Merry Christmas (Day late) and Water Woes

Merry Christmas to everyone! Sorry we posted 1 day late; however, we have been traveling around lately and could not post yesterday. No pictures this time as we did not have our camera but we did take some with Roberta's, just cannot download them. :(

On Sunday we finished cleaning up the house and headed to Guatemala City to be there to pick up Kemmel's mom, Roberta, and step-dad, Duane, on Monday. We were able to go see a movie on Sunday and enjoy some Sushi. One of our cravings we get every now and then. We have actually found supplies to make sushi, so that is one of our next ventures. We can get fresh sea bass here in Chichi so we may try it or some tuna that we can get in the capital. Lisa enjoys the California roles so they may be easier since we do not have to do the raw fish thing - just crab or shrimp.

On Monday we did some running around and then started to have a problem with the truck. It was due for its checkup and oil change and it appears that the oil is pretty watery so may be mixing with the diesel. As a result, it started to make some not so good sounds. So we ended up parking it at the office in Guatemala City and got a cab back to the hotel. Hopefully it is nothing serious and can be repaired quickly once everyone is back from vacation. It is still under warranty so the dealership should cover provided they do not blame us for doing something which it does not appear we have.

On Monday afternoon we went to airport and picked up Roberta and Duane and then we went to the Christmas Eve service at the Union Church in Guatemala City. The Union Church is where my family and I, Kemmel, attended while we lived in Guatemala. It is a non-denominational church servicing the English speaking community in Guatemala including missionaries, Guatemalans, embassy employees from various countries and American / European business people. The service brought back many memories and we were to reacquaint with some old friends we had 20 years ago. After the service, we did a trek trying to find something open for dinner and all was closed! Christmas Eve is the big celebration in Guatemala where families and friends all come together so most things are closed. We ended up eating at the Camino Real Hotel and had an enjoyable meal. The Camino Real also brings back many memories as we stayed there for 2 weeks when we first moved to Guatemala back in 1975 and then on multiple other occasions as well. Between 11pm and 12am, the fireworks started and lasted for about 1-2 hours.

On Christmas day we enjoyed a relaxing morning, check out all of the goodies sent to us from the US and then went to lunch at one of our favorite restaurants in Guatemala City, the Inca Grill which is a restaurant with food from Peru. Very good, so check it out when you are in the city. It is on the street behind the Camino Real. Since our pickup was parked, we had to find a shuttle to transport us to Chichi on Christmas Day. We were not sure how possible that would be and were not to hopeful, but we did end up finding one although he did charge us a pretty penny. Overall it was still cheaper that having to stay in Guatemala City another night and buy meals, etc.

We arrived Monday to no water - still! We think they turned down the water pressure for the fair so that people would not use all of the water. What that does to us is turn off our water as we are at the end of the line. So we have been without water for about 1-2 weeks and were hoping for better luck. We have started to build the water cistern where we can house water and pump it out so this will be very helpful for us. Even in times when there is not enough pressure it will still drop into the cistern because of gravity so it will be a nice luxury to have. This morning we did have some water for awhile, so hopefully we are back to normal of at least having water each day until about 9am. Here is a picture of the guys working on the water cistern. The longest we have gone without running water is 2 months so hopefully we will never have to go through that experience again.

A water cistern is basically a big hole in the ground with concrete walls on all sides in which you drive your water source to to keep it filled up. It will have a on/off system much like a toilet to allow the water level to rise and to stop when it is full. Then we use a water pump to pump the water through the house. So not only will we have more water we will have better water pressure as well.

Happy Sto. Tomas Day

Chichicastenango is in the throes of the annual fair--celebrating Santo Tomas, the patron saint of of the town. People here are very proud of this guy and almost every family has a relative or three named Tomas! Anyway, we live about a mile away from downtown and can hear the live music and festivities here in the house. Each day this week, there has been something big, like a parade or dance of characters or a band playing. One of the popular bands in this area is the International Rabbits--they area mix of marimba and what we call pop ranchero (Guatemala's country music). They are actually pretty good if you like that sort of thing.

Also, because of the fair and Christmas, all of the streets have been full of vendors just like on regular market day, but, the city also decided to repave one of the major streets in town, so now the traffic is even more fun than ever. It's kind of a free for all, for this one (narrow and curved) street that goes through town. Until the police start work (about 8:30 am) everything jams up at the midway point on this one street and everyone sits there resolute not to back up and let anyone pass--good stuff! Your only hope is to get behind a bus, whose assistant works his way up and starts directing traffic with the other bus assistants until there is a break. THE FAIR IS OVER TOMORROW!

We headed to Mexico yesterday to get our visas renewed and do a little shopping at Sam's Club. Now we are back home safe and sound. This method visa renewal is common among American who live here, because the residency process is a long one. But, we are thinking about doing that next year when we can get back to the States and get our letter of clearance from the local police department and banks. The upside is, you are considered "legal" while in process of getting your residency visa. Until then, we will keep making our run to the border, taking advantage of good mexican food and discount warehouse shopping! We are here for Christmas this year, but are enjoying a visit from Kemmel's mom Roberta and her husband Duane who get here Monday! It will be a good week.

Well, Merry Christmas everyone,
God bless.

End of Year Party

Remember we said that we broke down and splurged on a lawn mower - well here is our yard after the first mow. This is a section of the back yard, still about 25% more that you cannot see plus a small side and front yard.

On Saturday we invited all of the staff and their families over for an end of the year social event and lunch. Unfortunately, we were missing 2 staff members who were greatly missed - Gaspar and Sheri. Gaspar had a commitment with a church he is conducting some Bible studies with and Sheri flew back home on Saturday to send a couple of weeks with family.

