Coming home...

So I got an email this morning from my Google Calendar reminding me to FLY HOME tomorrow morning. It made me smile.

I can't believe it is time to go home already. These 4 months have flown by so quickly. I feel like I finally was just figuring out how to be the Team Coordinator and it's time to go. I also feel like I was just getting really close to people around town and staff members at work and now it's time to say goodbye. However, whenever I get a little sad about leaving I then smile when I remember that I am coming back in 3 months. The fact that I cannot even fathom that I would be leaving for good and not coming back is again another reminder that I made the right decision.

Today I spent some time playing with the kids at recess. When I walked out to the playground I found little Luisa Elaina sobbing. When I asked her what was wrong she showed me that there was a ladybug crawling on her hand and that she didn't appreciate that very much. We carried him over to a plant and blew kisses at him as he crawled off. I am going to miss her and the rest of the kids so very much!

Then after spending a lot of time finishing up some expense reports for teams and other last minute work things I had to finish before I leave tomorrow it was time to say goodbye to the staff. The ones I am closest to came over to me and gave me hugs and told me to have a great 3 months. I told them I would do nothing but study Spanish all summer, so we can have legit conversations when I return.

Heather and I were the only volunteers at work today and didn't leave the clinic until 5:30. We have both been swamped with work lately and between me going home tomorrow for 3 months and her leaving for home on Friday for a month it was an extremely busy day getting everything done.

Tonight I am finishing packing up my room and putting on top of my closet all my bins of things I am leaving here and also packing my suitcases to go home. I originally didn't think I was going to be taking that much stuff home with me, but I ended up agreeing to take home 25 pounds of coffee to mail for the coffee shop and other random gifts for people.

So last thing I wanted to share. Tonight I got a Facebook message from a church member who has been beautifully supportive of me while I've been here. Janet shared a quote with me that I loved. She said that one time when she was crying about not wanting to move her dad said to her "If you hadn't cried and left the people you didn't want to leave before, you wouldn't know the ones you are crying about not wanting to leave now!". I wrote her back and told her that that was exactly what I needed to hear tonight.

It has been a weird feeling of both excitement and sadness the past few days. I feel like I  had to say goodbye today to one family which made me incredibly sad, however tomorrow I get to return home to my other family who I couldn't be happier to spend the summer with. Then in August it will be the same goodbye hello experience again. It is hard to have 2 worlds that are so incredibly different and want to be involved in both of them at the same time. I had moments (often) when I felt really sad about being left out of my Houston world this Spring, and now I know I am going to have moments when I'm going to be missing out of stuff here in Guatemala this Summer. You would think I was a middle child by the way I never want to feel left out or that I'm missing anything. It would really help me out if everyone I loved here and back at home would just agree to stop having fun or doing anything important until I returned. I mean is that too much for a girl to ask?

Good Bye Parties...

Last week was a week of Goodbyes. In Guatemala they go all out when it comes to going away parties. First up was a party for Cheryl. On Wednesday the Guatemalan staff arranged for everyone to go to a restaurant about 20 minutes away from the clinic on the way to Xela. I had the morning off so I went to the coffee shop to finish my bible study (more about bible study at the end of the blog) then I drove up to the clinic with Janet and Cheryl. After spending about an hour at the clinic we headed to the restaurant. It was my first time hanging out with the whole staff outside of work. I still can't speak to many of them, but I have gotten good at faking a conversation. My goal is to learn as much Spanish this summer that once I get back in August I can at least have basic conversations. I don't know why I think I'll learn it in Houston if I didn't learn it here, but maybe I won't be as stressed out trying to adapt to a new country that I'll be able to devote more time to learning it.

Anyways, here is a shot of the whole staff at the restaurant. We had a private room and they decorated the tables and windows with roses stuck into apples. No idea what the significance is, but it was really pretty.

Tomin and Micaela brought their children to the party. Lester Phillipe is in our kindergarten class. He is one of my favorite kids in the school. Tomin is the guardian of the clinic and school, so Lester is always out playing after all the other kids are gone and we are walking to the car to head back to Pana. They have a new puppy named Campero that Lester and I play with often while I'm waiting for others to be ready to leave.

Cute picture with the teachers in the school. I am going to miss them this summer. Mary (the one I'm sitting next to) is the one who came to visit her father in Houston before I moved to Guatemala. She came to speak at my church which was amazing. She has become a great friend since I've been here.

Group picture. I LOVE this picture! Look at all the beautiful traje the women are wearing. Most of them wear traje everyday, but you could tell that everyone was wearing their best to the party. Sonia (in front in the orange sweater) was my favorite. Her belt had all the months on the Mayan calendar around it. Also be sure to notice how Lester who I'm holding was trying his hardest to kick his sister who Heather is holding. :)

Next up was my going away party in the school. I am going to work tomorrow, but Janet won't be there so I won't be working in the school. Therefore Thursday was my last day in the school, and Janet and the teacher's threw a party for me. I noticed that all the kids were going upstairs to the library, but I had no idea why. Janet asked me to go to her desk and grab a bag of beads. Then when I got upstairs to the library when I walked in the kids started singing a song to me. Obviously it was all in Spanish, so I asked Janet what it was about. She described it as a song about "drums and how you're a nice person" which made me laugh. They were all smiling and waving their balloons (and by waving I mean most of them were hitting each other with balloons).

