Cervical Cancer Screening

Tomorrow we begin our first mobile cervical cancer screening event. Cervical cancer is the most common cancer in women in Guatemala and the cancer hospital here is overwhelmed with advanced cases--and those are just the patients that can afford cancer care.  Just in the last 3 months we have had two patients pass away from cervical cancer--younger than 55 years old.

 Dr. Sara Castellanos and I and our two female health promoters, Maury and Cesy will head out to Mactzul II where we will be hosted by the church for the event, while Sheri covers our regularly-scheduled clinic.  We've invited all the women from the town to come for their VIAA (Visual Inspection with Acetic Acid)--the new screening technique that allows us to tell the patient immediately if there is cancer or pre-cancerous lesions or not.
This is a perfect example of appropriate technology, as we eliminate the need for costly lab, prolonged wait for results, and it reduces the number of patients lost to followup.  We were also generously given a cryotherapy gun for treating pre-cancerous lesions.

So we are thankful to God and to our supporters for helping us offer these services that help protect moms and families and hopefully avoid this all too common cancer.

Passed Muster!

Last week we got a call from a co-worker in the Captial who had been notified by the health department that they were trying to find our Clinica Caris in Lemoa to do an inspection.  He said they had sounded  a little irritated that they couldn't find us.  So Kemmel called the inspector and was told that they would be by first thing in the morning and to be waiting for them on the highway at the exact kilometer marker so they didn't lost again.
Well, were pretty worried and slept fitfully wondering what they would look for, etc. (especially since our license renewal is a little overdue). 
We got up early and headed to the clinic, double checking everything we could think of, praying, and biting our nails, waiting for them to show upwhile patients standing in line watched us run around like crazy people. 
Finally they showed up--four health officials with checklists and thankfully big friendly smiles.  They toured the clinic areas, explaining what they look for and gave us the thumbs up and commended us on the cleanliness and orderliness of the site.  Then they gave us some paperwork signed and sealed that we would have had to go get at the health department office in order to renew our sanitary license, so that was a huge blessing! 
They swooped out as quickly as they swooped in and left us feeling like we had just finished a week of finals!  I don't think we've been than nervous in a long time.  Thank you, Lord for helping us and guiding us and for the little breaks sometimes!

The Great Escape

Who doesn't like a 3-day weekend?!  Here in Guatemala every city/municipality celebrates it's Patron Saint Fair.  This year, Guatemala City celebrates the 15th (Friday) and Santa Cruz del Quiche is the 18th (Monday), so lots of people are taking 3-day weekends.  Apparently everyone is leaving the big city and heading out to the countryside or to Santa Cruz, while we have in mind an urban retreat!  Look at the line cars--we measured about 5 miles of stand-still traffic headed out of the city. We had smooth sailing to the Capital and are enjoying a pretty quiet Guatemala City right now.  Our big plans are to walk around, see movies (Hercules last night and Planet of the Apes today), swim, shop and get some chips and salsa and a yummy burger at Chile's!  I'm thinking we'll be seeing the same traffic pattern in reverse tomorrow afternoon! Sometimes it's good to be a country mouse!

Words From a Thankful Dad

Iglesia de Cristo, Mactzul I--promotion to Youth Group day. 

One of the ABC dads came by to talk to Kemmel and get some career counseling advice for his high school-aged son.  During the chat he mentioned some of the things that he and other parents had been saying about the program:

"We are really thankful for what the ABC program has done to help our kids.  Everyone is  noticing that they are so much healthier than they used to be, and than we ever were at their age.  Not only that, we are happy to see how much further they have gotten in their studies because of the program.  We are so grateful to the sponsors and to Health Talents for what they do for our kids and our families."

So, for all you ABC sponsors out there, a heartfelt MALTIOX CHIWE!--GRACIAS!--THANK YOU!

If you would like information on how to become an ABC sponsor or scholarship contributor please go to our Health Talents International webpage.

Sunny Days and New Souls Added to the Church

Can you believe it's August already???  Our weather and climate around here has been pretty crazy, just as it has in the States.  Although we should be in the middle of the rainy season, we are struggling through a dry spell that might take its toll on this year's corn crop.  Hopefully the clouds will get the hang of things again soon. 
However, lack of rain makes for beautiful sunny days, and yesterday was perfect for a baptismal service and celebration.  We were invited out to Mactzul II to celebrate the new birth of 9 new Christians.  Two of them were a couple who we had evangelized in clinic a few months ago and the church began visiting afterward--we are always honored to see fruit of the clinic work!  This couple was formerly very active in the Mayan traditional religion and resistant to hearing the gospel. But as is frequently the case, illness and worries bring many people to look for spiritual truth. 
Here are some photos from the day.

Our trek down to the river--about 20 minutes away.

River all dammed up ready for the baptism.  One of the elders even made a public service announcement for everyone to pick up their trash rather than tossing it along the banks--progress!

Our friends and coworkers Juana, Tomas, and Sebastian.

Two elders from a neighboring congregation with the honors today.

Our new brother in Christ, Tomas.

Another new sister, Josefa.

My picture-taking buddy, Jessica--she helped me snap some good ones.

Here's one of Jessica's prize-winning photos.  :)

Poinsettia tree tricked into full bloom (about 2-3 months early) due to the dry sunny weather.

Empty Nest

Well, we packed up our kids this weekend, and sent them off to their lives back in the States.  It just seems so quiet without all of the constant comment and emotion! Although a few of them were of questionable health status when they left, I have received confirmation that they are on the mend and enjoying being back with family.  It's bittersweet saying goodbye to "our kids" every year.  There is the desire to have the old schedule and routine back, but there's nothing like a bunch of college-aged folks to stir things up.  Here are some left-over shots of our time together.  They were good workers and ambassadors of Christ and of their homeland!

MET Life

I see that we haven't posted any pictures of our second group of students.  Everyone is for the most part healthy--maybe a little hungry but otherwise happy.  We have had some clinic time, market time, World Cup time, team fellowship, education time and church fellowship.  Overall we've had long days and have just a few more to try and pack in as many medical evangelism experiences as possible.  Here's some proof of life pics for their families!

John instilling confidence in his patient Nathan

We get to suture!   Sasha and Abby ready to get started!

Elizabeth not sure she should have signed up for this.

John supervising Nathan's work.

Jordan trying to save her patient's amputated foot.

John saving lives.

Abby working on getting those stitches to stay in!

Elizabeth saving her pig's foot!

Sasha making those stitches look good.

Coffee time at the Vintage at a fellowship wishing Marcos the best as he
embarks with his private dental clinic in Santa Cruz del Quiche

World Cup action--NOT!

Witnessing a birth

Beautiful Lemoa

Tomas helping clean the plates!