1 Month...already

Well, as I type this, I have officially been in Guatemala for 1 month, pretty much to the minute that I landed. Seems so much longer than that, but not nearly that long all at the same time. I have had nothing but amazing experiences so far. Seriously, teary thinking about how far I’ve come in just 1 month and how much has happened and continues to happen. I had yet another awesome experience just this afternoon. I just felt like I needed to call and talk to Josie’s family. Just missed hanging out with them. So I decided to call and figured I’d probably get voicemail and just leave a message. Well, I lost connection as I was dialing inside the house. So I went out to the porch and called again. Apparently, Alissa just felt like she should see who was calling, saw it was me, and answered. Oh man, it was so great to talk to all of them! I was wearing my green shirt that I had made for the show last year for showing Jo’s calf, Madelyn. And right when I had been talking about Jo and all the reminders I’ve been seeing of her, a little blue hummingbird comes right in front of me to the flower and hangs out for a while. I’ve been at this house numerous times over the past 2 years and have never seen a hummingbird. Until this afternoon…while talking with Jo’s family. It was amazing. If I wasn’t using my phone to talk to them, I would have quickly tried to get a picture of it.

I have been hanging out with some awesome friends. Yelsi, you have amazing friends and I’m so thankful that you have pushed for me to meet them! I seriously love them all! I haven’t laughed or just relaxed like that in a long time. Normally, I don’t just open up and dump all my emotions out so quickly. Most of the time, not at all. But certain friends who I just met have been amazing support. I’ve just been pouring my heart out and we can laugh in the midst of everything. And even with their reading partner, Juan. (inside joke…only about 3 people are going to get that one). I just can’t imagine leaving them in about 1.5 months. And all of you in the States, stop freaking out. I am coming back this time.

So after we got back to Belize, as a family, we decided to accept a 12 year old boy who had been struggling at the home he was in and we prepared a “boot camp.” We came up with a level system for him to work on while here and if and once he graduates, he can transition into teenage boys home. The plan was for him to be with me in the mornings, working at the clinics as my translator, and then working on school with Yelsi in the afternoons and I would help him with his math. The room we had available in the house for him to sleep in was a large room for storage from the people who own the house who live in the States. So after some crazy rearranging, scrubbing the floor and walls to clean it from mouse diarrhea, the room was ready for someone to live in it. (Side note: the mouse diarrhea…yeah. I sent Edna (awesome housekeeper on nights) a message and told her that I was thinking of her as I scrubbed and it felt like I was at work when I’d always steal their mops to clean up messes myself when they were busy. I thought for sure a mouse was going to jump out at me while I was moving stuff around. But didn’t see a single one). That night, the boy arrived and we helped him move in. The following day, we stayed at the house and worked on his math and chores all day. Oh man, let’s just say, it’s been a while since I had to find common denominators for fractions. We got through all of it just fine until we hit finding the square root of decimals. Seriously, that’s when a calculator is used. The one german shephard pretty much took me for a walk at the end, down a really steep hill that first day. I went sailing into a ditch as she charged for a neighboring property, but was determined to keep holding on to the dog as she was barking at another dog. I felt like I was halter breaking 4-H heifers again and you just don't let go...ever. We now have a horse to care for since Drew and Cindy are starting Equine therapy with children. The boy who is staying with us is adjusting well. The first night, he knocked on my door and I wasn’t sure what time it was. So I looked: 4am. He was having trouble sleeping. So we talked and prayed and then he was going to attempt to sleep again. For whatever reason, the nightshift in me kicked in and I was wide awake after that. Guess when you’ve worked it for over 6 years straight, you don’t just go back to “normal” sleeping that easily.

