Safe Arrival!

Thanks in large part to lots of prayer coverage, we have arrived safe and sound in Chichicastenango! And the best news is that we didn't have any medications or other supplies "held" (i.e., stolen) in customs, which is becoming a bigger and bigger issue with entry in to the country with any medical supplies lately... Kudos to Pat for being organized enough to get all of her meds listed and approved in advance, and many thanks to Don Tono, the administrator at the Hospital Buen Samaritano, for getting the paperwork done! That's a huge load off of our shoulders already...

Today has been a long day (We left home about 2 a.m. local Guatemala time and it is now 9 p.m.) so this will be a short post, but wanted to thank you all for your well wishes and prayers during this week. We will get up tomorrow morning and probably hit the market for a little early bird shopping before heading up to Church. Then as soon as we can, we will start seeing patients until we are done! We hope for a good turnout, of course, but always pray also that God will never send more than we can handle.

Ideally, we would like to see all of the patients first tomorrow and then just schedule the surgeries that are needed for the rest of the week and not have to try to rush to see patients between surgeries later in the week... But we know that's not always going to work perfectly, so there will be plenty of work to do all week and we will need to pray for lots of patience especially the first few days. It is so tough between surgeries when you have time to see maybe one or two patients before they are calling you back to the OR-- the next patient in line always looks so crestfallen when they realize you are leaving again for what could be another several hours before you can come back down to see them. Luckily for us, Guatemalans are generally a lot more patient than we North Americans are...

Will try to post some pictures tomorrow, of course, so please stay tuned!