When inviting staff and "families" here you have to be careful to define family as most of them live in the same compound as their parents, and other married or single brothers and sisters. For example, if not defined Manuel could have brought 17-20 people easy as they all live together. So we compromised and invited all of their children plus 2-3 extra family members. It turned out great as we had around 35 people and enough food for everyone. We did a mixed menu of Guatemalan food and American food - we had Guatemalan enchiladas for starters and then hamburgers and hot dogs and chips for the meal. Then, Josefina's family brought the makings for shrimp ceviche which was excellent as well. The Guatemalan enchilada is a tostada with some taco like seasoned meat and some picked vegetables of beats and cabbage. Does not sound appetizing but it is very good. We finished up with Sarita ice cream.

At first people were shy in getting their food so we had to prod them along some, but once everyone was comfortable they started to enjoy more. The kids really like the hot dogs so it is the same everywhere. Some kids ate up to 4 hot dogs without the buns! Then of course they went to town on the ice cream as well. Hopefully everyone was not sick by the end of the day!

We had some great discussions and time together and everyone headed home before sundown. We have a great team with some extremely supporting families and churches, so we could not ask for many more blessings than that.

Had to end with a picture of one of our favorite little guys. This is Edgar, youngest son of Manuel Sut, but not the youngest. He now has 2 younger sisters. He ate 3 hot dogs and a mess of chips.

Happiness is a Tennis Ball / Address!

Today we had clinic in Lemoa with about 12 medical patients and about 8-10 dental patients. Most of the dental patients were ABC children from Mactzul V and then we had some others from the local community, so the word of this service is starting to spread. One of the families from Mactzul V is the daughter of the lady that we bought the land from so for them it was kind of reunion. This brought some extra kids to the clinic today. With the extra kids, Sheri handed one of the boys a tennis ball and then started to play catch with him. This was a hit! It is pretty amazing how much joy something small can bring to a number of little boys.

Other recent happenings is that the bridge that connects all of the northern part of the Department of Quiche to the rest of the world was closed yesterday for repair and will be closed for 1-2 weeks. This is a time which is considered the busiest commercial and travel time of the year for the Department of Quiche and most of Guatemala. The good news is the bridge will be fixed as it has been shifting. The bad news is they have picked the worst time of the year to do it. We have pretty much the same woes in Chichi where the few weeks of fair are starting so streets are being closed to allow for fair vendors while at the same time the open streets are also under construction. What would take 5-10 minutes to drive through town can now take up to 30 minutes to 1 hour depending on how many trucks and buses are passing through town.

The minibuses here which provide local transportation from Chichi to Santa Cruz are providing transportation from Chichi to the broken down bridge and then people can cross over to another minibus on the other side. This involves trudging down to river and the climbing up the other side. Does not sound too bad until you see ladies doing this in high heels. Today Sheri, Manuel and Marcos had the experience of doing this. Thankfully, this has happened during our last 3 days of clinic so although pretty inconvenient, it could have been much worse if they did it 2 weeks ago which is what we had thought. So tomorrow we have to take the long way around which will add about another 30 minutes to the drive.

If you are reading this and wondering what we could use here in Guatemala, please see the list on the right side of the blog site. If you are wondering what we would like personally, just some mail. Lisa has a mail box and she needs someone to send her some mail. Although snail mail is slow it does put a smile on her face. So, shoot us a postcard some time. Our address is:

Kemmel and Lisa Dunham
APDO #11
Chichicastenango, Departamento El Quiche,
Guatemala, C.A.

Thanks for reading and God bless!

Internet Woes, reptiles, Plus more

We now have Internet access again! We have been without since Thursday night. Our Internet guy, Sebastian, had the misfortune for himself and us to have a access point burn up. Unlucky for us, it was the access point that allows us access to the Internet. Although we continue to have ups and downs with the Internet service it is still hard to complain much as we do have some kind of Internet service. And Sebastian does try to provide a good, attentive service with the resources that he has. His service is still much better than the service we had before. At least he lets us know when he is having problems and he continues to find ways to improve the service as well.

On other news Lisa continues her clinics in Chuabaj. Today she had a man present with a snake bite. This after hearing from multiple sources "oh there are no snakes here!". He presented with the snake bite and the snake, a live snake and a pit viper at that! Lucky for him we do not think it was a barba amarilla (ferdelance), one of the most dangerous snakes in Guatemala. Instead we think it was another pitviper called cantil, still quite a bummer for him.

After the snake bit him, he picked it up to bring to Lisa so they would see the type of snake it was. Upon arrival his hand was already swollen and then they had to discuss what they were going to do with the snake while Lisa keeps telling them they need to go to the hospital, like now! Kill it!, do not ask questions.

This makes me a bit nervous as I have this pile of construction stuff in the backyard that I need to clean out and move what is still good to another area. Now I am thinking this would be a good time for trickle down economics and providing someone a job for the day.

This reminds me of another friend we encountered in the yard the other day - we think it as a salamander - never seen one before. These are pretty non-aggressive and as I would hit it with a stick barely moves as well.

Of course we still have all of our pet insects we live with, mostly spiders. When we first moved here they would freak us out, now they are just "hey look that's a big one" - stomp! Our other common bugs are rolly pollies, furry caterpillars and earwigs put they are seasonal. We are entering the earwig season now.

Almost forgot, Lisa encountered a lizard sticking his head through the ceiling today, so maybe he will help by eating more bugs. Lisa says he is welcome as long as he does not approach the bedroom. So far no cockroaches or mice! We do find the occasional slug around the trash areas - they are probably the grossest.

We are approaching our last day of clinic which will be Friday and then all of the staff goes on vacation until January 4th. Our first clinic in 2008 will be on January 7th. Today we made a quick trip to Guatemala City to pickup some gift packages for the families of ABC and our employees. See Sheri's blog for more info - http://www.sheriinguate.blogspot.com/.

