Rural dental team, Surgery week, and Valentine's Day...

This was by far the most exhausting week I've had since I've been here and at the same time it has been the most exciting and rewarding week! It was filled with 12 (sometimes longer) hour days and beautiful moments with patients and new friends.

This blog is going to seam a little out of order, but I didn't want to jump around while explaining each thing. First up on Monday I stayed in Pana and worked with a rural dental team from the organization Free to Smile. The team was made up of 5 dentist and 2 dental hygienist who were all in their 20's and/or 30's. I met the team at their hotel for breakfast then we drove to the hospital (and when I say hospital I mean a building with several medical rooms in it that doesn't seam like it's operating) to set up. The team set up in a room upstairs to see the patients. The dental chairs in the picture below are actual portable chairs that are made out of cardboard and fold up into a little box.

My job for the day was patient control. I would go downstairs and bring up a certain number of patients at a time according to what the dentist were specializing in. After lunch we changed the plan and started doing triage downstairs, so that when the patients were called upstairs the dentist already knew exactly why they were there. At that point my job turned more into helping out with the kids while they were seeing the dentist. I loved it. They would hold my hand so tightly and sometimes stare into my eyes.

I held this little boy while the dentist pulled a few teeth then he sat in my lap for about 20 minutes until his mom and younger brother got done seeing the dentist.

Another little girl that I sat with until her sister (who was one of my Spanish teachers) was ready.

This was maybe my favorite moment/picture of the day. One of the dentist said to me "I don't know what to do. Someone is going to have to hold this lady's baby while she sees the dentist"... um deal! I held this little cuteness for about an hour and loved every second of it. So adorable. Monday was a beautiful day.

Ok... now to back up a day. On Sunday we headed up to the village around 6:00 for triage day. When we got to the clinic there were so many people outside. Usually when the clinic is open the patients wait inside, but for surgery week they have to stay outside the gate because their are so many people there.

I was working so much that I didn't have time to walk around and take pictures, so I gave my camera to a friend who went outside and took these. I was highly impressed. Especially because he used the camera on my IPod Touch because my camera died. There are a lot more, but I have a feeling you are already thinking this blog is too long.

I took this picture of this lady on Tuesday morning. I saw her sitting outside the clinic in the morning when we arrived at work and she spent the whole day sitting there. At first I thought she was waiting to have surgery then I realized she was waiting for a loved one to come out of surgery. I thought she was beautiful.

This picture is just to show how crowded the clinic was all week. Everyday the hallways were filled with patients who were either waiting to have surgery or who had surgery the day before and were waiting for their post op appointment.

This is the area where the patients got ready for surgery and also rested while recuperating. Usually this room is the room that we all office out of and also use as our lunch eating area. However, on Surgery weeks we move the lunch table into the kitchen and move the desks around. Mine is up against a wall anyways, so it didn't have to move. Therefor I could still use my desk on the other side of the room which was great because their were so many people around everywhere.

The surgery team this week was made up of 2 eye doctors, a nurse staff, and many other team members who helped out with everything. Here is a picture of Dr. Evans performing a cataract surgery. This was the first surgery I watched this week and I was fascinated. I had to "scrub" in and then got to look through the microscope (right over the doctor's shoulder) the whole time. I thought I was going to be grossed out, but it was actually way more fascinating than gross. I realized about half way through that the man who was having surgery's hand was shaking pretty hard. I reached down to pat it and he grabbed my hand so tightly and held onto it for the rest of his surgery. He must have been terrified. He was fully awake with only his eye numb laying in a room with all foreigners that were speaking a foreign language. The patients this week put so much trust into the doctors and our clinic.

This is Dr. Sponsel in the other OR. He made me laugh because he jammed to music during the surgeries so loud that you could hear it outside the clinic. He is the doc that did the kid's surgeries on Wednesday and had kiddy music playing all day.

