Happy Boxing Day and Happy Anniversary Mo and We

We made it to Texas on the 26th to celebrate Christmas (or Boxing Day to be exact) with the Paschall side of the family. Our cousin Steve (Little Steve) and his new wife Melissa are in from Boston, and it was great to see them again. We have great pictures but really slow internet connection so I will work on uploading them a little at a time. Today is my parents' 41st anniversary. And they still like each other! We are all here spending time together enjoying the pretty weather (75 degrees yesterday with thunderstorms through the night and sunny, cold and windy today) and the overly abundant good food. We are watching smoke from a grass fire across the river in Oklahoma right now. Hopefully they will get it under control.
On the family news front, my brother Kriss' dog had 10 puppies the night before they came here. Should be fun--anyone want a german shepard?
Everyone enjoy your weekend.

Merry Christmas

Rick, Andrea and Ron
Becky and Lisa

Kemmel, Roberta and Duane

Callie, Lori and Corbin--Scene It champions

Hot and heavy Scene It competition

We spent last evening together taking family pictures and eating tamales and other goodies. It was good to have everyone together in the Dunham family. Today we are celebrating Christmas Eve together as well. We ventured out to Walmart for doughnuts this morning at 7:00 am and it was already full. So hope you got everything you needed already--you DON'T want to get caught up in that mess today!

Merry Christmas everyone--we love you and wish you a joyful New Year as well.

On the Road Again

We made it to Tucson today! The weather was great and we had an uneventful trip. Since we got in early we headed to the mall to get Kemmel some new glasses--talk about mall madness....what a looney bin. But we got a good deal on lenses and did a little window shopping.

Here are some pictures of the trip out. It looked pretty much like this for about 300 miles. We saw the advertising for the "THING" starting in Deming, NM and didn't get a chance to stop in this time--definitely something on my list of things (no pun intended) to see in this life.

Here is a trailer that caught on fire--we were afraid to drive by it until we saw that the driver pulled the truck away out of reach of the flames.

Everyone have a good weekend. And we are keeping everyone in prayer for safe travels and navigation of snowy roads up north (hang in there Anna and Charlie!).

I'll Be Home For Christmas

We are in the airport right now headed to the States via Mexico City. We found cheap tickets and took advantage, so we will be spending several days with both families in Arizona and Texas. Tonight we land in Dallas and my (Lisa) parents will pick us up and take us to their house, and tomorrow we will borrow their car and head out to Tucson. It's a long trip, but we will break it up into 2 days so it should be a pretty luxurious trip through the scenic desert of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona (It's like one big brown mountain from Van Horn to Tucson). We will get to see everyone and spend Christmas Eve together with our niece and her husband Lori and Rick. Then, back on the road Christmas day to get to Texas on the 26. Everyone but my sister Anna and her family will be together.
Everyone have a great weekend and Merry Christmas!

Tamale Time

Yesterday we spent the day with the Lux family. Marcos, our dentist turned 27 and we were invited to celebrate with them and his mom and I planned to make tamales together. It was a fun day with all of us women-folk hanging out in the kitchen working on the various phases of tamales making. Our recado (tamale sauce) consisted of pumkin seeds, sesame seeds, ancho chiles, another kind of dried red chile, chocolate, cinnamon, cloves, red bell peppers and tomatoes. All ingredients had to be toasted and then thrown together in the blender to make the sauce. Then, after a great lunch, we set up the assembly line--rice dough or potato dough, sauce, chicken or pork, sauce, olive/prune/pepper garnish all wrapped in two big green leaves.

Yummy!

Count Down

Just two more days of work! Don't get us wrong; we love our work, but it will be nice to take a break for the holidays. Things are hopping around here in town with parties every night, costumed dances in the streets, and more fair ground and market booths (you got it--more ROSCAS! - estimate we are up to 20000 pounds of roscas for sale!)

Snake oil salesman in the park

Party trailer complete with band and sound equipment. Making its round to all the neighborhoods in town--and blocking traffic!

Roscas

Yesterday was clinic in Xepocol. We saw several people, the majority of whom do not attend church. One patient in particular came in for some health issues, but we ended up talking about her husband who is dying at home, from probably a brain tumor. They have sought treatment and were told there is nothing else to be done, and he is unconscious in bed this week. She is young (35) with 5 children, and says she used to attend one of the churches in town, but since her husband has been sick, she quit going. The sad part, is she says no one from that church has come to pray with them and said that the pastor only prays for those who can pay him. And the other members and some neighbors have told her that as soon as he dies, she too will die as punishment for whatever sins they have in their life. We spent some time in counseling and praying and getting her some medications, and Gaspar arranged for a visit from people in his congregation to go to their home to pray with them.

Great Season, Zach!

