Busy busy day

Kemmel and I headed out to different clinics today but finished it up together--always a plus. I was in La Palma with Josefina's team seeing the ABC kids for their well-child checkups. This is a group of really poor people who live on land that doesn't always produce what they need for the year. Up until the ABC program was started, very few kids went to school there. I was talking to one dad of 4 kids who said he became a Christian when he was 19 years old and didn't know how to read. He prayed and asked God to help him learn to read so he could understand the Bible better, and he did, little by little. He told me that he decided that he wanted his kids to learn earlier than he did, and now all of them are in school, including his 12 year old son who was just promoted into the 4th grade! He came in today and told me "Good morning" in English! Then asked me to write down 3 more phrases in English for him to learn. Good kids--great Dad!
Sometimes we get disappointed when we see how few kids make through high school. But maybe we should get excited when one generation of kids makes further along than their parents did. And the next generation another step further. Finishing sixth grade is a big deal when neither of your parents went long enough to learn to read. We thank God and also the sponsors of the ABC program for helping families reach these milestones.

Well, as I said, Kemmel and I ended up together, because he and Sheri's team went to Mactzul III for their inaugural clinic. There were 65 patients and poor Sheri was cranking them out by herself. So, when we finished in La Palma, we headed out to help. Whew! They are definitely effective at getting the word out! But we made it home and the church members seemed satisfied with the work. Tomorrow central clinic at Clinica Caris.

Road Trip

Sunday morning after breakfast and a good walk to town and back, we decided to drive up to Huehuetenango, the next department west of us. There is a new highway from Santa Cruz to Huehue and it's only a two hour trip from here. So we headed out in our Suzuki Samarai and enjoyed some beautiful scenery of high desert and dramatic mountains and ravines. We checked out their new mall and drove around town and had lunch at McDonalds before heading back (we were hoping for a Pizza Hut, but no luck). There is supposed to be a good dinosaur museum and Mayan ruins, but we didn't get over there this time. We headed back in time to worship with the church in Santa Cruz where Josefina and Marcos and Sheri go. It was good to see some other friends from that church as well. Today we are hanging at the house enjoying our day off and preparing for tomorrow's health promoter class.

Note: These are pictures we pulled off the internet from 1) a blog by N.E. Patterson and 2)Wikipedia. as we didn't take our camera :(

Happy Birthday Andrea

Well, I dropped the ball and didn't get this posted on Thursday, but Happy Birthday, to our sister-in-law, Andrea. Hope you had a great day!

Random updates

Today was the first clinic for the town of Mactzul I. It was a hit--very organized, plenty of patients, and a variety of illnesses to keep things interesting. We saw lots of people from outside of the church as well which gave us a chance to start reaching out a little.

Yesterday we went to Xejox--2 hours and 20 minutes away. We called it the the land of sparkley dirt, as they have lots of quartz in the soil. When the dust flies it looks like pixie dust. Even their adobe brick are pale and glittery--nice touch!
After clinic we went on a house call to see a man who was too sick to come to clinic (again, "just down the road a little ways, sister"). Well, despite the steep downhill hike (then back uphill, of course), we saw some spectacular views of the mountains around. Unfortuneately, I forgot the camera. Anyway, when asking the patient questions in general, I asked if he was married and he said, " yes, but she's sick with who knows what." WAS HE EVEN GOING TO TELL US ABOUT HER???? Josefina and I decided to divide up the work to hurry things along, and turns out the wife seemed to be pregnant and sick with an acute abdomen. We strongly recommended transporting her to the hospital, but she was very reluctant to leave her livestock and children unattended. The husband was not much help and just kept taking the fatalist viewpoint of things. So, we prayed for them and left, hoping they would change their minds soon. I told our female promoters, both young and unmarried, to be sure and find a good husband that will take good care of them and not to settle for less.

I will get more pictures up soon.

Saint Papanicolau Week

Since it seems to be fair season around here (Each town celebrates its patron saint), we decided to give our pap smear week a fitting name. We have had good turnout each day, although we haven't had any abnormals to practice colposcopy and LEEP procedures on, but that's good for the patients.

We have two friends visiting us this week to help. Kris McCain and Jane Bennie from Nashville. They have both helped at Ezell during surgery week but this is the first time here in chichi.

Jane taking advantage of the local shoe shine options

We finished early enough today to go and visit Kris's ABC child, so we headed out to the sticks to see them. It was a good visit and we even got to see their pet squirrel. Its been a good week!

Law and Order

As most of you know, we are big fans of the show Law and Order. We have probably seen all of them at least 3 times (of course when you fall asleep in the last 15 minutes of the show it makes the re-run a lot more interesting).

Anyway, it is evident that our neighbors here in the department of Quiche are also fans of law and order, except it is more of an Outlaw Josey Wales sort. This country is plagued by high crime rates especially from gang and drug violence. But when you add in the fact that there is very little respect for the law and not enough police manpower to enforce the law, many rural communities decide to address the crimes themselves. This occurred last Sunday in the town of Camanchaj, about 30 minutes from us. Three men were accused of kidnapping for ransom a woman and her young daughter, and were beaten until they confessed and then burned alive at the community center. This is called lyinching (linchamiento) and is usually done by a large group of people from the community.

There are actually some blogs and websites dedicated to the study of this phenomenon in Guatemala if you would like to know more.
http://www.nd.edu/~cmendoz1/datos/ (Data of lynchings in Guatemala--tables and charts and articles (one good one in English).
and http://www.linchamientos.blogspot.com/

It is not a black and white issue when you begin to tease apart the problem. There is not enough respect for law or officers of the law here to have an effective justice system. But people are afraid and very intolerant of violent crime in the rural areas--probably stemming from their experiences during the war. So this form of justice becomes prominant. But, it is a system prone to mistakes and prejudices and easily manipulated.

