Photo Blog: Week 4

These are pictures from my final week in Guatemala, which was spent serving with the Fickers in Canilla. I wish I had gotten more photos of the clinics and everything, but it's hard when you're trying to be discreet and your busy trying to be helpful.

Setting up for clinic in the school.

They made lunch for us to eat afterwards.

This is the crab that invaded our porch.

This is the clinic in Canilla before it's all set up.

Abby and Grace hanging out on the four wheeler.

The road was pretty terrible right here so we had to get out and walk.

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Rachael talking to a girl and her mother in the clinic in Canilla.

Photo Blog: Weeks 2&3

These are pictures from my second and third weeks in Guatemala. The second week I was by myself at the home and the third week was spent serving with a team from Illinois.

Lorena being sang to on her 21st birthday.

The kids lined up to get some birthday cake.

Then it was Venancio's 4th birthday.

This girl, seriously. So adorable.

Alicia really enjoyed her "worms and dirt" pudding.

Oscar's shorts were a little too big. They kept slipping down and it very cute and silly :)

Next was Samuel's birthday.

We went to a parade celebrating the anniversary of one of the schools.

Luis playing with the school marching band.

There were some pretty impressive floats.

Cata and Wendy walking with their class. I'm not sure what the theme was...

Julio is one of those robot things.

Could he be any cuter?

Photo Blog: Week One

Pictures from my first week in Guatemala with the Summer Servants team. Click on the pictures if you want to see them bigger.

Our whole team at the Rochester airport.

The guys playing with kids at the first aldea we visited called Pujera.

The kids were fascinated by the bubbles!

Their beautiful heads of hair all washed and styled :)

Even some of the moms and teachers let us do their hair.

This is what you do in Guatemala when....

...the bridge looks like this!

It was completely destroyed by previous rains and washed out roads.

Ashley and Sebastian translated for Livy as she shared her testimony
at the second aldea we visited.

The kids listened so intently.

Tie-dye with the kids at Hogar de Vida.

Kate helping Oscar. He's just the cutest kid ever.

It takes a lot of concentration to string fruit loops onto licorice!

Angelita and Chepa showing off their new dresses after our girl's night.

More pictures coming soon (or maybe not so soon) when I have time to take a break from all my studying.

Goodbyes and Coming Home

It's been almost a month since I got home from Guatemala. It was a tough transition at first, but since school has started I've had plenty to distract me. Plus, I've had a lot of people praying for me, which helps even more. Of course, I'm already thinking of when I'll get the chance to go back again and little things every day are constantly reminding me of the kids and other things at Hogar de Vida. I'm so looking forward to returning again. I wish the world was just a little bit smaller so that I could drop by on a weekend or something like that :)

I meant to tell you all about the last couple of days that I spent in Guatemala, but once I got home there just never seemed to be the time. So I'll just catch you up on the highlights really quick. 

• Saturday we had clinic in Canilla and the doctors were still visiting so I got volunteered to translate for one of the OB/GYNs while she did ultrasounds on all the pregnant women. It was a little bit difficult, but not as horrible as I would've thought. There were a few communication errors, but overall I was proud of myself for being able to speak so much Spanish. But it also made me really aware of how much I still don't know.
• Sunday we had clinic in SAS again. I weighed some more babies in the nutrition program and there were two tiny newborns who came. They don't start children on the nutrition program until they weigh them over 2 or 3 weeks and see that they are losing or not gaining any weight. So we just checked over the newborns and weighed them for now. Because really, it's best for them to just have breast milk now anyways. I don't know what's happened with them since then, but I pray that they are thriving and doing well.
• After clinic, we stopped by Hogar de Vida to drop something off. I was happy for that because I had a chance to say a real goodbye that time. It was overwhelming to hear all the kids calling out "Teresa! Teresa!" when they saw me. And telling me happy birthday (it was two days before my birthday) and that they would miss me. What really put me over the edge was talking with Oralia, Sebastian and Lorena. They thanked me for all the work I had done there and told me I was always welcome to return and that it was my home now too. I told Sebastian that I didn't want to leave and he said "Well, it's better if you just stay." I wish I could have.
• Then, on Monday I left to go home. Usually the trip home gets dragged out by a long 5 1/2 hour bus ride into Guatemala City. But this time, Duane flew us out to the city in his plane which only takes 20 minutes and it was such a beautiful view of the mountainous country. It would've been more enjoyable if it didn't mean I was leaving my favorite place.

 That's all for now. But, I'm hoping to update later with a few photo blogs since I could never get pictures posted while I was in Guate.

Cockroaches, Cangrejos, and Clinics, Oh My!

