Xela Aventures...

My goodness have I loved Xela so far. If you've been reading my blog then you know that I was invited by one of our drivers and translators, Archy, to spend about a month living and learning Spanish with his family here in Xela. I really didn't know what to expect or if I would stay a whole month at the beginning of my time here, but now that I only have a couple of days left I am getting incredibly sad at the idea of leaving. I have been really bad lately about writing a blog here since we have been so busy, but here are some highlights of the past few weeks.

First off here is the room that I am staying in. The house actually belongs to Jacky's parents, but since they live in Guatemala City Archy and Jacky live here with their sons. This room is downstairs and is perfect for me. They have both joked (I think) about me coming and living here full time. Know that I have actually spent time picturing what my life would be like here before realizing that I should probably just stay in Pana and come visit often. Apparently I have an open invitation for whenever I want to come stay for the week, so let's see how many times I can take them up on that before I get kicked out. :)

One of my favorite things about being in Xela is that this house comes with cute little kiddos to play with. This adorable baby is Nicki, and he actually turned 1 yesterday. Since I have been here this month he walked by himself for the first time, and also started saying Mama and Popi. I really can't begin to explain how obsessed I am with this little kid. He is at the age where he laughs at everything and communicates through grunting.

Archy and Jacky's other son is Dominic Santiago, but we call him Santi. It took him longer to warm up to me, but this past week we have become best friends. When I first got here he cried when I sat by him in the car and at the dinner table. However, now he asks to sit by me and cried the other day when I left the room. I owe my awesomeness to the Talking Tom and Cat Paint Apps on my iPhone. Seriously it was the only way to win this kid over. He thought my phone was cool, so he started sitting in my lap to play with it. Then I guess that is when he realized I wasn't going to attack him. Before I came I only knew Archy and I only knew him from when we work with teams together. It has been amazing getting to not only meet and fall in love with his family, but also to see how he is with them. I am getting to see a whole other side to him and also am becoming equally as good of friends with Jacky. Just such a beautiful experience to have.

Another thing that I have loved about being in Xela is hanging out with some of our other translators outside of work. Besides working with most of them on teams I have really only hung out with a couple without teams. One translator that I knew before was Jose Galicia. I had actually spent a week in Xela with my roommate Heather last Spring for Semana Santa. I told Jose I was going to be spending some time in Xela, so he offered to show me around. Luckily for me he hasn't been working with teams the last few weeks, so we have been hanging out a lot. It is harder for Jacky and Archy to get out of the house with the boys, so Jose has been the one to explore Xela with. The photo below is from a lookout over Xela called Baul. Check out how beautiful Xela looks from this hill. 

After looking at the view for about an hour we walked around the rest of the park. It was such a beautiful day. 

Also at Baul I found this Mayan dudes. I never get old of seeing and hearing the stories all all of these Mayan ruins. However, all the stories do run together after awhile. I really love all the history that I have been experiencing here in Guatemala. 

Next up we went to a restaurant called La Casa del Parado which is on top of another hill with another view of Xela. We ate fried plantains (no matter how much I want to like these I never do) and drank hot drinks because it was freezing. Even though it was really cold we stayed outside because I loved sitting there with the Christmas lights and listening and singing to the 80's American music that they were blaring. It constantly makes me laugh how many places LOVE to play Bon Jovi.

Below is the view we were looking at from the restaurant. After we left we hiked up to a little gazebo on the property, so I could take pictures. Again Xela is really beautiful especially at night. 

On another exploring night we went to the Cathedral located in the Central Park in Xela. I had been to the park before because that is where we watched the Good Friday Procession during Semana Santa, but I had never been inside the cathedral. It was really beautiful with people all around lighting candles and praying during mass. I was not the only tourist taking pictures inside the cathedral (note that I was using my iPhone which I like to think that makes it a little sneakier and therefore better.). Every time I do take pictures inside any kind of church it always makes me uncomfortable because I think about how rude I would think it was if I was worshiping and someone came into my church and took pictures. However, Jose assured me that it was OK. Still not sure how I feel about it though.

After touring the Central Park Jose asked me if I wanted to go to Little New York with him before he took me home. I laughed and said OK and then laughed even harder when we pulled up to a hotdog stand on the edge of the park. While we sat there for about an hour while Jose ate his Q8 hotdog I decided that the taco stand next to Little New York could be Little Texas. I then tried to get people to go to Little Texas instead, but no luck. Also notice that I took this picture while walking back to the car because I was too embarrassed of being the touristy American while we were sitting there. I always try to find the balance between wanting to take all the pictures I want to and trying to pretend I am over the whole tourist thing. :)






A couple of weeks ago Guatemala Tours had their yearly meeting with the translators and asked if I would join them. It was actually set up as a team building exercise, so they brought in Carla who used to work with VIM to motivate the staff. We played team building games, watched little videos about good and bad situations, and then spent a few hours talking about the coming year and how things were working. The entire meeting was in Spanish (obviously), so I was grateful that I was in a room full of translators to help me. Later on that day Jose called me and asked if I wanted to drive up to San Francisco La Union to take Raul home. Since I hadn't been there I said yes and they came to pick me up. I really enjoyed hanging out with them and seeing another village close to Xela. On the way to Raul's home we talked about the world ending in December. I used my dad's line about the Mayans just running out of paper which made them laugh a lot.

