Slow clinics and New Clinic

This week has been a stream of slow clinics starting with Xepocol which only had one patient and Mactzul 6 with only 7.  Xepocol was the most surprising but not after hearing there were 2 deaths in the community and 1 death in a neighboring community.  How great to live in a community where most of the people respond in support of families who loose a loved one.   Other clinics like Patzite and La Palma were better with 2 of our first teeth cleanings in La Palma, very exciting.  Also, we had our first teeth cleaning in Panajxit last week. 

Today we started our first of many clinics with the church of Christ in Chichicastenango.  We have avoided starting clinics there in the past as it is a more urban area with other options; however, this was a church request as they are attempting to reach more people and have started a second outreach service.  Hard to say no to that idea.  So today Josefina, Sheri, Manuel and Tomas headed to Chichi and had a good first day with 17 patients and 2 teeth cleanings.  Excellent.

Also, this week we have made a solid attempt to start more programs in the way of prevention and education, so please pray that this will be successful and will bring more interest among the churches and the volunteers.  We will start slowly by teaching our promoters and volunteers one on one with patients during prayers and distribution of medicines. 

Church in Chichicastenango

Nothing to do with this blog but a great picture - Rural Guatemala Ice Cream 4 wheeler - someone's dream job

Sellado y Servido (stamped and served) or Test = Failed

We could not decide what to call this post so included both titles.

We realized last week that we actually need to renew our visa before the end of the month, so we had to make another trip to the city to request an extension of our 90 day visa.  We debated going to Mexico but thought we could at least have more fun in Guatemala City (Mexico is hot and not much to do in Tapachula).  This visa renewal was actually a test for us which did not end up in our favor and became a GWA moment(Guatemala Wins Again); however, it was worth the effort. 
Fijese (Well, you see) we went to Honduras in May via plane and had to re-enter the country via the airport where we received a 90 day visa extension.  We were not sure we would get one, but we did .  So we decided to take the chance and see what would happen if we calculated our visa renewal on the 90 days from the time we returned from Honduras in May rather than renewing 90 days from our last re-entry from Mexico in March.  The rule is you must renew your visa every 90 days and you have the choice of renewing in Guatemala City by requesting an extension or by leaving the country (the trick is you must go to any country other than Honduras, El Salvador or Nicaragua which are "open" borders for turism).  We know this but wanted to see if we could get by.......
Well, the result is they will figure it out and realize that your 90 day renewal is not valid (even though they stamped you in at customs with the usual 90-day authorization),  and will deem you as exceeding your 90 day visa and charge you a fine.  We ended up being 30 days over our legal 90 day visa, so we had to pay the fine and then they reduced our next visa extension by 30 days.  The reduction was fine as we leave for the US before the visa expires.  The good news is pay the fine and everyone is happy, which we already knew would be the case from other stories of missionaries, but we needed to know what would happen with the Honduras trip - now we know, although not the good news we were hoping for.  :)  Now we have been stamped and served and we are legal again.

As a result, our visa renewal time turned into a second night in the city but we were able to work out the clinic schedule with our partners in Chichi.  We decided to do a scouting trip on the way back, so left Guatemala City to travel to Joyobaj via San Juan Sacatepequez to Pachalum and then to Santa Cruz del Quiche and then Chichi.  The trip was about 5 hours total with a couple of rest stops.  From Guatemala City to Pachalum, the road was paved the entire way and took about 2.5 hours but due to road conditions between Pachalum and Joyobaj, that trip was about an hour or more.  Defintely driving from Chichi to Los Encuentros to Guatemala is much faster.  The trip was beautiful but very windey and all mountain, think highway from Los Encuentros but much more windey (there would be quite a bit of car sickness on this road!).  San Juan was very interested as this is the place to buy furniture - basic, fancy, you name it, they have it.  We counted at least 50 stores.  If living in Joyobaj, toss up in time to drive to Chichi and then to the capital or going through Pachalum and San Juan Sacatepequez.

We also crossed the river Montagua on a temporary bridge was the water from the rains in May appear to have double the size of the river and taken whole sections of the highway. 

Now I think we have traveled pretty much every way to be able to get to Chichi from the city.   The last one we traveled was through Chimaltenango to San Martin Jilotepeque which we would not recommend.  It is or at least was passible but bad roads, longer and a scary wood bridge.

Good day, learned something, fun adventure, now back in Chichi.

Other job - curious mechanics

For those who have come to Chichi you can see that driving here can be tricky and unpredictable.  As a result we have random bumps in our vehicles.  Since we have 5 total vehicles here, 3 from HTI and 2 personal, we have to keep them maintained which means extra time with the local mechanics.  Our 2 personal vehicles are a 1987 Suzuki Samari (first vehicle purchase from Gene Luna, a long term missionary to Guatemala) and a 1996 Nissan Pathfinder, both of which hold up well and do not cause us too many problems and to everyone's surprise the Suzuki holds up like a tank and has not found a hill it cannot conquer with ease.  We needed a longer trip vehicle when we moved to the city for awhile but decided to keep the Suzuki which still finds much use with little maintenance (Sheri's favorite vehicle).

Over the past few days I have been spending time with the mechanics checking brakes and changing oil on the Nissan and also, changing the glow plugs and fixing a dent on on of the trucks.  The dent happened a couple of years ago and is starting to rust, so best to get it sanded down and painted.  We did not feel the need to fix it real perfect as dents are a part of life here, so we had it banged out as well as it could be, painted and had the bumper straightened so the tire does not hit up against the frame anymore and had a hole repaired in the back side of the head light with fiber glass (so now no dirt will get in the head light weaking the beam).  All for Q100 or about $13.  With changing the glow plugs and fixing the dent, total cost Q570 or $71, with most of the cost on the glow plugs (Q320 / $40).  At least our mechanic costs are low here.  Here are some before and after pics.