After they finished the song the teachers went around the room and each took a turn saying goodbye to me. They would talk to me in Spanish then Mary would translate for me. I felt so bad having them talk right to me and not be able to understand everything. I could understand about half of what they said, but really appreciated when Mary translated everything. After that Janet told me to close my eyes then moved me to the middle of the room. Then I could feel people around me, but couldn't figure out what they were doing. She then told me I was too tall and that I needed to sit down. They actually were trying to take off the jacket I was wearing and put on a Susanna Wesley School hoodie just like the kid's uniforms. Last week Cheryl gave me her Salud y Paz jacket and now I have a school hoodie. I'm just so official now!

After I got my hoodie Janet had the kids line up and one by one I gave them a beaded necklace and gave them each a hug. It was by far my favorite and also the saddest part of the party. I am going to miss these kids so much!

I have no idea where these necklaces came from, but I loved handing them out. They love anything that sparkles.

Did I mention how I loved hugging each student?

Most of them would come up to me and play with my hair (they are obsessed with my hair... no idea) while I gave them the necklace. Then when I hugged them they would whisper "Te extrañaré" and I would say "Igualmente".

They also gave me this huipil (pronounces wee-pill... yes I just spent about 5 minutes figuring out how to google this to spell it correctly) to wear this summer while I'm talking to groups about Guatemala. It is from Coban and is made out of a lighter fabric than usual. Janet said she chose that one since I'm going to Houston where it will be extremely hot.

 

I really can't even begin to describe how much I am going to miss these kids. I have to keep telling myself that I'm coming back in August. Even though I won't be in the school anymore I'll still be working at the clinic and should be around enough to still play with the kids. I'm pretty sure I'll make time to play at recess with the kiddos. 

Ok... as promised let's go back to Bible Study. I go to bible study every Thursday afternoon at 4:00, so every Wednesday I go to the coffee shop for hours and do my bible study.We are doing the new Beth Moore bible study called James: Mercy Triumphs. I have never done a Beth Moore study before, but I really enjoyed it. I feel like these 4 months have been a roller coaster of emotions and I am really grateful for this group of women. I have really leaned on them and they have shown nothing but continuous support. Our group is made up of Ally (Cute pup), me, Cheryl (Lives in Guatemala for about 4 months every year and volunteers at different organizations), Adele (Mom in the coffee shop family I'm close to), Janet (S y P volunteer), Angel (We meet at her house. Her husband and her and missionaries and are raising their 2 kids here), Cindy (Used to live in Dallas and often wears Texas shirts that make me smile), and Heather (my roommate and a S y P volunteer).

 

Another group that I had to say goodbye to is the "knitting" group. I don't knit, but I do go almost every Saturday (if I'm in town). Every week we drink coffee and spend time catching up on everyone's week. I actually brought a cross stitch project with me that I have been working on there. It's not coming far though since I only work on it for a couple of hours once a week. We used to meet upstairs at the coffee shop, but now we meet at their property. Mike and Adele have been building their house right outside of town for about 10 years now. At first that sounded like an incredibly long time to me, but I've learned that apparently that's as long as it takes to build a house from scratch here. Now they have most of the foundation done and are just waiting for finishing touches.  Every week they say that maybe the windows will come on Monday. Once they get those in they can start moving in furniture and stay there full time. Right now Mike and Adele are staying at the property and the girls are sleeping at the coffee shop. I have slept over there with the girls the last 2 Fridays. I hate to be leaving now because I feel like I'm getting really close to everyone, but again I'll be back in August. :)

 

Tomorrow Heather and I are the only volunteers going up to the clinic. I have to finish up some team information with Jose then I bet I'll spend some time outside with the kids getting more goodbye hugs.  Today I went shopping for souvenirs with Kaisa and Lungi. It's exhausting trying to get everything done in time before I leave Tuesday morning. I'm trying to rent out my room for the summer, so I have to pack up all my stuff into storage just in case someone contacts Heather and wants to rent my room. I have almost everything packed and stored away. Tomorrow I am hoping we will get home from work a little early and I can be done with everything early. I booked a shuttle today to take me to the airport Tuesday morning. It is going to pick me up at my house at 6:00, so I'll have plenty of time to get to Guatemala City in time for my 12:20 flight HOME... YAY!!!!

Good Day at Work...

Today was a great day at work. Since I am leaving to come home next Tuesday (could not be more bittersweet) I have been kind of going crazy trying to get everything done that I'm in charge of before I leave. This includes both tasks in the school and as Team Coordinator. I am looking forward to August when I am just doing one job and don't have to try to split my time between 2 different positions. There were several moments today that made me smile and feel confident that I made the right decision in deciding to come back. I have this fear that I am going to return home next week and that after awhile working at the church again (and let's face it it may be a day) I'm going to be asking myself "What the heck did you do giving up this job?!?". I just keep telling myself I have to remember the feeling I get working here in Guatemala. I already know that I am going to go home and have a ridiculously hard time saying bye to everyone and leaving my job at the church. It was always my dream to work there and some days I think it is crazy that I made this decision to give it up. Not to mention the whole moving to another country by myself. However, then I have a great day at work and I look around and I know this is exactly where God wants me to be.

