It stopped raining

We are thankful that all of our staff and interns are fine this morning. There are many roads blocked and bridges out from the mudslides and flooding. But thanks to God the rain has stopped. Keep Guatemala in your prayers as there will be much work to be done.

We have spoken with some contacts this morning and in the local area roads to most of our clinics locations are blocked by mudslides, including Paxot 2. The roads will most likely start be cleared today. The interns are safe in Paxot 2 with their host families and will be fine during the next day or so as they have plenty fo supplies in the area.

We will continue to make contacts throughout the day to check on many of the other clinic sites and churches that we partner with.

Access to Chichi is now limited as well as it appears the bridge at the bottom of the valley, El Molino, has been washed out. This is the highway to and from Guatemala City. We are about to head up to Chichi and see what we can find out.

6pm Here and Raining

Well it is still raining here. We are up to 10 inches since Wednesday which is quite a bit for around here. We wanted to let all of the MET parents know that all is well and the students are tucked away with their families in their homes. Also, just so everyone knows we are far away both in Chichicastenango and in Montellano from any volcano activity so no worries there.


We had a good second day of women's health clinic today. We started the day thinking no one would come as we received one call from a couple of ladies that said they would not make it due to the rain but we had 9 patients which is much better than expected.


Our friend, Roger McKown, was to fly out today but all planes are grounded until Tuesday due to the volcano activity and also the rains, so time to huncker down and enjoy the time.


We do not know what will happen next week with clinics so we will wait and see. The roads are starting to get difficult around the more rural areas, but everyone is stocked up on corn and beans and chickens.

It is still raining!

We are on the third day of rain. Started Wednesday afternoon, rained all day thursday and all day today. Of course this always happens when we tell people it does not rain much here in Chichi! According to the weather service may rain for another 2 days. Last time this happened with Hurricaine Stan the country suffered from flash floods and mud slides.

We had a good day today (pretty much all days are good days!). We held 3 clinics today. Sheri had clinic in Paxot 2 where she is also living for the next 4 weeks, stepping deep into the rural life and trying to learn some more kiche. She had over 30 patients today which is very abnormal for there but we had a draw by offering a small health fair providing free blood glucose checks. Sheri was joined by 3 of the MET students as well. Poor Gaspar had to walk home to Xepocol because the roads are pretty bad and no trucks were making the trip. Manuel returned with news that he had some difficulty in the 4x4 so everyone was probably too nervous to drive the roads, especially downhill. So that left Gaspar with walking back to Xepocol, probably about 2 hours in the rain!

Lisa and I headed to Clinica Caris for a women's health / pap clinic and were joined by some old friends of our family when we lived in Guatemala in the 1980's. We were joined by Rachel Vasey (this was Rachel's first visit back to Guatemala after many years) and Amy Kendrick (Vasey) and also the wife of Nate Vasey, Becky and another nursing student which we must admit we cannot remember her name. We have been trying to advertise for a couple of weeks and had a good turn out of 19 patients. We are trying to promote the importance of pap smears to the ladies of the area and we have another clinic tomorrow at Clinica Caris with Lisa and Josefina. As we had ladies clinic we had the oppurtunity to demonstrate a smokeless stove we are promoting that reduces the consumption of firewood. None sold today but many interested in thinking about it. We did have one lady purchase a water filter from the same agency we get the stoves from.

Josefina and Marcos, and 3 MET students headed out to La Estancia outside of Santa Cruz for another clinic where we also had a good turn out of patients.

Here is a picture of the smokeless stove we are promoting. The stove is a creation on HELPS International. We are short on space so we found some room in the pump house of our water cistern. Not much room inside but it works for demonstrations. The ladies made coffee and heated up tortillas for lunch today. Coffee was much appreciated as it has also been pretty cold with the rain.

We are back in Chichicastenango with all of our students tucked in with their familes. I have a post coming with some good pictures.

It has been raining all day today, the kind of rain that makes you think about hurricane season. According to the NOAA, this year is slated to be a record setting year for tropical storms. Although we don't usually get the high wind action, we do get long soggy days that lead to mudslides and road blocks. Should be fun......

Clinic went well the last two days, and the students have perfected their technique on checking blood sugars, pregnancy tests, urine dipsticks and even HIV and syphillis. They are also getting a lot of practice with their Spanish and K'iche'.