That weekend, I drove for the first time in Guatemala. Not too bad so far. Just no rules really. But people aren’t distracted by texting and driving like they are in the States. That part is nice. Carla (transition girl living at our house), Yelsi, and I went into town to walk around for the day as a girls day out. We ate some awesome Guatemalan food and I accidentally rubbed it in to a friend who was stuck in traffic…and hungry (sorry). That evening, Yelsi and I went to a friend’s house for a bonfire with friends, hung out for the night, and then went hiking at a national park the next day after church. At church, we sang the song "You Never Let Go" by Matt Redman. That was the song that Dorothy had clung onto after Sara's diagnosis with stage IV liver cancer that had metastasized throughout her body. It's been amazing how each week I'm here, I have been getting so many reminders and able to use my experiences over the past few months for God's glory. The park we went to was absolutely beautiful! Tons of trails, open areas for picnics, playing soccer, zip line, and swings hanging from tree branches that swing over cliffs…yup, pretty flippin' sweet! I had such a great time with new and old friends, just laughing, talking, and exploring new places: the park…and the underground tank trying to find some sheet metal for our bonfire. I think Peter and I would be the only ones who would actually open up this metal lid and assist so he could go down and find some sheet metal, while I held open the lid, held the phone for light, as he climbed down steps that were like the outside ladder of a silo to enter into this dark, water tank…ish thing. (Clearly, we really didn’t really know what this thing was exactly. Just that he made it down and back up safely). It was a great weekend to just unwind and not feel like I’m on a schedule for once in my life.

Sunday evening, Yelsi and I returned home and we had a bonfire on the roof, grilling hotdogs and corn on the cob. Earlier in the day, Isaiah (son of the family I’m living with) had dropped a toy on his big toe and it instantly went black. During the night, Cindy (his mom) knocked on my door, said he was having pretty bad pressure in his toe, and the motrin wasn’t really helping. So we cleaned off a needle and made a hole in his toenail to drain some blood out. Isaiah was a champ through the whole thing. I think he should come to Reading and show them how to be a model patient. On Monday, we started working at a clinic that I had helped at on previous trips. The boy staying with us was my translator and we saw majority of the children who came to the clinic that day. Pretty much every kid we saw had the chicken pox and a few had pneumonia. Tuesday, we worked on school work with the boy staying with us. I made 56 whoopie pies for a baby shower we’re having this coming weekend, started painting Yelsi’s bathroom, and played apples to apples. Sabra (a friend who stayed over that night) put down the card that said “men” for the green card that said “awful.” I’m sorry, but that was hilarious. The following day, we continued to see most of the kids at the clinic and pretty much everyone had pneumonia and diarrhea. That afternoon, Sabra went with me to navigate through Antigua (a local town) for the first time in order to fill out paperwork for the organization that I’m going to be working with on Fridays who run a clinic at the dump. That night, I finished painting Yelsi’s bathroom and we made awesome pupusas for supper.

On Thursday, I helped with school and then went 

out for the afternoon with friends to go play paintball, zip line, and drive go-carts for Sabra’s birthday celebration. Peter got some hilarious videos and pictures of us on the zip line. The zip line has its own stop and sends you sailing sideways. It was pretty hot with all the ridiculous gear on for paintball. I could not get the blasted helmet on without help since my glasses couldn’t slide in. I had to put my glasses inside the helmet and then slip the helmet on without poking out my eye with the arm of them. But, we had good time overall, especially once we had some water. Afterwards, we went back to Sabra’s parents’ house, played scum (They call it President. I just kept thinking about at the show how we call the titles supreme champion, grand, reserve, etc), and had an amazing dinner and cake…and there were some random comments made at the table that I won’t publicly write. But man, did we laugh so hard. Thanks for that, Sabra!

We had another good day at clinic on Friday with more kids who came in for pneumonia and diarrhea. Once we finished seeing all of the kids, we did preg tests for some of the patients the doctor was seeing. My 12 year translator got a crash course on what negative and positive preg tests meant. Friday afternoon, I nailed together banana crates and started painting them to make shelves. That night, Jeny, Yelsi, Carla, and I went to youth group and I felt like I was at Messiah College again at powerhouse. Such a great time of worship and time with friends.