This is why my day was great. As the Team Coordinator I work side by side with Jose Hernandez who has been working at Salud y Paz for years. He is the eye doc at the clinics and also serves as the "Assistant Team Coordinator" but let's face it he knows way more about being a Team Coordinator than I do. We have worked together on several teams and have spent the last 2 weeks trying to get all the arrangements done for the teams this summer. We really are a great team. I get the emails from the team leaders (my email has been BLOWING UP since I took on this position) and if it is about hotel reservations or room assignments I just show it to Jose and he takes care of it. Most of the time I email back and forth with the teams and he emails with Guatemala Tours and other random hotels we send teams to. Sometimes I'll write an email to Guatemala Tours and give him my computer to type a sentence in Spanish. If I ever meet Doris from Guatemala Tours in person she may be a little surprised to learn that I don't speak much Spanish at all. Lately I have been sitting at Jose's desk with him (you know so we don't have to scream at each other across the ER we all office out of) and I love it because it's like having my own personal translator all the time. :) When we work together there is a lot of looking at each other and not knowing what to do followed by lots of laughter. Working at the church has instilled in me the importance of laughing everyday at work. It makes me incredibly happy to know I have that here also. Notice how cute Jose and I are in our matching Salud y Paz jackets. Also notice how little his computer is compared to mine. Apparently Macs are rare down here and all the Guatemalans make fun of how big it is.

Another reason why it was a good day is because all the teachers and Janet were in a meeting during recess, so I had to man it on my own. Most of the kids were playing on the playground, but then some stay in their classrooms and play with indoor toys. I was making my rounds and found little Pati (if you read the last surgery week blog you saw pictures of her and I from my computer) sitting at her desk by herself crying. I asked her what was wrong and she just kept saying her teacher's name. I picked her up and after carrying her around for about 5 minutes rubbing her back she calmed down. She then decided she wanted to swing, so I started pushing her. Now this caused a problem with the other kids. One of the favorite/most annoying things that the kids do during recess is scream my name when they want me to play with them. Now you may be thinking that that sounds like an 'adorable how cute that they know your name' thing. Well that's what I thought at first also. However, after months the cuteness wears off and the annoyance sets in. Some kids just stand there screaming my name over and over again and even though I go up and play with them for a few minutes the second I leave they are right back at it. I think it is hard for some of them to understand that I have to play with everyone. I just reread this paragraph and laughed really hard because it sounds like I'm a middle schooler complaining about being too popular. :) All I'm saying is that if I'm holding a sobbing child maybe it's ok that I don't ditch her to come help you on the monkey bars even though you are shouting my name at the top of your lungs. However, that is not a sentence I have learned in Spanish yet, so all I say is "sea paciente. un momento". Recess today was fun despite all the shouting. There was a pick up truck (it's important in this story to remember that it is owned by S y P and not just a random truck) parked by the playground. While I was in a classroom talking to Pati about 20 kids decided to climb into the back of it. When I noticed I walked over to the truck with intentions of telling them to get out, but then I noticed that they actually had an intense game of ice cream shop going on. I was actually impressed with how detailed their imaginations were, so I just let them play. All was good until they must have made it move too much or something happened to where they set the alarm off. This made all the patients standing outside the clinic turn to see what was happening then laugh really hard. I can't even begin to describe how many times in the past 4 months I've had Guatemalans laugh at/with me. One of the Guatemalans I've become friends with once told me I'm that quirky American girl that makes people happy. Compliment maybe? Juan the other day walked into the clinic and yelled across the room "I love your smile Kelly". Maybe being that quirky American girl who makes people happy isn't such a bad thing.


Another moment that made me smile is that we had a staff meeting (which is all in Spanish, so I try to sit by someone who can clue me in) this afternoon. Dr. Freddy and Juan lead them and every time they ask me if I have anything to talk about and I just stare at them like "Are you kidding me?" knowing I couldn't do a report in Spanish. It always makes the staff laugh (remember quirky American). Today Juan said my name then I followed that he was telling the staff that I will be returning to the States next week for 3 months then coming back for a year. The staff all looked at me then started to say different things. Then everyone clapped. So with my limited Spanish and the fact that someone had come into the meeting late and sat in between Jose and I therefore I couldn't be clued in I figured that they were either applauding my leaving or my commitment for a year. Hopefully they were happy that I am coming back. Otherwise I should probably delete this as a moment that made me smile today. 


So I'm coming home in a week. I can't believe it is already going to be May and that it is time to go home. I am both incredibly sad to leave and incredibly excited to be home. I feel like I have just started understanding my role as Team Coordinator and a part of me thinks it would just be easier to stay and take it on fully now. However, there is an even bigger part of me that can not wait to be home and spend the next 3 months with everyone I love so very much! I know that if I am going to come back for a year I am going to need these 3 months not only to get everything in order, but also to spend with my friends and family. I just hope I can remember this feeling on days when I'm sitting at home with loved ones wondering what the heck I did in quitting my dream job and committing to move to a foreign country for a year. Hopefully I won't have many days like that, but I know myself pretty well and see an incredibly fun/incredibly difficult summer ahead of me. 

Here is a moment that did not make my day better. My ears have been hurting lately, so yesterday I had both Heather and Cheryl look in them. They said that in one ear I have a lot of fluid built up and in the other a lot of wax. I have always had ear issues and actually had to have surgery on one ear in college when my ear drum ruptured. They gave me pills and drops to take at home. However, today during work Cheryl flushed out one of my ears with water and some kind of medicine. The water was too cold and it made me incredibly dizzy. I felt like I was going to pass out and she had to keep me from falling over. It didn't help that I was sitting in a swivel chair. After she was done I had to sit for about 15 minutes before I felt like I could get up and move around without wiping out. I've always heard that your inner ear controls your balance (or you know something like that), but I had no idea how out of it you could feel if it is messed with. However, because I do tend to be that weird illness breaks a lot of bones girl it does come in handy not only living with a nurse, but working at a clinic. I even had one of the surgeons last week look at my ear. I'll probably end up getting better health care down here than I would back home. And by better I obviously mean cheaper and quicker.

