Away Blog

We're blogging from the Fickers' house in Canilla now because our internet went down Friday afternoon and we're not sure when it'll be back...

Friday at the Hospital Buen Samaritano, two of Heidi's patients brought her gifts. One brought a hen and the other brought a rooster. Remember that both of these patients have have a pretty rough go of it. One has been told that she has terminal cancer and the other came in with a huge uterus and ended up with two surgeries, a cut ureter, three bags of blood, and will require one more surgery to clean up the current situation. Heidi told them that it must be a real struggle with all of the suffering here and they agreed that she used to really be suffering with the huge uterus but is so much happier now. They didn't view the current situation (a foley catheter - carrying a urine bag around with her all the time), and needing one more surgery to complete the ureter repair as much of a problem at all - it's all part of the process they need to go through to have her original issue fixed.

So Heidi brought both of the chickens home, let them loose in the west courtyard, and they promptly destroyed all of the new landscaping out there. So Saturday morning, they got loaded up in the truck and brought here to Canilla!

Saturday, we had babysitting help again from Lori and clinic help again from Don, so we saw about 50 or 60 patients rather easily. That included two "walk-ups" from a local car accident. One looked to have a broken femur and the other a broken foot, so they weren't truly "walking" anywhere!!! They got referred to the hospital in Quiche, where they can get X-rays and get their bones set.

On Friday, Duane and David had driven up into Zona Reyna - only about 100 yards from where we did our first clinic in Saquixpec - and picked up a huge generator that was brought down originally for a church in the middle of nowhere, but has been sitting in someone's house for two years because they were waiting for a road to get built to this village. Since it looks like that road is never going to be built, it was thought that the generator could be used to do God's work better in the Fickers' hands than sitting unused in someone's house. It's a really, really large diesel generator that was originally designed for military use. So we spent Saturday afternoon checking it out and hooking it up to the complex here. Saturday night, almost on cue, the city of Canilla lost power. So we clicked on the generator and it powered both the house and the clinic building without even breaking a sweat.

It's pretty well known around this area that Leslie is here and is the best emergency care that's available for about two hours. Power outages are very frequent here at night. So it's only a matter of time until a serious case comes in during a power outage. Now we can better help the emergencies that come in. Also, the generator is mounted on a trailer and can be easily transported to any of the many locations we visit and provide medical care where there is no electricity. We'll never again have to worry about having enough power - this thing is a BEAST (it carried a 220V welding machine without even spooling up!)

Today, Heidi, Leslie, and Don are in clinic in San Andres. Matt's going to go over in a little while and check out the local church's sound system. They've been asking for some help there and this is right up Matt's alley. There are some folks coming down from the US in a few weeks and we may be able to get some equipment either donated or purchased used to help out.

Please keep Heidi's cancer patient in your prayers. She claims to be a Catholic but doesn't know who Jesus is. She only speaks K'iche, so we're hoping our friend Bill can go talk to her. Bill is the American guy who has already translated the Bible into one version of K'iche and is working on another. He's a pastor and is completely fluent in K'iche, so a little time between he and her might be quite profitable, spiritually speaking.

Tomorrow is our monthly clinic in Nueva Santa Catarina, then we head down to Guatemala City to spend the night and pick up The Other Heidi and Gail on Tuesday morning. We'll take them to Antigua for lunch, then come back home in the afternoon. They'll stay with us until Saturday, when Duane flies them back to Guatemala City. Next week, we're going to the coast for a few days to celebrate our second wedding anniversary (we missed the date last week with the eye team here, but we can celebrate a few days late, right?).