When we got to San Francisco La Union I saw Jose Hernandez who I work with at the clinic jumping out of the back of a chicken bus. I yelled his name and he jumped in the car. He then invited us over to his house to meet his family. It was such a great experience not only seeing where he lives, but also meeting his daughters, wife, mom, and other family. I work with all these guys so much that I have loved seeing where a lot of them live and meeting their family. It is fun to see what their life is like outside of work. 

When we got back from San Francisco La Union we stopped downtown at Cafe Baviera for dinner. I loved everything about this cafe. They were playing Christmas music and the staff was actually decorating for Christmas while we ate. There were also old photographs plastered all over the walls and antique cameras everywhere. Absolutely a place I would go back to. They even had a little couch area where you could sit and study. Such a cool little indy coffeeshop/restaurant.

Another place that we went to was the main cemetery in Xela. I'm not sure why, but every place I go in Guatemala someone wants to show me a cemetery. It always makes me laugh because in the States I would never suggest taking someone to a random cemetery just to visit and take pictures.








This cemetery is known for Vanushka's grave. The story is that Vanushka was a gypsy from Europe who came to Guatemala and fell in love with a rich son of a Spanish ambassador while working in the circus. His family didn't approve, so they took him back to Spain breaking Vanushka's heart. She cried for weeks before dying of a broken heart. Now the story is that if you visit her grave and leave flowers or write her a note then you will be reunited with your true love.

           

Ok that only covers a few days of my time here (did I mention that I was WAY behind on writing this blog), so I will write more probably tomorrow. Right now I am sitting around the table laughing and drinking hot chocolate with the family. Jacky's family is here for the weekend, and her brother knows some English so we are speaking Spanglish to each other. It makes me laugh on a daily basis the conversations I have with people here. 

Tummy ache and prison.

So I'm not sure if I mentioned it in my last post or not, but when I arrived in Xela both of Archy's sons were sick to their stomachs. I spent the first 2 days playing and helping take care of them and then I finally got the stomach bug Thursday night. I spent most of the night getting sick and then spent ALL day Friday moving between my bed and the couch to watch TV. At first I thought about going back to Pana because usually there is nothing worst than being sick and not being at home. However, I could not have asked for better caretakers than Archy and Jacky. Both of them spent the day checking on me constantly and bringing me anything they thought I needed. Archy kept offering to take me to the doctor or hospital and when I refused he then went out and bought me gatorade and crackers. Then when I refused to drink or eat anything he grabbed my phone and threatened to call my mom to tell her I was being a bad patient. He kept saying that I was his responsibility since I was in his home, so he was going to treat me like a daughter. He then started calling me his stubborn daughter. It really seemed like every time I woke up he was there to check on me and to see what I needed. As always when I am sick I wish I was at home laying on the couch with my cat and pup and having my mommy take care of me. However, being with this family was a great alternative. I even joked to Archy one time when he asked what he could bring me about wanting my cat and he brought me a stuffed animal to snuggle with. I truly turn into a baby when I am sick, and I was really thankful for both Archy and Jacky. It is funny how at home I feel with this family after only being here for a few days. It is really sweet to keep hearing them say that I am part of their family and that they are really happy I am here.

This morning I woke up to Archy asking me if I felt well enough to go to the prison. Before you think you misread that last word, yep we went to the prison this morning. I didn't at all feel well enough to go, but knew that it may be my only chance so I decided to go anyways. Hemberth who is the owner of
Guatemala Tours (the organization that we hire our drivers and translators through) had approached Salud y Paz a little while back to see if we were interested in helping with a prison ministry that his church along with 2 others had started. When Wayne talked to me about it at first I was both really hesitant and excited about possibly starting a new form of teams to advertise to. This morning besides feeling horrible I also was extremely nervous about what to expect. However, once we got to the prison I was put at ease. I went to college in Huntsville and had to tour the prison for some of my classes, so I was expecting a big scary building with cells and prisoners screaming at you when you walked by. I could not have been more surprised by what I found once I got inside.

First step was to get past security. This took awhile because at first they didn't want to let us in. One guard was OK with it, but the other guard didn't know Hemberth so she originally wasn't too happy about letting us in. After some convincing they finally took our IDs and gave us our "Get out of jail free stamps". Both Hemberth and Archy only got one stamp, but I got 2. I kept thinking about a story that my dad has told me several times about going into a prison in Mexico once with Dave Kuhn to hold a bible study for the prisoners and being given a yellow card to get out. He then says that he held onto that card like his life depended on it. Guatemala may be smarted going the stamp method unless it washes off. Glad I didn't have to find out what happens if that was the case.

