Weekend Fun

Well, Friday, we put Charlie on a plane for Guatemala City. He returned to New York a day early to surprise his fiancee for her birthday. Now that the day has passed, we feel like we're not letting any cats out of the bag. It was super nice to have him here and we wish him the best of luck. He'll be heading to St. Louis to start his residency in orthopedic surgery in just a few short months (right after he gets married!)

After Duane dropped Charlie off in Guatemala City, he had to hurry back to Canilla to pick up Leslie, then immediately fly up to Zona Reina for a medical emergency there. A woman was supposedly having a miscarriage, but Leslie managed to deliver a healthy baby. They tried getting Heidi on the phone, but phone reception is so horrible there that you literally have to stand in a certain spot under a certain roof to even get signal. Then we got the most Guatemalan call we've had in a while. Someone called us to tell us that Brother Duane HAD wanted to talk to us but then he left. Then they told us to wait five minutes and hung up on us. In any case, Leslie did a great job and got a healthy baby delivered.

One funny note on that. This particular location is quite a bit closer to sea-level than we are. (Read: it's stinkin' hot there!) Leslie and the patient were in a little hut with a tin roof and it was HOT! Leslie suggested that perhaps the mom would be a bit more comfortable if she put her hair up - she was practically swimming in it (all Mayan women wear their hair quite long). The midwife explained that the local custom is for women to give birth with their hair down, as it would be bad luck to put it up. At this point, the outcome was still a little in doubt, so the hair stayed down. (How bad would it have been if she had put her hair up and then had a bad outcome????)

Anyway, clinic on Saturday was pretty crazy. Over 90 patients!!! And this in a clinc that usually sees around 50-60. Of course, last week was Easter, so there was no clinic. Then, in the late afternoon, we all went down to the river to play beach volleyball. Thanks to Kaitlin, we had a new volleyball. We are all much better players with a real volleyball! (Unfortunately, Kaitlin had to fly out before the game...)

Today in San Andres, there were around 80 patients - a few less than the 100+ we were anticipating.

Tomorrow is our bi-weekly clinic in Chicabracan, then it's two days off. We haven't been alone in the house in over two months, so it'll be a nice little break.

The first pic below is Heidi draining a mass on a guy's jawbone. The second is our cute son.