Finishing up the week in Canillá

So yesterday we had kind of a full day-- got up, rounded on our remaining patients (one had to go home with a catheter but they all went home and looked good overall), cleaned up our clinic stuff and put it away for another few months, went out to market for a little while while we waited for the anesthesiologist to come and do Tom's cases, then scrubbed with him on a surgery for very dangerous stomach bleeding (the guy really didn't have more than hours or maybe a day or two to live without Tom's intervention), then rushed over to Quiché on a "microbus" or van with 21 total people plus all of our luggage, to get on the plane and fly over to Canillá for the night!  And if you think that sounded like a run-on sentence, you should try getting all of that done in a day.

We were really blessed to be able to fly out to the Fickers's home last night and spend some time with them.  It is always such a treat to introduce them to my friends.  I've really missed them since I didn't get to see them (except for my brief run-in with Katie in the WalMart parking lot) last trip.  It was so nice to catch up and hear about all that is going on out here.  A 24-hour care center/hospital is actually looking like a distinct possibility some day relatively soon if anyone is looking for any great projects to contribute to.  You can read more on Katie's blog at http://katiessoil.blogspot.com -- very exciting!

Last night we all went to bed exhausted-- unfortunately, though, we (or at least Tana and I) got up this morning even more exhausted.  I kept her up most of the night by getting up with a GI illness regularly.  Unfortunately this morning I was pretty dehydrated and ended up spending the day in bed while everyone else went to clinic.  NOT an easy decision for me to make, for I was very grateful for the opportunity.  Sandy, Tana, and Jared did a great job overcoming all of their fears of heights and motion sickness on the Guatemalan mountain dirt roads and seeing patients in clinic.   (Kelley, unfortunately, had to leave yesterday for her flight from The City)

Tomorrow we will get up and help in the clinic here for a little while until it is time to leave for the airport for the long travels home.  We are all so anxious to get back to our families, but with many fond memories of another great trip...

Pictures today are of the Ficker home from the air and our first Guatemalan "paycheck" of the week... a bag of apples from an appreciative patient.