After we got through the doors I saw that instead of like the cells we have in the States this prison was actually set up more like a home. There was an open courtyard in the middle with rooms on either side used for dorms, kitchen, and bathrooms. Hemberth and I stood in the courtyard and he explained to me why some of the women were in prison. Two of the women who he knew were guilty of murder and kidnapping, but still I felt calm and safe walking around. Maybe it was because they all met my glances with smiles and kind greeting, or maybe it was because I had Archy, Hemberth, and lots of guards surrounding me. Whatever was the reason being there made me feel much more comfortable with the idea of possibly sending in teams.

Hemberth introduced me to one prisoner named Reyna who was referred to as the "jefe (boss)" of the prison. She has been there the longest, so she has been granted permission to open her own tienda (store) to sell random goods to the other prisoners. I spent about 3 hours sitting across the table in her tienda with her hearing her story, asking what life was like for the prisoners, and then asking what services could they use. It was heartbreaking to sit there listening to how hard these women have it. Reyna explained to me that the government only gives then beans and 5 tortillas a day for meals, so any other type of food they want they would have to purchase from her in the tienda. She also said that prisoners had to buy everything from food to personal items (toilet paper, soap, clothes) with their own money. When I asked how they made money she explained that the women made random material goods to cell to family members who came to visit, but that most of the prisoners never got visited by their family because they were ashamed of them. Reyna is raising her 3 year old daughter, Neece, who was born in the prison. The law states that a child can live with the mother in the prison up to age 4, so she is going to have to figure out where to send the little girl in a year. Her husband is also serving time in another prison and she has a son who is about to graduate high school. She is actually saving money from what she sells in her tienda to send money home to her son to pay for a family dinner after his graduation.

I then asked what the system was for medical and dental services when they were needed. Reyna explained to me that when they need to see a doctor sometimes it can take up to 30 days for one to come. Then they are just handed a prescription and have to figure out on their own how to pay and receive the medication. As for dental services there are none. She said that they don't even have toothbrushes or toothpaste. She then took me on a tour of the prison. When we went into the dorms she pointed out that many women didn't have either blankets or a mattress. Their living conditions were hard to see. 

Right before we were about to leave a woman fell down on the way to the bathroom and broke her leg. I was told by Reyna that she was just laying down in bed because she knew that there was no way she could afford to go to the hospital to receive treatment. I then told Reyna that I wanted to buy something that she had made to support her and Neece, but she then suggested that I buy from the woman with the broken leg because she was going to need more money for treatment. I ended up buying this mirror for Q35 (about $4.50) from the lady. 

It was really hard to hear and see the conditions that these women were living in. I really hope that one day Salud y Paz can partner with the churches and expand the prison ministry they have started. I could see the need for teams including obviously medical and dental, but also construction and people to come in with materials and teach the women how to make even more goods to sell for extra money. They also need a lot of donations that you and I would consider basic needs that they could only dream about. I know there is such a need for help there that whether it be through personal donations or Salud y Paz I am eager to see the difference we can make for these women.

Ok... it's getting late and I just finished watching Footloose (for the first time... don't judge) in Spanish. I couldn't tell much about what was going on other than Kevin Bacon seemed to want the whole town to be involved in one huge dance number. I'm still not feeling the best, so I'm thinking it is time for bed. Night blog world.

Earthquake.

I learned a new word yesterday... Terremoto which means big scary earthquake!

Remember my last post when I was on the bus heading to Xela yesterday morning and was so excited about getting here? Well about an hour after I arrived a 7.4 earthquake hit Guatemala about 30 miles away from where I was. Luckily, I had already been picked up from the bus terminal by Archy and was at his home with his 2 children when it hit. We had just finished taking the tour of the house and were sitting in the kitchen talking when the house started shaking. We just starred at each other until things started falling over. That is when we grabbed both of his sons and ran outside onto the patio. I am not sure how long it lasted, but it was long enough for us to sit there in shock until we figured out we needed to get outside, find the boys and run outside, then stand there until it stopped. Besides a lot of things falling over in his house there didn't seem to be other damage, but his neighbors house got a huge crack in the side. A few weeks ago we had a small one at the clinic which most people didn't even feel, but other than that I have never experienced anything like that before. All of the Guatemalans that I have talked to said that that was the strongest one they have ever felt. One translator, Jose, that I'm friends with told me that he ran out of the house screaming like a girl to which I replied yo tambien (I also).

The last major earthquake that hit Guatemala was in 1976 and killed 23,000 and injuring 76,000 people. Luckily, the structures are built better now, so the damage wont be near as bad. However, the area with the most damage is the village of San Marcos. As soon as we could we started watching the news and checking online for reports of damage. As of this morning the death toll is up to 48 with hundreds injured seeking treatment and hundreds more still missing. Many houses, schools, and other buildings collapsed in that area, so the photos of damage from the quake is terrifying. I was thinking about it last night and with my job at the church I spent hours and hours looking at photographs of damage from earthquakes. However, I was always looking at the footage from the safety of being in Houston. It is a complete different experience watching footage and hearing about the damage when it happened just 30 minutes away from me. We have patients that come to our clinics from San Marcos. I just keep thinking about them and wondering if any of the smiling faces I see in our hallways everyday are the ones now left homeless and wondering if their loved ones are safe.