Not perfect, but good enough for Chichi! 

Spending time with mechanics is actually quite fun and a great learning experience as these guys can fix almost anything and are very creative in their methods.  They are also very curious about the big gringo and why we are here which gives us plenty of opportunity to talk to them about what we do and why we do it and to slowly invite them to clinics and to invite them to local church services.  A couple are now even interested in stoves and water filters to take a step in bettering their living environments and possibly allowing us to visit with them in their homes.

When time permits and funds permit we will be visiting again to paint some other rusted dents. 

Last week we enjoyed a great visit from a team from the Donnelson Church of Christ in Tennessee.  They were a great group to work with, and included a medical/dental team as well as a construction team.  On the healthcare side, we were able to see our regular patients as well as check off some well-child exams for our ABC kids.  It was good to see all the children gaining weight approriately and most everyone passing their classes. 
Kemmel worked with the construction team each day getting some bathrooms put in for the church in Mactzul III.  We don't usually involve ourselves in construction, as it is not our forte, but this church has raised a lot of money on their own to build their first church building, and we had a team wanting to help out.  So, lets just say the construction team worked hard, sweated a lot, and got home late most days.  They were pretty worn out each night!  It was a good week, and we really appreciate not only those who came down to work, but also the church back home who helped finance the project, and who have been involved with HealthTalents. 

Saturday, we headed out to clinic in Chuchipaca. We really didn't expect to see anyone as we had been there the week before with the group, but we decided to stay on cycle so no one would be confused.  After seeing 9 patients, we pack up our equipment and construction scaffolding we left the week before,  and got back early enough to make it to the capital before nightfall.  We enjoyed a weekend of togetherness, laziness and movies and good food.  Monday, we went to pay my medical license, which turned out to be quite easy.  So I am legal for another year--whew!

This week, back to regularly scheduled programming.

We just said goodbye to our visiting team from Arkansas, Alabama and North Carolina, and Texas.  It was very large team, and to be honest, we were a little worried about logistics.  But, after much prayer and pre-game planning (thanks, Kemmel and Rick!) we enjoyed a very productive and fun week.  I got to spend time with my friend from medical school, Dr. Lesca Hadley, who is now on our board of directors--she is such an encourager and fun to work with. There were also several young 'uns on the team, helping with construction/maintenance projects, and I we must admit that we were impressed with their mature behavior and great work ethic.  Our medical and dental clinics were very busy, but orderly, and we got home each night tired but satisfied.   The great thing we noticed this time was the increase in participation by the church members as we ministered in each town.  We had so many volunteers helping to translate, direct patient traffic, work on construction, and feed and serve us lunch.  We thank God for allowing us all to participate in such a rewarding work.

As seeing off this team, we hung around the hotel watching the World Cup Final while our new team from Donnelson Church of Christ in Tennessee arrived.  We were rooting for Holland over Spain (we are big underdog fans).  Although I must admit my ignorance to the fact that the Netherlands is a.k.a Holland, even though Holland really only refers to two of the many provinces in that country.  I had to do a little Googling to figure out who we were supporting! So, despite our team losing the final, I am now a little more geography-savvy.

Tomorrow we head out with our new team, to share some more of the great work that we have here.

July Mobile Medical and Dental Clinics

See Sheri's blog for updates on the team and the clinics.  http://sheriinguate.blogspot.com/

Happy belated Independence Day to everyone.  We were able to enjoy some holiday fellowship with fellow patriotic expatriates.  At lunch we had a cookout with Sheri and our MET intern Nate and narrowly escaped a good-food coma during afternoon worship services.  After church, during the cold rain, we enjoyed another cookout with some of the local missionaries in the area.  It was good to sit and share memories and American food and fireworks.  We thanked God for the liberties and opportunities given us through our U.S. citizenship, for the uniformed men and women that defend us every day,  and also the freedom He gave us through life in Christ.

Today we are catching up on laundry, yard and house work and last minute details before our medical/dental team arrive this week. We'll have some folks working clinics, including well-child checks on our ABC program kids; and also a work team that will be busy helping some of the local churches and doing some painting at Clinica Caris.  It's been a good, relaxing weekend and we are ready hit the trail running!

Mactzul V - Before and After

Today I went out to Mactzul V and Mactzul III to visit with some of the brothers, see how they are doing on their church projects, and to check the situation of the running water in the homes.  My first stop was Mactzul V.  This is a church that 5 years ago had around 60 baptized members and has grown to over 120 baptized members and has over 50 families active in the church.  The entire community has around 130 families, so the church has reached over 40% of the families in the area.  Pretty incredible.  We have big churches in the US, but how many churches can claim more than 30% of the local neighboorhood attending the church. 

They pointed out another church in the community that has pretty much closed its doors which we are not too sad about, as the it was a church more concerned about required tithing than the spiritual development of its members. 

So as the church has grown, so must the building!  Here is a before picture:

And another:

This the status of the building now.

Here is a side view to better see the size.  This building is 27 meters by 18 meters.  3 or 4 of the old building would fit inside.

Of course the most exciting part is not the building but the growth and maturity of the church.  The church has raised Q250,000 (Q4000 each family which would be around 1/3 of a families yearly income) from it's own members to take on this project and have been saving for 2-3 years.  Now they are running out of funds which is a whole other situation, but they continue to find ways to keep pressing on and providing for the future of the church.

Please say a prayer today for the church in Mactzul V that they can continue to effect change and spiritual growth in their community.