Just a quick salute to our nephew Zach and his football buddies of the Bridgeport Bulls. They went undefeated this year until last night at the Texas regional 3A playoffs against Liberty Hill. It was reportedly a great game, but not meant to be this time. We are so proud of you, Zach and the hard work you put into the season! He is a great christian guy and terrific big brother to his little sister Anyla!

Roscas

It's getting crazy around here with lots of celebrating of various holy days and getting ready for the fair. Kemmel's favorite thing to watch is the stands of roscas (kind of a dry mildly sweet pretzel, eaten with coffee). What cracks him up the most is that the vendors are here for almost 2 weeks and get here with all of the roscas they plan to sell during the fair--they don't make fresh ones as the days go on. But the sales seem to escalate as we get closer to the 21st (the actual day of Sto. Tomas). We find it hard to believe that they are any good after sitting in a basket for 2 weeks, but hey you never know. One family had more than 20 baskets of 100 lbs each of roscas in their booth. And there were at least 6-7 booths--That's a minimum of 5000 lbs of bad bread out there! We need to introduce them to a good coffee cake!

Headed to the Hills

I lift up my eyes to the hills—where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip— he who watches over you will not slumber.... Psalm 121:1-3

We have been praying and thinking about where to expand our clinic ministry in the next few years. One of the areas is Zacualpa which itself is about 1 1/2 hours from where we live and another hour to the surrounding communities we want to target. There is a lot of need there and many small congregations with which to join forces, but we don't know very many people there yet.

Well, Saturday, we were called by one of the elders from the church in Chichicastenango to meet with him and another elder from another town. We were a little nervous because he didn't specify what we were meeting about. But when we got together, they explained that they are a part of an organization of area elders that go out to new or struggling churches to disciple and train up leaders. They commented that in the last few years they had seen less need in the churches here as they have been maturing, and have been praying about where to focus their efforts. They said they would like to go to the Zacualpa and Joyabaj area because of the many churches there, but very little education or training among them. They asked us if we would be interested in working together combining teaching seminars and clinic days.

We were so excited as they talked and we told them about our ideas as well. We agreed to check calendars and get back together in a week and finished our meeting with a prayer, thanking God for his leading and for our christian brothers in the remote areas.

New Life

We are always so excited when our volunteer promoters tell us about how their churches are growing. No one person can claim responsibility for bringing someone to salvation. But how exciting to see results of the all of the labor we all put into the ministry together.

In I Corinthians 3:5-7, it says: What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe--as the Lord has assigned at each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neigher he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.

Last week, the church in Mactzul V baptized 5 new believers, two of which are direct contacts from the clinic where their father was ministered to. This man had been so resistant to hearing the word of God, but after his health improved, he agreed to hear the gospel message, and although he is reluctant still, his son and daughter-in-law believed and wanted to put on Christ. The church in Xepocol has added 18 new members this year, and plan on 8 more baptisms in the next 2 weeks! People are drawn to the church and thankful for the service they provide through the clinics and the compassionate offering of prayers and counsel (without pay!--unlike some local pastors who ask for money, clothing or even land titles for their prayer services). It's so exciting to see God's work!

Baptismal service in Mactzul V

Happy Thanksgiving

Just want to wish everyone a very happy Thanksgiving Day tomorrow. We feel thankful for so many things, but especially for our loving family and friends who pray for us and support us. May God bless your time tomorrow.

New ABC Communuity

Yesterday we headed out at 0600 hours to a town called Xejox and Chuchuca to have clinic and register families for a new ABC program in that church. It is a town about 2 1/2 hours from here during the dry season and 3 1/2 during the rainy season. Although they have transport year round, the trip to the nearest market for them is about 45 minutes in the dry season and 1 1/2 when the roads are muddy. But we made it and had a good day with the brothers and sisters there. It was cold as blazes (good West Texas term!), and the ladies there wear woven wool tops--2 of them. But we saw lots of people without sweaters and kids without shoes. The majority of the adults have less that a 3rd grade education. But....this area has very faithful believers and the churches are growing. We felt priviledged to be able to be there with them and bring this program to their families. We pray that God will bless them through the assistance and allow more in that area to be formally educated.

After clinic, Josefina and I went to visit a brother from the church, Pedro, who had suffered a neurological illness last year (possibly Guillain Barre) and had been completely paralysed and was near respirtory failure when Josefina had referred him to the hospital. The family was referred from there to the capital for further care and they decided to take him home rather that risk him dying in a place so far away. Well, 8 months later, he can walk with assistance and feed himself although he has significant weakness in several muscle groups. He was in excellent spirits and so thankful for the visit. We prayed with the family and left some medications and excercise plans for him until we can see him again. The walk down to his house was about 10 minutes--the walk up was well.... longer!

Our trusty guide, Lucus: "It's only about 5 minutes down the hill, sister."

Youth Seminar

Sunday was the 1st day of a 2-day youth seminar in Paxot II. Almost 800 young folks attended and got to enjoy preaching from Martin Turquiz and watch the artistic gifts of Mike Lewis, the Jesus Painter.

