When life doesn’t go as planned, you just go with it

There have been quite a few things this past week that didn’t go as planned. You should just expect that when living down here. Kind of like when working in the ED. Things don’t always go as planned. And we just go with it. We don’t know what’s going to come through the front door. It could be someone with a splinter, someone with multiple gunshot wounds, or someone in cardiac arrest. You never know. But after some quick thinking, you know what to do, just go with it, and are constantly thinking ahead and anticipating the next step to help the patient.

We’ve had some great games of apples to apples. You can’t underestimate a 4 year old when it comes to that game. He may not be able to read yet, but he sure knows how to pick what card to lay down! If no one fesses up to putting down the card, we know it was Moses and then he cheers and claps. Below are some pictures from it.

On Wednesday at clinic, we had a bunch more kids with pneumonia and diarrhea. There were quite a few of them who needed neb treatments. (If you’d like to donate to help get meds and nebulizers for the clinic, let me know, and I’ll get info to you). The baby who had come in as a 3 day old with a pretty high fever has been coming every day we’re open for clinic for recheck. Still has a fever, but not nearly as high and she’s been on antibiotics and antivirals since she went to the hospital about 2 weeks ago. After clinic, Peter came over to our house to help with the horse. We brushed her, cleaned her hooves, walked her, and put on some meds to keep the flies away. She did great. I think we all won some trust with her that day. During the week, I had worked on making desserts for worship night. I made “The brownies” (the choc peanut butter ones I make sometimes for work. Or the ones mom made once a week for sr. yr of high school), pumpkin cake with homemade icing, gluten free whoopie pies…I mean cake. (I have never had to bail on making whoopie pies before. But I couldn’t get these off the cookie sheet in one piece. Totally fell apart. Looked like a pile of cow crap…or the world map? I’ll let you be the judge of that one). While making breaded ranch chicken and potato wedges with lime, salt, basil, and garlic, I started to peel what I thought was a completely rotten banana. My family would refer to them as needing to be turned into muffins. Well, as I peeled it, it wasn’t rotten on the inside and smelled like a plantain. What in the world? Plantains are normally so much bigger! So I made plantain cake with homemade cream cheese icing and chocolate chips on top. Not bad! Basically tasted like banana cake. Apparently, it’s an African breakfast…minus the icing and chocolate chips. I added that of course.

That night, we had a great time with worship night. I got to see a neighbor that I hadn’t seen since October, hung out with friends, and met some new ones. As the ice breaker, we played a few rounds of apples to apples and then had a great time of worship with Cindy leading us while playing the guitar. We sang the song “There’s no place I’d rather be than here in your love.” I kept thinking it was “here in your arms.” Last time I sang that song was a year ago and while we were singing that, Addisyn kept singing it that way. That night, her 31 day old baby that she had been caring for after being abandoned, who had hydroanencephaly (only born with a very small part of a brain and not expected to live very long), died and woke up in the arms of Jesus. We also sang “I am not alone” by Kari Jobe (both last year and this time). That song has gotten me through a lot over the past year. When I had first heard it, I was on my way to Leah’s house to have a good vent and cry session after a terrible night at work. I love helping out with the sickest of the sick. But sometimes you need a good vent session and chocolate afterwards to help deal with your emotions. Well, as I listened to the words for the first time in the car, my cry session started earlier than anticipated. And then all through Jo’s battle with cancer and afterwards, I listened to this song a lot. We ended our worship time singing “Good Father” and prayed especially for the men and boys in the country and all around the world who need to know and understand that no matter what they have been through, God is our Father and we need these kids to grow up to be great father figures as well. After worship, we all pigged out on a crapload of desserts.