Guatemala Slumber Party... Yes I like to pretend like I'm 13 sometimes.

I've gotten really close to the family who owns Crossroads Cafe in town, so on Friday I had a slumber party with the girls. Kaisa is 18 and Lungi is 16. We had a movie night last week and they asked if I would spend the night then. However, I had just gotten home from Guatemala City, so I decided we should do it this week. I'm pretty obsessed with these girls. They remind me so much of the youth back home that I have been missing.

When I got home from work I headed over to the coffee shop. The girls were so cute. They had planned out exactly what we were going to do.

Here was our schedule for the night:
- Walk to Pana Super to buy sandwiches for dinner.
- Eat dinner and talk about old boyfriends. This conversation reminded me of hundreds I have had with middle school/high school girls back home. Usually sitting on a bathroom floor.
- Dye Easter Eggs. My parents brought me a kit when they came to visit. Heather and I planned to dye some eggs last week, but we just got swamped with work. The girls had only dyed eggs once before, so it was hilarious listening and watching them try to figure out how to do it.
- Set Peeps on fire on the roof of the coffee shop. My parents also brought me Peeps for Easter which I offered to the girls. When we bonded over our hatred of Peeps we then decided (it's important to note that they completely came up with this idea on their own!) to set the peeps on fire.
- Strawberry facial mask. They came up with an organic homemade mask that had strawberries and egg whites (and several other things I can't think of right now) in it. We put it on and let it set for about 10 minutes. My face was really sticky/smooth when I took it off. They were so cute talking about coming up with different masks for our next sleepover.
- Movie. We spent a long time figuring out what movie to watch. We finally decided on Four Feathers. However both Kaisa and I fell asleep about 20 minutes into it, so then Lungi just watched Last Song which apparently they have watched every night in the past week.
- Sleep. While I was falling asleep I kept hearing people talking/yelling on the street. The coffee shop is in the middle of town, so it was pretty noisy. I kept wishing I knew what they were saying. Maybe I'll succeed in learning Spanish just so I can listen to other people's conversations.
- Breakfast. They cooked breakfast for me. So cute.
- Painting nails. Lungi wanted her fingernails and toenails painted, so we got to work after breakfast. She painted her toenails as I painted mine then I painted her fingernails. She kept saying I was so good at it, but if she had anyone else to compare it to I'm sure she would have realized how horrible I was.

Lungi attempting to set the Peeps on fire. One is missing out of the box because I showed them that if you put a Peep in the microwave it will get really big then explode. I learned that at my disciple group's Christmas party when a freshman did it in my microwave. Yes we did bond over our mutual fascination with fire.

While Lungi tried to set the place on fire Kaisa and I played with the bunny. And by play with the bunny I mean I held it so it wouldn't hop (get it because bunnies hop?) into the burning Peeps.

Cute girls with our Easter eggs!!

Trying to get a self timer good picture of the 3 of us was pretty impossible. We kept trying to put my camera on different shelves in the kitchen to see which one worked the best. This is a bad picture, but it's the best one we could get.

Wearing our strawberry/egg while facial masks.

 

I told the girls I was leaving next Tuesday to head back to the States and they decided we needed to have another sleepover before I left. I think we are going to have another one this Friday night. We have also made a list of things I need to bring back with me from the States to make our slumber parties better next year. These girls are too adorable! I'm so thankful for their friendship. This family is truly amazing.

Surgery Week

It was surgery week at the clinic... We had a Hands of Hope team from Indiana made up of 2 surgeons (Dr. Ashton who is an ENT, Plastics, and Allergist and Dr. Haney who is a general surgeon) and 15 other teams members. This was my 3rd surgery week to work on, but really it was my first time to act as the team coordinator. I love surgery weeks because I have the opportunity to go into the ORs and watch random surgeries and also learn random medical terms from the doctors and nurses. I'm telling you by the end of my time here it's going to be like I'm a doctor. :)

We had 42 patients get surgery this week. They all came on Sunday (triage day) to see the doctor and to get scheduled for surgery throughout the week. Some of the patients I recognized from coming into the clinic in previous weeks to be signed up for surgery. We also had 2 family members of staff members who received surgery. This picture is of Archy's brother Neri who had nasal surgery and his sister Doris.

We also had 2 students in the school get surgery. We were suppose to have a 3rd, but they ended up canceling the morning of his surgery. Here I am with Karla Marleny who is in our Kindergarten class. She came out of her surgery and recovered so well. I was giving her stickers and she was smiling and laughing the whole time. The other student who has surgery didn't handle post op as well. Diego woke up screaming and when his mom tried to calm him down he kept sticking out his tongue at her.

Neither of these 2 students ended up having surgery this week. but both of them came in to see the doctor. My desk was right by the door this week, so they would run up and sit in my lap while they waited to see the doctor. The staff kept laughing at me because every time they walked by I would have another kid in my lap. They all wanted to play with my computer which I allowed until Daniel deleted the surgery schedule when he punched some kind of combination of keys on my laptop which not only deleted the schedule, but instantly opened Itunes and Skype at the same time. After that I opened the Photo Booth application and kept them entertained by taking pictures on my computer. I'm going to miss these kids so much this summer!