This one started with the artist drawing/wrinting "all of my sins" and began coverin "my sins" as the image of Christ appeared in the painting.

This drawing depicts the resurrected Christ.

What a great couple of days, focused on us being the image of Christ to those around us and the words of Christ to those who don't know him yet. Thanks, to Mike and Martin and all of you who helped support this event for our youth! Many came to us thanking us for the support and participation from Health Talents.

"Brush Your Teeth....Round and Round"

Our very own Dr. Marcos Lux taught our health promoter class today. We learned about cavity prevention and periodontal disease. Did you know that within 20 minutes of eating, the bacteria in your mouth (stretococus mutans and it's assistant lactobacillus) are producing cavity-causing acids?! Everyone seemed to enjoy the class and we all learned or re-learned about the importance of preventive care. And after lunch we all (some before 20 minutes were up) brushed! Thanks, Marcos! Of course it wouldn't be a proper class without a test. Here are some shots of folks sweating the exam and then picking out prizes (those with the top grades got to pick first).

Win ("Ween"), Flying Snakes and Lions on the Loose

This is one of those blogs where we tell you about the funny or weird things that go on around here!

Win (ween) def. A person that shape-shifts into the form of an animal in order to deceive, or to do harm or to escape capture.

So, Juan Quino and I (Lisa) are driving back from clinic after having dropped off Gaspar, and he begins to tell me about such phenomena. I laughed a little and asked him if it were true, or if someone was telling him stories after a night at the cantina. He looked at me with all seriousness and said, "Sister, it's true! Lots of people (good people) have seen them in my town!" So we decided if it is really true it is a power that is given by the devil, and as Christians we shouldn't be afraid. He seemed in agreement but not fully fearless yet!

Flying snakes
So, in our amateur research of the win thing, we asked Dr. Josefina and her family if they had heard of Win. Her dad said yes and there were several people who believed in it. He even has a family member (one of the in-laws, of course)who is known to change in to a wolf! So then we began to talk about other weird stuff and, lo and behold there are flying snakes here (raxacan). They can jump from one tree to another and are an omen of something bad about to happen. One of Josfina's patients came in after seeing one while tending sheep in a field. She began having seizures after that. I did check the internet on flying snakes and found a species chrysopelea mentioned only in Southeast Asia. But you never know. Darwin may not have made it here to describe the Guatemalan version.

Lions on the Loose
So today in the truck, talking to the guys about flying snakes (of course), Gaspar tells me that there are 3 lions on the loose out near their town of Xepocol. Thinking he was referring to mountain lions, I jokingly asked if he meant mountain lions or African lions! He said, "No, sister, the kind with the mane around their head that you see at the zoo!" Supposedly a guy here bought 3 lions for his ecological park and they got loose while the caretaker entered to feed them! The towns around are scared and the word on the street is they are going to hire professional hunter to track them down. Now, we are always skeptical of stuff we hear around here, but it makes me a little less likely to want to go on a nature walk!

Mobile Clinic Mania

Our last week was spent with good friends/brothers and sisters in Christ from Memorial Road Church of Christ and several other congregations, working mobile medical and dental clinics in the area. The communities included Xepocol and Chutzerob, Paxot II and La Estancia, and Mactzul V and Chuchipaca. We calculated that we had appoximately 828 patient encounters (of course the absentee votes are still out!). It was a great three days of very hard work and great fellowship. Our American and Guatemalan staff worked so well together in a way only God can unify people.

The second day I went out with Drs. Ralph Neal and David Weed to do a home visit for a woman who was too sick to come to clinic. When we saw her, we knew she was sick, laying quietly in bed and sweating. She had had abdominal pain for two days and the night before she got worse. She had an acute abdomen--possibly appendix or severe gallbladder disease. Thankfully the family was agreeable to getting her to the hospital and she was operated on but had to go to the ICU after. Today, Juan, who lives in that town let us know that she is getting better and should be moved to a regular bed soon. Be in prayer for her and especially her family as they have a 5 month old baby that won't be able to nurse for several days/week. There was a donation from a good friend of ours who wasn't able to come this year and we are using it to help them with the expenses they will have for travel and medicines and formula for the baby.

We are thankful to God for his allowing us the opportunity to work and worship with all of these great brothers and sisters. And we thank them for giving of their time and gifts to serve with us!