God was watching out for us as we heard on the radio that the highway was going to close at 1pm and not open until 6pm, so our plans changed to make it a quick trip to get the gift packages and race back. If we had not known we would have hit the road closure about 3pm and sat around for 3-4 hours. The highway was being closed to allow for dynamiting of some of the mountains they are carving to allow for a wider highway.

The employees also received their year end bonuses which is part of the Guatemala payroll law. In Guatemala, each employee is paid 15 months in a 12 month period, not sure why but it seems to work for them and allows people to have money during the different holidays. I would not complain!

Do not forget to check Sheri's blog for other news about our clinics and other activities she is involved in. http://www.sheriinguate.blogspot.com/.

On personal news, we broke down and purchased a lawnmower. Yes we do have a yard, but we have been cutting the grass with a weedeater (weed whacker for those of you further north), which does the trick but the process is about 2-3 hours and you tend to not be very straight. So, we got a lawnmower and wow, it is much faster now and leaves a nice looking yard. Forgot how much we missed that. Yard work is much more enjoyable now. The simple things in life....

Wednesday

It's been a productive day today for both of us. Kemmel spent the day getting a schedule ready for the new year. It's a daunting task that he has been spinnning in his head for a few weeks, and today he got it all organized and put in calendar format. The new year will be packed with mobile medical clinics, mobile and central dental clinics and also some visiting interns, groups and surgery weeks down at the coast. I thank God every day that he blessed Kemmel with the gift of administration and organization, because without it, our work here would not be the same! He is still plugging along as I write, making the schedule user friendly.

I had a good day in the community as well. It started off with a district meeting at the health department and a training session for new materials we have for sex education classes in the schools. It is good material and will be useful for our team as well, as the churches have begun to ask for help in this arena.

Next, I went out to Chuabaj to present a talk at on of the local churhes on signs of medical emergency and forming a family plan of emergency. They were very hospitable and appreciated the information, and invited me to come back to talk about first aid.

In this country, it is difficult to get patients and their families to go to the hospital when there is an emergency. Mostly due to fear of dying there, or fear of poor treatment. But the goal today, was to encourage families to recognize signs of illnesses that have definite and effective treatments available, like obstetrical emergencies, neumonia, neonatal sepsis, and dehydration from diarrea.

The other issue we run into here is the lack of, or perceived lack of authority to make decisions when the head of the family is not present. We often see patients or familiy members reluctant to go the hospital because they don't know what the husband or older brother would want to do and he can't be contacted at that moment. So our goal is to encourage families to develop a plan of action that is approved in the case of emergency, so that everyone can make the decisions necessary to access care in a timely manner.

Be in prayer for families here to begin to think of each other's well being and that the care they receive in the local hospitals will be a blessing for them.

Well, that's all for now folks. Have a quiet and restful evening.
God bless.

ABC Celebration

This weekend Lisa, Sheri and I and another 1500-1800 or so people made our way to Montellano, Clinica Ezell, to participate in the ABC Celebration. ABC stands for the ABC Program which is a child sponsorship program managed by HTI. Being able to live locally and be involved on the sidelines of a new community start-up and hearing the parents after 1-2 years of the children being in the program is extremely encouraging. The parents talk of how the children our changing physically, spiritually and educationally and how, which is very important, the children seem to have more concern for how they conduct themselves, remain clean, study in school etc. This program focus on spiritual growth by maintaining children in church and education by maintaining them in school. This is accomplished through a set of goals and responsibilities each child has and of course, some do better than others. The ABC Celebration is a day for everyone to come together, first to worship and thank God for his generous blessings and then to also celebrate the accomplishments of the children in the program.

This year we heard from a number of older ABC children who are now finishing high school and continuing to university or other careers. One is finishing studies in bookkeeping/accounting, another finished school as a dental hygienist and is looking to start dental school in 2008 and another is a teacher. We also know of another who is in medical school and another who is in a administrative role in the HTI organization.

Part of the celebration included entertainment by a clown team from one of the churches in Guatemala City and the other larger event was the presentation of awards to students who met their goals. The goals are driven by points and prizes are awarded to the children who reach 2 levels. The higher level received prizes such as beds or dressers while the lower level received clothing items. Here are some pictures below....

The clown picking on Juan Ordonez from Paxot II. Juan is one of the Guatemalan Board Members.

Parents enjoying the time as well. The man in the white shirt is Miguel, who came to us in clinic in Mactzul 5 over a year ago barely able to walk due to CHF; but now due to the wonderful donations of medicines, he is able to walk and come down to Montellano to enjoy the day!

For those who have been to Montellano, you know it is hot! Well, we could easily pick out those from the Quiche and Chichicastenango area as all of the children's hair was soaked with sweat - even when they were sitting in the shade!

These are the children from Paxot II who won prizes for meeting their goals. We are especially proud of Santos (in the blue shirt) who ended up with a 96 average in his grades at school! This is excellent in a culture who does not place much emphasis on the importance of grades. Our health promoter, Manuel's daughters won first prize and received a bed and a dresser.

These are the children from Xepocol who won prizes for having high points. All of the ones kneeling won first prize and the little boy in the yellow, Esteban, and the girl in the purple blouse, Sandra, also won medals for grade averages above 85%. For those who have lived in Xepocol or have visited, Esteban is the son of Juan Chan, Gaspar's uncle. Gaspar's sons also won second prizes.

These are the children who made 95% of above on their grades. 2 had 100% averages. The little girl in front with the light blouse and skirt is from Las Cuevas which is one of the poorest communities we work with and she had a 94% average.

These are the children with 85% to 95%. One of these is Sandra from Xepocol who in this past year lost her mother and her brother in 2 different car accidents.