Right now I am at the Guatemala Tours office in Xela, and there is broken glass from the earthquake. So thankful I was at home with Archy where at least I could feel somewhat safe and not in a mall with thousands of people running around screaming and glass breaking overhead. In case you can't tell I'm beyond over earthquakes!

Please continue to keep the people of Guatemala in your prayers. Also if you are looking for one more prayer item please pray that I can stop shaking. I really need to just calm down and trust that everything will be ok.

Election Day and Heading to Xela!!

So yesterday morning I woke up in a panic because I had a dream that when I woke up and checked Huffington Post and Politico the headlines on the front page read ROMNEY WINS. Luckily when I did actually wake up and check those newspapers like I do every morning the headlines just read THE RACE IS ON.

I started yesterday bummed that I was spending election day in Guatemala and not back in the States. I wanted to be around friends and family for the day waiting for what would happen. However, I ended up having a beautiful election day here in Guatemala. Here are my favorite moments from yesterday.

When I got to work I told Jose that it was a big day in the States because we were electing a new president among other politicians. He then told me that in one of his college courses he was taking a class called Founding Fathers which he just had to write a paper for comparing the Guatemalan constitution to the United States constitution. He made me laugh when he talked about how it was difficult for him to understand all the huge words that we used because I cannot even begin to fathom attempting to read the Guatemalan constitution in Spanish. Jose then asked me to explain the voting process to him because he knew it was different than Guatemala's. We then spent about 20 minutes comparing the 2 different processes. The other volunteers kept looking over and laughing at us (I promise we did eventually get a lot of work done). It was such a great moment to share with Jose. I love working with him because I am constantly learning more about Guatemalan's culture and sharing with him about mine.

After I got home from what felt like such a long day from the clinic Heather and I watched the news for a couple of hours before heading over to Sid and Jan's house for an election night party. There were about 50 "gringos" who were all gathered to wait for the results from the night. When I looked around the room I laughed at the strangely great community that loves in Pana. My community down here is made up of the most interesting people I have ever met. We stood around snacking and watching the results come in for a few hours. I loved listening to all the random and some ridiculously idiotic conversations that were going on all around me. At one point I was explaining to Lungi what the electoral college votes meant and one grown lady who was listening thanked me for explaining and said that I should go stand in front of the group because she was sure no one else in the room knew that process. I then overheard a group of 5 other grown adults talking about how each State gets one vote for the president and that's how they decide. What?!? It baffles me that in one room there were at least 6 adults over the age of 50 who didn't understand the process. I know I come from a pretty political family, but come on that should be basic common knowledge for every American!

After a few hours at the party I couldn't take it anymore and still needed to pack for Xela today, so I headed home to watch with Heather and Dave. Fun fact: I road on the back of a motorcycle last night and didn't break anything. It's probably because Dave went extra slow since I was scared, but still if you know me and how often I break bones that's impressive. :) The 3 of us stayed up until about 1:30 watching the results and final speeches. Sorry to annoy anyone who reads this doesn't agree with my views, but I was ecstatic that Obama won again. I could not fathom Romney winning and that being a great decision for our country. Yesterday was a beautiful election day filled with mostly great conversations (except for the maddening ones at the party) and lots of celebration. Obama even made the front page of a Guatemalan newspaper! I bought one this morning have loved reading most of it (what I could understand) and hearing the story from Guatemala's perspective. I have the front page saved from 4 years ago when Obama one. Makes me laugh that I can now add the Guatemalan front page to that collection.

Right now it is extremely early and I am actually on a chicken bus going to Xela. I'm typing this on my phone in the notes app and was just asked by the 2 guys I'm sharing a seat with if this was a really long text message. I am going to stay with Archy and his family for the next few weeks in Xela which is the 2nd largest city in Guatemala. I am going to use this time to learn Spanish daily, work out of our Xela clinic, and to work closely with the Guatemala Tours office about our teams for next year. I am both extremely nervous and excited about doing a home-stay with a Guatemalan family. I think these weeks are going to be extremely difficult with the amount of Spanish I am going to have to speak, hopefully extremely helpful to my Spanish, and a lot of fun. In addition to Archy and his family I know a few other friends in Xela that I am excited to spend time with. I have been blessed to form good friendships with several of our translators and staff members. I'm really looking forward to these next few weeks and what all they will bring. I have been told several times that it is a really big deal to invite someone into your home, so I know how blessed I am to have been given this opportunity.

Lastly, did anyone else read the article that said that Romney had written his acceptance speech yesterday on the campaign bus? First of all who would believe that he actually writes his own speeches (ever heard of speech writers). Second of all if that was true do you think that he was sharing a seat with 2 Guatemalan men and 2 toddlers while 3 goats (I promise) stand in the isle with their owner who is selling fresh goats milk? Because if that all was going on as he typed away blaring Rolling Stones through his headphones I know EXACTLY how he felt. :)

Home for Fall and the first S y P benefit.

So I have decided that only going home for 9 days is too hard. It was too short of a trip! However, I keep reminding myself that I am going home for a month on November 30th. I can't wait to be home for the entire month and have more time to catch up with all my friends and family who I miss so much!

