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!