These are the children with 80% to 85%.

These are some of the buses - Sheri counted more than 15 buses present!

The church from Mactzul V loading up the bus for the ride home. The brought 2 buses as they have the largest number of kids in the program - 65.

This was a great day and we are glad we had the opportunity to go and enjoy with everyone.

Have a great week and God bless!

New Internet Equipment

Sorry we have not written this week. Our Internet service has not been very cooperative for the last 2 weeks so it has made it difficult to get online and blog. The good news is on Friday we readjusted our antenna to a better location and improved the signal some and then this weekend, the Internet guy, Sebastian, received some new antennas for the service. So now we are praying that we will have better service. He installed the antennas yesterday and today and so far we can see improvement.

We can actually download all of our emails on the first try, even one that was 4mb. That is a real chore here!

We had a great week this week and had the opportunity to participate in a Youth Conference in Paxot II, continue the ABC children's program dental clinics, continue medical clinics and participate in the ABC Program award ceremony and end of year party. We will write more on these tomorrow. Right now it is pretty much past our bed-time! Yeah we know, pretty lame, but we need our beauty sleep! Going to bed at 9pm and getting up at 5am is great!

Chwek Chic wechalal! Until tomorrow, brother (or sister)!

To Chichi and Market

Yesterday we went for a walk to Chichi to purchase some items at market and to pick up some clothes we had left with a local tailor to have mended. It was a beautiful sunny day! This time of the year is the end of the rainy season, so everything is green and sunny. Definitely a plus to living here. We took a few pictures to share with you all.

The first is where we purchase our meat products which we have found to be fresher, believe it or not, than the supermarket in Guatemala City. The only problem is the meat is too lean and when trying to make a hamburger it does not stick together. :) You will notice that next door is where we get ice cream and you also may noticed the fresh cow skull up against the wall!

Since we were on food we got to enjoy a couple of things we do not get here much - one was catfish, we found some in the city and fried it up a week or so ago. Very good! They say they catch it on the pacific coast. Then we also had a pumpkin pie which was our taste of Thanksgiving this year.

These other photos are photos of the arch looking out towards the mountains. Beautiful views. By the way we live all the way at the end where you see no more highway and what looks like a big sign.

Have a great Lord's day!

Clinica Caris Dental Grand Opening

The cutting of the ribbon - which we did not have so we used a plastic bag.

As mentioned in the previous post Thanksgiving day marked the grand opening of the dental clinic at Clinica Caris with Marcos and Mauri, the new dental assistant. Mauri is from Chichicastenango and recently finished high school with a diploma as a bookkeeper. So, not exactly a background in dental; however, we will put her bookkeeping skills and computer skills to use as well.

The actual cut!

Our plastic bag bow.


In action with patient number 2, Everaldo Chan Tevelan.

Right now with our dental services we are working examining and providing treatments to all of the children in the ABC program and we are slowly opening up the clinic to other patients as well. Our process includes going to the community first to exam the children, provided teeth cleanings or extractions for those needing and then programming the children for extra care to be provided by Marcos at Clinica Caris. So far we have visited Xepocol and Paxot 2. We head to Paxot 2 again today to finish the children there and then next week we head to La Palma and the following week, Mactzul V. For Mactzul V we will have to visit the community 3 days to get to all of the children - around 60.

Gaspar and Tomas, our health promoters, have also started the service of providing teeth cleanings and Gaspar now has about 20-30 under his belt. Yesterday he had 10 patients in Panajchit which is a clinic in Josefina's rotation.

Here is a picture of all of our promoters now - from left to right Mauri, Juan, Tomas, Gaspar, and Manuel. This was during the dental clinic in Xepocol where Mauri and Tomas were dental assistants, Gaspar Dental Hygienist, Manuel Gaspar's assistant and Juan was the dental tech, cleaning instruments. That left me and Sheri with sign-in, vital signs and pharmacy and Josefina seeing medical patients. All in all a good day. We had over 20 patients medical and over 20 dental.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Today is a little sad for us as we are not able to be with our families; however, we have much to be thankful for including a wonderful device called a cell phone. As a result, we were able to talk to our families today and enjoy some long distance fellowship. More than anything we are thankful to God our father for providing us with loving families and friends and for giving us the oppurtunity to be where we are now. We continue to know that this is where God wants us and we never have any second thoughts of whether or not we should be here, well minus Lisa's fiasco with the licensure thing. :)


We are thankful for so many people, experiences and things. We have been blessed with a wonderful congregation back home that we consider family, with wonderful congregations here in Guatemala that support us and pray for us regularly and with an intelligent and strong faithed staff who are our partners in the work we do here in Chichicastenango. So we want to thank all of you who check the blog as you are all faithful supporters in prayer and thoughts.


We are also thankful for things like computers and internet as they have provided us a means of communication that was not available for many missionaries in the past. We kid alot about all of the luxuries we have these days that were not available before, so our hats go off to all of those who have lived in 3rd world countries who have not had internet, cell phone, running water, electricity, etc. While what we have may not be active or available 100% of the time, at least it is available much of the time! Just the other day was the first day we have not had both running water and electricy at the same time. Although inconvinient we are glad this was a first.



Today we actually had to work, Lisa in her government clinic and Kemmel at Clinica Caris. Today provided another thing to be thankful for as today marked out ribbon cutting and first dental patient treatment in Clinica Caris. The first patient in the chair today for the grand event was Juan Chan Tevelan, an ABC child from Xepocol whose father, Pedro, is Gaspar's brother. Juan and his brother, Everaldo had 2 fillings each and then Marcos, the dentist, had a few more patients as well.

Check back tomorrow for some more info and pictures. We actually have some pictures to load but our internet service is giving us problems at this moment.