So just a quick update on the bugs in my bathroom...after talking to Rachael and doing some brief internet research on google images, I have determined that they were cockroaches. Good thing is, I haven't seen anymore of them since then so the prayers have helped :)

Thursday was a busy day here in Canilla. We didn't have clinic, but there was still plenty to do. Rachael and I worked in the bodega (store room/closet) in the clinic, sorting through the shelf that has all of the respiratory care supplies and medicines. It was quite a mess so we took everything off, cleaned away the mouse poop and dust and then organized everything into different baskets and bins and labeled it all and put it back on the shelves. It wasn't the funnest or cleanest job, but everything looks so much better and way more organized now so I'm glad that I got to help her with that. It's not something that would be fun to do alone. After lunch, we made a bunch of oatmeal cookies to help Lesley out because a group of four doctors/midwives/high school students came that afternoon and will be here until tomorrow morning, so we needed some extra desserts laying around to snack on. We had another time of prayer and then they were here. There's two OB/GYNs, one nurse midwife and her son. They are here in Guatemala for the week doing surgeries and clinics and the one doctor is a close family friend to the Fickers so they came here to visit and help out with clinics today and tomorrow, so we spent the rest of the night chatting and hearing stories from them.

Today we went to a clinic in a village up in the mountains called something that sounds like Tiosh-Chabaj but I know I'm not spelling it right. The Fickers have been going there once a month for the past several months, but there hasn't been a ton of people showing up so they're not sure whether to continue going or not. They don't own or rent a building for clinics there so we brought all the meds and supplies with us and set up in two classrooms at a school- they cancel classes at that school on clinic days. We drove for about an hour and a half to get there and since there was so many of us, we took the pick up truck and road in the back. There were only maybe about 50 patients that we saw, but several of them were very sick. We diagnosed 4 people with diabetes- three were all in the same family, a father and his son and daughter. The daughter's blood sugar was over 600 and the father's was in the 500s (for those of you who don't know, that's extremely high and you could die from BGs that elevated). We had only packed one bottle of IV fluids so Lesley put an IV in the father and gave him some meds and his sugar started to go down. The daughter said she hadn't been able to see out of her one eye for 5 months. It's crazy that diabetes can get that bad without her even knowing she had it. But when there's no doctor and you can't afford any kind of healthcare, what else can they do? I feel like I'm starting to learn more about the medications and what types of things to look for. I wish I could stay here longer and learn more, but I have to get back for school and read books to learn instead of actually doing stuff. 

One of the women in the village cooked us all fried chicken and beans and tortillas so we all ate together in one of the classrooms before we left and then we got back to Canilla around 4:30 (after driving home in the rain!). Three high school aged girls from San Andres came today to help translate and they come to Canilla every Saturday to help in the clinic too. So instead of getting a ride again tomorrow they are spending the night here. They are sleeping on mattresses on the floor in the living room and they were watching a movie. Rachael and I came over from the Fickers house and right before I opened the door I saw a cangrejo (crab) on the patio right next to the door. I don't know how it got all the way here, we're guessing it came up here from the river because there's been a lot of rain lately. We called the girls out and they started throwing rocks at it to scare it to move but it just opened it claws at us in anger. They held it down with a broom and said we should cut its claws off but I suggested we just trap it in a bucket instead so that's where it is now. Just another adventure here in Guatemala :)

There's no place I would rather be, but here in Your love.

My time here with the Fickers has been going by so fast. I can't believe I have less than a week here before I have to leave and go back home. It's so hard to think about leaving here. I'm sure it's not going to be easy. God has opened my eyes this week and I've realized that it's not just the kids at the home that have my heart, but it's the people of Guatemala in general. He has given me such a heart to want to serve these people and I can't imagine doing anything but that. As many of you know, I feel called into missions. I know that the timing isn't right just yet, but I know that when I go home, it will be a time of preparation. A time that God will use to get me ready for whatever it is He wants me to do to serve and bring glory to His name. It'll be hard to leave here, but I know that, for now, it's what I need to do.

Monday was a pretty relaxing day. Rachael and I spent the morning in the clinic organizing meds and supplies to get them ready for the clinic on Friday. The other clinics that the Fickers do have meds and supplies already there in the clinic, but for the one on Friday we have to bring everything with us in these two big bins. So we restocked everything in the bins and got it all ready. We also counted out kids vitamins into little baggies to hand out and we made a skin cream for scabies. It's made with sulfur and vaseline so it smelled great :) Afterwards we organized a cabinet in the clinic with all these books and Bibles. They just got lots of Spanish and Quiche Bibles so we unpacked those and put them away too. Every Monday afternoon, everyone gets together to pray for the ministry. It was a great time to just come before God and lay the ministry at His feet and ask Him to use it for His glory, to lift up the needs and requests before him and worship His name. It's awesome that they commit to dedicate such a long time to praying every week.