On Thursday, I was at home with the kid staying with us (my grandson) to work on his school. Once again, he brought up interesting conversation topics…including puberty…again. While he was doing his English homework, he was reading about interrogative questions. It was hilarious to listen to him read these with such…gusto. “Are those my pants!?” And I had a long talk with a friend from home who had had surgery and things weren’t really going the way they should. I vented a lot to him and to Peter all day about that. (Thanks for putting up with me freaking out!). After some other issues later in the week, thankfully, my friend’s now home and on the road to recovery.

Friday morning, we went to clinic. More kids with pneumonia and diarrhea. Some kids that we treated before came back for a recheck and are improving. Karen had mentioned at worship night that the past few weeks have been a faith booster to see some really sick kids, especially the one who was minutes away from dying, and now they are doing so much better. That afternoon, Peter came over to work with the horse some more and him and Yelsi had a crash course in learning how to play guitar. Although he won’t admit it, he picked up really fast how to play. It was hilarious listening to us try to sing and play. We were so out of tune most of the time. I said I was waiting for the dogs to start howling outside. Peter and I gave the horse a bath since she was no longer really white and brown anymore. She was more of a black color from all the dirt and smoke. As I was tying the horse up, using a slipknot, it reminded me of how everyone at work asks how I can tie so fast…it’s how we tie up the cows at the show! Of course, it’s going to be a farming related answer. That night, we went to youth group and had a great time. We ended it with musical chairs….yeah, haven’t played that in about 20 years. Go figure, Yelsi kicked butt and won.

The plan for Saturday: drive to Antigua, travel to the clinic at the dump, and after we return to Antigua, go to Peter’s house for a game night with friends. What actually happened: not that at all! So I drove to Antigua and was hanging out with one of the people from our group. We got a text saying there was some vehicle trouble. The ’98 van that we use goes to the shop weekly for maintenance to make sure it’s ready for the trip down near the coast. That morning, the van decided to go from ¾ tank of diesel to ¼. So after getting it to the shop, we figured out another vehicle to take and a driver for a truck to transport all of our equipment. We load up, start down the road and just before we started going down a pretty steep hill, the vehicle isn’t shifting correctly. Even though we were shifting, it wasn’t gaining any speed. So we had to turn around and call it a day. Thankfully, the soup that we were transporting that day was chicken soup and fresh cilantro: all things that we could freeze and don’t have to waste anything. Apparently, God had other plans for us that day. While we had been waiting earlier that morning, I had a great time talking with Annie about the transition for her from the States to moving down here. So I sent a message to Peter and said I’m going to be coming way earlier than planned. We went to the market, made chicken teriyaki, and crockpot brownies, and played the game Life (laughed so hard. I was crying. He said his abs hurt from laughing so hard). We ran out of water while cooking (later found out that something with the water pump blew up. I don’t know. Just say ok and go with it). While we were out to the grocery store, we ran into Karen who said Micah (her son) was in town and she was doing an impromptu birthday party for him and we were all invited to their house. So that evening, we went to Karen’s house, had a great supper, and played some intense games of dutch blitz and twister. Holy competitive!

On Sunday, we went to Sumpango (local town), bought food at the market, and then went to the orphanage that Drew and Cindy used to live at. While walking around at the market, I saw the mom whose baby almost died from a few weeks ago. It was great to see her out with her son who now looks great! He was waving his arm all around while mom was buying fruit. When we got to the orphanage, the kids came to say hi. They all had growth spurts! My word! A lot of the kids remembered my name and were so excited that we were all there. There are a bunch of newer kids there too, mostly with special needs. I of course had to get my typical selfie with Edwin. I’ve known this kid for years and love to watch him grow up! He wanted me to guess his age. I said 7, which was correct (total guess on my part. Just remembered that he was roughly 3 or 4 when I first met him). I then asked him to guess my age. He guessed 8. And then when others started guessing and weren’t getting it right, he just yells out, “100!” Uh, no. I mean, I know I’m a grandmother now…but not 100. Either that or I just look absolutely awesome for my age. The one boy who is nonverbal immediately came up to me, grabbed my hand, and led me to the soccer ball and wanted to play. That was interesting kicking a soccer ball with a skirt and sandals. But it can be done! I’m not going to let that stop me from playing with those awesome kids.