Here is a picture (bad I know, but again my camera had died) of the community center behind Salud y Paz that we rented out for the week, so the patients could stay overnight. Every patient had to have a post op appointment the following morning and several had surgery on both eyes and lived hours away.

I really loved working surgery week with this team. I was constantly reminded that I was being able to experience so many opportunities that I would never otherwise have a chance to witness. I also got to work closely with the patients and the Guatemalan staff. I finally feel like I am making true friends with the people here that I am most grateful for. Even with the staff that don't speak any English I have been able to create friendships through laughter. What could be better than that?

On another note this week was also Valentine's Day which is apparently a huge deal in Guatemala. All the classrooms in the school were decorated so cutely. This is the outside of Ana's room.

Here is the preschool classroom while they are exchanging their Valentine's gifts.

After they exchanged valentine's they would give each other big hugs... adorable!

 Just opening their gifts. :)

Here is the kindergarten class with their presents.

On Valentine's Day the whole school did their PE class together. Usually Jose works with one class at a time, but this week they all got to play games together.

This picture makes me smile so much! These 3 little boys were trying to pop this balloon by hugging. They tried for so long, but were never able to.

Long story short this was a beautiful exhausting week. I know how blessed I am to be able to experience all the amazing life changing moments I am witnessing here. We have another surgery week in 2 weeks, but it should be less hectic because you always get more patients with eye surgeries because they are quicker. I am also fascinated with everything that I am learning here. Spanish and culture aside this week the dentist team taught me how to number and letter the teeth and what the different cavities look like. Then when I watched surgeries the doctors would explain everything step by step. Just things I would never learn/get to watch back home. Man if I stay here longer I will for sure be considered a legit dentist/doctor/surgeon!

Side note... ASHLEY IS COMING TOMORROW!!!!!!!! I am heading to Guatemala City tomorrow to pick her up when she lands. I cannot even express how through the roof happy I am that she's coming! What a beautiful week we will have together. Stay tuned for a fun blog update on our little adventure.

Paches!!

So I spent the day (and I do mean the entire day) making paches which are tamales steamed in giant green leaves. If you read my last blog then you know that I bought a Guatemalan cookbook in Spanish a few days ago and decided this should be my first recipe. Here are the steps… Go to the farmers market and find all the ingredients and try to make them yourselves. Or just come visit me in Guatemala and I’ll make them for you. :)

These first 3 pictures are of the ingredients you need to make the paches. These giant green leaves are called hojas de mashan. The recipe calls for 1 ½ manojos (bundles).

It took me 2 trips to the market and a stop at each of the 4 grocery stores in Pana to get all the ingredients.

This is the plant that you use to tie the paches closed. It is called ciabaque and you have to pull them apart to make them ribbon sized.

Ok… step one. Peel, cut, and boil the potatoes until they are mashable (should be a word). On a side note please notice the view of the volcano out the window... favorite thing about our house.

Next step: Let the potatoes cool down for a 2 hours while you go to Spanish school and laugh with your teacher and the owner of the school about how you’re a gringa attempting to make paches. (I’m going to take Candalaria and Gladys paches on Monday to prove I made them semi correctly).

Next cut up the tomatoes and tomatillos and cook them with a little water and 2 chilies guake.

Here are the chili guakes. I was told to be sure to take out all the seeds before I added them to the pot or it would be unbearably spicy.

Now toast 2 onzas (ounces) de ajonjoli (sesame seeds) and 2 onzas de pepitona (squash seeds).

After you blend the tomato/tomatillo/chili guake mixture with the toasted seeds add the chicken and bring to a boil for 6 minutes.

Next melt a libra (pound) of butter. You are actually suppose to use lard, but 1. Where do you even buy lard and 2. Gross, so I used butter instead.

After you mash the potatoes (with a plastic cup because you don’t have anything else to use) add in about half of the salsa mixture and the butter. This is the longest process, but you have to do it for a long time until get all the lumps out of the potatoes.

Pick the chicken off of the bone even though you are grossed out by having to play with the rawish chicken it is ok because it will finish cooking through while the paches are being steamed. (I was told not to cook it all the way through. I thought it was odd also).