The first moment that I don't want to forget happened the Sunday I flew home. It takes about 3 hours from Panajachel to get to the airport. Along the way searching for something to do I decided to look at my passport. After reading all the random quotations on every page and all the do's and don't's of traveling abroad I then started counting all the stamps in my passport. I currently have 19 stamps in my passport. After counting them I am embarrassed to admit that I sat there kind of sad and annoyed that I haven't traveled that much. Maybe you are reading this and think that thought was crazy (it was) but for the community I was raised in in Houston I really haven't been that many places compared to others. During high school so many of my friends would travel internationally every summer. Instead of huge international trips my family always did a lot of road trips (which don't get me wrong I always loved). My mom and I counted this summer (while driving home from a road trip to Colorado) and determined that I have been to 26 states and 18 countries (again I know I'm stupid and I've traveled a lot for a 26 year old). 

Anyways, I am writing about this because during that shuttle ride I started talking to a guy from Pana who was wearing a Texans hat. I asked him if he had ever been to Texas and he explained that he hadn't because it is very difficult for Guatemalans to travel abroad. He then explained that his brother lives in Texas and gave him the hat a few years ago for Christmas. We talked for about an hour about how he had tried to get to the States, but was deported and now has a 10 year ban until he can apply for another visa to try to return. I have heard this story before from some of the Guatemalans I work with. It baffles me that Americans (like me) expect the right to live freely in another country without having to jump through hoops, but then our government won't extend to others the same opportunities. Then while I was on the plane about to take off I was putting up my passport and found myself looking for the new stamp I had just received (could not be more embarrassed) when a mother and son duo sat down next to me. The son explained to me that he had been living in the States for about 20 years, but that his mother had never been able to visit. She just got her visa and was both leaving Guatemala and flying for the first time. She was probably about 80 and was so nervous as we started taking off. Again I was reminded of how incredibly silly I was being. I am 26 years old and have had the privilege of traveling to some amazing places. I need to stop taking for granted those opportunities and realize that I am beyond blessed to have been able to explore as many locations and cultures as I have. It also reminded me of when one of our translators told me that he would never have the opportunity to serve in another country like I am. It is good to be reminded every once in awhile how blessed you are.

Ok... now to my time in Houston. I LOVED it! Since I changed my flight to Sunday I had almost 4 whole days with my family before the other Salud y Paz volunteers arrived. It was great to just be home with my family and catch up. Honestly, I talk to them almost everyday, so it was more of just hanging out then it was having to catch up. Get ready to judge me... In the first 3 days that I was home I watched about 15 episodes of Duck Dynasty. It is the stupidest reality show, but my family loves it. They had been telling me about it for a couple of months, so when I got home we had a marathon. I cannot even begin to describe how much I love just laying around watching stupid hilarious TV with my family and laughing really hard. Again I am very much looking forward to being home again in about a month!

Since my mom retired from teaching in May she was around the whole week to play with. She went with me to do all of my random errands, and then my favorite thing that we did was work out in the pumpkin patch. When I originally thought that I wasn't going to be home for Fall the pumpkin patch at the church was one of the things I was thinking I would miss the most. We have pictures of Parker and I in the patch when we were so little. Besides Christmas Fall is my favorite time of the year, so I loved just sitting in the patch with my mom and laughing at all the cute little kids who were dressed up and getting their pictures taken with the pumpkins. Very blessed that I got to have a few days in Houston with my family and friends before I had to get back to work.

Heather, Janet, and Wayne flew in Thursday night. Janet and Wayne's hotel was about 2 minutes from my parent's house, so I drove over and picked up Heather since she was staying with us. It was so much fun having all of them in town and especially having Heather be able to experience my life in Houston. All day Friday and Saturday we had a board meeting that was hosted at the church. We actually met in the Youth Lounge which was just hilarious to me. I could not get over how odd it was that my 2 worlds were coming together. 

On Friday night after the board meeting and dinner Heather and I went to hear my friend Mark play guitar at a restaurant. So fun to have Heather meet some of my friends and people I used to work with.



Sunday was a good day. I started the day by going to Youth Worship at the Refuge. Heather and I talked to the youth about Salud y Paz and why we were in Houston. Again so fun to have my 2 worlds together! Then we went to church at 11:00 where both Chuck and Suzy talked about Salud y Paz. Both of them mentioned that it was the organization where their own home grown Kelly Cragg was serving. It made me smile both times. :) After church we went out for BBQ. Heather had mentioned that she wanted to experience true Texas BBQ, so we went to Rudy's with Poppy, Parker, and my parents.

Next up was the banquet. Salud y Paz was having their first annual banquet at City Center. I was really nervous about the turn out, but that morning at church I ran into so many church members who said they were going to come. We ended up having about 150 there which was a great turn out! Most of the people there were church members and it meant so much to me that they all came out to support Salud y Paz and me. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the night.