Midwife Seminars

On Wednesday, we had two obstetric nurses Janice Grey and Anita Garland from the Georgia visit to present a seminar for the midwives in the area. They gave one in the Clinica Ezell area and one up here for the midwives registered through the health department. We are always a little nervous at first, waiting to see what the turnout will be, but we were really excited when 44 midwives showed up. Of course they were very serious and hard get to open up at first, but as the day went on, they came out of their shells and we saw a lot of interaction during the class. One very interesting thing they did is tell how they got into midwifery. My assumption was apprenticing with older midwives, but all of them told us they had been sickly children or young women, and their families and/or Mayan priests had told them that it was a sign that they would have the gift of midwifery. One woman said she was reluctant and scared because of her lack of knowledge, but trusted that her gifting would be sufficient. Another said she considered it for a while before jumping in. She became a christian in the meantime and asked God to help her decide. She felt torn because she already had a child and felt she couldn't be a good midwife if she had more children. So she prayed about it, and asked God to not let her have any more children if He wanted her to work. She said without any birth control measures, she never had any other children and began to work as a midwife.

We are so thankful to these caring christian sisters (in the faith and genetically) for sharing their time and expertise with us and these local midwives. And also to our Dr. Josefina and the nurse from the health department, Maxi for translating for us. The doctor and staff from the health department as well as the midwives were thankful for the training and invited us to work with them again in the future. What a way to honor God's name, serving our community!

All Saints Day

Here in Guatemala, November 1 is All Saints Day which involves lots of activities involving the nourishing and honoring of ancestors. Mayan religion families prepare special foods like corn on the cob, guisqil (a savory pear/squash-like veggie), and squashes, and sweet corn tortillas, all laid out in a central place in the home with pine needles around it and in a little trail leading from the front gate to the house. Then, the next day, everyone heads to the cemetary to paint grave sites and leave more food/liquor/goodies for the ancestors. Some see this as a harmless tradition, but underlying it are strong beliefs that one must please his ancestors to have peace in their lives, or success in their endeavors. Granted many people just go out to enjoy the day and remember relatives, but in our neck of the woods there are idolatrous ties and many families needlessly spending hard-earned money to appease powerless souls.

But, we got to enjoy a tradition that has been carried out in the Churches of Christ for the last 16 years. Every November 1 the youth of the churches (age 10-30's)and their families get together for a two day worship service and workshops in Quetzaltenango (Xela). We got to see christians from all over the country, enjoying family time and worshiping. It was a late night......and COLD, everyone sleeping on the floor in school rooms... but definitely worth it to share the fellowship of All of these Saints!

Sunday

Today is Sunday and we have sun today!!! We have visiting with us a brother from the church in Montellano who wanted to visit our area and attend the big conference in Mactzul VI tomorrow. So we are enjoying showing him around and took our usual walk to town and around market this morning. It's a beautiful day, sunny and about 70 degrees. He makes us laugh, because he looks like a gringo and has a gringo name (his dad was English), but only speaks spanish. In market, everyone thinks he's a tourist. After making it back home, Tony made us some of his famous shrimp ceviche and we headed back to town for worship services. On the walk back home we stopped to buy ice cream pops at a local home-owned place and chatted with the owner Arnulfo Afre. He told us about his ice cream business (he sells about 150 a day of 7 different flavors) and his 18 parakeets he has. Then he gifted us another flavor---guayaba. It was a great afternoon!

Yesterday was clinic in Chutzerob I. It was Kemmel's first time there, and possibly the first time we didn't get the truck stuck in the mud. (Because it didn't rain--or possibly Kemmel's finese with the 4-wheel drive). We had a busy day and saw lots of new patients, plenty of which were of traditional Mayan religion. Lots of anxiety issues and widowed/abandoned women. But we worked with some brothers in that church who are so good to give counsel and consolation and prayer, and seem to really enjoy the work of the clinic.

Tomorrow we enjoy fellowshiping with about 1500 people at the conference in Mactzul--should be great!

Pomp and Circumstance

Today was graduation day for 4 high school kids from the churches we work with. Three of the them were recipients of the Sherman scholarship that Health Talents offers. The really neat thing is, one guy, Nelson Riquiac was the first one in his church to graduate from high school! Way to go, brother. Tomas Chan (son of our health promoter Gaspar Chan) also graduated--only the second one to do so from his town. The other two were Cesar Daniel and Gladys Quino--brother and sister from Chuchipaca. We are so proud of them and their families for encouraging them and supporting them. It is so rare to meet someone from around here who has finished junior high, much less high school. And now more and more families are talking about pushing their children to study.

Cesar Daniel and Gladys Quino

Nelson Riquiac with parents Juan and Tomasa and us.

Tomas Chan with parents Gaspar and Juana and brother Josue

Here's a big thank you to all of you who contribute to the scholarship programs and to the ABC program that give children the opportunity to be educated. It is

a blessing that we Americans sometimes can't fully appreciate, but these families were so grateful for the help and always ask us to thank the contributors on their behalf.

Xpe ri jap (It's gonna rain).....Again

It is still raining!!!!! We went to bed last night to the sound of rain on the tin roof and woke up to the same thing. Thankfully the roads out to Chuchipaca are very rocky and we didn't have any trouble with mud. We had a few patients today willing to brave the wet and cold--the special of the day was watery eyes and cataracts and high blood pressure. I'm sure the watery eyes are a by-product of staying inside close to the kitchen fire to stay warm.



