I Think He's Got It!

One of our MET students said the other day, "I can't believe our time is almost over. I'm starting to take for granted that I am actually living here with this family (of another culture), something that very few people get to do. " He went on to say that he had chatted with some other visiting Americans who had the opportunity to do a home visit after clinic one day and said that it was so sad and they just wanted to give them some money.
But here we were, in very humble surroundings, eating Sunday lunch with everyone (about 15-16 people) crowded around tiny little tables and counter tops laughing and enjoying each other's company. There is no more sadness in this family than we see in American families. There are normal worries and problems, but also good times and joking and rejoicing. And in the families we have interacted with, there are children who play together without fighting, who don't have to be entertained by the latest toy or technology to have fun, and who help with the housework without whining.
We see problems that need addressing and things that can be improved upon, but also see things that are done well and are a blessing to families here. God is a generous giver of good things!

Happy Birthday, Kyler!

Happy 13th Birthday to our nephew Kyler. We love you a lot, even if you are a teenager now!

Saturday

Okay, so as many who have worked with me have figured out, I am a little obsessive-compulsive about how I set up our exam space--in particular the hanging sheets we use as partitions. To have perfect feng shui harmony, I need to have the folded-over part of the sheet facing the inside of the exam room and all of the hems hanging straight and nicely aligned with each other.

Feng shui nightmare

Well, today we could not get good sheet participation, and after spending a good 15 minutes hanging and re-hanging, Nathan said, "This can't be good for your OCD--you're being awfully quiet!" Well, let's just say, I got to work on stretching my mental health limits.

Anyway, it didn't stop us from seeing patients, and we took care of 2 girls with pnuemonia and one of our favorite little guys who abraded his cornea on a nail. We sent him home with antibiotic drops and a make-shift pirate's patch. Josefina will recheck his eye on Monday.

Miguel the pirate

Esther and Holly were feeling puny today with sinus trouble and gastro intestinal distress, so we got them fixed up with some meds, too.

Pizza, anyone?

Kemmel got to spend the day with the Guatemalan Board of Directors meeting in Clinica Caris this month. They hashed out ways to improve parent responsibilty in the ABC families and discussed other operational issues. We even got delivered a bag of groceries that Violeta Campos bought for us in the Capital. If there is anything better than grocery shopping in the Capital, it's sending in an order and having it delivered to your door!

Tomorrow we enjoy our Sunday morning at home and lunch with Manuel Sut's family in Paxot, before worship services.

Dry Rainy Season

It's been pretty dry and hot around here (well, 80 degrees feels hot when you are used to 65-70!) Rainy season started in late May, but we ran into a mini dry season the last week or so. We burned out our pump motor for the cistern, which wasn't a problem while it was raining and the city water supply was generous. But yesterday we woke up to very little water (not enough to shower) and figured we'd better call the repair man pronto.
Jose is a great fix-it guy Kemmel found and appears to be honest. He didn't quite finish today and wouldn't accept payment for the work--"not until I leave it completely right".
So no pump tonight, but the city water came back on full force and it started raining tonight--YEA.

Gringo Day

Today was Gringo Half Day for our MET students. After working the morning with Drs. Josefina and Marcos, we invited them over for spaghetti lunch (and hot dogs--their request). We made cookies and sat around getting updated on emails and internet stuff and watched FoxNews. They told us about their culinary challenges of the week and gastrointestinal woes. But all in all they seem to be doing well. Tomorrow we will be doing well-child checkups on the ABC kids in Paxot II. If time permits, we will help install a test stove in the house of one of our health promoters, Manuel. It is a model from HELPS International ( www.onilstove.com ) and reportedly burns only 3 sticks of wood a day. This is a big difference from the 12-15 that most people use. Manuel agreed to install it for 6 months and let us know how it compares to their current model.

More MET

I am realizing that I haven't taken pictures or posted about our second group of MET students. That would fall under the list of things we missed about home while living in Paxot II. Any way, I will get some action shots of Esther, Holli and Nathan this week. They have be great to work with, and are adjusting to their new families really well.

We have been having low turn-outs in clinic this week due to two government give-away programs in full swing around here. The first few days everyone was signing their families up to receive a "scholarship fund" of Q150 per FAMILY (about $20) per year to help buy school supplies/books/uniforms. The qualifying families (no one knows how they were chosen) and those who didn't end up on the list were meeting with the government rep to hash out the small print, and things were getting a little heated. So several families have decided to opt out. (One guy told us that they were having to pay the committee members a fee per family to fill out the paperwork and travel to the capital to enroll the town). They were afraid they would end up paying more in committee fees than they received in "scholarship".

Then came the fertilizer give-away. Everyone was busy standing in line to receive or sign up for bags of fertilizer at buy-one-get-one rates. We had one clinic with normally around 20 people, where 7 people showed up and they were all in a hurry to get seen so they could stand in line. Turns out the final price is no cheaper than the stuff you can buy at the local ag coop. Oh well. Next week should be good. All the kids are home from school on a Swine Flu break until July 1. I'm sure we will be seeing more concern over cough and fever.

Hill Country Living

Juan and Lucia Gonzalez

This last week we spent time living with some friends of ours (Juan and Lucia) and their 7 kids in Paxot II. This is the town where our MET students are being hosted this month. The have been gracious hosts, good conversationalists and a fun family to be around. We were impressed at how well their children behaved and how so many neighbor children liked to hang out at the house. They have a 3 room house: kitchen/2 bedrooms--one of which was occupied by us. There always seemed to be about 10-15 kids at any one time! The kitchen serves as the family room and kids were always running in and out.