We'll get some pictures up soon.

Ready to Roll

After finishing up a good weekend of missiology training with Roger McKown we are ready to get out to the two communities that will be hosting our teams of students. I think everyone is a little nervous about meeting their families (as are the families!), but it will be a good day tomorrow. We still remember when we had the same experience, trying to communicate in a very foreign language, and not really knowing what to expect. Besides the differences in food and language and the use of outhouses, there is also the difference in family units, lack of privacy and lack of personal space to name a few things. Despite all this, they will gain an understanding of how to get to know people from other cultures, how to appreciate and respect other world views, and hopefully gain some skills that sharpen their abilities as evangelists wherever they are.

MET

Our Medical Evangelism Training team is here. We drove down to Ezell clinic yesterday to join them for their missiology training. They are a great team of students and we look forward to spending the month with them. Here is a great picture of everybody under a ceiba tree, the national tree of Guatemala--kind of like the big tree on Avatar. The students seem so young, but we realized that we were in their place 20 years ago.

(Back row l-r)Michelle, Nate, Jay, Kate, Garrett, Caleb, (front row l-r) Andrea, Carrie, Andrea, Amy, Amanda and Sarah


Canopy of the Ceiba tree--this picture doesn't do justice to the splendor of this organism.

Inspired

On Saturday, I (Kemmel) traveled to the area of Joyobaj with a group of church leaders / elders to visit a smaller, struggling congregation while Lisa stayed at Clinica Caris with Gaspar and Juan having classes on peptic disease and blood donation. By the end of the class Gaspar and Juan thought we needed to get a list together of people who can donate blood! The history here is many people do not know where blood comes from and thus are afraid to donate as the fear is it does not regenerate, so it would be like donating a kidney. As a result, many people who need blood for a surgery must contract someone to give blood for them, costing around $100 per donor. So the dream - provide education to allow people to make decisions such as above with Gaspar and Juan and encourage them to act on the idea. We present the classes to others this coming Tuesday.


The elders I traveled with are a group of church leaders from the area of Chichicastenango and Santa Cruz del Quiche who have formed an organization whose purpose is to assist the other churches by developing leaders, providing evangelism support, providing spiritual encouragement and assisting the financially when possible. As part of their efforts they support a local missionary who travels to the area of Zacualpa and Joyobaj to promote spiritual development to the area. To do so, they enlist men and churches willing to provide their time and funds to progress the development of the church.


The community we went to visit is called Xepepen and is about a 1 hour drive from Joyobaj and about 3 hours from Chichicastenango. This community is located way up in the mountains over pretty rough roads that would not be accessible in the deep rainy season except by foot. The good news is some roads are being worked on to make it more accessible. The church here consists of 4 or so families with 2 men as the church leaders, a father and a son. Most of the other people in the church are women and children but possibly around 10 active adults. The church has struggled for some time now and thus the visit.



These men have been training leaders in another church in a community called Chuisiquel and now a young man from the Chuisiquel church is visiting the Xepepen church to also help develop its leaders. Very exciting. In the last 2 weeks they have had 2 additional baptisms and look forward to future growth. As this community is in a remote area, by distance, because in population is appears to have a quite a bit of people, they have much need. So the idea of this group of men is to assist the in the construction of the church building by supplying roofing material and other support.



It was very inspring to see the compassion and dedication this group of men has to the spiritual development of the church and to see them encourage others. During the visit we had a devotional with each one of the men sharing encouraging words and praying for the church and its families. We ended with a 15 minute prayer on our knees for the health of 2 of the elderly people in the church.



Also, it had its other fun as well as the roads were pretty bad and in some cases looked as nonexistent, but we pressed on (all were amazed on the power of a deisel 4x4). One of the men who lives in Paxot, a community around Chichicastenango, could not believe how many people lived on this mountain. It was amusing to see his excitement as most of us who come from the US or even from an urban Guatemalan city would be amazed about how many people live in the mountains around Paxot and here he is amazed about how many people live in the mountains around Xepepen. It was a great perspective to experience.


During the trip we also discussed some plans of TSI and how TSI is interested in growing in this area and partnering with churches in the ministry and everyone seems very interested.