After clinic, we did a home visit for an elderly blind lady down the road from the church. We found her and the rest of the family hanging out in the kitchen around the fire waiting for the chicken soup and tamalitos to finish cooking. (It smelled pretty good.) When Gaspar asked her how old she was, she said, " I don't even know anymore--maybe 90." Her family laughed and said they didn't know either. We got her treated for some gastritis problems and an infected wound on her leg. After we prayed for her she reached out her hand to pat each of us and thanked us for coming. We wound our way back home and decided to enjoy a late lunch together with Gaspar and Juan back in Chichi. Now we are warming ourselves by a toasty fire at home and, you guessed it.........listening to the RAIN! Tomorrow is Sunday and hopefully a full of sun.



Have a nice Lord's Day tomorrow!

Parka Weather

It's been really cold today with 24 hours of constant rain from Tropical Depression 16 hanging over us (Thanks for the email updates, brother Charles Campbell). Everyone came to clinic shivering today and totally bundled up, which is really funny to think about when its only about 53 degrees outside!

Here's a couple of good-lookin' Guatemalans with plenty of layers on.
Anyway, today we saw a fair number of patients for a rainy day here at Clinica Caris. The theme of the day was anxiety and insomnia. Two of my patients related having left the church for various reasons and both were looking to reconcile themselves back to God and the church. We spent time talking about having faith in God even when we can't imagine things turning out well, and asking God to help us trust him when our faith is weak. Both men were optomistic at the end of the visit and we prayed together for their spiritual strengthening.

My last patient of the day was Josefa, a sister from one of our clinic congregations who was operated on for a prolapsed uterus last week. She and her husband said they were both so appreciative for the help, and she was feeling much better. Her husband said he wanted to thank us because he always hurt to see his wife suffering like that for so many years, and now he feels as relieved as she does. So thanks to all of our Gyns last week who worked hard to help her.

Kemmel and Josefina and Tomas headed out to Xatinap today--mud central! They got to haul clinic supplies in across the muddy path and in the rain. But on the up side, they saw a lady alcoholic patient who came back and told Josefina she had quit drinking for two months now. She was doing much better and just wanted to let her know.

To top off the day, we got to enjoy an earthquake after lunch that lasted about a minute and a half. We found out it's center was on the Mexico-Guatemala border measuring 6.5, but thankfully no major damage.

Back to Work

We arrived back in Guatemala City on last Friday night and got to meet up with the incoming surgical team on Saturday. We made it to Montellano (where it's hot!) that evening and enjoyed seeing several friends from previous trips. We even got the meet the mother (Carol Fitzgerald) of some friends of ours from our Amarillo days--Jill and Michael Voss. It was good to catch up on their lives even if it was second hand.

Our surgery week was busy with gynecology and general surgery patients. We had a good turn out and no complications, thankfully. We were talking about how patients alway have such nice things to say and Rosario had mentioned that one patient told her that while standing at the gate waiting for his name to be called on the list so he could enter the beautiful grounds of the hospital, he thought heaven would be very much the same with children of God waiting to hear our names to enter paradise. That made everyone feel really good about the work being done.

Today we are back in Chichicastenango--YEA! It's always so good to be back. We headed out to Paxot II and had a good clinic day seeing several of our good friends out there. They are such a warm and hospitable crowd--they made us feel very welcome again. One of the young women from Paxot came in with her mother-in-law because she wanted a pregnancy test. This was a nervous moment for her because they have been married 4 years and have only had one child who died and one miscarriage. When we gave them the positive result everyone, including me and Mauri, our health promoter were crying for joy for her. Please pray that she is able to carry to term and keep this child who means so much to them.

Tonight we work on getting the rest of our bags unpacked and this house back to normal.
Good night and God bless

Anybody out there?

Okay, we are still alive. Just been travelling in the States, seeing family and enjoying some vacation time. It's been a great few weeks and we will have some photos to share when we get back. We are also enjoying getting to see election/political news real-time thanks to a little FoxNews. We don't have t.v. at home, so we usually get our news from the internet--effective, but not as entertaining!

We are working on our absentee ballots (Vote early and vote often!). It was kind of hard to figure it all out, but finally got our applications done and even an "emergency backup" Federal Absentee Write-in Ballot printed to mail in, in case our official ballots don't make it down south! We should get an A on our citizenship grade this 6 weeks!

Well, have a great weekend everyone. We get back to Guatemala tomorrow.
God bless.

