Palcencia, Placencia, Placenta...where are we going?

Well, I feel like I just finished with the last update and now it’s time for another one. Time really seems to be going fast. I just submitted my work schedule for June (don’t have too much of a celebration with that, Reading!). I know many of you wish I was on my way home already. But to be honest, this trip has so far been amazing and exactly what I needed, minus the sunburn. I could have done without that. Belizean sun is a whole different ballgame compared to the States, even compared to Oklahoma when I got scorched and looked like a lobster. Pretty sure I looked like an even darker lobster this past week and there’s no chance of not peeling afterwards. Even Yelsi, a Guatemalan, burned and everyone with spf of 45 got burned. There was no hope for my ridiculously white, never see the sun, night shift skin.

So on March 20^th, we left around 3am to start our 16 hour journey to Belize for a missionary retreat. We drove about 10 hours that day and stayed on an island, Flores, in the northern part of Guatemala. Absolutely beautiful. We had a room on the 3^rd floor with a balcony overlooking the water. We went swimming for a while as a family, took naps, took a boat ride across the water, and then walked around town and ate in one of the restaurants by the water. During the boat ride, it was starting to get dark and we could see the whole town lit up with lights and at one point a tiny little fish jumped into our boat. The water was a bit choppy, but the driver was great and made the ride as smooth as possible. The town was packed with people. It was the beginning of Holy week and people had off school and work, plus there were a bunch of tourists. We played apples to apples that night and then continued to Belize the following morning.

It took us about 6 more hours to get to our destination in Belize. At the border of Guatemala and Belize, we had to go through the process of getting stamped on Guatemala’s side, walk across the border to go through customs on the Belizean side, take all our bags out of the van (for the guy at customs to chuckle and say, “They’re all yours? Um, yeah, I’ll just spot check 2 bags.”). The van had to go through a car wash to spray for bugs and we had to buy an insurance type of sticker for the van. As we were driving through Belize, I felt like we were in PA on a hot, humid day. Rolling hills, pastures everywhere with cows and horses, saw the national 4-H center, everything so open, rather than fences, barriers, and guards like they do in Guatemala. A lot of Belize has jungle and then all of a sudden we were at the beach. While we were driving, the water was on both sides of the road, fairly close. The place we were driving to was Placencia, Belize. But none of us really knew how to say it correctly. Palcencia….Placencia….Placenta…where are we going? Even the person in immigration at the border said it wrong. So the joke the rest of the week was “what is the name of the town?”

The first 2 days we were there, it was really cloudy. So the temp was wonderful and the Caribbean sea felt like bath water. It was great! When we arrived, we were greeted by the wife of the couple running the retreat. When I said my last name, she said “Oh, that sounds like a name from Souderton.” Um, yup, born there. Once we were settled, we jumped into the water. Families started coming from Honduras, Guatemala, and Belize for this retreat. One was wearing a Phillies shirt and we got to talking and quickly realized they were from my hometown and had support coming from Rockhill Mennonite Church, the church where we were originally from and where a lot of my relatives still go. Another couple came and said they don’t see too many Penn State shirts around here and asked where I was from. So I told them near Raystown Lake, but on the Blair county side. He asked if we were near Martinsburg. Yup. He said he’s driven on Clover Creek road before and probably has driven past our farm before. Other families continued to come that first day and most were from PA and a lot near Lancaster or Philly. Small world. It felt like a PA reunion, honestly.

So morning and evening, we’d have worship and a teaching time. Yelsi, another couple and their daughter, and I were in charge of the 14 children. We played games, did activities, and had plenty of time to play outside in the sand, sea, and pool. There was one kid I just absolutely loved. Don’t get me wrong, they were all great. But there was this one kid who cracked me up. At one point, Cindy said to me, “I can see why you 2 get along so well.” So at one point, while he was coloring, I asked him how old he was and he said 5. I asked him how old he thought I was. He stopped coloring, squinted his eyes, and said “Six….seven….NO! ELEVEN!” I laughed and said nope. Another girl guessed 20, 23, 25, 29. When I said, “Yup, 29,” the boy stopped coloring again, looked at me in all seriousness, and said, “Whoa! That’s A LOT!” On Wednesday, it was sunny and we were outside with the kids literally all day. That’s when I got fried. I had a great time with the kids and hanging out with that same boy in the sea, riding the waves and keeping him from going under for a while. I finally went inside in the late afternoon and knew it was too late, that I was scorched. That night, I didn’t feel so hot. Out in the sun and didn’t drink enough water that day. So after getting some good sleep that night and pretty much most of the following day and drinking a ton of water, I felt ok again. I had a great time with those families and made a ton of new friends. Our room had a good night of playing dutch blitz and getting to know each other better.