Next slice up some red peppers and throw some olives on the counter to make an assembly line of ingredients to put inside the paches.

 Ok... time to build your paches. Pick out one of the smaller leaves and put it all together. A few spoonfuls of the potato mixture with 2 strips of the red pepper, 2 olives, chicken, and some of the salsa on top.

 After you fold that leaf around the mixture flip it over and wrap it inside one of the bigger leaves.

 Next step is to use the cibaques to tie it together like a little present. I ended up tying them together from both ends even though this picture only shows it tied once.

 Pretty little paches. This recipe made 13 of them. So much work!

 Now how to cook them. You line the pot with leaves so that the paches do not touch the sides or bottom of the pot.

 Next line the paches along the edge of the pot and put some water in the middle. Then fold over the leaves sticking out of the pot and put a frying pan on top as a lid so they can steam for about 40 minutes. (I had to do 3 rounds of tamales because I didn't have a large enough pot to hold all 13).

These are what they look like after they are cooked. I opened one right when I took it out of the water and it wasn't firm like a tamale should be. I then realized that I needed to let them sit for awhile. I put them in the freezer and went to a friends house to watch a movie tonight. By the time I came home they were perfect. I don't know if they didn't set up at first because they had to have that time to firm up or if it was because I used butter instead of lard. Who knows, but it doesn't really matter because they eventually turned out right.

So here is the finished product. Not the prettiest thing you have ever seen, but Heather assured me that that is how they always look when you open them.

It needed a little salt (I had forgotten to add any salt while I was cooking them, but other than that it was delicious! This week is surgery week at the clinic and I am going to be working really long hours, so it will be helpful to bring these for lunch and/or eat them for dinner.

Also when I got home Heather had made empanadas for dinner and saved me one. I laughed at how much of a Guatemalan dinner I had tonight. Maybe Heather and I will start selling our food on the streets around Pana. :)

Hope you enjoyed the recipe. I mainly just wanted to write it all down with pictures, so I wouldn't forget how to make them. I ended up not following the recipe exactly because the ladies at the Spanish school told me to swap some of the ingredients and to make them a little differently than the cookbook said to.

Tomorrow is triage day where there are suppose to be about 400 people at the clinic trying to get inside to see the doctors with the hope of having surgery this week. I am excited to experience my first surgery week and to work with the team. We are leaving at 6:15 tomorrow morning, so I better get to bed. Night peeps.

New books and cooking adventures...

After work and Spanish school today I walked down close to the lake to go to my favorite little bookstore. I ended up spending way to much on books which isn't a change from what I do every time I go to Barnes and Noble back home. I have a little system down here for money. The wallet that I carry has 2 pockets in it. One pocket is money that I use for Spanish school, groceries, rent... pretty much necessities that I have and that money comes out of what is donated to me. The other pocket is money I have taken out of my savings that I use for personal purchases (pretty much anything that I don't feel comfortable having a donor pay for). For example the $40 I spent on unnecessary books today.

Anyways, here are the books I bought... fascinating blog I know.

I bought the Spanish for Gringos (which is not a derogatory word like I first thought when I moved here) because I am not able to go to Spanish school as often as I need to now because of working so much, so I really need to step up the studying I do on my own time.

Speaking of studying more I decided to challenge myself with reading a book in Spanish. My brother's favorite book is The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and I have started it a few times, but have never finished it. The little bookstore had it in both Spanish and in English, so I decided to buy it in both. I think i am going to read it paragraph by paragraph (or maybe sentence by sentence) and translate it as I go. I also think I am going to read it out loud (at least when I am reading it at home) to help me with my pronunciation and speed at which I can pronounce Spanish words. We'll see how long I stick with it. Hopefully it will be a good learning tool and fun exciting way to read his favorite book.

