts their personal packs on one of four buses and then assembles on the porch at the front of the hospital for a parting worship service.

We have spent a week working very hard. 55 general surgeries, 30 OB/GYN related surgeries and 1 dental surgery were performed for a total of 86 surgeries in 5 days. In the clinic section 117 people were seen by the dentist and 387 by the vision team and 851 by the internal medicine group for a total of 1355 patients seen in the clinic.


The community development teams remodeled 15 homes putting in a concrete floor, washing the walls and installing 2 stoves in every home. Each home is now brighter, cleaner and smoke free and will use 75% less wood than the normal open fire cooking arrangement.

After the worship service we board the buses and head down the mountains toward Antigua. As we ride down the mountain we realize that even though the rain has let up for us this week in our area it has rained hard in other the places. We drive around mud slides that have occurred since we came up the mountain last Sunday. We mirror the stops we made on the way up the mountain with the exception of stopping for lunch in Chichicastenago. It is market day in Chi Chi and we are able to wander around the market before the buffet opens at the hotel Santa Tomas to buy treasures and gifts for you at home. It seems much less crowded than it was last year and I believe that business is down for the vendors. Last year you could barely walk down the main street of the market but today it is an easy stroll until we take a side street to look for table runners to be used for table decorations at the team Gala/Fundraiser on September 10th at the St Anthony hotel in San Antonio.

We are all tired, but enjoy the relaxed trip down the mountain and the lavish buffet of local dishes in Chi Chi. One difference in this trip is the soldiers that escorted us up the mountain and stood guard at the hospital now ride on the buses with us. They get off the buses just before we get to Katok, our final stop, where we pick up another group of soldiers in the usual army green vehicle only this time the jeep has a 50 caliber machine gun mounted on it. Despite this protection, we feel safe on our journey.