   

We started our trip back to Guatemala and made a pit stop in northern Belize at the couple’s house who did the teachings while at the beach. The next morning, we drove to the northern part of Guatemala to stay at a couple’s children’s home that they just built. This place is absolutely beautiful. Out in the middle of nowhere with huge mountains and hills surrounding them. The house is just amazing. I felt like I was living in the States in a brand new huge home. The couple are amazing. They are just waiting for last approval from the government and then they can start to take in kids. On Sunday, we went to their church and then met up with a family who was at the retreat in Belize who live in the same area. We had a good time all hanging out together. Drew and Cindy did a training for the staff of the home we were stay at on Monday and then we traveled back to San Lucas (our home) on Tuesday.

It was so therapeutic being at the beach. I haven’t been there since some of our family vacations years ago. We all know that part of the reason for this 3 month leave of absence was for me to pull my crap together and heal from so much loss over the last few months. The one family who knew people from Rockhill Mennonite Church were friends with Glenna. It was so great to be able to talk to them about her. And being at the beach gave me so many reminders of Jo. She loved the beach. It was so peaceful. We drove on Hummingbird highway to get to the beach and passed a store called hummingbird furniture. I found a bunch of seashells, had a hummingbird all but fly into me as we were packing up to leave, and just felt so at peace and not stressed about anything. It was wonderful. I had a co-worker tell me that she could see in the pictures I’ve been posting on facebook that she hasn’t seen me look that relaxed and happy in a long time. I knew I looked pretty rough for a while, but didn’t know it was that bad! Haha. I feel like after this week away at the beach that I feel ready to go back into doing medical stuff again. It was a much needed break and now I’m ready to hop back into it. I’m excited that we’re back home in San Lucas and I can start to help at medical clinics in the area. When we returned home Tuesday and were trying to unpack and get back to our normal lives, I was sweeping off the steps of the house and the whole time had the song “When peace like a river” (It is well) playing through my head.

When peace like a river attendeth my way, 

when sorrows like sea billows roll; 

whatever my lot, 

thou hast taught me to say, 

“It is well, it is well with my soul.”

For those of you who don’t know that song or the back story of it, it was written by a man whose business was ruined from the great Chicago fire and he decided to travel to Europe with the family. He sent them ahead on a boat, which sank and all of his children died. He traveled to Europe to be with his wife and wrote this song, saying that no matter what happens, God’s got it under control and it is well with his soul. Well, I feel like for the first time in a long time, that I’ve hit that point. It is well with my soul. 

3 more hours

Warning this is going to be a long one! Most posts after this probably aren’t going to be this long. And it might take you 3 hours to read all of this! Lo siento. 