During chapel, it was great to listen to the kids sing with all their hearts, especially seeing the boy who is nonverbal to take a tambourine and play it with all he’s got. While we were talking about how Jesus paid for all of our sins and as Drew ripped up the poster board with different sins written on them, Diego, boy with special needs, started clapping. It was awesome! During the Bible story, there was a kid who dressed as the fat cow and put on the costume. The kids beside him couldn’t resist trying to milk the cow! I could barely keep my crap together. Seriously, I just wanted to laugh hysterically. They just kept trying to milk this cow even with Drew and Cindy taking turns to keep the kids back. The boy staying with us for the month shared his testimony with the kids as well. That afternoon, we went out to eat (amazing food!) and walked around town for a bit. We stopped at megapaca (like Goodwill on steroids) and found some clutch clothes that came straight from Saved by the Bell. That night, we had family movie night. In the movie, there was an elderly man and my grandson yells, “Hey! There is your husband!”

Monday, we had another good day at the clinic. Wasn’t too busy that day. Got to spend some more time with some of the people from the village who just crave some special attention, and I played with some of the kids while they were waiting for their medications from the pharmacy. Before we left the clinic for the day, we went to visit the man who was blind after having a brain tumor removed. He was doing so much better than last time we saw him. He could actually sit up this time. We took him some snacks that we had at the clinic and a radio that reads the Bible in the Mayan dialect that is his first language.

That afternoon while I making sweet and sour meatballs in the crockpot, Peter asked if I wanted to make a quick trip to his hometown of Palin to drop off some water filters. So we made the trip down and I got a quick tour of the house where our future medical teams are going to stay! Pretty sweet, guys! Hope you’re ready! I sure am!! I met his mom, aunt, uncle, some cousins. They’re all awesome! I showed his mom pictures of my family and some of our cows…may have grossed her out a bit with the pictures of the cow calving…of all the albums on Facebook I chose to show her. Whoops! Sorry, Mom! We walked down to the railroad tracks where a bunch of families live and were going to visit a boy who just had his appendix removed 2 weeks ago. But, they weren’t home. So I have every intention of going down in the near future to finally meet this kid and his family. Peter and his family have a great ministry going on there.

Today, the boy living with us worked on his school this morning and is now playing the piano. This kid is a quick learner. I just talked with mom and she was telling me about all the news from home. You know: who calved, who had heifers, who is looking good for the show, new cat that is doing a great job at catching mice and rats (unlike our others who don’t have any teeth anymore…), how the new cat’s name is “tortellini” thanks to Deanne. But according to dad, if Danielle or I named her, she would have been named “turd.” Or if Doreen named her, she would have been “tulip.” (Doreen used to pick such flowery names for her calves. And we all know how sarcastic and blunt I am…so you can imagine what names I picked. I wanted to name a calf pneumothorax (collapsed lung) while I was in nursing school and Dad said no). Mom also told me about how they have countdown for when Danielle comes home from college, and new names of the calves (Sunshine and Itmightbe. Itmightbe is out of Itcouldbe…who goes back to Itwouldbe. Itwouldbe was my fault. We had a cow who was calving and I was hoping for a bull calf since we were trying to get somewhere and were running late. We pulled the calf, saw it was a heifer, and I said, “It would be!” Well, the mother’s name started with an “I,” so the name for the calf became Itwouldbe).

Well, I’m heading to Antigua now to meet up with a friend to hang out. Haven’t seen her yet since being here! Load of crap! So, we’re fixing that! Marielle, I’m on my way! I’ll update again in about a week or so. We have a lot going on this coming month! It’s going to go way too fast! Again, thank you so much for the love, support, and donations! You guys are awesome! Below are some more pictures from clinic and the last one was me filling up water jugs to take back to Peter's house since he was out of water.