Last Sunday, we were on our way between Chichicastenango and Montellano about a 3-hour trip through three different departments. We are working on preparing the facilities and the staff for working at the clinics and receiving patients. Currently there are travel restrictions between departments except for medical or food transport. So we were armed with our authorization letters and handy work badges that Kemmel made for us. Thankfully we made it through the check stops without even having to show anything--our trucks have our Health Talents logos on them so that probably helped. That and God's provision.
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| Armed and ready. Masks are mandatory in public as crowding is a way of life here. |
It's interesting to see how the different areas of the country are doing life. We saw the majority of people wearing masks in public, including kids. A lot of small towns have their own market areas too which helps keep central markets less congested. However, the small towns don't have big spaces, so things get pretty heavily trafficked there too. Restaurants are still closed for the most part, but people still like to sit and have a Coke or coffee together in front of little stores. Visits to family and friends are discouraged so people stand outside their houses to chat.
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| One of our neighbors stopped by to say hi and ask about a friend in common. |
No public transportation in the buses or minivans or boats so the street corners and crossroads and lakes are completely transformed with the lack of vehicle congestion. But you do have to watch for motorcycles and bikes everywhere riding on both sides of you on the highways.
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| We've never seen the Lake Atitlan at midday without boat traffic. |
One of the things that has surprised us most and given us the most joy to see is how people are reaching out to each others to provide for their needs. Several of our coworkers and church members have told us of how the churches are reaching out to help their neighbors, how family members who are still in the States are wiring money back to help their family and vulnerable neighbors, and how local organizations are reaching out as well to help provide emergency food relief. Our patients that call for a medical consult are kind enough to share our medical "hotline" number with family and neighbors and even translate for them over the phone or send pictures/videos on their smartphones to facilitate a telemedicine call.
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| Telemedicine via Whatsapp photo and video calls. Moms are getting better at showing me sore throats and mouth sores! |
This pandemic is hitting us hard in Latin America and is not going away soon. Our national hospitals are getting overwhelmed by respiratory cases which limits attention and resources available for other illnesses. In countries where heath care is socialized it is easy to overrun the system in an epidemic situation. Government places drastic restrictions in an effort to minimize the damage. But the tight regulation means people are out of work. And many informal jobs (day labor and self-employed workers) in the rural areas are linked to service industry, agriculture, market sales, tourism and mass transit. "Nonessential" workers still need to eat.
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| We drove behind this group and realized they were delivering food packages to people. |
We don't know how long we will be under these tight restrictions, but many project out til late in the year before public transportation begins to open under very tight regulation of limited passengers and until 2021 before international tourism begins to function. These two things have a big impact on our ministry and other ministries in this country. At first glance it should be easy to just open clinics and see sick people and do surgery like we always have. But, we can't get our staff together easily, or get our patients to our clinics easily, or if we could go to a large enough town and do a mobile clinic, we can't allow for large groups of waiting patients. We have staff who are in the high risk health category (age, chronic disease or pregnant) which means they can't legally be at work with the rest of us. Our volunteer surgery teams come from the United States which means no surgery groups until next year most likely.
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Please pray for us to be wise stewards of our resources and staffing. To look for ways to minister to those in need. Pray for this country to learn to overcome these hardships, and pray for the churches to keep being resourceful and creative in their outreach to neighbors and nonbelievers so that Jesus would be known by even more people. And pray that this Virus passes.
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| I just like this Snoopy rock that's out on the side of the highway. In the 15 years we've been here it's always been painted and kept up by someone, not sure who. God bless that person! |