What a week it has been. Holy crap, it went so fast, yet seemed like we were all together for way longer than 1 week. I got to spend the week with some old friends and made new friends who now feel like family to me. They’re all awesome…and hysterical. I haven’t laughed that hard for so many days in a row in a long time. It’s been way too long. By the end of our 13 hour trip back to San Lucas on Friday, we were all punchy, overly tired, and cracking up over everything. On the way home, one of them had to go to the bathroom. Someone may have said, “Well, just stick it out the winda.” I laughed so hard. Her husband said he couldn’t believe she just said that. Her son said, “I can.” So can I. The husband then told her to behave and she responded with, “Oh, I hate when he says that!” You legit just don’t know what’s going to come out of their mouths. This is why I feel like I am a part of their family. This will totally be me in my 70’s. Psh, I’m already there for the most part. I don’t even remember what all I was laughing about this week. Really wish I could have written it all down as it happened or just taped it. Oh my word, just hilarious. Between watching a rooster running beside our van, his legs going out from under him, he wiped out on his butt, and he slid down a hill, to Angel realizing that we’re going to be together for much longer than 3 days and saying he’ll just turn his underwear inside out (He claims he did bring enough underwear and socks…), to Yelsi running on her bed trying to find her cell phone case and saying, “Oh man, I hope the day I get married, I don’t lose my husband!”, to Glenda turning around in the van and saying her “seat end needed a different perspective” and then yelling out the window at the guy who was trying to pass us on the right in standstill traffic “NO! BACK OFF!”, to me putting food on my plate that was still turned over, to laughing so hard over who knows what that my face was beat red (You all know you’ve witnessed this before), to Peter being convinced that I have a cow in my profile picture and realizing that that’s actually my little sister, to talking about ED and farming stuff over breakfast, to Peter telling me by the end of the week that he was intimidated by me when he first met me, but now he realizes I’m just sarcastic and laugh a lot when tired. Oh man, there’s just too much to talk about that was hilarious and “had to be there” moments.

So now I’ll start from the beginning. So I landed on the 11^th and met up with our team leader, Tony. He started telling me who all was coming and I soon found out that I was already friends with almost all of the translators who were coming along. We met up with the rest of the group (well, most of them. Flight issues. So some came the following day a little later than us). They were joking that I didn’t actually have a group to go with, but that I just wanted to join their group since they looked cool. The eye doctor, Rod, was from Colorado and the rest were from Texas. We traveled to a hotel in San Lucas for the night and then met up with the rest of the team that morning to make the trip out to Jacaltenango. 11 hours later in a jam packed van and amazing view of mountains, we arrived. During the drive, people kept asking how much longer and it seemed like every time the answer was 3 more hours. We felt like even though we were driving, we really weren’t getting anywhere. That night, we were all pretty tired, but a certain rooster right outside our window decided to crow…all night long. I think he was a night shifter.

Sunday morning, we drove out to a tiny village crazy high up the mountains. We were driving on dirt roads along a cliff, over 12,500 ft up and that was just the altitude only part way up to where we were going. Amazing drive and thankfully it wasn’t raining or else that drive would have been a bit more interesting. We split up into 2 rooms: one for the eye doctor and one for the 3 nurses (Karla, Reyna, and I). We had a great day and saw 43 people in the medical clinic and many more in the eye clinic…and did a ton of ear washes and quickly found out that Anita and Peter were not fans of it. (Sorry guys. It’s like a nurse thing that if we find out you’re grossed out by something, we’re going to bring it up). The chunks of black wax that we got out over the past week was crazy. These people would come in and say they couldn’t hear…yeah, no kidding! We gave Courtney a crash course on taking vitals and had a good system going. Reyna had a little boy who had a large tumor on his foot and the family said they know it needs to be removed, but they don’t have the money for it. That was difficult to stomach. At times, we had 2 different translators going for one person if the patient only knew a different dialect and didn’t understand Spanish. So we’d translate from English, to Spanish, to the dialect, and back all the way to English again. The construction guys were working on making a house for a woman in another village (the same village we all went to the following day).

Monday, we went to the village the construction crew was at the previous day. We set up the medical clinic in a church and the eye clinic to the side in a smaller room. We saw 66 people that day in the medical clinic. Yelsi (my translator) and I got through 36 of them. This is where Reading ED full waiting room experience came in handy! Seriously though, our team was amazing and we couldn’t have seen all those people without teamwork. Reyna was a queen at cleaning out ears and Karla kept getting all these complicated situations and handled them beautifully with Anita translating. Karla would ask for my opinion and we’d go from there and she handled it with such compassion. There was one elderly man who had pancreatic cancer that had metastasized to pretty much everywhere. The family knew but didn’t tell him what was going on. So they kept going from doctor to doctor “getting better,” when in reality, he’s dying. He already had his abdomen tapped (fluid builds up from his liver not functioning and he had the fluid drained out of his abdomen), but his abdomen was distended again and he was really short of breath. So Karla and Anita talked to him and the family and told them the importance that the patient understands that he’s dying. His lungs were filled with fluid. His abdomen was grossly distended. It’s going to come soon and it was only fair to the patient that he had a chance to give his life to God before it’s too late. They all talked with the pastor and prayed with him. I had these 2 kids who had pneumonia. The baby was having a great time and looked happy as could be even though he really couldn’t breathe and his pulse ox was crappy and the older brother just looked miserable with a fever of 103. He laid his head down on his mom’s lap and the baby brother started smacking his head. He felt so awful he didn’t even care. When we asked if he had diarrhea or noticed worms in his stool, he looked up and said, “Yeah, it feels like something’s walking all over in my stomach!” I have to say, it was a little weird treating people for things that you know would be easy admits in the ED in the States. But here we are giving them the best meds available to us and praying it works.