This is Tomasa Patricia who we call Pati. She is in our Kindergarten class and is a clear favorite. Shh... don't tell the other kids. :)

On Thursday I realized that I hadn't taken any pictures in the ORs all week, so I spent some time watching some surgeries and taking pictures and videos. I love being in the ORs because every time I walk in I stand in the corner, so I'm not in the way. Then as soon as the surgeon realizes I'm in there they always tell me I need to come closer and watch what they are doing. Even though this is my 3rd surgery week it still baffles me that I am allowed to just walk into the ORs and be able to stand right next to the surgeon. Can you imagine if I tried to walk into a hospital in the States? :)

In this particular surgery Dr. Haney had to pull out this man's intestine (can't remember if it was the small or large... either way it was VERY neat) to operate on a hernia. Once he pulled out the intestine they turned off the large operating lights, so we could take better pictures of it. Again VERY neat day at work. I have always been that person who is really squeamish at the sight of blood, but I have actually been really impressed with myself at how I handle watching surgery. Apparently I can watch the intestines be pulled out of someone, but if you cut your finger I'll freak out if you want me to clean it.

Same surgery... I just thought this was a cool picture. This is Dr. Haney and Chad. Chad brought his 7th grade daughter on the trip, and it was fun to talk to her about her experiences here in Guatemala. She talked to me about wanting to be a nurse when she grew up and how much she loves coming to Guatemala on this mission trip (this is her 2nd year to come). Maybe these trips are going to help instill in her the importance of missions and she'll do something long term when she gets older. You just never know what experience is going to change someone's life.

Here is the other OR. On this day Dr. Ashton did his surgeries under local anaesthetic instead of general. This patient had a keloid on her ear from a piercing that he was removing. Again when I walked in he told me to get closer to take better pictures. This lady was awake and could hear and watch everything going on. It was the same with the eye patients in February and I remember thinking how much trust and faith these patients put into these doctors and our organization. Also how scary it must be for them to just lay there and listen to everyone speaking a foreign language. So much trust.

Working on this surgery week I felt like I already knew so much more than I did the previous 2 surgery weeks, but there is still so much for me to learn. The team members would ask me random questions and I would have to run to Heather to get the answers because they were either about medical things I have no earthly idea about or about forms or such that I hadn't been taught yet. I kept thinking by the time they come back next year hopefully I'll know all the answers (you know about forms and such... no chance I'm learning the medical side of things). One day one of the nurses was explaining to me how to use an HIV testing kit and another team member was doing the same with the pregnancy tests. I remember just thinking in my head 'Even though it's fascinating to be shown this what I really need to learn is where we keep these kits and tests'. That is my goal. Not to learn the medical side of things (even though I really am fascinated and will always jump at the chance to listen when someone is willing to teach me about it), but to be able to answer questions when they are looking for something around the clinic. I really liked this team and am looking forward to seeing them again next year. Also some of them are bringing a medical team (not through Salud y Paz) to Pana in November. It will be great to catch up with them then. I'm really excited to get to know our teams then see them the next year. I'll have that with the Spring teams next year, but will have to stay more than a year if I want to have that relationship with all the teams. Who knows... (Mom don't freak out).

Triage Day...

Today was a great day at work! This week we have a surgery team here from Indiana, and today was the triage day. We left for work at 6:45 and I just got back home. That may seam like a long day, but actually we got done earlier today than we have the previous 2 triage days I've worked on.

Wayne (former team coordinator who is now the executive director) gave me a lot of responsibility today and spent the day teaching me what the team coordinator does on triage day. My role is to do the scheduling for surgery. After the patients see the doctor, get their labs done, and sign their concent form they came to my desk and I figured out when they could have surgery. Wayne walked me through the first ones then really let me take it and run with it. He stayed at the desk for awhile, so I could ask him random questions, but then after awhile he left to work on other things and I got to do it on my own.

We had random translators around the room that I could call over when I needed to explain things to the patient. If I just had to tell them a date and time I could do that on my own, but some of the patients had to be given medicine and more specific pre-op directions, so it was handy having the translators around. Two of the translators were Geronimo (a local pastor) and Sonja (who volunteers at the clinic in the medical bodega) who were both there to translate K'iche' (Mayan language) to Spanish. Even though neither of them speak any English I could speak enough Spanish to explain to them what the patients needed to know and they could go into more detailed explanation. I feel like these past few weeks I have gotten really close to a lot of our Guatemala staff even though there is a huge language barrier. I am obviously closer to the Guatemalan staff who speak English because we can talk more, but I'm always amazed by how great conversations made up of broken Spanish plus a game of charades plus some made up sign language and lots of laughter can be.

This is going to be an extremely hectic week, but surgery week is always one of my favorites. I get to watch random surgeries and also see all the patients that are getting great medical care. We have 3 students in our school getting surgery and also Archy's brother and Jose's niece. It's a different feeling having a personal relationship with the patients having surgery. They are putting so much trust into our organization and the doctors on the team. It amazes me every time.

On a side note here are a few things I did last week that I don't want to forget (remember that I'm using this blog as a personal journal also).