This is my favorite picture from the benefit. Heather felt uncomfortable sitting at her table while Phil was up front asking for donations, so she came to sit with me. We then decided to take random pictures. Now looking back how funny is it that 2 of the 4 volunteers in Guatemala were taking duck face pictures while our founder was pleading for donations. :) Makes me laugh a lot.

On Monday we had a free day before we flew out Tuesday morning. Heather wanted to see more of Houston, so we drove around downtown then went over to the medical center. I figured that since Heather is a nurse she would appreciate our med center. Then we went to the museum district and walked around the park awhile. After the downtown tour we drove over to the 4th Ward. I am not going to be home for Thanksgiving, so I have been thinking about how I won't be going to the 4th Ward on Thanksgiving morning like we usually do. After that we went to eat lunch at Onion Creek over in the Heights then spent the afternoon saying by to random friends and family. Usually I get really sad when I leave to come to Guatemala, but this time I really wasn't. I know it is because I am going to be home again so soon! I can't wait!

The last couple of days I have been running around town catching up on errands and random work things. I will be in Pana for the next few days then will go to Xela for Spanish school. I want to be in Pana for election night, so I will head to Xela Wednesday morning. I am starting to get really nervous about going to Xela. I know that I will be surrounded by Spanish all day and I am scared that I'm not going to be able to handle it. I know that I know more Spanish then I let on, so maybe this will be really good for me. However, it is really difficult for me, so I am not really looking forward to having to struggle with it everyday. I am on one hand really not looking forward to going to Xela because I know it will be really hard and on the other hand I could not be more excited to spend that period of time living with a Guatemalan family and being able to understand the culture here even more. I guess we'll see how it goes. :)

Surgery Week: Humanity First

Ok... Quick update. My trip to Costa Rica was amazing! It was a great week spent with great friends. I will write a blog and post pictures from the trip later. I have been behind on writing since I've been back because it has been super crazy at work. When I returned to Guatemala a couple of Sundays ago I got home around 10:00 and went to work the next morning. That week we had a construction team in town then starting last Sunday we have had a surgery team at the clinic. Great weeks with teams, but very hectic!

So now back to the surgery team. This was a different surgery team than we usually have. Usually all the team members come from the States and we have our triage day on Sunday right before the actual surgery week. However this team was from both all over the States and Guatemala City. There were about 25 members on the team ranging from undergrads to surgeons. Most of the members were from the States, but then there was a handful of surgeons and other medical personal from Guatemala. It was a little confusing to me at first trying to figure out who everyone was, but I think I finally figured out that a program Gift of Sight which is based out of the States partnered with the Guatemala chapter of an organization called Humanity First which is world wide. At least that's what I am going with.

On Saturday they dropped off all of their supplies at the clinic then met both Heather and I there Sunday morning. Instead of spending the day triaging patients like we normally do on Sunday we instead spent the day setting everything up for the week. Since some of the surgeons did live in Guatemala they had come about a month before and spent the day triaging. On Sunday I had to do the "Welcome to Salud y Paz" orientation meeting for the first time. I have done the tour with construction teams before, but I have never had to do a welcome meeting before. I was a little nervous, but it turned out better than expected.

That was kind of my theme of the week. I spent the whole week nervous about it being my first surgery team to "host", but everything went great and was way easier than expected. I actually surprised myself many times this week. Usually at work I always use Jose to help me talk to our Guatemalan staff. I never trust my Spanish enough to set up meetings or do team payroll or anything else I sometimes have to do with the staff. I always have Jose come with me just in case I say things wrong. Then I usually just let him be the one doing most of the talking. Needless to say I don't use my Spanish that much at work. However, this week Jose was in Xela, so I was on my own. Also since this was a different team we didn't have any of our usual translators at the clinic who I could ask to help me in those conversations. Because of that I had to handle everything on my own. There were a few times where I had to ask Heather for a certain word or look something up on Google Translate, but most of the time I was OK by myself. I know that may not seem like a big deal, but it really was for me. The fact that I could have many conversations a day with our staff dealing with money and other important situations and they understood me was amazing. Heather said that normally people come up to her for clarification since she is pretty much fluent, but that that didn't happen this week. I really think it brought me closer to the staff. Even though I could come up with the Spanish it was still surrounded by a lot of laughter on both sides. I can't even begin to describe how much laughter and smiles I shared with the staff this week. I actually think it ended up being a great thing that I didn't have the translator support that I'm used to having. It finally proved to me that I could do this job on my own and not have to always rely on someone else because of the language barrier. It was a great week with the staff. Lots of laughter, smiles, understanding, and hugs.

Back to the team. They were great and did about 50 eye surgeries in 3 days. I especially loved the undergrads that were on the team. There were 4 or 5 guys who were early 20's and were hilarious. Spending the week with them made me miss the youth at the church. At lunch/all the time they would be having the stupidest/funniest conversations that took me right back to working at the Refuge. Surgery week is always so serious, so I especially loved all the laughter they brought into the clinic. Another thing that I loved about this team was that most of the team members were Muslim. I spent a lot of the week talking to individuals about their faith. I have always been fascinated by different religions, and I loved how open they were to answering my questions. They were such a fun team!

