GUATEMALA - JAN 10

Another beautiful day in San Pablo. Cement work is now finished on the house, about 100 patients were seen, and the VBS went very well with 60+ children.

Myra helps one of the smaller children with her coloring project.

WATCH THE VIDEO OF THE DAVID AND GOLIATH STORY

Since this is MY blog, I'm feeling that I need to make some observations about the trip. As follows.....

Things I’ve noticed along the way:

•  The water in the showers never seems to warm up no matter how long you run the water. It’s hard to take a cold shower, morning or evening. I didn’t understand until I noticed that there was no hot water pipe running to the sink. Believe me, even though it’s hard to stand under the shower head, showers are refreshing.

• The team is doing admirably well adjusting to a new culture. When leaving for a site or a meal, we count off to make sure we’re all present (in Spanish, of course).Today we even counted off backwards from 14. Team members exhibit varying degrees of fluency from beginner me to one of our translators, Sabrina, who is fluent. Food is not an issue, transportation is provided, and bottled water is always available. One of the worst things that you can do here is to drink the local tap water – contaminated. The bottles of water are indispensable for our health.
• The streets of San Pablo are made of field stone or small cement blocks or simply a gravelish dirt. Donkeys and kids ply the streets. Paper is frequent as you walk. People are extremely friendly. I finally got the scoop on the correct population – 767. If you add in the surrounding four villages, the number comes to 1,400.
• The acrid smell of smoke often permeates the air. Street garbage like wrappers, cigarette butts, leaves, left-over food, and donkey or horse manure are stacked together and fired.  Sometimes those fires smolder for a very long time and create a most unpleasant smell.
• According to Mary, intake coordinator who hears all of the ailments, common ailments are:  gastritis (especially after eating beans J), neck and back pain (probably from the heavy loads carried on the head), tumors and growths, diabetes, hernia, high blood pressure, heart murmur, epilepsy, skeletal/muscle issue, cancer or cancerous symptoms,  pregnancy testing, one child was kicked by a donkey (stitches which otherwise would have been sewed up homestyle),  lack of appetite and weight loss, infections, worms, snake bite, headache, chest pains, and more….
• VBS is good with about 60 or so students ages 2 to 13. It’s a wild bunch, but Carla, teacher at the Lutheran school in Zacapa, has a passion to work with children. The story yesterday was Moses, today was David and Golaith and tomorrow is Jesus. All based around the theme:  I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.  (Philippians 3:14)
• The dry air here belies the fact that it is also a bit humid. The rain begins to fall in March or April and lasts until June or July. Crops are planted then. Harvest is August to September. Winter starts in October. There’s lots of cactus here, but also thick leaved trees. Even now, though the floor of the forest is dry, there are green trees popping all over.

Three horses and two donkeys brought firewood to the family who makes and sells tortillas.

Neko works on smoothing cement in the great room of Merna's house.

Weighing in at the check in station.

Luis relaxes in a tipped-over wheelbarrow.

This little girl finally got used to me and allowed me to hold her.

The woman and her son were being seen by Diane Reetz, nurse practitioner.

Two of the older boys work at the "find the word" puzzle. They came to VBS but most of the kids were younger so they sat on the sidelines.

This girl was loving her coloring opportunity. At the San Pablo school, the children seldom receive copied sheets that they can color and then take home.