- Went to the San Antonio clinic for the first time. Cheryl goes down to San Antonio every Thursday and I had been wanting to go with her one week. I realized it was my last opportunity to go (since she is leaving the same time I am), so I went Thursday. The staff bus picked us up in Pana then we wrapped around the lake and drove to another village about 2 1/2 hours away. I have been heading about how horrible the drive was from everyone, but it really wasn't that bad. However, I do think the fact that Cheryl brought her 2 cute little pups helped. They both sat in my lap the entire time and were extra cute that day. When we got to the clinic I started helping with patient triage. I organized a lot of the patient folders and found the correct ones when the patients came in. A lot of the patients in San Antonio have problems knowing their correct names, so they are given numbers. They would bring in their card with their number on it then I would find their folders. I also helped take their height and weight.

After awhile it slowed down, so I did some work on my computer. My Claro internet stick wasn't working, so I ended up editing the video I'm working on to show people back home about Guatemala. Every once in awhile some of the staff would walk in and look at the video and the pictures with me. I would explain why I was making it and they loved looking at all the pictures. They would ask me the silliest questions about them and then we would laugh so hard at my trying to answer them in Spanish. Again such a great time getting to know the staff.

Also on the way back to Pana we stopped at a spot on the road where when you put the car in neutral it would roll backwards even though it clearly looks like you are pointing downhill. Seriously... google it (I actually just did... Wikipedia calls it a "gravity hill"). This is what Wikipedia says about it: A gravity or magnetic hill is a place where a slight downhill slope appears to be an uphill slope due the layout of the surrounding land, creating the optical illusion that water flows uphill or a car left out of gear will roll uphill, among others. Many of these sites have no specific name and are instead often simply referred to as 'Gravity Hill' or 'Magnetic Hill'. (It's on Wikipedia... it must be true).

- On Friday I went to Guatemala City with Cheryl and Jim. Jim was going to the airport to fly back to Texas for a couple of weeks before meeting Cheryl in Honduras when they move at the end of the month. I decided to tag along because Cheryl said that we could go to Walmart. Also I am just always up for trips and exploring new things, so I was really excited at the thought of exploring the city more. Victor (a bombero in Camanchaj who drove us to San Antonio the day before) drove one of our company cars and after we dropped off Jim at the airport we headed to Walmart. It really looked exactly like a Walmart in the States. Even though I am going home in a couple of weeks I stalked up on toiletrie items that I knew would I would just buy in the States and have to carry down in August. I also bought a few kitchen items we needed and a DVD player. There is never anything on TV here (mainly because most of the channels are in Spanish), so I got a DVD player that you can plug a USB drive into. You can buy black market DVD's here for really cheap in the market and also Dave (another volunteer in town) can download movies for free onto your hard drive. It will be much appreciated next year when I'm working a lot from Pana (I do better with background noise all the time).

After Walmart we went to Pricemart which actually looks and sells the exact same things as Sams. It reminded me of shopping at the Refuge. If only I had Ian and Tyler there with me to help me shop.

- Saturday Cheryl (I'm really going to miss her when she's gone!) and I took a boat across the river to Santiago Atitlan because I had a gift I wanted to get for someone that I've only ever seen in that village. The lake was the calmest I've ever seen it in the morning. We only stayed there for about an hour, but it was worth the trip because it was so beautiful yesterday. When we got back to Pana we stopped at The Patio to eat lunch then went to Pana Super. I feel like I have become really close to her lately and I am going to really miss her when she's gone.

- David and Barbara are heading back to the States tomorrow morning. They will be in Maine until next November then return to Pana. I am going to miss having them upstairs. It's always so much fun being able to just run upstairs and see what they are up to (which usually includes them acting out plays or singing to their parrot).

Semanta Santa

Sorry I haven't blogged in awhile. Things at work have been incredibly busy, and I went out of town for about a week. Here is what I've been up to since you last read one of my delightful blogs.

- Found my passport (for real this time). One night I left my computer cord at The Palapa and ran up there kind of late. When I was leaving Kyle Jacks (dude who put up the flyers about my passport) called me and said he was actually hanging out at The Palapa and had my passport and drivers license with him. I got the Tuk Tuk to turn around and stopped to grab my passport. Apparently he just typed the wrong email on the flyer.

- My upstairs neighbors directed and acted in a play in town that was made up of a group of retired tourist from the States. It was probably one of the funniest things I have seen in awhile. Heather and I kept looking at each other and saying "Thank God you're here because I would have no idea how to explain this to you".

- I made homemade falafels. I was really proud of myself for figuring out how to make them!

- The whole house smelled horrible for hours, so I'll never make homemade falafels again.

- 2 of our volunteers Cheryl and Jim went to Mexico to renew their visas, so I got to puppy sit their 2 ADORABLE puppies! They are both incredibly little and I loved taking them down to the lake several days in a row. The smallest one is too little to walk around town, so he had to be carried in a purse.

- Cheryl and Jim announced that they are actually leaving Salud y Paz and moving to Honduras to start a clinic there. I had been getting really close to both of them lately, so it was really hard to hear that they were leaving. Today at work we had a meeting to figure out what them leaving looked like for the clinic. I don't think anyone realized how much they both did until that meeting. I am going to miss having them around, but am looking forward to visiting them in Honduras!

- I also spent 5 days in Xela last week celebrating Semana Santa (Holy Week). Here are about 50 of my favorite pictures from the week. Know that even though that is a lot of pictures I could have easily added about 100 more.