Tuesday, the place we were at was much cooler for the medical team, but pretty hot for the eye doctor. The medical clinic set up on a covered soccer field and we set up with our backs the sun so that in 2 hours, the sun would be completely out of our area. We again saw a lot of patients and had a good flow down to see everyone. This one 15 year old boy that I saw had pneumonia and he seemed nervous about being there. I asked how much he weighed so I could figure out his dose of antibiotics and he said he had no clue. Courtney joked that we’ll just have to pick him up by his ankles and guess his weight. Once Yelsi translated that to him and we were all laughing, he got this look of “oh crap!” on his face and starting spitting out random weights. I just laughed and said we were all kidding! After we explained the antibiotics to his mom, she says “oh and he’s been having stomach pain…and he had this thing a few years ago…called hepatitis c or something like that.” Once his mom brought that up, the kid really looked freaked out. But his pain was worse after eating and felt like a burning in the epigastric area, and his RUQ (right upper quadrant) didn’t bother him at all and his skin wasn’t jaundiced (yellow). So we gave him some meds and a teaching sheet about gastritis. Then he relaxed. We had another 15 year old girl who had a cough for 6 months and mom said she's been on a bunch of different antibiotics, but isn't getting any better. After asking some questions, mom said that it looks like she's been coughing up blood. So we explained to mom that she may have tuberculosis and needs to see the doctor to get the right treatment for that. That night when we were back at the hotel, we were having devotions and as we were wrapping it up, the eye doctor passed out. He had been having diarrhea that day and the room he was in was really hot. Between us 3 nurses and our great team, we were taking care of him, praying, got a town doctor to come, and got him some meds and drinks to try to rehydrate him throughout the night since he did not want to go to the clinic or hospital. I offered to put the IV in the hotel room and give fluids if they’d give me the supplies. (You know me: love putting in IVs and don’t want to get rusty while I’m gone). Throughout the night, he continued with diarrhea and vomiting and ended up having to stay back and go to a clinic to get IV fluids and meds on Wednesday. Courtney was absolutely amazing and stayed with Rod at the clinic along with a local pastor to help with translating.

