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.
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.
