"Exactly The Same"

Just an update from our last post. We continue to have very strict restrictions here in Guatemala in an attempt to limit social interaction and decrease spread of CoVid-19. Since late March the Government has put in place stay-at-home orders and limited what types of businesses can be open. Basically any food service or grocery or pharmacy can work freely. And any business that can do telecommuting. Other businesses can get permission if they comply with sanitation and infection control practices for all of their staff and clients. We are all required to wear a mask outside of the home now.  Our biggest hurdle continues to be prohibition of public transportation and the shortened work day--businesses have to close by 2:00 to allow people to get home before curfew. Only private vehicles are allowed to circulate and with limited passenger numbers. In our areas of ministry, the majority of people use public transportation including our patients and staff.

Each Sunday, the whole country waits anxiously for the president to announce what restrictions will be lifted or changed or added. For the last 2 weeks the answer has been, "everything stays exactly the same." Yesterday the answer was basically the same but we are entering into a new phase of cautious re-opening. We get to go to shops that are in plaza setup but still no public transportation and no travel between the Capital and other departments. So far the State of Emergency has been extended through May and most authorities predict the highest numbers of cases somewhere near mid to late May.

The President, Dr. Alejandro Giammattei is a physician as well. This is a snap of one of his daily epidemiology reports.

So our suspension of medical and dental services continues at least until public transportation opens. Our physicians and dentists are fielding phone and text consults from patients and calling in prescriptions to local pharmacies. But face-to-face attention has been put on hold. Other staff are helping call patients who had appointments in dental and pre-op to reschedule. 
Our ABC sponsored families are getting their regularly programmed food deliveries and our scholarship kids are getting the support they need to keep up online studies.
Administrative staff are working to make sure we are in line with government regulations and updating our data digitally for easier communication with banks and government entities we report to. Purchasing and ordering processes with new online options are getting added so that will help streamline our supply chain here in country.  

We are communicating with staff and local partner churches to plan our reopening and trying to figure out how to work around short work days, spacing of our waiting areas and triage of our mostly walk-in patient population and will probably have to continue to put a hold on dental patients as the requirements for maintaining a safe environment for both patients and staff are more stringent and will require more supplies and time per patient. We still don't have a good feel for when international travel and free circulation of tourists will be allowed. Some are predicting into Fall before that happens. So we wait until then to welcome our visiting surgical teams.

One of our sweet patients sent us a greeting with her new fashion statement.

On a very bright note, Health Talents International has just successfully completed a fundraising effort called One Hour at a Time that brought in over and above what we asked for. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over was poured into our lap to help cover salaries of staff and operational costs until we can get back to offering our full spectrum of elective surgical and dental services (a large piece of our funding for payroll). We are so grateful to God and to all of our faithful supporters who have stepped up and contributed to this work. We are mindful of the economic straits that many people are experiencing in the States and see your generous spirit at work. We are also thankful to God for the health we have all enjoyed to date and pray that the toll from this virus would be limited both health wise and economically. Please join us in prayer for our governments and authorities around the world that they would make wise decisions and for the church as a whole to take advantage of every opportunity to be a witness to the powerful love God.