I can not believe that I've been at the home for two whole weeks! The time has flown by so fast! Forgive me for my lack of posting, but I've been kind of busy here. The first week I was here, a team of 11 from a big church in Omaha was here. They were great, very spiritually deep but also really fun people at the same time. There were a couple of high school students and three young couples on the team. It was an interesting group of people. There was also another woman from the same church who came along to help Norm and Vicky host the team. She's been here a bunch of times and I actually knew her already because she helped host one team that I was on before. So we were both here to help host the team. My responsibility was breakfast. I got up each day and helped Norm prepare the food, which wasn't much work because the team helped out some too. We went out to a couple of aldeas (villages) in the mornings and the team performed a mime/skit and shared the gospel and we also washed, cut, and styled hair. We went to schools both times so we had around 100 kids each day, so that kept us busy. The other days we did some work projects around the home. I helped paint some primer on the new playground and did some other small jobs. The kids had a few days off of school that week too so we had some extra time to spend with them which was nice. Our nights were spent hearing testimonies of the missionaries here, worshiping with the team, and going to church a few times.
One of the guys on the team is a physical therapist so he worked with some of the kids here who needed his help. He looked at Alicia (the baby who was brought here at 3 days old when I was here with a team in November). They're worried about her because she's over 8 months now and doesn't roll over or put any weight on her legs. Also, her one hand is always in a fist and she can't fully straighten it out. So Matt looked at her and worked with her a little bit. He said something might of happened before she was born, like a stroke or something. Earlier this week we went to the Ficker's (medical missionaries in a town nearby who have a weekly clinic here in town) for a worship night. Vickie asked them if they thought it would be worth getting her looked at further to get a diagnosis. She said the there was supposed to be a neurologist coming into Quiche on Friday and, amazingly, that was the same day that Norm and Vickie had been planning on going to Quiche! God is so good :) So they took her to see the doctor yesterday- they had to take her in a baby swing strapped in with the seat belt because they don't exactly have a car seat here haha. The doctor examined her and noticed that the back of her head is unusually flat which most likely means that she wasn't able to move around in the womb much and still can't now. He said it could be a hormonal imbalance or something like muscular dystrophy and he recommended that she get some blood tests and scans done. If it's something hormonal, it can be treated with medication, so that's what we're praying for.
The team left early Sunday morning and Norm and Vickie didn't come back until Tuesday afternoon, so I was the only gringo here for a few days! Sunday morning I went to the clinic in town to work with the Ficker's. Lesley started the ministry with her husband like ten ish years ago and she's and RN and works with her daughters in law who are also RN's and other volunteers that come to help out. They see a bunch of patients in one morning so it can be kind of hectic. I started off by helping with the kids in the nutrition program. I weighed the kids and wrote down their information and gave out formula and food. Then I helped with the chronic and general patients. Lesley let me give a shot, which is a pretty big deal because I've never done that before! Other than that, I mostly just did blood pressures and blood sugars and observed a lot. Overall, it was a good experience and I'm going to be going back again tomorrow morning.
Since the team is gone I've been eating breakfast and lunch with the staff everyday so it's back to eggs, beans, and tortillas! But surprisingly, after a week of American food, it really doesn't bother me to go back to eating beans. When Norm and Vickie came back on Tuesday, they brought two other friends with them. One is a missionary in Antigua who works with disabled children and she also works with a ministry who gives out wheelchairs. She came to look at Chepa, a girl here with a brain tumor who has been pretty weak and unstable for a while now. Shes been in a wheelchair for the past few months but its not the best fit for her, so Pat is gonna work on getting her a better one. The other is a girl from Pat's church who just graduated from high school and came to Guatemala to work with her for a couple months this summer. Pat had to leave yesterday but Katie liked it so much here that she decided to stay until I leave. Then, when we went to the Ficker's for worship the other night, we also acquired another person. Amanda is another girl who just graduated and came here for a couple months to work with the Ficker's. She wasn't really enjoying her experience with them a ton so she decided to come here for a few days and see if she would rather be here. So now she's going to be here for about another month as well. So I haven't been completely alone here :)
This week I've just been trying to lighten the load of the staff by helping out wherever I can. I've done dishes for hours and washed, hung, and folded lots of laundry. I help a little but with cooking lunch but once they start to make tortillas, I'm pretty much useless. I tried to learn how to do it but the only thing it did was give everyone around me a good laugh :) Around three ish, I'm usually done with helping and can take a short nap and then go play with the kids.
I really don't know how I'm going to leave here on Tuesday! I wish I could stay here just a little bit longer. Or a lot longer :) It's hard to leave when you're not sure when you'll be back again. I really hope it's soon.