On Wednesday, the favorite uncle, came by to visit. The kids went nuts as he brought in the DVD player and started playing movies. We watched Titanic, Selena, Baby's Day Out, and Pink Panther cartoons in the evenings.

Meal time was a hoot. They obviously have different eating schedules than we do. And we know that lunch is usually the biggest meal, so they must have made some adjustments for us this week. Our evening meal always involved eggs or beans or both. Which is a good thing--hard to mess up eggs. And they really know how to dress up an egg (fried, scrambled, scrambled with tomatoes and onions, boiled, in soup, in soup with fresh greens, etc.). But for breakfast, we never new what to expect. Our first morning, we started with hot cereal and bread as we waited for one of the girls to get back so mom could start the fried chicken! We had fried chicken, rice and tortillas!!! Our bellies were so full as we walked to the car, that we were out of breath. The second day, we had hot cereal with corn flakes added, bread and........pork stew with tortillas! Luckily we haven't put on any weight. What great service!

Things we missed from home: our nice soft bed, not having to walk outside in the middle of the night for a bathroom visit, hot shower every day, internet, good bread, vegetables, quiet time.

But, we will miss their company and great hospitality!

Hot and heavy marbles game with the guys

Get him, Hermano Kemmel!

Baby Selvin--so misunderstood!

Night soccer in the patio--notice the dust flying!

Could you make a tasty meal for 12 people on this stove top?

Dinner time

The cheerleading squad

Last man standing--everyone had gone to bed except Eric--he had cartoons to watch!

New Life

Romans 6:5 If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with,[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

What a blessing today to witness the re-birth of 5 souls from the towns of Xepocol and Saquilla'. Two couples (Jose and Telma and Tomas and Micaela) and the youngest son of our friend ( Josue) were baptised today. It was a day of fellowship and worship and a reminder of our own death, burial, and resurrection with Christ. May God fill them with and transform them by his Spirit.

Elders from the church in Xepocol--Pedro and Juan, praying before getting started.

Hermano Jose

Hermano Tomas

Hermano Josue

Hermana Telma

Hermana Micaela

Tamalitos for everyone!

Lunch waiting for us back at the house

Putting On Our Full Armor

Well, the "mal de mayo" (diarrhea of May) has hit (I know it's June, but hey, most everyone got sick 2 weeks ago.). We were busy yesterday and today stamping out diarrhea and flu symptoms. All the infectious diseases seem to erupt when the rainy season starts--probably from crowding around the kitchen on cold afternoons and water sources being contaminated by broken pipes during mud slides and such. This is the time of year that we start talking about hand washing, boiling water well, and use of oral rehydration solution. One starts thinking that these are well-known and followed practices, but the evidence doesn't support that hypothesis.

I will be glad when our education program gets into full swing!

After seeing patients today, we sat around with the students talking to our health promoter Juan about old wives tales, Wiin (shape shifters--people who are trained by other shape shifters to use incantations to be able to have the power to come and go, wreaking havoc as they please and evading capture--they have 8-10 years to use their powers and then they have to train someone else or turn crazy or die), rumor mongers, and the ever-present battle against the powers of this dark world.
It is entertaining at first to hear about what different cultures believe and fear in the supernatural world. But it's also sobering to realize that Satan uses these powers and fears to enslave people and paralyze Christians who have not learned to trust the powers Christ. We always pray for the churches and their elders as they make ready for battle each day.

10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. Efesians 6:10-18

Felicitaciones

This is a quick hello and congratulations to Tomas Sut Gonzalez and his wife Isabella on the birth of their son, Tomas. I promised I would put this picture on the internet for them. He is a cutie!

Gringo afternoon and Missionary meeting

Today was a good day. Kemmel went to a church leadership meeting this morning at the church of Christ in Chichicastenango. Over the years the local leaders have been meeting and organizing various projects including which churches need assistance in training preachers, help in times of trouble, etc. In recent times, this has diminished as the churches have continued to mature and most of them operate pretty independently with a number of preachers and elders in each church. Some of the leaders have been meeting with churches farther out from Chichi and have seen a need to help promote much of what was promoted in the past. In this meeting, they discussed how there are a number of churches in other areas who are in the stages of growth that Chichi was in 10-20 years ago. As a result, the churches are coming together to discuss plans how to assist these smaller churches mature, build leaders and teach preachers. Needless to say this was an exciting meeting. There was much discussion of how they could do this financially but that they as leaders would meet with their congregations about the opportunities that they have to build up other churches.

These leaders expressed gratitude to the previous missionaries from the US that dedicated time to this area and to also training preachers from here in the bible institutes of Xela and Guatemala City and expressed the question "would if they had not take interest in us?". Thus, this is part of the basis they are using to say they are in a position to now assist other churches in these other areas.

I, Kemmel, feel very honored to be invited to the meeting and pray that God will continue to open doors for these brethren to encourage and build up the church. Please pray for these brothers and their churches that they will feel the urgency to provide the resources and funding necessary to build these churches. This meeting was pretty much Quiche all the time but I did get the general gist of what was going on - sure does wear you out though!

On the gringo, MET student, side of the day, we had a half day gringo day at the house and invited all of the students over for lunch and a break from Spanish and Quiche. Lisa grilled some brats (not quite the same) and prepared some baked beans and grilled vegetables. Everyone feasted and rested while checking Internet, laying in hammocks, talking and at the end making chocolate chip cookies.

Lisa has some pictures we will post later.

This all equals a great day.