On Wednesday I took a chicken bus to Xela by myself. It actually was a pretty easy bus ride which I was a little worried about because you sometimes hear about scary things happening on chicken buses. The embassy sent out a warning stating that Americans are not suppose to ride them anymore. However, it is pretty much the only way to travel around Guatemala unless you want to spend money on shuttles, so I still take them pretty often.

When I got to Xela the bus let me off at the big bus terminal and Heather and Jose came and picked me up in Jose's car. Xela is the 2nd biggest city in Guatemala and it is where another one of our clinics is located. A lot of our Guatemalan staff live in Xela and it is where Guatemala Tours (company that we get all of our translators and drivers from) is located.

Wednesday night we went downtown to the central park in Xela and hung out with friends. I met a couple of drivers that I hadn't worked with before and some of Jose's family. It was fun to be back in a city and actually go to a restaurant that looked like it could be in Texas. Pana is so small and touristy that I really loved being back in a city for awhile.

Thursday morning we drove for about an hour to get to Las Fuentes Georginas which are natural hot springs outside of Xela. The sulfer smell reminded me so much of the hot springs I go to every summer in Pagosa Springs. Actually driving around Guatemala often reminds me of Colorado. It gives me a comforted homey feeling that I love. This waterfall was beautiful and flowed into the hottest of the springs.

There were 3 different temperature springs and this one was the hottest. We went into the 2nd hottest one for awhile then were able to finally get into the hottest one for a few minutes.

Check out all the fog landing over the valley behind Heather and I. I have only seen Twilight once, but I swear this is where they filmed the horrible movies.

On the way back to Xela we stopped at a couple of famous churches. This one I have seen on a lot of postcards. The name of this church is San Andres Xecul and the arch out front is for their Good Friday celebration.

Here is the other beautiful church we stopped at on the way back to the city. This is La Ermita de la Concepcion and it is the oldest church in Guatemala. We couldn't go inside because it was closed, but it was beautiful to walk around and look at the outside.

Friday morning we again drove for about an hour and went to Laguna de Chikabal. It is a lake that is located in the crater of a volcano. We drove as far as we could in Jose's car then had to park and hike the rest of the way. We were told that it cost Q100 to take a pick up truck up to the top of the volcano to get to the steps that lead down to the lake. We decided that it wasn't worth the Q400, so instead we just hiked. It took about an hour and a half, but we finally climbed to the top of the volcano.

This is the view of the lake from the top of the volcano.

After hiking down to the lake we sat for awhile (you know to catch our breath and not pass out). It was beautiful and we just sat there for a long time watching the fog fall over the lake. There were Mayan Alters set up all around the lake. You are not allowed to swim in the lake because it is suppose to be sacred. I think this arch was set up for Good Friday.

There were crosses all around the lake. I could probably post 30 pictures on here of just crosses.

 

Mayan Alter. There were probably about 15 of these set up around the lake. 

 

Heather and I decided that we were going to try to take as many roommate pictures as we could during the week... get excited.

These are the stairs we had to walk down to the lake and then back up to the top of the volcano to then hike down to the village where the car was parked.

There were 500 steps. Yes we were completely exhausted once we finally got to the top. I was in front of the group and laughed so hard because every time I had to stop to take a break I would look behind me and see Heather and Jose 1 and Jose 2 also stopped and exhausted. I got to the top about 5 minutes before the rest of the group and explained that I just wanted it to be over with, so I knew the faster I climbed the sooner it would be over. So exhausting.

Once we got to the top of the stairs we then had to hike down the volcano. It started pouring down rain and we all took our turns slipping while hiking down. When we got to the rest stop half way down we stopped to get a snack and saw that the pick up truck was there asking if we wanted a ride the rest of the way down. That's when we realized that it actually only cost Q100 for our whole group and not Q100 each. That means that for only about $3 we could have rode in the pick up truck to the beginning of the steps. Heather and I laughed because we discovered that we both were contemplating paying the Q400 on the way up because we were so tired. Needless to say we paid the $3 each and rode in the back of the truck the rest of the way down. Look how happy Heather and I look to be in the truck and not hiking down in the rain.

So after we got back to Xela and cleaned up we headed back to downtown to watch the Good Friday Processions. I learned that here in Guatemala they celebrate Good Friday, but not Easter. Everyone goes all out for the Good Friday Processions, but then they don't really even go to church on Easter Sunday. It is odd to me that they will celebrate the death of Jesus, but not his resurrection. However, I thought the processions were beyond beautiful. I started to cry when I saw the first one because I had a moment where I realized how lucky I was to be standing there in Guatemala with good friends watching something so beautiful. I wish I could always be in Guatemala to watch these processions on Good Friday then home in Houston to go to the sunrise service with my family and friends who I love and miss so much.

These are the carpets that each church makes. Apparently there were fewer than previous years, but I thought the ones I saw were gorgeous. They are made out of sand and dried flowers.

This procession was the first one that we went to. Jose was in it the past 2 years and this year his niece and nephew were in it.

I can't think of a better word for this than a float which I hate to call it. However, I think that's the best word for it no matter how tacky it is. Anyways, these guys take turns carrying the "floats" which were all so amazing. I thought it was interesting that they just walked over the carpets.

After watching our first procession we walked to the central park downtown to watch several more. There was a full moon that was so beautiful and lit up the central park. I wish you could tell from this picture how many people were in the park. There were thousands of people who showed up to watch the processions.

This was one of my favorite processions. Partly due to the funny hats, but mostly because of all the candles. This church along with their main "floats" also had the stages of the cross "floats".

