Dunwoody UMC...

So the week is over, the team has returned home, and I made it through! I had such an amazing week with the team from Dunwoody UMC in Atlanta, Georgia. I really don't think I could have asked for a better team to start with. I was really nervous about hosting my first team, but we had an amazing week full of laughter, real conversations, and serving together. Here is a little recap of our beautiful week.

The team flew in on Saturday and since Jose and I were both with the team I let him go to Guatemala City and pick up the team then I was at the hotel when they arrived. I got to the hotel about 20 minutes before the team arrived and called my mom freaking out about how nervous I was. As the bus pulled up I was beyond scared about how the week was going to go and how I was going to handle everything. However, once I started meeting the team I was put at ease. They all got off the bus smiling and joyful to be in Guatemala. After I passed out keys and the team "moved in" we met for a little welcome meeting. If you have ever met me you know that when I have to talk in front of groups I get ridiculously nervous and talk incredibly fast. On a completely side note at the end of the trip the team passed out "paper plate" awards and mine was for the fastest talker. :) They joked with me all week about talking fast. Hopefully the more I work with teams the calmer I'll be when I have to do the welcome meeting.

On Sunday we went across the lake in a private boat to the town Santiago Atitlan. The team spend a few hours walking around the town doing their souvenir shopping. Since I have pretty much bought all the Guatemalan souvenirs that I need I helped the team bargain for better prices. After awhile I walked to the church downtown and discovered that they were having some kind of huge worship service in the square. I have been to this church several times on a Sunday with teams, but I have never seen the outside service before. There were hundreds of people there and I really wish I could have understood what the priest was saying to know why it was a special day. After returning to our side of the lake we spent the rest of the day hanging out in Pana.

The team was split into 2 groups this week. One group went to our clinic in Camanchaj everyday and worked construction. We are in the process of building a second floor onto one of our buildings to be able to expand our dental clinic. Jose hosted this group while I hosted the dental team. The 2 groups were separated during the day, but spent the rest of the time together in Pana. My group went to a different community everyday to set up a rural dental clinic. There were 2 dentists on the team who did extractions for the patients in the communities. I loved my team. It seemed like everyday something would go wrong and they actually had to remind me that I shouldn't freak out. I would apologize for whatever the issue was and they would be completely fine with it. Seriously, whether it be the dental machine not working or the lack of patients because of a funeral in the small village they would just smile and say "no worries". I appreciated their flexibility and hard work greatly.

This picture makes me smile, so I thought I would share the story with you. On our first day we were set up in a community center in Nahuala. I was sitting at the check out desk and looked up to see that an indigenous women was playing with the flashlight that the dentists used to triage the patients. Both her friend and her were laughing so loudly as they played dentist. I walked over to where we kept all the dental instruments and got a mouth mirror and handed it to the woman to use. She thought that was the greatest thing and they both continued to laugh until they were called back into the dental chairs. I know I write about this a lot, but I truly believe that laughter is the universal language. Neither of them spoke Spanish let alone English, but still we had this beautiful moment filled with laughter. 

On Tuesday we went to the public school in Pahaj. The Free to Smile Dental Team that was here a couple of weeks ago had treated about half of the children in the school. The 2 dentists, Nelson and Bill, somehow got through the other half of the children with half the dentists the last team had. I have no idea how they did it, but they saw all the kids that needed treatment. In this picture Nelson is doing an extraction on one of the school kids.

Also at the dental clinics a group of team members put on a VBS for the children. They took and printed pictures of all the children, did a presentation about dental and other hygiene, and then had the kids color a booklet they had put together. On this day they did VBS for more than 200 kids. Here are Sandy and Peggy doing the dental demonstration with Archy translating.

On Wednesday we partnered with Mayan Families and went to the village El Barranco. The night before someone in the community died, so we didn't have many patients because they were at the funeral. We saw patients in the morning then packed up before lunch and headed to Camanchaj to join the construction team for the rest of the day. The little girl in the picture below got 6 extractions. When she was done her mom had to see the dentist, so I held her until her mom was done. She wouldn't stop crying (6 extractions!), so to calm her down we played Angry Birds and Talking Tom on my IPod Touch. I know that sounds odd, but looking at the IPod was the only thing that seemed to distract her from the pain. I did have a hilarious moment when a team member walked into the room and looked at me and just started laughing.

This was the set up for that day. It always amazes me when we walk into a random room and within minutes are able to move things around and set up a full functioning dental clinic. I did finally learn this week how to put together the portable cardboard dental chairs. Seriously, they are much more complicated than they look.

This week I had an amazing team of translators and drivers to work with. I really love these guys. They are really protective of me and spent the week answering all of my stupid questions. When anything would go wrong they were the ones to help me come up with a new plan. I really loved all the moments when I would pull one of them aside when an issue came up and I wanted to fix it before the team found out. So many times something would happen and I would be brainstorming of how to fix it and they would just look at me and laugh. They would then explain to me that we were in Guatemala and that there was nothing I could do to fix it. Then they would just smile and pretend to play along when I still tried to fix things and once I finally gave up they would just give me a hug and promise everything was going to be ok. It is comforting to me to know that when I'm working with teams I will have a great group of them around me to help out. They make my job easier and I'm blessed to have the friendships with them that I do. 

This picture I just stole from Facebook. This is Linda who was one of the team member I got the closest to. Her and I had a week full of true conversations that I loved. I feel like within a week I really got to know her and really shared deep things about myself. She also is pretty sarcastic like I am, so there was also a lot of laughter. 

All the team members this week were amazing. I really feel like I got to know about each of their lives back home. At the end of the week several of them asked for my email so we could keep in touch. One couple (Peggy and Richard) told me that they have adoptive daughters all over the world and I could be their Guatemalan daughter. They also asked me if it was ok that they were treating me like one of their daughters. I laughed and explained that I miss my family a lot and it was really sweet for them to be acting like parents to me. So many of the team members told me that they were sure I was in the right place and that they believed I was going to do great as the team coordinator. They even donated to me to help me stay here longer. I can't even begin to explain how much it meant to me that they would come together as a group and donate to my mission down here.

On their last morning in Pana I read to them the Starfish Story and thanked them for coming down to serve through Salud y Paz. I then thanked them for an amazing week filled with such kind words about me. I explained that before the week started I was still unsure that I had made the right decision quitting my job and moving down here. However, after working with them this week I now have more confidence that this is exactly where I am suppose to be. I started crying (duh) and when I was done talking and looked around I noticed that most of the team were crying as well. This team will always have a very special place in my heart. They spent the week complimenting me and saying how great I was doing, but in reality they did so much more for me than I could have every done for them. I can't imagine not being here next year when they come back. I know it isn't possible, but let's just hope all teams are this wonderful.