Around the House

Today was a good day to get cought up on some things.  Kemmel worked getting the trucks in for maintenance and on some last minute details for our visting team that gets in Wednesday. I washed and rehung all of our dusty curtains and sheers, folded about 4 loads of laundry that had reached the armchair's breaking point and made a lasagna for tonight's dinner.  I've been working on using up what's in the freezer and fridge as we will have about a week of eating out with the team and in the city.  Our local butcher always puts cilantro bundles in with the meat and if I don't remember, I end up freezing with the meat. Let's just say frozen cilantro isn't the most appetizing-looking.  But, it does work great in soup.
We have a little cat that is about 6-7 months old now and she is a real cutie.  We named her Fifi, which was our first cat's name--I know, not very original. But it just seems to fit.  She also has quite an ornery side.   We let her come in the house in the mornings and evenings to eat and sometimes to sleep if it's cold and we're feeling sorry for her, but she spends the rest of the time outside.  This morning Kemmel opened the front door to a mess of vomited-up chicken skin and furballs.  I'm assuming it was somebody's tossed-out processed chicken parts rather than a neighbor's chicken as there were not feathers mixed in. Let's hope!
Tomorrow is All Saint's Day--a pretty big deal around here.  We'll be driving to the city to pick up Dr. Ruben's sister Jessica (dentist) and his fiance Sandra (physician) who will be working with our visiting group.  Hopefully the traffic will be manageable and the movie theaters and restaurants will be open!

It's been such a nice week weather-wise, since the sun came out.  The mornings have been quite cool for this time of year--50 degrees, but by mid-morning we are warmed up.  You forget how good sunlight is for your mental health! 
This week has been good with some interesting patients to share with our intern Allison Smith.  She got to see a good number of diabetics, and on the last day, we saw a man who had a bad diabetic foot, apparently not improving after amputating 3 toes.  We told him he would most likely have to amputate further up the leg and he was not keen on that idea.  He said the national hospital had told him the same thing.  He is a Christian, and we prayed for healing and for wisdom. 
Kemmel went to the doctor last week for his torn rotator cuff, and was advised to try physical therapy for 4-6 weeks, but also was restricted on driving and lifting.  We are grateful that he doen't have to have surgery yet, but bummed that he will be out of commission for  a while.  Thankfully, our local phyical therapist, Jennifer Hoines is here to help out--without her, we would be stuck with going to the capital for therapy.
We've also been busy with education this month.  Sheri has been traveling around talking in the schools about hygeine and de-worming the kids, hosting diabetic education classes and giving health talks to the ABC programs in local churches.  This next year we are looking to implement not only our child nutrition program, starting with the prenatal women, but also develop sex education classes for the ABC kids.  The challenge is always finding appropriate materials to put together and then to translate based on level of education.  But we are up to the challenge!
Next week we host a group that will be going out to clinics with us and giving a children's bible program.  We spent the day today packing supplies/medicines for a third clinic team and counted gobs of extra pills--we are ready! This is  a holiday weekend for us so we will get a good rest in before we hit the road running. Happy All Saint's Day everyone!

Despite the rainy, muddy days, we have had a productive week so far and busy clinics.  Monday Kemmel and I picked up Goyo Nieto, a preacher from the Brewer Road Church of Christ in North Carolina, and successfully made it to Chichicastenango after a night of rain and more mudslides.  Goyo is teaching our men's leadership seminar this week on I and II Timothy.  So far we have heard great comments.  We thought the rain would be over by now, but were wakened throughout the night by more rain.  It continued until about noon.  The drive was good practice for 4 -wheeling and Sheri and I got to help a 15 year-old get his truck unstuck from the mud.  Thankfully we didn't have any major mudslides in our path. 
On the downside, Kemmel slid and fell yesterday at clinic and we are pretty sure he tore his rotator cuff in his right shoulder (dominant arm).  He can't raise his arm up beyond what his elbow and neck can do, so showering and dressing and driving are proving to be a challenge.  We are going to the city on Saturday for an MRI.  Be praying for him and we will keep you updated. 

Rain rain go away....

Well, we have certainly had our fair share of rain this month--5inches in the last 3 days and 9 for the month.  And we got the light end of the precipitation compared to the rest of the country.  Rivers are out of their banks, bridges carried away, mudslides all along the highways cutting off access even to big cities like Quetzaltenango.  But, thankfully, here we are doing well, with minimal damage, just shivering a lot and tolerating the damp grey days.  The cold does give up a good excuse to have coffee in the afternoons after work (and cookies of course!). So far we have only had to cancel clinic in one town and classes at a local school that closed due to weather. 

Of course the extra moisture makes for moldy walls and beautiful flowers--we are currently getting a show from the local poinsettias which are trees here in their native Guatemala.  I also have an orchid in the back yard that is blooming right now! We just learn to live with the mold.

Clinic has been understandably light but with some good patients to share with our intern Allison Smith. Today we had a couple in because the wife was having very heavy menstrual bleeding this month.  I ordered a pregnancy test and the husband looked surprised and said it would be impossible as she had had her tubes tied.   I gently informed him of the 1:1000 failure rate and he agreed we needed to rule out that possibility.  I told him the only 100% method of birth control involved not sleeping together, he and his wife started laughing and we all agreed that was not a very fun or warm option. Especially on these cold nights!

Cold and Rainy

It's a cold and rainy October day here, perfect for an education day, except that we kept getting splashed-on on our covered porch/class room.  But, everyone was a good sport and we had a great day learning about the eye, how it works and some common ophthalmologic illnesses in our patients. 

The year is winding down and I informed the class that we only had one class left before the end of the year, so they needed to turn in all of their monthly reading assignments/summaries if they wanted to get their special prize.  Of course I only have a handful of students (all women) who diligently turn in their homework every month, so everyone else started bellyaching that they didn't know which ones they lacked and since they hadn't come to class on a couple of months, didn't know what the assignments were either.  I listed out the chapters for the year, and told them as I had at the beginning, that if they turn in 8/10 summaries they qualify for the prize.  We'll see who gets busy reading!  I think I'll have a separate prize for my consistent students too. 

I'll leave you with some pictures from the last month.

Walking to clinic in Xepocol - Should be a good corn year here

Clinic in Macztul VI

PA Intern Elaine learning some dental in Mactzul VI with Marcos

These 2 sweet girls are come Mactzul VI and are both deaf; however, the older one is going to school and doing better than some of the other students!  They are the daughters of one of the young leader families in Mactzul VI. 

PA Intern Elaine and Lisa photo op

Our new place to get some great breakfast from time to time. 

Highway obstacles - These guys were in the lead of a bike race up the mountain.

ABC girls from Mactzul II entertaining themselves while waiting of dental services at Caris.  Here they are making little nests with little seeds representing bird eggs.  See below.  Pretty cute!

Passing the time.

Promoter Class small group presentations

Enrique and Manuel having some fun.

Teresa explaining the results of their investigation.

Volunteer promoter and ABC Coordinator Tomas and his children Dora (Dori) and William

ABC Moms and grandma (middle) paciently waiting while the children are seen by Marcos

Julisa Lux Alvarez

Please pray for Julisa Lux Alvarez.  This is the child that started leukemia treatments a few years back.  She was doing great and recently had a relapse of leukemia and has to start her treatments again.  She has been in the hospital in the city now for the last month and she will probably be there for at least one more month.  Please pray for Julisa and her family as this is a very stressful process.