God has a lot to say about how we treat our neighbors. As christians we should set examples of how to love our neighbor as ourselves (Matt 22:36-40), forgive 7 X 7 times (Matt 18: 21-22) and make ourselves slaves to everyone to win as many as possible (I Cor 10:19).

Happy Birthday Becky!

Today is Kemmel's sister's birthday. Have a good one Becky! We love you.

Red Tape and Sushi

Remember the movie "What About Bob"? Well, we are making "baby steps" down the bureaucratic road to get the my diploma released from the university. Kemmel says we should eligible for membership in the Paper Pushers Association of Guatemala. We were sent from office to office with copies of letters with "Date received" stamped by each department that has processed the application. There was a snag in the process when someone decided to put Doctora en Medicina on my diploma, which doesn't really count here. Doctors are called "Medico y Cirujano" or Physician and Surgeon. So they sent it back and I am now approved to be incorporated into the system as a Medica y Cirujana. I am even referred to as senorita Lisa Dunham! So, now we are waiting "approximately 2-3 weeks" to get the latest later recognized by the registrars office so they can print the diploma............ Here are some pictures of all the students who got to stand in lines today to register for classes.

On an upnote we found the olympic sized pool at the university and Kemmel got in a good swim while I walked laps at the track. We also rewarded ourselves with sushi at our favorite hole in the wall. Great!

Oh Kiku Restaurant--Yummy!

ABC Clinics

Future Pharmacists of Guatemala

Our helpers in the pill counting department (they did wash their hands first!)

Our clinics the last two days have included checkup visits for our ABC kids in Paxot II and Mactuzul V. It's fun to have these families come in together and to see how much everyone has grown in the last 6 months. Some are doing very well while others are definitely eating too many chips and cookies. The biggest complaint from parents is "he/she won't eat". But when you ask if they eat snacks from the corner store they say, "sure, all the time!" That's when we get to put on our nutritionist/family counselor hat and give advice on basic discipline and child rearing (yeah, yeah, I know we don't have kids, but some things should just be common sense!). I told several boys today that if they didn't start eating better they might not grow and they would look like dwarfs compared to their wives. That got a good laugh from them.

We left Kemmel at the office going over pharmacy reports and orders for the new year, and boy did the kids miss him. Almost every one of them asked where hermano Kemmel was. Everybody loves Kemmel! It's good to be missed.

Welcome Back, Sheri!

Well, our team is complete again, since Sheri made it back. She reports having had a great visit with her family and friends and and is ready to get back to work. Welcome back, hermana Sheri!
Before picking her up at the airport Saturday we swung by Vine International which is a ministry here in Guatemala that procures medical supplies and ships them here to donate to other mission organizations. We were there to pick up a new exam table (our other one was kind of a hassle for our pap smear patients because the stirrups would all of a sudden fall leaving the patient in an even more awkward position than she started in!). But, the couple who run the warehouse, Dennis and Doris Rice invited us to browse around and pick up anything else we needed. We found all kinds of meds, medical and dental supplies and loaded up what we could in our pickup bed. Definitely a good time! Thanks Vine International.

...for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.

Today we were invited to a celebration and worship services in Mactzul I comemorating the initiation of the children's education program 2 years ago. We sometimes forget what a blessing it is to have a children's ministry, but today were reminded. This church has two dedicated men, Tomas and Juan who oversee the instruction and activities for their children. They presented a proud group of kids who recited verses from memory (one girl's passage was at least 15 verses long), solo songs, group songs, dramas of Jesus with Mary and Martha and also of David and Goliath. Then there was a contest of bible and hymn knowledge with prizes. We wrapped it up with the Guatemalan version of Simon says (giant/dwarf) and a pinata game.

It was so fun to see these little guys enjoying themselves. We all have several good laughs to say the least. It made us realize that one of the blessings of having children around is that they have the qualities that God is looking for in us. They love unconditionally, they are welcoming and hosptitable, they are trusting and don't sit around worrying where their next meal will come from. And of course they are very entertaining! We are happy for our brothers and sisters in Mactzul who value their children so much and make the effort to teach them the gospel.

Mactzul I is one of the communities where we will start a new clinic this year. With the addition of this community, the clinic ministry will be present in Mactzul 1, Mactzul II, Mactzul III (also adding this year), Mactzul V and Mactzul VI each month. So this will allow us to be in the area of the Mactzuls once a week. Granted this is a large area and to walk from one community to another is still 1 - 2 hours depending on where you are headed. We can also add Paxot 2 into this mix as they are also accesible from these communities. Mactzul 1 was also one of the first churches of christ in the area and have been worshipping together for 29 years. The church has around 65 adult members and around 75 children plus babies, so they are a nice size group. The church is very united and supportive of the ministries that they take part of so we are very excited to work with them. Mactzul III is a newer church, probably less than 6 years and has around 20-30 members plus some children. This church meets in one of the homes of the members and they too are very active.

Happy New Year

Did everyone get a good start on their New Year's resolutions? Hang in there. We made it back yesterday after a great visit with our familes. It was so good to be together and see how all of our nieces and nephews have grown.

Our resolutions are nothing extraordinary, but we are optomistic. We got our Bibles read and a good walk in today, so good for us! We are busy doing a big house cleaning and reorganization to fit all of the goodies we received/picked up while visiting family. One of my resolutions is to be more organized and maintain less clutter. (I know Kemmel is anxious to see me successful in this one.) So all of our new loot poses a real challenge to my goals. But we're up to the task! Here are a few shots of our progress.

Pretty dusty out there!

I've got 14 cans of green chile in there!