Tuesday we went to the clinic in Chiminisijuan. It's the rainy season so the roads get washed out and really bad. We drove for about half an hour and then parked and walked the rest of the way, which was about another thirty minutes. We took a short cut that's a trail through the woods and then got back to the road. It was good that we didn't drive because when we got back to the road we saw a pick up truck stuck in about a foot and a half of mud, trying to dig themselves out. Duane drove the four wheeler through with the supplies that we needed and we got there without any issues. The setting of the clinic is beautiful. It's a cabin that the Fickers built up there on property that was given to them. (There's an awesome story about how God worked and how they got the property and started to do clinic up there and you'll have to ask me about it sometime :) We saw 76 patients in about three hours. Armando (one of the translators that works with the Fickers) gave a message in Quiche before clinic started and then we started to see patients. I helped to weigh the babies in the nutrition program and record their weights and hand out food. It was hard to see some desperate mothers asking for beans and oatmeal, saying that they had no food in their homes. After all the babies were weighed, I worked with Lesley as she saw the general patients. I did blood pressures and blood sugars and also learned from her a lot. I got to see some ear infections and hear pneumonia and mix medications and things like that. Then we cleaned everything up and headed back down the mountain. In the afternoon, Rachael, Rachel and I walked into town to get ice cream and then we planned on going to Katie's house and having her drive us back the rest of the way. But she had already left her house to go to the Fickers for worship that they have every Tuesday night, so we ended up walking like almost 5 miles by the time we finally got back to the house. We played snaps and laughed a lot though so it was okay :)

Today was the day that the Fickers take their sabbath, or their day off. I haven't really allowed myself to have a day off since I came here because I don't want to miss out on anything. But, it was really nice to get to sleep in and catch up on emails and just spend time with everyone. I read on the patio in the shade, listened to a really good Francis Chan sermon, spent a lot of time just reflecting on how awesome God is for blessing me with a heart for this place, and we walked down to the river and spent some time there. Then we watched a movie and played cards. Overall, it was a great relaxing day. And tomorrow it's back to work organizing things in the storage room of the clinic and then Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are clinic days. And Monday I fly into the city to leave. There's a worship song that keeps playing over and over in my head and the words really resonate with how I've been feeling.

"There's no place I would rather be, no place I would rather be,

No place I would rather be, but here in Your love.

Here in Your love.

So set a fire down in my soul, 

That I can't contain, that I can't control.

I want more of You, God. I want more of You."

Also, as we "speak" there is a giant bug that I trapped in the bathroom. It's one of those huge ones that makes a big crunchy sound when you squish it. I trapped it in there by closing the door and smushing the rug up under the crack between the floor and the bottom of the door. But when I moved the rug I found the bugs child, a smaller version of itself, not quite as ugly. So I bravely killed that one and am hoping that the other one doesn't escape in the night to crawl on me as I sleep. You can pray for me :)

The Journey Continues...

So I am now in Canilla and on the last leg of my Guatemalan journey for this summer. Saturday morning the team left with Norm and Vickie and I stayed behind until this morning when I went to the clinic in town and then left with the Fickers to come back here. 

Friday night at the home we had our last dinner with the team which is always a party with the kids and we eat hot dogs and macaroni and cheese. After everyone's finished eating, we all circle up and everyone gets a chance to say their final goodbyes and thank yous. I love hearing the kids thank us for such simple things and to realize how much they enjoy being loved on by the teams that come visit the home. I wanted to take advantage of the fact that all of the kids and staff were in one room and they were all listening, but whenever I started to think of what I would say I started to tear up, so I ended up just sitting there quietly and holding it all in. And then Oralia had to go and thank me for all the work that I've been doing there in front of everybody, so I started to cry anyways. 

The kids at Hogar de Vida have such a tight grip on my heart. I don't think they understand how much I love them and care about them. It is so hard to leave them without knowing when I will be back again. It's always like that, but this time even more so because this is my last summer vacation. I don't know when I'll have to opportunity to leave my life behind for a month again. And going for a short time with a team is just not the same. 

When the team left on Saturday morning, Soila, Lita, and Oralia all went with them, leaving behind only Olga and Sebastian to work in the home. They went to get away for a couple days as a short little vacation in Antigua. So Saturday I was extra hands helping with dishes and laundry and kids. The older girls really stepped up and helped fill in the gaps too. Then this morning I had my last meal with the staff and then went off to clinic. 

It was a weird goodbye because I felt like I was saying goodbye Friday night at the party. And then again Saturday night when Blanca had all the little ones say bye to me before they went to bed. And then again when I left for clinic this morning. And then again when I came back to grab my bags before going to Canilla. It was just a weird way to say goodbye. I definitely feel like I left a piece of my heart behind, but it wasn't as hard as other years. I don't know if that's because I have faith that God will bring me back there soon or if it's just because I had enough distracting me in that moment that it kept me from really thinking about it. But either way, I will continue to trust in God's plans and to have faith in the fact that He wouldn't give me this desire and love in my heart just to take it away from me.

Now that I'm here in Canilla, I'm staying in this little 2 bedroom apartment off of the clinic that's right next to the Ficker's house. Rachel, a nurse who has been here for 7 months or so and is here permanently, has one room and I'm in the other. It's nice and cozy and I'm glad I have someone to share it with so I'm not out here alone. This week will be more relaxing than my time at the home. We will have clinics Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday and in between we'll prep for them and just hang out here. So I'll have more down time and it'll be a nice transition back into life at home.