We have been pretty busy lately with the starting of the dental clinic and the new employee, Mauri, also with some of the clinics inceasing in patient load and in planning for 2008. Good things are happening and we have plenty to be thankful for. We have a great God who provides for all we need and provides us with the contentment we need to live a fullfilling life. What more can you ask for? God bless!

Marcos Lux Graduation from Dental School

On Wednesday of this week we headed to Marco's graduation from Dental School. Lisa was unable to make it due to the government work but I joined up with the Lux family to celebrate the day. The graduation service was a little different than the US but had some like events. At the end of the service they signed an Act which registers them as a dentist in Guatemala. This was a great day and a very proud day for their family. I was talking to their mom, Maria Juana and this was one of the best days of her life as she had all of her children together and the last was graduating in a professional career. All of their children now have professional degrees, something not often obtained by all the children in the area they are from. Beyond that they are a very strong christian family with all of the children very involved in their walk with Christ.

Marcos giving his short speech.

These are the "padrinos" (godfathers) of Marcos. It is customary to have at least 2 godfathers. They presented him with his toga and hat indicating his profession of dentistry. The far left is a family friend, the next is Dr. Feliciano Lux his uncle, and the last person is Dr. David Lux is his brother.


Here Marcos is signing the Act that makes him a registered Dentist in Guatemala.

Final group picture. The top row are some of the faculty of the school.

Proud parents.

Happy and content family! May God continue to bless them as they serve Him in the various ministries they are involved in. Josefina, David and Marcos now serve with HTI. Moises is an attorney and frequently donates his time to churches to assist with legal work and Juan Diego is a preacher and evangelist who used to teach at the Baxter Institute in Honduras. Diego and Maria Juana continue to work with the church and they were instrumental in building up the church in this area.

God bless!

Good times!

We have had some good times these last few weeks hosting a couple of medical groups and a marraige seminar.

In this last group we had about 50 people total when counting the american and guatemalan staff. Most of the americans were from Edmond, Oklahoma with a few others scattered about. In the group was our brother in law, Charlie and his mom, Sandy. We had clinics for 3 days in 2 locations each day, and we cared for about 600 patients, both medical and dental. Most of the patients were dental as we have found the medical clinics are not so large since we have more of a presence in the communties on a regular basis. Also, this last group was here during the All Saints holiday which affected some of the clinic turn outs.

We continue to see a huge need for dental assistance in the communities and thanks to the blessings that God provides, Health Talents and supporters we have a dentist who has now started with us and we are in the process of arranging his schedule. The dentist is Marcos Lux and he is Josefina's brother. Marcos was a scholarship recipient of the HTI Bates Scholarship program. He will be in the central clinic, Clinica Caris, in Lemoa 2 days a week and mobile the other days. Going mobile with dentistry is a little more difficult but we are up for the challenge!
Marcos has his official graduation this Monday. Here is an interesting fact - out of around 100 students who started dental school with him 6 years ago, less than 10 will graduate this year. The others may take 2 to 4 more years to graduate.

This last week was also the start of us providing teeth cleanings through 2 of our health promoters, Gaspar and Tomas. We are extremely grateful to have men such as these who are leaders in their churches, communities, and are willing to learn and serve in any manner that they can. To see a picture of Gaspar, see Sheri's blog at http://www.sheriinguate.blogspot.com/.
We are still not very good at getting pictures! Anyway, we know have the equipment to be able to perform teeth cleanings each day we are clinic provided we have enough volunteers from the churches, which we do not see as a problem! To our surprise we have many people interested in this service.

This week we also received a replacement laptop for Lisa (got a great deal on a Gateway) so today has been computer day - you forget what a pain it is to set up a new computer with all of the data, etc. Things were going well until my pc lost it's screen, so now we are having fun with that as well. The Dell rep from India gave me some things to try and if no luck we will see if we can have it worked on in the US. Right now we will just use it as a desktop with a monitor!

Thanks for checking in with us and we will work on getting some photos. In the meantime check out Sheri's blog - she is much better at photos that I am!

Friday Night

Good Friday evening to everyone. We are home unpacking some goodies that Kemmel got in the Capital today--nothing like full scale grocery shopping! Fresh veggies are nice, but frozen are a whole lot easier. He went to the city to get one of the trucks serviced and took the family of the little girl with leukemia (Julisa) with him for their chemotherapy visit. Unfortunately, her blood count was a little too low following an illness, and they have to wait until next week to start up treatments again. But, she is doing well and cute as ever and always has a little smile on her face. This time her mom took her to the hospital by herself (without dad), so it's nice to see that the family is getting more comfortable with the routine and the hospital staff must be treating them well.

The reason Julissa's family went with Kemmel is because there is a strike under way by the bus drivers in our area, because the gangs in the city are requiring a $2000/month "security payment" from the owners of the buses. Well, several companies said no, and now 3
bus drivers have been shot and killed. Needless to say, the number of buses running has declined and those who are, are charging more and carrying armed guards with them. Makes for a fun ride, I'm sure.

We also have a new president. Alvaro Colom who is of the UNE party won 52% to 46% over Otto Perez. Colom is referred to as a social democrat "left of center" with plans to end poverty and Perez "the strong arm" is an ex military officer who planned to end crime. Both problems are complicated in nature, and probably are interrelated and won't be fixed anytime soon. Be praying for God to use the new president in good ways for this country.

Other than this excitement, things are pretty tranquil here. School is going fine and the clinics are doing well, too. This week, Marcos Lux, our new dentist has been setting up his office and Kemmel and Carlos have been helping get the new equipment set up. This will be such a blessing to have a full time dentist with us!

Well, everyone have a good evening, and may your favorite home town football team win!

Quick Update

Well, the last few days have been without much incident and we enjoyed a couple of day where we could be at home and not have to travel anywhere.