The following morning, Drew, the boy who is staying with us, and I traveled to Manos de Compasion, the home by the lake with kids I talk about all the time, especially Mateo. (Pretty much anyone who I have worked with over the past year should know who I’m talking about). We had such a great time out there. The boy staying with us stayed with the person who is starting a transition program for teenage boys. Drew did one on one counseling with some of the kids, had lessons about temptation and repenting, and the kids loved coloring pictures about the memory verse. I had a great time spending time with the kids, playing, teaching the younger ones the Bible verse we were learning, leading games, and catching up with old friends. I listened to a bunch of the kids who had nasty coughs and had had fevers before. Then they all lined up to listen to their own hearts. I always love the look on their faces when they hear it. Their eyes always get so big and they break out into a huge smile. It was so great to see little Jeni and Mateo doing so well. Jeni had meningitis and TB at the same time a while ago and is now deaf, has seizures, and really struggling to walk. She is doing so much better since October and is now walking with assistance, making eye contact (never really did would before), smiling, and would laugh a little at times. She seems to have really improved. I got to see firsthand how much of a special connection she has with Martina, the girl who was badly burned as a child and is nonverbal and has seizures. Jeni was walking past her with me and Martina giggled. So I put Jeni on the side of Martina's wheelchair and Martina was smiling and giggling. They kept looking at each other and giggling. So awesome to see it! And then there’s my little man, Mateo. We all know this kid, especially, stole my heart a while ago. And now here he is about 16 months post op from open heart surgery looking great! He’s no longer blue, out of breath, or about passing out just trying to eat. It’s always so hard leaving that home. I love all those kids so much and have watched most of them grow over the past 3-4 years that I’ve been going out there.

Today, at clinic, we had the boy staying with us help with the activities for the kids (coloring and playing games). He did great with the kids and kept them entertained throughout the day. At the end of day, a baby about 8 months old came in at the last minute with a fever of 103.8. He had been having diarrhea for a while, along with a fever. Mom had been dealing with it a home and didn’t want to come in to the clinic, but Grandmom made her come in. Thankfully, she did. I heard the kid was pretty sick with dehydration and a fever. I peeked around the corner and saw this kid working to breathe. Like seriously working. Any co-workers reading this now will know exactly what happened next: I went into overprotective ED nurse mode. The mom needed to go home and pick up her national number before going to the hospital since the hospitals will refuse you if you don’t have that number with you. As we were driving on the bumpy dirt roads, this kid continued to breathe 80-90 times a minute, had every kind of retraction possible, grunting, and was just staring. We were praying for the baby. I was able to get him from mom after we convinced her that I didn’t care if he peed on me. I just want to do everything possible to keep this baby alive. Once I was holding him, I could keep a better eye on him and try to keep him in the best position possible for him to breathe. Talk about feeling helpless while in a truck, holding this baby, with not much equipment other than my stethoscope and pulse ox. Pulse ox was 71%. I believe it. He was blue and pale. (Normal for babies is about 97-100%). His lungs sounded course. Skin so hot. We had a cool rag on his head and thing to try to cool off his neck. I was just praying that this kid would keep on breathing the whole time we were driving. I could do CPR in the back of a truck, but just wanted this kid to keep fighting and hanging on until we could get him to a hospital. Out of instinct, I was looking for IV access…not that I had anything to put one in. But just to see if they were going to struggle at the hospital or if it would be fairly easy. (He had a semi-decent one in the left hand. Alan, wish you were here to help! Between the two of us, we could have handled it quickly!). We got back to the clinic, and while waiting for the ambulance to arrive, gave the baby a neb treatment. The ambulance arrived and asked if the baby needed oxygen. YES! And they answered that they only had stuff for adults. I can only pray that they did the best they could to get that baby oxygen while driving to the hospital. Been praying hardcore for that baby and his family. I’m used to being in the ED. We stabilize and either admit or send out to a local children’s hospital. It was hard for me to send him, not follow along, and take over in the ED once the resources were available. I was running through it all in my head what we would be doing in the States to help this kid. I’ve seen kids this bad before and he was minutes away from just totally crapping out and needing to be tubed or just flat out coding. But I think we did the best we could with the resources available. And that’s all you can do and that’s some of the hardest things to stomach while working in a third world country. So say a prayer for this kid and his family. Last I heard, he was still alive. So keep on praying, please. Again, thank you to everyone for their support, love, and prayers while I'm down here. You guys are amazing!