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....