On Friday we got the truck unstuck with the help of a tow truck. Our truck was located about 30 -45 minutes outside of Santa Cruz. The man started to help us and commented " Hay hombre, esto si esta travado!" Oh man, this is really stuck! So it made us feel better that we could not get it out ourselves. Q300 ($30) and 45 minutes later we were out of the mud. It was a dual winch job! He tried just one and it would not work, so he had to connect the second and a very large chain. We were stuck right next to a school, so we provided entertainment for the children as well.

On Sunday we went to worship at the Church of Christ in Chichicastenango and got to see some friends we had not seen in a few weeks due to all of the running around. There were 2 men who were reconciling with the church after not coming for over 3 years. This was a pretty exciting moment for the church as the families of these 2 men have been attending all throughout this time and they were well know by the members of the church. The sermon was mostly in kiche, so much of it was hard to understand and during class we talked about singing as the church is going to start to emphasize some more classes on how to worship through our voice.

Yesterday it was back to work. Lisa's professor/boss came by the clinic to spend some time with her and helped align some of the tasks she needs to do for her program. I think this helped Lisa feel a little better about things - there is just alot of busy work that needs to be done.

On Wednesday of this week, we host a medical / dental mobile team who will work in clinics Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Between the US team that is coming and our Guatemalan team we will have clinics in 3 communities both Thursday and Friday and then in 2 communities on Saturday. So yesterday after seeing patients in Lemoa we started to prepare for the week and will continue to do some these next couple of days as we only have one clinic a day for the next couple of days.

Please pray for safe travels for this team and that God will be glorified in the work we will be doing.

Also, this weekend is the final elections for Guatemala so please pray for a peaceful transition and for a leader that will uphold his promises and will hold to the christian virtues they profess to have.

God bless!

Cough or Avocado?

Yesterday we just finished up our marriage seminar. Everyone was so excited about having the new lesson to take back to their congregation. We want to thank Leo and Xiomara for their work and wish them well in the seminar they are giving in the Clinica Ezell area tomorrow and Saturday.

We ended the day with K'iche' lessons and a worship service with our American friends. We even enjoyed some acappella singing when the sound system went down! It was good to sing in English.

Our language class is pretty fun. Last night we focused on the alphabet and some medical words.

Interestingly enough, the word for cough is the same word for avocado (just different context). So when I ask my patients if they have a cough, I can follow that with "do you have an avocado, by chance?"

The weather here has been rainy until today, in fact one of our teams is stuck in the mud and after trying to get it out with one of the other trucks and also a large cargo truck, it is still stuck in the mud. We have ended up having to leave it overnight so that we can bring in a tow truck tomorrow morning to lift it out. The truck is pretty wedged into the mud now after trying to drag it out - most of the front tires are buried. Good times.... Kemmel's new rubber boots will come in handy the second time already!!

We were glad to have a dry day today, but it was really cold, so now we are warming up the house with a good fire in the fireplace. We felt a little bad that we were enjoying our fire while some of our team were trying to get the truck out of the mud; however, there would not have been much else we could have helped with and we are over 1 hour away from the location and no reason to have 3 trucks out there.

Hope everyone has a quiet night. Chat worok, John Boy. (Good night, John Boy.)

Marriage Seminar - 2nd post today!

Today was the first day of a marriage seminar we are hosting with Health Talents International in Chichicastenango. Through the support of a church in Nashville, TN we were able to bring in a husband and wife team from Venezuela with 12 years experience in marriage seminars for this presentation. This husband and wife team are Leo and Xiomara Rojas and through marriage seminars they have experienced increased church maturity, marital responsibility and church growth. It is very exciting to hear the stories they have of restored marriages and church growth while using marriage seminars as a tool for evangelism.

The seminar is being held at a local hotel called Hotel Casa del Rey which is a owned by a mission organization who helps promote different ministries such as this.

We invited 22 churches in the area to send representatives and ended up with representation from about 15 churches and 18 couples! There is much interest in the topic of marriage and many have expressed their gratitude for hosting this seminar as to their knowledge this is the first marriage seminar in the area.

Leo Rojas presenting.

Conference center and attendees.

This top picture and pictures below were an activity that got the group roaring in laughter. The husband had to identify his wife by only holding her hand. A few of the husbands did great identifying their spouses while others struggled - about 25% got it right.

It was a great day and we topped it off with some praises led by Martin from Choacaman.

Clinica Caris Updated Pictures

Here are some recent pictures of Clinica Caris. Clinica Caris is our central referral clinic which is open Monday and Thursday and then the other days the mobile teams are holding clinics in other remote villages about 45 minutes to 1 hour off the highways.

This is the front view with our newly grown grass. We have a ways to go but it appears to be filling in pretty good.

This is the view if you could see it from the highway. It is not all visible because of a small hill. Right now we are not visible at all because of the corn. We are still experiencing our sign saga, although right now it could be ready but I have not had the time to pick it up so have not called for a couple of weeks.

This is a picture of the new bodega that we have added since the opening of the clinic. We discovered we needed a place for a dental compressor, so we took advantage and made the room a little larger for storage.

This is a view of our rain water collection system. We have this above ground storage and also one below ground. The cost was pretty low so we thought it may be useful in the future.

Last but not least, these are our latrines. These were some expensive latrines as it was one of those do as we go projects and the worker tended to create work for himself. Anyway we did gainfully employee someone for awhile and ended up with some well built latrines. The pits are 10 meters deep and because of all of the rain we have had the ground is saturated and each of the pits have filled up with water up to about 2 meters from the top! We pray that they do not overflow!

Hope you enjoy!

Puro Montaña (Pure Mountain)

This is a picture of the area around Chuchuca and Xejox.