We went to the same town on Wednesday and Thursday. Wednesday, since the eye doctor was sick, we set up the tables with glasses from weakest to strongest prescriptions and had people coming through the lines to try them on until they could read as clearly as possible. While we were waiting for Tony to come with the truck full of our medical supplies, I was able to watch the joy on these people’s faces when they put on glasses for the first time and could see! They were so thankful and happy. It was amazing to witness it. The people who had been working with it all week kept talking about it, but it was great to actually see it for myself. We may have started the medical clinic part off a bit late, but we still were in full swing and worked until almost 4pm that day. I had one pregnant woman who said she was having contractions and back pain. I told her to call the midwife and tell her that the baby was going to be coming and to be ready. At the end of that day, we all got together for prayer and the construction team joined us after moving a lot of rocks
and concrete. The one guy looked absolutely wiped out. He had been having issues with diarrhea as well. We made sure he had a ton of water to drink. But during prayer, he started to sway. We quickly sat him on a chair, gave him water, put a fan in front of him, and got him feeling somewhat better. On Thursday, the whole team was together again, working. The eye clinic was in full swing (with some short breaks when the doctor took a little nap) and we were seeing people for the medical part all the way to the very end, even once we were starting to tear down our setup. Karla and Anita had a woman who had a goiter for the last 11 years and they prayed with her. The passion that woman had while praying…wow. Yelsi and I had a little 6 year old girl who had Giardia and pneumonia and while we were explaining the meds and how to take them, the little girl was repeating everything back, “So, I take these 2 medicines. And I take this one like breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Yup. Ok. I got it.” Another woman came in and said she was really thirsty all the time and urinated frequently. I asked if she knew if she was diabetic and she said, “Oh, yes.” I asked if she was on medications, “Oh, no. I ran out of that 3 months ago.” Well, her glucose was 468. Angel (16 year old translator) walked by, saw it, and asked what normal was. When I said roughly 70-100, his jaw dropped. So after a lot of teaching and explaining that she needed to follow up with her doctor to get medications, she left giving us hugs and kisses. (Pretty much everyone did). We also had woman who went blind suddenly about 4 years ago after someone was doing witchcraft around her. Since then, her husband has left her and her mother has to take care of her and the patient’s children. Later that night at devotions, Peter mentioned that quite a few of the patients in the eye clinic said that they saw black holes in people’s eyes and scratches on people’s faces. That village especially could use prayer. People said they were coming from over 2 hours away to be seen at our clinic. The pastor told us about how he came to that village years ago, started a church, and said he wanted 10 people to come to know Christ and he got 20. The next year, same goal: 10. Got 20. Now he’s going for 60 this year. Can’t limit God in any way.

Morning and evening we’d have devotions (and amazing food! Those fajitas….holy crap. Amazing!). I went into this trip starting to heal from losing 3 friends within a few months and was a bit of a mess. But we all shared our experiences and how we’ve all been a mess recently. Thursday afternoon on our drive home, the one cloud looked like a hummingbird. And the 2 days we were at that same church, there was a bird that sat at the one window for hours. I was thinking especially of Josie all week and those 2 reminders hit. We shared our struggles and pain and used it to help each other heal and to help the people in these villages to heal. We were able to share our past experiences with these people and give them a glimmer of hope that they can get through it too. God will be by their side the whole time no matter what. We talked about how waiting is our calling and a blessing (we all groaned when Anita read that to us). We shared our testimonies and how far we’ve come and how this trip fell right into place and couldn’t have been more perfect. We all gave this trip to God and let Him take over. I had this song in my head most of the week and it was perfect:"I don't want to miss this day cause it's a gift. I can't miss a chance to leave it in Your hands. I don't know what tomorrow holds. I'm learning how to let it go. Jesus, You are in control of my tomorrow, tomorrow. Come and take the fear away til there's nothing left but faith. I know You will help me face my tomorrow, tomorrow. It's only when I seek You first, seek You first that everything falls into place. It's only when I trust Your word, trust Your word, that every fear is washed away." -Unspoken "Tomorrow"

Then that brings me to the end of this week: we made the 13 hour trip back to San Lucas, said our goodbyes, and went back to the house where Peter is staying. Of course after talking about brownies all week, I had to make some. We had a great evening relaxing, enjoying brownies, and chatting. 3 more people came throughout the night. When Yelsi and I woke up, we were talking and I was telling her about a memory of Josie and when I looked up at the wall, there was a picture of a hummingbird. I literally stopped midsentence. There are reminders everywhere and I feel so at peace. At one point this morning, Yelsi yelled “YAY!!!! NO ROOSTER!” Apparently they could hear us downstairs and asked if we were having a party.  Well, it sure looked like they were having a nice wrestling party going on when I went downstairs. Teenage boys. What are you going to do? (Ha! I may or may not be known for joining in. I refrained this time though). We all traveled to Antigua for breakfast, walked around for most of the day, randomly bumped into our group that we said goodbye to the previous night, and said our official goodbyes to them. And now I’m “home” with Drew and Cindy, unpacking and repacking for our 9 day trip to Belize! Can’t wait! All I’ve been hearing is about how beautiful it is…and how jealous Peter is that we’re going.

Sorry, that was legit long winded. But there was too much awesomeness in there to not put all that! And there’s so much that I left out. I don’t have everyone’s pictures yet, so this really doesn’t do it justice. But here’s a few just to give you a taste.