Praying for the Priest

Today is a cold rainy day and we made bets on the drive out to clinic about how many patients would show. Gaspar (the pessimist) won--guessing 4. So we were pretty bummed about that. But, one of the patients (a regular) who came in is an interesting guy. He is a neighbor of the family that hosts the clinic, very nice guy with a good family. But he says he doesn't worship in any of the churches in town. He is actually a priest in the Mayan tradicional religion. I asked him if he would like to visit and maybe learn a little about the word of God, and he said that he has been invited numerous times by several churches and prefers not to get involved in the problems he has seen in them. He pointed out that many so-called "christians" that he knows are people who steal on the side or preach a good sermon and have 2 or 3 mistresses behind their wives backs. He then said he tries to be a good man and provide for his family and feels like that is good enough. So we talked some more about how we are all sinners, that no one is perfect and must all answer to God for our sins, but that God offers to forgive our sins by accepting Christ's death as payment if we choose to believe and accept that forgiveness. He then went on to tell us about how many times God had spared his life and that of his family, at which point we quickly pointed out the mercy and patience God has had with him in desire for him to turn to God and that one day there will not be another chance. That without Christ, we will have to answer for our sins here on earth. He was willing to talk and said he agreed with several points but he would have to think about it and he was still watching the church members here to see how they conduct themselves.

The moral of the story is our actions speak so loudly, and people are watching what we do and comparing our words to our deeds. Please pray for this man (Diego) and his family as they struggle spirtually that God will continue to be patient and that they will come to know the Lord. And pray that the church shines brightly in the community as the body of Christ and the example of God's love.

Band Practice

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's that time of year again--Independence Day is just around the corner. And what is it that reminds us of the upcoming holiday? The weather? The decorations in the stores? No.....its the never-ending band practice that begins at 0500 hours and continues until dark. Every school in town has its drum corp working up its songs and dances! Kemmel is convinced they are all playing the same one song over and over again! There is also lots of torch-running races and water balloon throwing. Last year we had the pleasure of driving to Antigua (normally a 2 1/2 hour trip) on the day before Independance day when everyone was running the race. The entire trip was met with water balloons being thrown at us by kids along the highway (actually pretty fun) and then we got to the mother of all traffic jams in one of the cross roads towns where we sat for 4 hours watching water soaked teams of runners go by. Good times!

So, because we will be out of the country this year for Independence Day, here's to all the bands and runners and water balloon champions out there. Happy 15th of September!

Tick tock

Conversation today on the phone to change a hotel reservation in the States:
Hotel Desk: "XXXX's Hotel"
Kemmel: "Hello....I would like to cancel a reservation....." As Kemmel tries to give more information, receptionist interrupts:
Hotel Desk: "NAME?"
Kemmel: "Kemmel Dunham"
Hotel Desk: Okay, its canceled.
Hangs up.

Conversation today in the Health Department to arrange a seminar for midwives:



Staff nurse: "Hey, it's Dr. Lisa! How are you? (kiss cheek) We sure have missed you. How did your time in the city go? "
Lisa: "Hi, how are you (kiss cheek)? It's so good to see you again. It was great. Just getting back to work."
Staff nurse: "Is it good to be back?"
Lisa: "Yes, wonderful. I really missed being here. And how has everyone been around here?"
Staff nurse: "Great, but we have missed you a lot. When are you coming back to work here at the health department?"
Kemmel and Lisa: Other pleasantries.....
Staff nurse: Other pleasantries... for about 20 minutes before we get to the issue at hand.
1 1/2 hours later we finish arranging a meeting for a midwife seminar.

Today we spent about 3 hours just making reservations and getting things scheduled on the calendar for the midwife seminar. Tomorrow we will take the official letter to the health department and probably spend another hour exchanging pleasantries with various staff. While we often joke about the 3-times rule here in Guatemala (everything takes 3X as long to do here as it does in the States), we have decided that sometimes we like the hospitable/friendly way people interrelate and conduct business with each other here (except when we are in a hurry to get things done!!!).

Pictures from our latest Health Pomoter class

The reason we have not had any pictures lately is our camera has disappeared (code for maybe stolen). So we received these pictures from one of our co-workers, Marcos Lux, who is the dentist that works with us. I do not know if we have told his story but it is good and maybe for another day. To make it short he is a very compassionate caregiver and a great person.




These pictures are from our latest health promoter class and help demonstrate how much it has grown. We started with a few people and now we have this group which represents 17 communities including our phyisicians. We are very excited to see how this group has grown. For those who have visited you may recognize some of the faces from the communities and maybe if you have a keen eye, one of the table waiters at Hotel Santo Tomas. His name is Roberto and he is the brother of one of the ladies who normally comes and attends church in Chichicastenango.

Funny Things We See

From time to time we see really funny things here. Example:

A sign for a tiny little hotel along a strip of mechanic shops and cafes along the highway in Chimaltenango with a sign showing their (supposedly) elegant rooms and ocean view from the window. (For those of you not familiar with Guatemalan geography, Chimaltenango is a land-locked mountain town). We're on to them! Kemmel is filing a false advertising claim with the Chamber of Commerce--we will let you know how that goes.......