As mentioned in the previous post we have a medical team here with us from SouthFork Church of Christ in North Carolina. This is the sponsoring church of a nurse, Sheri, who works with us here in the area of Quiche. Sheri has actually taken over Lisa's clinics during the time she will be working in the government clinic.



On Wednesday and Thursday of this week we headed to the mountains above Zacualpa (2 hours one way) to work with 2 churches in hosting some clinics in their areas. These 2 churches are in the towns of Xejox and Chuchuca which are about a 1 hour trip up the mountain from the highway. Now, since there are some roads up to this area and the roads have been improved with more gravel and sand we were able to head up there for clinic. In the past these 2 locations have been rather difficult to get to due to the conditions of the roads during the rainy season. There is a main road that crosses the mountain which can normally be fine, but once you branch off to these 2 communities the roads would get substantially worse. Thank God this time the roads were pretty good; however, there were some deep mud areas that were plastered with rocks in the holes to help us get through and on the last day it was a little slick since it had started to rain before we left. We had one rental Mazda truck which had a little difficulty compared to the Mitsubishi's we normally use. So we have learned to not purchase a Mazda for this area. It was great for most situations but once it was steep and slick it struggled more than we would want it to. It was fast on the highway though - like that turbo action!

These churches have some great history and were started about 10-15 years ago in a time when the evangelists would have to hike to get to these villages - about a 5-6 hour hike for a Guatemalan. So for us gringos, except for those of you who are hikers, would be a much longer hike. These 2 churches are a couple of the biggest churches in the area with between 250-300 members between the 2.

This brings up an interesting topic to understand a little difference in our cultures. We have many groups or young people who come and want to go for a "hike". Well, in this culture going for a "hike" is not a normal event as a "hike" to them is walking home or walking to the nearest spot to catch a truck or a bus to get to their destination. So, when we first were bringing this idea up to our local promoters and friends to ask where it would be safe and if someone would join them for the "hike", the question was always "why?", "why do they want to walk to the top of that mountain?" They just do not understand... Their lives are much more physical, so to perform another physical task is pretty much futile and makes no sense, unless it is to play soccer.

OK, back on track... The week with Southfork was great and we attended to around 200 medical patients and 80 dental patients and 80 reading glasses patients. Each day averaged a good number for each caretaker, allowing us to also minister to the spiritual needs of patients as well. Most patients had simple symptoms which we would normally go to the pharmacy for and others were more serious illnesses such as blindness, malnutrition, cataracts, healed-up dislocations, eye infections, etc.

Also this week, I had the honor of meeting up with a good friend, Amy Vasey (well now married so a different last name), that I went to school with here in Guatemala many years ago. We are both now 40 and going on 41 and it was a great time to reminisce on the good old days of growing up in Guatemala. Amy was my brother Gary's (Gary has since passed away) first girlfriend so we were all pretty close during that time. We were able to catch up with each others lives and also find out about other friends we lost track of many years before. Amy's dad also now lives here in Chichicastenango as he is translating the Old Testament into the Kiche dialect of Chichicastenango. Amy's dad, Bill, has worked as a translator here in Guatemala for more than 30 or so years! He is great and is teaching us gringos some kiche as well! Hopefully we will catch on!

In Lisa's world of social medicine, she had a interesting day on Friday. Friday was the day for all of the midwives of her area to come together for an education session and a festival of sorts for the service they provide to the community throughout the year. Lisa had a lesson planned, but the day became mostly a time of celebration, and much to her surprise and discontent, included a traditional Mayan blessing on the women and the health post. This Mayan blessing /prayer service consisted of much fire and smoke while the local priests offer up sacrifices of sugar, candles, incense, etc. on behalf of the midwives. So health clinic became a mayan temple for a day, all filled with smoke, but at least there is not a smoke alarm - probably would not meet OSHA standards. She was also able to get to know the midwifes a little better while attending to their medical needs as well as there families.

Adobe Roads

Although we are nearing the end of the rainy season, we seem to be getting a last big rally of storms. It has rained almost every day and sometimes in the mornings as well. This is great for dust control, but it makes for interesting back-roading. This week we have a moblile medical/dental team in (SouthFork Church of Christ from Winston-Salem). On Monday all went well. After a healthy hike to the clinic site in Xatinap (Shotinop), they saw 53 medical and 15 dental patients and several for reading glasses. Yesterday they headed out to Chuchipaca. There, the roads were "pure adobe" as Kemmel puts it, and they got stuck twice. Thankfully they got out quickly and got to work, seeing 55 medical and 25 dental. The church did a good job and several members were present to welcome the patients as well.

Today, everyone is up early for a two hour drive to Chuchuca'. This is a very remote area were there are two congregations that have been asking for clinic ministries for a while. These brethren are humble and gracious and often bring neighbors and friends to our clinic in Lemoa for consults (3hour ride for them--one way). Yesterday, Kemmel called them for a road report and the brother said "Are you bringing 4x4? Good, you should be able to make it." The roads there are notoriously bad during the rains, but gracias a Dios, there isn't any roading along the cliff edges!

So, keep the team in prayer. They plan to go there tomorrow as well. I (Lisa) will be trekking up to my Puesto as usual. We are getting ready for a roundup of kids delinquint in their immunizations--should be a hoot! We will have a small group of nursing students with us to help--nothing like trial by fire.

Everyone have a good day!

