Asking for Donations...

Ok... I know I have talked about this in my blog before, but I have been sitting here at my desk thinking about it for the past few minutes and I honestly can't come up with anything I hate more than talking in front of people.

Just in case you are interested here is a top 5 list of things I hate. Figured I would put it out there since I have spent about 5 minutes thinking about it.

- Talking in front of people. (Clearly in the number 1 position).
- Spiders (This shot to the number 2 position after moving to Guatemala).
- Windmills (It's a legit fear... they could cut your head off, but seriously they make me cry).
- People not responding when I talk (This drives my family crazy. They have learned I like responses).
- Asking for donations. (I discovered this hatred since coming home last week).

(I just thought about speaking in front of people about donations and getting no responses while getting attacked by spiders and giant scary windmills. I almost started crying.)

So after reading my top 5 list you can imagine how much I hate having to talk in front of groups of people while asking for donations. It makes me uncomfortable to ask for other people to support me while I am in Guatemala. Everyone tells me that it's silly and that nobody gets offended when you ask. However, I often feel like why should I ask other people to donate to me just so I can be down in Guatemala serving. I then think about how I should use whatever savings I have to pay as long as I could down there, but then I worry about what happens when I come home. Who knows what kind of job aspects will be waiting for me when I move back. That is something that terrifies me. I know I will be ok this coming year, but then what about when I move home. I will be moving back with possibly no job opportunities open to me and who knows how long it will take to find another job. Then I think about how right now I have my dream job at the church and how it may not be open for me when I move back. I don't have a fall back plan anymore and that is terrifying to me. This is when I get so scared that I have to stop thinking about it and whisper to myself "God will provide". That is something I have to remind myself of daily. Otherwise it gets too much for me to handle.

This summer I am talking to several different groups and Sunday school classes about Guatemala. I am eager to share with church members about what I have been up to, but at the same time I wish I could do it with more grace and less sounding like I am about to cry. At the end of each talk I am asking for support in 3 ways.

1. Prayers. There are both really good days in Guatemala and really hard days. On both days I could use some prayers and love from back home.
2. Personal donations. My organization doesn't offer any stipends or housing allowances to the volunteers. I am down there fully as a volunteer and can only stay as long as I have donations to cover my expenses.
3. Donations for Salud y Paz. Like any non profit in a 3rd world country Salud y Paz could always use some loving. We need donations to keep our operating budget up and running. If you are interested in donating to Salud y Paz please contact me and let me know (kecragg@gmail.com) or you can go to the top of my blog and click on the Salud y Paz page from which you can find both the organization's website and how to donate.

Speaking of new pages on top of the blog get excited because this smart girl spent about 4 hours a few days ago and finally figured out how to create new pages. Check them out. :)

I guess this is my settle way of saying if you feel called to donate to my mission adventure please either contact me or click on the 'How to Donate' page at the top of this blog. Know how much I appreciate any support that you are willing to give me. I know it is not possible to do this on my own and it means the world to me knowing how many people I have supporting me back home.

I know that appreciate everyone who keeps up with me through this blog.

Being Home...

So I've been back in Houston for 4 days now. While I am incredibly happy to be back home it is harder to adjust to being here than I thought it would be. I was only gone for 4 months so it is not like I have forgotten how to live in the States, but I am having a harder time "falling" back into my old life than expected. Not that I expected everyone to put their lives on hold while I was gone so nothing would change, but it is still surprising to me to hear about everything that I missed. I feel like things are different now, but at the same time the exact same. On Wednesday I went back to work at the church and just sat there for awhile watching everyone around me and realized that nothing had changed (duh... it has only been 4 months).

I feel like I have changed so much while being in Guatemala and it is hard coming back home where everything is the same. It is a weird feeling having gone off and had a life changing experience then come back home and have everyone expect you to be the same as you were before. I wish that everyone here could know exactly what I have been doing in Guatemala and completely understand why I love it so much and how it changed my life forever. I feel like no matter how much I talk to someone about it they really are never going to know everything that has happened. I am still so very grateful that my family was able to come because at least I know the people closest to me have a good understanding of what my life is like in Guatemala.

So on one hand the past few days have been really difficult adjusting to being home and feeling like I'm a different person than I was before I left. However, on the other hand some things have been extremely easy to fall back into. On Wednesday and Thursday afternoon I was at The Refuge with out middle school and high school youth. This was not one of the places I had issues falling back into. It was great getting to catch up with all the youth I have missed so much. On Thursday we had an "Weird Animal Combinations Club" meeting where we came up with and drew weird animal combinations (Duh... it's in the name of the club). A group of sophomore girls and I used to meet almost every Thursday afternoon in the Fall and created this club. Sitting in the booth with these girls laughing uncontrollably at the horrible/amazing drawings is just one of the silly things I have missed so much this spring and am going to miss so much next year. Maybe I can develop a Guatemala branch of this club.

Another group I was eager to meet with is my disciple group of high school girls. We used to meet every Friday morning at 7:00 before school. I sent out invitations from Guatemala saying we were going to meet yesterday morning. Almost everyone in the group came for breakfast at Einsteins and it was beautiful spending that time talking to them about Guatemala and catching up on everything that has happened here this spring. Thursday night 3 of the girls texted me and said that they had just found out that they had dance practice Friday morning at 6:45. However, instead of just saying they couldn't come they asked if I would meet them there at 6:00 instead. How amazing is it that they would want to get up that early just to do our disciple group. This is an amazing group of girls and I am really excited to spend the summer with them. They have no idea how much I have been missing them and our Friday morning bagel dates.

Here are a few things that have been going on since I've been home...
- I've had Mexican food 3 times. While I hate Guatemalan food I have really missed tex-mex.
- My dog tackled me in the street when I got home.
- My cat ignored me for the first 2 days until she realized I wasn't going to abandon her again. If you're hanging out with her please don't tell her about August.
- I keep forgetting it's ok to flush toilet paper here. This makes more sense if you know you can't in Guatemala. You have to put it in the trash can.
- I have become really price conscious about everything.
- I have twice walked through the produce section of a store and been really shocked by prices. Once you have bought an entire backpack full of fruits and veggies for $3.50 it's hard to go back to HEB prices.
- I have laughed more in the past 4 days than I thought was possible.
- I bought Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in Spanish.
- I drove away from Barnes and Noble laughing at the idea of me trying to read it in Spanish.
- I am trying to move everything from my apartment into my room at my parent's house.
- You can't see the floor of my room.
- I have cried twice while feeling really overwhelmed being back.
- I have said "cuánto cuesta por todos" about 5 times to people in stores who just stare at me like I'm an idiot.
- Twice I have walked downstairs to the kitchen to get pure water before I realize I could just brush my teeth with faucet water. 
- The girl who cut my hair today 3 times referred to Guatemala as Guacamole. Twice she didn't catch herself and just kept on talking.


Tomorrow morning I am teaching the Bridgebuilder's Sunday School class in the morning. Fun fact about me: I HATE TALKING IN FRONT OF PEOPLE MORE THAN ANYONE ELSE IN THE WORLD. I always sound like I am about to start crying and talk extremely fast. Hopefully it will go better than I am expecting. After my grandfather introduces me I am planning on speaking for about 5 minutes then showing a 6 minute slideshow/video about Guatemala. A major reason why I am teaching different Sunday School classes this summer is that I have to ask for donations which makes me incredibly uncomfortable. Again hoping it goes much better than I am expecting. 


Wish me luck...

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).