Here are some pictures from the week... This is a patient getting ready to go into surgery. The undergrad putting drops into the woman's eyes is Harris "The protector". Him and his friend were both about 6 foot 5 and were hilarious. It was hysterical watching the patients stare at them for being so tall.

Doctors examining the patients to make sure they are in need of surgery.

Cataract surgery. It still amazes me that I can walk into the ORs anytime I want to and take pictures and watch the surgeries. 

Dr. Freddy's office that they turned into a 3rd OR for the week. This is one of the doctors from Guatemala City doing a pterygium eye surgery.

An eye patient leaving the clinic after surgery. This is the driveway out of our compound. There is a corn field on one side and an apple orchard on the other. One day this week I was standing in the driveway talking on the phone with Patti at the church when a chicken started running after me. No lie I had to run away from it back into the compound. I wonder how many patients the chicken attacks a day?

On Wednesday we decided to take some of the team members across the street to a local Guatemalan's house, so they could see what conditions our patients live in. I decided to go as well since I had never been to a house in Camanchaj before. We walked across the street and then through a corn field to get to their house. The house is a family whose youngest son, Nehemias, is a preschool student in our school with Cerebral Palsy who is one of my favorites. 

When we got to the house his older brother Israel was standing on the roof flying a kite. It has become windy season, so everywhere you look there are little kids with their kites. 

Right when we entered the gate Israel took my hand and lead me to their washroom where they keep the chickens. They had about 20 baby chicks running around.

Right after we took this picture the baby chick flew out of my hands (or I may have dropped it when it started to move) and started running all around their yard. This lead to Israel, 2 team members, and I running around laughing trying to catch the stupid chicken. At the same time a HUGE turkey came way too close to us, so we gave up trying to catch the baby chick. After being chased by the normal size chicken a couple of days earlier I wasn't going to chance the monster turkey.

Told you it was huge, scary, and mad I may have dropped his baby a few seconds earlier.

With Nehemias. This year he has been able to say a few more words and walk more with the assistance of someone helping to hold him up. Right now he sits in a wheelchair at school, but the hope is that soon he will get braces for his legs and will be able to hopefully one day be a little bit more mobile.

Their kitchen. 

My favorite picture from the week. Nehemias was playing on his bike and Israel came up to hand me more baby chicks. I bent down to show him and he started smiling and laughing really hard. He is so precious.

Walking back to the clinic I had a moment where I was incredibly thankful for my position down here. I mentioned it in my last blog, but I have been going through a rough time at work lately. However, this week it was proved to me that I shouldn't let the bad overshadow the good. I am still working out some difficulties at work, but at the same time I am becoming more and more confident in my role. This week helped me understand exactly why I am suppose to be here. I mean it is still so incredibly odd to me that on this day I spent the day watching eye surgeries, planning upcoming medical teams, talking to our staff in Spanish AND having them understand me, then ended it playing with Nehemais with baby chicks. This is SO much different than anything I've ever done before. It is challenging everyday which sometimes is difficult, but I love it. I've been really stressed out lately, so it was really good to have a great week with the team and be reminded that even though there are going to be really hard times if I push through it will be worth it.

On another note I'm flying home to Houston tomorrow. I was suppose to go home on Tuesday for a week, but ended up changing my flight this morning. Salud y Paz has a big benefit and board meeting next weekend in Houston which all the volunteers are going to. They fly in on Thursday, but I had decided to go home a couple of days earlier to have more time with my family. Then this morning I found out that there are going to be lots of protests all around Guatemala on Tuesday, so I needed to go to Guatemala City on Monday. I then decided that if I was going to spend money on a hotel room I might as well just change my flight to tomorrow. My dad is currently in the hospital having tests done to try to figure out what is going on. He got the OK to come to Guatemala and did OK for the week, but when he returned home he started feeling bad again. It has been really difficult the last few days having him in the hospital and not being home. I have been Facetiming him (Skype for iPhones) which has been good to actually see him, but it is hard to see both my mom and brother at the hospital with him and not be able to be there also. It is really comforting to know that I will be home tomorrow with them. I have been missing them a lot lately. A shuttle will come pick me up tomorrow morning at 6:00 and take me to the airport for a 12:00 flight. I can't even begin to explain how much I need a trip home right now. Hopefully it will be a great week.

MDUMC Construction Team...

What a blessing it was to have the team from my home church in country this week! I absolutely LOVED having them come and fully experience what I am doing down here. My parents and my uncle were part of the amazing team which puts my family who have come to visit count at 6. I keep telling them that they should all plan a huge Cragg family trip down to see me! Man what a blessing it would be to have everyone I love come down for a visit! Hint Hint!

The first weekend we played around Pana. On Sunday Adele invited the team over to her house for church in the morning. It was so beautiful having my family and the team get to experience where I worship every week. It is a completely different kind of church service than anything I've ever gone to before, and I feel blessed that they now know how I worship down here and who with. After church we grabbed some lunch in town then took a boat over to San Antonio Palopo, so the team could visit another village and see where the pottery that the lake is known for was made. The factory was actually closed since it was a Sunday, but there were a few other stores that were open which we shopped in.