Surgical Week

This past week I (Kemmel) was in Montellano at Clinica Ezell working in the sterilization room. The surgical team was very diverse with people from multiple locations in the US (Missouri, Texas, Tennessee, California, Massachusetts, Washington DC, Maryland, Wyoming, Montana and Colorado) and various backgrounds. This week was focused on general and GYN surgery, a total of 68 procedures and around 63 patients, some with double procedures. The cases ranges from minor skin surgery to hernia repairs to gall bladder removal to hysterectomies. All of the surgeries were successful with one gall bladder case being rather complicated due to some abnormal anatomy of the patient. I was not told of any crazy post-op infections, so we must of done a good job sterilizing the instruments. :) We did 7 Lap Choles this week which is the most we have done all year, so thank God we had some experienced surgical techs/nurses and surgeons to allow these procedures to be performed.

We continue to see patients in the advance stages of cervical cancer and this week during a pap smear clinic we had 3 out of 12 ladies testing positive for cervical cancer. This encouraged some of the physicians to help us with the possibility of donating a colposcope in attempts to start a larger effort of providing a better way of screening for cervical cancer.


We also had 3 missionaries from Guatemala join us for the week to assist with translation, sterilization, nursing and whatever came up. These two ladies were an excellent addition to the group, helping demonstrate the love of Christ to our patients.


In these surgical teams many times we are short on recovery room nursing staff, so if you are reading this and you are a nurse, please check out http://www.healthtalents.org/ to see about coming and serving with us for a week. We could use your help!

The surgical week ended on Friday morning and I was able to get back to Guatemala City to get our visas renewed with no problems this time. I tried to do this a week or so ago and I was not able to finish the process as the credit card I had did not have Lisa's name on it (which has never been a problem before).

Also this week Lisa made a trip to Antigua to meet with her fellow students and her professor from the University. She had her first test in this process and passed! She did not get the best grade of the class, nor did she get the worst, but for Spanish being her second language she did great and was only a few points short of another cuban physician going through the same process and Spanish is her primary language. Please continue to keep Lisa in your prayers as the language barrier can be difficult when working with people in a professional environment.

Since Lisa was in Antigua and the group went to Antigua on Friday, we were able to hook up and spend Friday and Saturday together. Saturday afternoon we picked up a group from Sheri's church in North Carolina - Southfork Church of Christ. They will be helping us with some clinics this following week. Today we will get some rest this morning, and then this afternoon, join the group for lunch and an afternoon worship service in Santa Cruz del Quiche.

Monday

We had a busy day at the Puesto de Salud (health post) today. Several new patients and an impressive hand laceration on an 11 year old kid. One patient, a man in his 60s came in and asked me if I am a doctor. I said yes, and he said, " well maybe you have some experience with illnesses." He showed me a skin problem that is probably a fungal infection, and then asked if his drinking was causing the rash. I didn't think so, but it gave me a good opportunity to talk to him about his drinking problem. We talked about ways to avoid tempation and strategies to help get him out when he found himself with friends/family who are drinking. I also talked to him about asking God to help him with this problem and he thought that was a good idea. He thanked me and gave me a sack of apples from his trees. He will come back in a few weeks and let me know how he is doing. Keep him in your prayers that he will begin to put his faith in God and that I will have words to guide him.

The 11 year old had a laceration extending from palm at the base of the fingers to past the wrist. He was play-fighting with his friend at school and got pushed against a nail sticking out of a board. Luckily it wasn't terribly deep, and I had just enough lidocaine to inject the length of the wound. He took it like an 11 year old and screamed the whole time. Meanwhile his two younger sisters sat in the waiting room and cried for him. I'm glad I saved him for last! We finally got him stitched up and vaccinated and packed off with a note to his teacher excusing him from missing his final exams today. Everybody loves an excuse note!

Kemmel is hanging out in the sterilization room in the OR at Clinica Ezell. They were pretty busy the first day, but things went smoothly. No word yet today, which means they are busy still. Surgery week is such a busy and exhausting time, but we always get such nice comments from patients about how much they appreciate the care they receive. We pray with all of the patients before they go into the OR and many times as they are recovering. Last month during surgery week, we saw a patient praying with another patient waiting to go back for surgery! What a good feeling to see people caring for each other as they have been cared for.

God bless, and have a good night.

Weekend

We started off the weekend with a little work around the house. It was a beautiful sunny morning yesterday so we walked up to town to get some things in market and get a little exercise. Saturday is kind of a nice time to shop, because a lot of the vendors have fresh produce in preparation for the big market day Sunday, but there aren't nearly as many people. And you run into folks you know and can stop and talk without getting mobbed. I even got a call from my mom and dad while I was strolling around the stalls of veggies. Very nice morning!

After we got home, we took a trip out to Clinica Caris to check out the new dental cabinetry that went in Friday. Kemmel was helping to install them on Friday, but had to get back for our Quiche lessons before they could finish. They turned out great, and the workmanship is excellent. Now if we could just get that sign! "It should be ready next week........."

Kemmel in our Suzuki stealth vehicle (so small it fits in any parking spot, and blends in with all the other guatemalan cars!).

All we need is a dentist! Coming soon......

For lunch we decided to have a best-of-both-worlds cookout--fresh mixed veggies on the grill and Johnsonville Brats found at the Pricemart frozen section in Guatemala City--yea!


We finished out the day with general cleaning and straightening and hired our next door neighbors' son Brandon to do a job for us that would have qualified for that show "Dirty Jobs" . Our long-abandoned cistern project (of the owner) is nothing more than a huge hole in our front yard that fills with water and grass clippings. After the rains stop, we are going to dig a new cistern, but in a different area, and fill this one in. Well, Brandon stepped up the plate and did a great job and in about 2 hours had it drained and most of the slime layer out. It is definitely nice to have teenagers around!

Any crawdads in there?

Brandon Helwer--swamp digger.

Well, today, Kemmel and Tomas and Gaspar head to Clinica Ezell to work with a surgical team. I, unfortuneately have to stay back. I will be studying for a quiz (of all things) this week and try to get some of my other scholastic projects done.

Hope everyone has a good Lord's Day.