I also got to spend some time with another leader from the church in Zacualpa who has also benefited from the encouragement and discipling of this group of elders. We got to spend some time discussing a new church growth in the border of Quiche and Baja Verapaz, about 2 hours from Joyobaj. Last year we attended a baptism in this area and recently, through a evangelism campaign with BICA (Bible Institute of Cental America), the church has grown to 31 adults! Pretty exciting. We are planning a second visit with much interest from this church in providing a medical clinic in their community. A longer trip that may be 2 days but we are looking forward to it.


What a great honor and priviledge to spend the day with this group of men and being inspired by their spiritual leadership. I need to learn more kiche!


Sorry no pictures from this trip, forgot the camera. In case you are wondering, gracias a Dios, we made it back before the rain started.

It is good to be back to work. Kemmel and I took some admin. days to knock out some reports and some education material for next week's class. One of the lessons is on clean water--not to be taken lightly here. As the rainy season is in full swing, there are days when the water comes out a nice chocolate milk color from the faucet. Despite the obvious risks, people around here like to take the occasional swig from the spigot. Of course the incidence of diarrhea always goes up during these months (hence the term "mal de mayo" to describe the runs).
Our other lesson is on blood donation and the basics of red blood cell life cycle. We are always amazed and frustrated at how few people will offer to donate blood for a family member or friend in time of need. Most patients end up having to pay people to donate, and if not, pay over $100 per unit of blood. So, we are going to have a class to dispell myths about donation and how quickly the body can recover afterward. There is even a Bible verse to trigger a little guilt!
Proverbs 3:27 Do not withhold good from those who deserve it, when it is in your power to act.
Today was a great day back in clinic. Some of my favorite patients came in--the local shepherdess (with a raging kidney infection--she couldn't get the headache and fever to go away, even after using the urine of a small child on her forehead last night!). Also one of our clinic neighbors brought in her new baby, born last week by c-section after hours of pushing. And also one of the brothers from Mactzul came in with an out-of-control feverblister on his mouth following a febrile illness 10 days ago--that left him deaf in one ear. After lavaging out several large plugs of wax, he was quite the happy camper. While waiting for the lavage, he told us about his daughter being in the hospital in the city for 3 weeks because of what sounds like Guillain Barre syndrome. After his long-winded report of her ups and downs and progress back at home, he ended with "well that's all the words I have to say". Sometimes people just need someone to listen for a while.

Finally, I talked with my other favorite patient who used to be a translator for some U.S. missionaries when she was younger (she's 74 now). She would be willing to give us some classes in Kiche and can read and write Kiche and even speaks a little English. We will work out maybe one afternoon a week to spend with her. I think it will be a help to her financially and lift her spirits a little as well.

Kemmel met with several people today, knocking out things on his to-do list, and finished up the last hour babysitting a little 7 month old girl while her mom had some dental work. They sat at the computer together happy as clams, printing out copies of flyers.

It's good to be back.

Pictures

Here are some pictures from our trip to Roatan, Honduras. It was so beautiful, and we thoroughly enjoyed the time away together.

Happy Mother's Day!

We are back in Guatemala after a great time on the beach. Our internet access was a little iffy there, so I didn't get to post this yesterday. Of course in Guatemala, Mother's Day is a week-long affair and a National Holiday for all mothers.

We want to thank our moms Roberta and Lisa for all of their support and prayers and encouragement especially since being here on the mission field. We love you so much and miss you, especially on this special day/week!

Ron, Roberta and Kemmel

Big Lisa and Little Lisa (she doesn't look so much bigger anymore!)

Paradise

Ahhhhh.........Let's just say, opening a sandwich shop on the beach is looking really good! We are having a great time, snorkelling, swimming and being just lazy. The weather is fantastic, and the cruise ship passesngers are only hear from around 11:00 til 2:00, so the beaches are wide open.

Wish you were here!

We are on vacation! The last few months have been busy, and we wound up the last week with our Health Talents Board of Directors meeting. It was a great several days, first with our staff management meeting and then presenting our regional work to the Board.

So now we are getting ready for a trip to Roatan Island, Honduras. This is one of our favorite places to just relax and soak in some sun (I'm sure our bright-white legs will scare some of the little children!).

We'll post some pictures when we get back!