It was about to start raining, so we moved to stand in the doorway of a bar in case we had to run inside to get out of the rain. This is one of my favorite photos from the night. Look how cool the "float" is. We saw about 8 different churches and each church had several "floats".

I thought this one was really pretty with the different angels.

Another favorite.

It started getting cold, so I wrapped up in my scarf. Heather thought I looked so ridiculous that she took a picture. Between my scarf and my wet rain jacket around my waist I really think I am developing a great fashion sense here in Guatemala.

This was the last church and I thought it was one of the best. The men carrying the "floats" would sway back and forth and they were almost always followed by a small band. All the extra guys carrying the candles had number patches on their robes identifying what group they were a part of. Every once in awhile they would switch out the groups, so everyone got a break from carrying it since it was so heavy.

I really like this picture with the "float" in the background.

Saturday morning we went to Takalik Abaj which are some Mayan Ruins about an hour and a half outside of Xela. I have been wanting to go to some ruins since I moved here, but haven't had the chance to yet. I was really excited when I was asked if I wanted to go for the day. Our tour guide only spoke Spanish, so Heather had to translate to me everything that he was saying. This picture makes me laugh so much because it was the first picture taken at the ruins. We both look completely bored and over the tour, but this was the first rock of the tour. You can't tell, but we actually had a really good time at this park.

 

Our guide thought I needed a picture with these orange and green berry things. He even positioned me this way after I tried to take a picture just standing next to the branch which he didn't like. 

Look at us rebels climbing down into the pit next to the ruins to take a picture.

Heather told me that the guide was telling us to touch this rock, but I didn't believe her at first. She kept telling me to stand on the rocks just to try to get me in trouble. Who knows if anything she translated was the truth. Turns out this was the only rock we were allowed to touch.

Do you see a little dude with 3 legs riding a turtle? I can't remember what this actually was (I'm almost positive it wasn't a 3 legged dude on a turtle), but I often thought my interpretations of the rocks were funnier than what the guide was telling us.

The park was a member of the Rainforest Alliance, so I can officially say I have walked through the rain forest!!

This is stadium seating (no, but really) for Mayan ceremonies and rituals that used to take place.

Proof that I have been in the rain forest!!

This is a little pregnant statue. There were 4 of them that symbolized fertility, and this one was the last one (aka the most pregnant one).

I decided I needed a picture of me by the preggers Mayan chick to send to Kimmie who is one of my best friends who just happens to be pregnant right now.

Next we went to the zoo area of the park. I am usually anti zoo (animals in tiny cages bother me) and most of the time wouldn't choose to go to one, but I made an exception for the Guatemalan Mayan animals. Look at the little Pumbas (Lion King... get it??).

Check out this little monkey just chilling by the fence. This picture makes me laugh because you can see Jose in the background.

This bird is called the bone breaker. I thought it was only fitting to take it's picture seeing as though I too am a bone breaker. The number of bones I have broken has to be a world record (and if not the number then at least the idiotic way I break them could break records).

Stadium seating and the ritual spot in front of it.

I found this yellow heart leaf on the ground and Heather said "It's pretty and you're black we have to take a picture". When I got off the chicken bus back to Pana it was broken in my backpack... sad.

This is a chocolate tree. Who knew chocolate pod thingys grew out of the trunk?

My favorite part of the ruins. These ruins date back to 125 AC. It was amazing to be walking around these ruins knowing how old they were and imagining all the rituals and sacrifices that must have taken place there throughout the years. It makes me really eager to visit more ruins around Guatemala.

 

Sunday after lunch Heather and I headed back to Pana. The direct chicken bus from Xela to Pana wasn't at the terminal, so we had to take a different bus. We walked through the terminal trying to decide which bus could get us closest to Pana and while we walked around guys would grab your arm and try to force you to get on their bus (the more passengers the more money they make). We hopped on the back of one then was told there wasn't anymore room even though there was a seat open. We finally found a seat on one bus that would take us to Los Encuentros from which we would have to take 2 additional chicken buses to Pana. 

We got on the bus and after awhile had to share the seat with 2 other girls (imagine the most crowded bus you have ever been on then add 150 more people and that is what a normal chicken bus looks like). When our stop was coming up I had to stand on top of our seat and try to get my bags down from the rack above while the bus was still driving around sharp curves, so I was falling everywhere. Then they stopped the bus for about 30 seconds and when we couldn't get out of our seat to either one of the doors in that time they started driving again. Heather started yelling in Spanish (she later told me she was yelling at people to move and for the driver to stop the bus) and we kept trying to push our way off the bus. We were in the middle of the bus and had to climb over everyone to get off the back of the bus. I was literally stepping on people's laps and climbing over seats to get off the bus. It slowed down a little, but not much when Heather and I jumped off the back of the bus. It was one of the scariest situations I have been in here. I told Heather that if she wasn't with me I probably would have ended up just going to Guatemala City. 

We found the next 2 buses we needed to get home to Pana and decided when we got back to town to go to church. We got off the last bus right at 4 which is when Soloman's Porch starts, so we just walked in with our bags. It was a smaller crowd because so many people travel during Semana Santa, but it felt good to go to church on Easter. 

So this blog just took me about 4 1/2 hours to write. Between uploading the pictures and writing everything down it takes a lot to write a blog. Sorry this one was so long. I'm using my blog as my personal journal, so even if I don't think it is really entertaining I still want to write it down to remember everything. Hope you all had a beautiful Easter!