Lastly, I bought a cookbook for Guatemalan food. I bought this book for 2 reasons. First off you have to cook EVERYTHING from scratch here, so I am constantly looking up recipes online and it is annoying how many of them have ingredients that you can't find here and I knew I would be able to find everything in this cookbook in Pana. And second my roommate and I have been talking about how we want to learn how to make traditional Guatemalan food. We even thought about hiring a Spanish tutor that a lot of the volunteers use to come to our house and teach us how to make tamales. I still hope we do that someday, but I also think it will be fun to learn myself.

Anyways, the cookbook is in Spanish (obviously), but it was my favorite that I looked at because every recipe has a picture to go along with it (which is extremely helpful when you don't know what anything means). I brought it home and Heather and I decided that the first recipe that we should make is Paches. We then spent about an hour translating it into English. I had to google a lot of the ingredients because I had no idea what they were. Here are some words I learned...

Cucharada - tablespoon (or actually it means spoonful).

Cucharadita - teaspoon

2 dientes de ajo asados - 2 teeth of roasted garlic

1 manojo - 1 handful

1 libra - 1 pound

Sal al gusto - Salt to taste

I am planning on going to the market on Friday morning before school and buying all the ingredients then make it on Saturday. I'll let you know how they turn out. I am a little nervous about buying everything in the market, but now that I have googled all the spices and veggies that I need to buy it should be easy.

Here's an update on work... Today I went up to the clinic to help Heather set up the operating rooms along with the rest of the clinic for Surgery week that starts on Sunday. There is a team of doctors coming in for the week to do eye surgery. Sunday is triage day which is apparently crazy. Over 400 people usually show up hoping to get surgery, but they can see about 150 patents and then maybe only do less than 100 surgeries. I am excited to experience my first surgery week starting with helping schedule surgeries on triage day. Also next week we have a dentist team coming in and staying in Pana and working across the lake. I am going to spend the day with them on Monday to experience what our rural medical teams look like. Then on Tuesday I will be back at the clinic helping out with surgery week. Maybe they will need some help in the operating rooms... I mean I did set them up today, so I'm pretty sure that makes me legally a doctor. :)

On another random note ASHLEY GETS HERE IN 10 DAYS!!! She is coming to visit me in Guatemala then we are going to Belize for a few days (another good example of spending money that would come out of my savings wallet pocket). It has been more difficult that I thought it would be planning the Belize part of the trip mainly because you have to take so many different travel precautions that you wouldn't have to even think about back in the States. For example we are not allowed to travel at night. Not on a bus or on a plane. One because there are not many street lights in Guatemala, so it's really dangerous to drive/fly at night and two because Gringos have a curfew here because being out at night when you're not in a busy populated place isn't a good idea. It's been complicated, but we finally figured almost everything out and I can't wait for her to get here! I am most looking forward to a family hug (sounds so cheesy, but it's what I miss most here), great conversations, and showing her everything I love so dearly about Guatemala. I know I am blessed that she wants to experience this with me.

I'll let you know how the shopping/cooking goes. I mean what are the chances I can mess up a very complicated recipe all in Spanish? :)

New Pictures

The girls from the mission team uploaded their pictures this afternoon on Facebook. These were my favorites that they took last week. The last blog I wrote goes along with these pictures. I just didn't have them to post when I wrote it.

The first picture is me playing at recess with Karen Lindsay. She is one of my favorite first graders. It was freezing and lightly raining this day, so we were all bundled up. The following are just some cute pictures with some very cute kids.

 

Oh the zip line. I still haven't made up my mind if I will ever do it again. However, I did get some hilarious pictures out of it.

 Shopping in San Antonio Polopo...

 Boat ride around the lake...

These are pictures of Sheryl's (the nurse at the clinic) new puppy. He is so little and adorable!!

She carries him around in this little purse... so cute! :)

Last night I went to Solomon's Porch and watched the Super Bowl. Oh my gosh was it hilarious to watch the Guatemalan's faces when Madonna was preforming the halftime show. I'm hoping they didn't judge America from her performance.