Clinic in Chutzorob I

"Where is Chutzorob I ?", you may ask. Well to be exact, it is 20 minutes down the road (by truck), from Chuchipaca II, and about 10 minutes before you get to Chumanzana! This is a new community that Sheri and the team started doing clinic in, and Saturday was my first time out there. Kemmel stayed back at the house and played computer-repairman for mine and Sheri's computers. He could open his own fix-it-up shop!
The brethren are so organized in Chutzorob, that they have nine members signed up to help with clinic, and are divided into 3 teams of 3 that rotate weeks with us. They even made up some signs to announce when we are scheduled to be out there. This time we worked with Sebastian, Manuel and Tomas who were did a great job praying, counseling and translating for us. We only saw 13 patients this time, but more than half were non church members, and several did not attend church anywhere at all so we felt like we made some good contacts. Afterward, we went to Sebastian's house and did a home visit to see his daughter who has been weak since her miscarriage a month ago. Phyisically she appeared to be recovering, but she was dealing with some depression and issues with her in-laws. So, we spent some time counseling with her and praying for her. The family invited us to have lunch with them, and we enjoyed chicken soup and tamalitos together. When we left, the patient seemed be perked up a little and said she appreciated our visit and prayers.

Today, we slept in (6:30) and went for a walk to town to do some errands. The great thing about living here, is everyone is open on Sunday morning and all the churches meet in the afternoon. So we wandered around town some and saw several friends we hadn't seen in a while. It's good to be back! Then we headed home, got ready for church and walked back to town. We were welcomed back to church by all of our friends and saw how the church had grown some with new faces in the crowd. They told us that they had had 4 baptisms in the last month alone. There had also obviously been a new crop of babies while we had been gone--very cute!

Well, tomorrow we head to the capital to renew our visas and then hurry back to get ready for clinic on Tuesday. Thanks for checking in, and keep up the prayers for this work.

Back in the saddle

As Lisa mentioned we are back in Chichi and took off on full force. Since returning we have been able to attend a few clinics and visit some of the communities we have been involved with for the last few years. It feels good to be back and to have the opportunity to serve with these brothers and sisters.

On Tuesday, we had our education day where we have volunteers come from around the area (up to 1.5 hours away) to spend some time together worshiping, learning about health issues and to catch up on each other. We have been doing this since the beginning of the year and we started out kind of slow. However, the last couple of months we have had 25-30 volunteers come for the classes. The volunteers are coming from 15-20 different communities, most from the communities where we hold clinic which means we have more than a 50% participation. From these promoters we have 2 now seeing patients in their communities and we hope to start many more during 2009. Josefina and Marcos have been teaching the classes this year and have done an excellent job. The promoters take a test each month so that we can monitor how they are doing. At the end of the class the staff had a cake of welcome for Lisa and finished the day with a meeting to review all that is going on.

Today we headed to the clinic in Las Trampas with Sheri, Gaspar and Juan, praying for patients all the way there; however, God had other plans for us today. We arrived to no patients, but had some good conversations with the church member that was present. The volunteer in Las Trampas is man by the name of Diego Tol who used to be an alchohilic who eventually came to the Lord at another church in the area, converted his family, started a church in his community and today is a growing church of more than 60 adults plus children with 2 buildings built with only local funds. This is a very outreaching church but it does not seem that a clinic ministry is a need in the area. There are a few other organizations who host clinics in the area and this may be part of the issue. They announce and normally some people show but not many. So we agreed to finish out the year so that both HTI and the church can fulfill their commitments and then we will probably cease this clinic in 2009. We hope to find other ways to maintain contact and work with this church as they are active in their area.

After waiting for patients, visiting and listening to Gaspar and Diego talk about the Bible, we headed off to visit the home of Tomasa Chicoj Salvador. This is the young girl who had an eye tumor and has been receiving treatment. Notice I mentioned had! She has received glowing reports and now just must present every 2 months to watch for a recurrence. The family has been trying to invite us to visit for a number of months so the opportunity finally presented itself as they live in the community next to Las Trampas called Chujulimul, meaning rabbits and caverns. We arrived to a great welcome in a very humble home and got to spend about 3 hours with the family. They prepared us a meal and we had plenty of time to sit and talk and teach the kids bad habits (just kidding). They are currently looking for a church home so we took the time to invite them to the church in Las Trampas and will see if we can get Diego Tol to visit them. They seem to be a very happy and content family.

Afterwards we met up with Josefina and headed down to Montellano where we will be in some management meetings for the next couple of days.

As always, thanks for checking in and we hope to see you again soon.

Women's Seminar

This weekend we enjoyed a visit from Linda Henry from Continent of Great Cities and our Rosario Poncio one of our nurses at Clinica Ezell. They taught a women's seminar at Paxot II over the topic of recovery from sexual abuse. Everyone was a little apprehensive about presenting such a heavy theme, but it was a success, and several of the ladies came to them expressing thanks for taking the time to address it and share God's word in a way that offers healing and forgiveness. We are so proud of both of them and pray that God blesses the seeds that were planted, and that the ladies can go forward and be a comfort to those in their own congregations who might be dealing with past or present abuse.

