Back at Buen Samaritano

This morning, Isaac let us sleep a little bit - until 8:30 - then we got up and hung out a bit with the SOS team and some other folks who had come by. During the morning, a woman approached the team and told them that she was in a bit of a bind.

Her husband left for the United States 10 years ago. She is now pregnant. Clearly the child is not his. She claims that no one in her family or town knows, even though she plainly looks pregnant to us. She lives in San Andres - a town where we have a clinic. She wants to give up the baby for adoption without anyone in her family knowing what's going on. We did a basic pre-natal check on her here in the house. She's about 32 weeks along, meaning that she'll give birth probably in early December.

Her plan is to give birth here in the hospital in Quiche. Our original thought was that she could bring the baby to us and that we would get him (it's a boy) to the Stuckenbergs, the same family who took little baby Sarah. However, we will not be here in December, so we'll have to figure out how she can get this baby to them. No worries, we have two months to work it out.

About noon, Heidi went back to Buen Samaritano for two scheduled surgeries. When she got there, she learned that one of her patients from last night was bleeding from her drain, meaning that she would have to go back to the operating room. Naturally, they didn't get started on the first new patient until after 4pm (nothing ever happens on time here in Guatemala) and after the take-back patient was done at about 8pm, there was no time for the second scheduled surgery. She will probably get pushed back until tomorrow, meaning that a morning clinic at ASELSI will end up becoming the beginning of another long day.

The SOS team leaves tomorrow morning, meaning we'll have our house back to ourselves, but we'll also be without the services of five experienced grandparents who have been helping with a VERY fussy little boy. He screamed for three straight hours this afternoon. Not even the grandmas could help.

New news on the green truck - the mechanic removed the gas tank and inspected the fuel pump. He disassembled and cleaned the carbureator, the fuel lines, and the fuel filter. No dice. They then took the truck to another mechanic who checked the computer. Still no dice. It went to an automotive electrician who couldn't find the problem. This afternoon it went to another automotive electrician who thinks that it's some device that Jacob couldn't remember the name of, but they're going to try to confirm his diagnosis tomorrow and let us know. Keep in mind that since there are very few Nissan parts even available here in Quiche, much of this is guesswork. A replacement "whatever" will probably require a trip to the capital. Fun, fun, fun!

Again, tomorrow we're at ASELSI in the morning, then Heidi will try to operate in the afternoon/evening. Friday is her clinic at Buen Samaritano where lately she seems to be scheduling surgeries faster than she can clear them. Then this weekend we're back out in Canilla.

Please pray for all of our patients and for our patience with our currently very demanding son!