Interesting Weekend

Friday, we had the opportunity to go out again with a really neat group of people from Atlanta. This was our second outing with them. They come down three times a year and stay at the Casa del Rey Hotel in Chichicastenango, run by our good friend Matt Capehart. The group had three pediatricians, a physicians' assistant, and some very experienced auxiliary folks. We did a clinic with them in Chulemal - just outside Chichi.

The vast majority of patients were typical clinic patients, but we did refer two women to Heidi's clinic at the Hospital Buen Samaritano. The pics below are from the clinic on Friday.

The following paragraph will describe, in detail, everything we did on Saturday.

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Yes, it was wonderful. Neither of us changed out of our PJs all day long. We needed that very badly.

Sunday was another clinic day in San Andres. We had the day off Saturday because the Fickers were in Antigua to return their team of nursing students to the City. We brought a baby to the hospital here in Quiche after clinic because she was quite sick - probably with pneumonia.

This evening, we finally got a chance to meet Jenny Trigg, an American missionary who lives near Los Encuentros, Guatemala. We had heard so much about her, but had never met her in person. She brought a family with her who had just had a baby on Thursday and were worried about her umbilical cord. It had been tied off with a red string to ward off evil spirits, but it wasn't the cleanest tie or cut job in the history of the world.

Heidi tied it off a little closer to the baby and cut off the excess cord. The baby never flinched. We think the reason the mom really wanted some attention was because the dad drinks quite a bit and told her that he doesn't care what she does with the baby. His preference is that she dies because she's a girl. We don't even know what to say to that. Really. Where do you even start with that comment?

Of course, we prayed for them before they left. Mom is in a Christian church but has a husband who...well, we already talked about him. Plus, she's still superstitious enough to tie red strings around body parts to ward off evil spirits. God was definitely needed in that equation.

Oh, and Ernest Braren stopped by. He's back in town for a week and we were very happy to see him again. We're going to work with the local eye team to get the surgical microscope to them that came down on the container. He also had a few other things come down that will be donated to one place or another.

Anyway, tomorrow, we're in Chicabracan and will be working right alongside Ernest and Connie and the SOS team that came down. YAY!