Monday morning we drove up to Camanchaj to start our week of construction. My parents had spent a day at Salud y Paz in March, but it was fun to have more time to actually show off everything our organization does. This week the construction was working outside continuing the building of a new addition which when completed will expand our dental clinic. Doing that will then allow us to expand both our medical clinic and our surgery program. I have been told this will be about a 2 year process and it was fun to have my team work on it this week. Now everything I work construction with my future teams I will be able to look and remember what walls were built by my church.

On Tuesday morning we stopped at the waterfall going up the mountain to Camanchaj. It has gotten really big the past few weeks because of all the rain.

Sometimes I am still so blown away by how beautiful the lake is. Growing up in Houston I always said I wanted to live somewhere beautiful when I grew up. Mission accomplished. 

My mom got an email from my brother during the week saying that he was lonely because the rest of the family was off in another country without him and how he now understands how I feel all the time. I suggested that this be our Christmas card picture this year, but I think Parker would feel left out. :)

Archy was our driver and translator this week. I am constantly reminded of how blessed I have been to form amazing friendships. We talked again about me coming and living with his family in November to learn Spanish which I am getting really excited about. When I work with Archy we do a great job of always trying to teach each other new words. I help him with his English and he helps me with Spanish. It also always includes a lot of laughter which I always appreciate.

All week I talked about how we needed to get a team picture at the clinic, but didn't remember on the last day until we were already driving away. I then made everyone jump out of the van and run back to take a picture. Well worth it!

On Friday after working until mid afternoon we headed to Antigua. I usually don't go to Antigua with the teams, but since it was the team from my church I gladly made the exception. Friday we got to Antigua right before dinner, so we just ate and chilled at the hotel. Then Saturday morning we went to a breakfast spot which is connected to the Santo Domingo Hotel and has a great lookout over Antigua. I love the picture below. Again so blessed to have my family here!!! 

 Mommy and me. :)

 

After our delicious breakfast we drove to another scenic lookout over Antigua. It took about 20 minutes to drive to this cross which offers an amazing view of Antigua. I have heard teams talk about this for awhile, but I actually had never been there before. My brother bought the new iPhone 5 and gave me his old iPhone 4 to use down here, so I needed to go to the Tigo store in Guatemala City to get it figured out. Since Archy and I were going to be gone for a few hours to the City I was able to point out to the team from the lookout where the main plaza was and where else they needed to go see. Such a cool spot! 

Also if you are wondering no I didn't get my phone fixed. We drove for an hour to the city then sat in one Tigo store for about an hour before leaving because their system was down. Then we drove to another Tigo store and realized they couldn't help us either. Then we had to drive another hour back to Antigua all for nothing. Very annoying! I left my phone with Archy and he is going to try to get it fixed in Xela this week then bring it back to me when we works with our next team next week.

When we were at the Tigo store Archy mentioned that he had been looking for an used iPhone for cheap. He explained that a lot of people down here would love the old iPhones that so many of us have sitting in our drawers back home. I know that when I got my iPhone 4 I just threw my old iPhone 3 in a drawer and never thought about it again until I brought it down here to use. If you happen to have an old iPhone or iPod just sitting around at your house that you are never going to use again let me know. I would love to be able to bring some down for my friends down here. I'll be home for a week in October and would love to bring some back for friends.

Saturday night we went to the Santo Domingo for dinner. If you read my blog post last Spring about Ashley and I planning Parker's wedding this is the same hotel. I had never been here at night and it absolutely sealed the deal. It is hard for me to fathom not getting married at our church back home, but if I was going to do a destination wedding this would be the spot. There wasn't a wedding going one, but there was an Quinceanera going on. All of the chairs were filled and it looked exactly like a wedding only with the girl wearing a puffy blue dress instead of a puffy white one.

I've almost decided that I should just book the place now and worry about finding the perfect guy in the future! :)

Overall it was a great week of serving alongside people I love so much! The whole group was amazing! I knew most of the people coming on the trip, but it was such a beautiful week of getting to know everyone more. It was filled with laughter and love from home which I had been missing so much.

On a side note the last couple of weeks have been difficult at work. I love with all my heart working at Salud y Paz and serving alongside our mission teams when they are in country. However, like every place you work there are random challenges and difficulties that come up. I am hopeful that things will turn around and that it is going to be an amazing year serving at S y P, but I could use a little prayer if you have an extra one to send my way. Prayers for clarity, patience, and strongness (yes, I'm creating a word) would be appreciated.

I got dropped off at the airport this morning with the team because my flight to Costa Rica was suppose to be at the same time as theirs to Texas. However, they have now been gone for about 3 hours and I am still sitting here waiting for my plane. Apparently it was delayed arriving into Mexico City and won't be here until 4:45 (originally 12:22) which doesn't put me into Costa Rica until almost 7:00. I am about to walk around and see what I can spend money that I don't have to spend on. :) Maybe I'll end up with a lot of duty free stuff I don't need. Who knows. Hopefully my next blog next week will cover all the amazing adventures I had in Costa Rica with Scott and Carol Ann!!