Yesterday, we headed to the capital to take Linda and Rosario back and got to worship at the church in Zone 18. It is a very loving and dynamic congregation and alway enjoy visiting them. After services, we witnessed the baptism of a new brother in Christ who has been ministered to through the drug and alcohol rehabilitation program offered at this congregation. It was a joyful moment in heaven and there in the auditorium.

Today we are back home just enjoying our day off. We checked out a new ecologicial park in town which actually offers some great recreation facilities for large get togethers or camping. Then we headed to Santa Cruz del Quiche to check into the swimming pool at the phys-ed building at the school. They actually allow anyone to use the pool for Q5 a day ($0.70). Quite the bargain! The only catch is it is outdoors--can be really cold water (non heated) and Kemmel came home with a sunburn on one half of his face because he turns to breath on one side! He will have to work on that one, and remember to take his sunscreen. All in all, he was very excited to get to swim again!

Tomorrow is education day at Clinica Caris and time to spend meeting with our staff.
Have a great night.

Home Sweet Home

We are back home in Chichicastenango!!!!! It feels so good to be back. After our week at Clinica Ezell, we took off for a little vacation time in Roatan, Honduras. If you don't know where that is, it's an island off the carribean coast of Honduras surrounded by the second largest barrier reef in the world. Now we are not scuba divers, but there was some great snorkeling and the beach was just beautiful! We saw squids, a sting ray, a sea turtle, some barracudas and lots of beautifully colored fish and coral. It was so nice to get to spend some time together again and just relax. But, we are definitely ready to get back to work now. (UNDERWATER CAMERA PICTURES TO COME SOON......)

Today we spent the day cleaning house and getting our stuff moved back in. It is fascinating how many bugs move in, live and die in our house over 6 months. Our floor looked like we had set off a bug bomb. Anyway, we are back to a liveable state now and can start off our work day tomorrow all organized.

Tomorrow we head to Clinica Caris for our pap smear clinic. We are trying to drum up more interest in preventive care and offering special clinic days just for pap smears. This should streamline things a little and help the ladies feel more comfortable seeing other women there for the same reason. It will be so good to get to work with the team again.

I (Lisa) am working on getting my license processed. The good news, is I passed the final exam (with a whopping 60%) so I know I will pass the year! Now I just have to wait for the administrative office to get my transcript of grades from the various departments and then they can write my reference letter to get my diploma. Yesterday, they said sometime this week they should get the grades in..........we'll see.

Well, before we go, just want to say Happy Birthday to our sister-in-law Kelli and our nephew Lance who celebrated their big day this month. We celebrated for you on the beach! We miss you and wish you a blessed year to come.

Surgery Week

We are enjoying a week at Clinica Ezell with the visiting surgery team. The special of the week is cleft lip and palate repair and general surgery. We have several cute babies here for the first time to get their cleft lip repairs, and some returning for followup procedures. Miguel (from Chuacaman IV up in our neck of the woods) is one little boy we operated on last year with a double cleft defect, and he has really grown this last year. He struts around in his little man jeans and gets into everything. This time we are working on his palate repair so he will be able to speak well. His mom has been so patient and has been good to talk to the new moms. We also have a little boy named Gregorio from La Palma who is 8 years old and has never been operated on. His dad has been by his side the entire time and has been so emotional seeing the difference in his son post op. We will post pictures when we have a better internet connection.

Miguel after his palate surgery--his lip repair from last year turned out so well!

Gregorio after his lip repair--he is giving us a smile here. Dad is so proud.

Also, this week, we the staff physicians and nurses are learning colposocopy technique (followup evaluation of abnormal pap smears) from Dr. Kristina McCain. We have been reveiwing indications for coloposcopy and seeing patients with abnormal pap smears as a learning oportunity. Already we have seen one advanced cervical/possibly endometrial cancer and another severe dysplasia/possibly early cancer. The goal is to diagnose and treat these lesions before they spread. We learned that 60% of all the cancers treated in the Cancer Institute in Guatemala City are cervical cancers. And we have seen at least one advanced case of cervical cancer with each Gyn surgery week here at Ezell. This service will be a big step in our women's health services. Pray that we are able to stimulate more interest in the communities for preventive care like pap smears for women.
We also got to go out today and visit a Cacao farm (cocoa). They showed us where the pods grow on the trees and got to taste the flesh covered seeds fresh from the pods (kind of a sweet melon taste). Then they showed us the dried seed product that gets roasted and ground into cocoa.

Kemmel next to a cacao tree--pointing at pods of cacao.

Lisa standing in front of a volador tree trunk.

Well, thanks for checking in. We will post again soon.