Antigua, Guatemala

We had a great day at school and both finished the 2nd grade today. We'll take our exam tomorrow and move on to new tenses.

Yesterday we had a great day at the clinic. Together, we saw 23 patients (80 percent peds) with problems such as conjunctivitis, amoebas, pneumonia, failure to thrive/malnutrition, and regular prenatal visits. Our Spanish is much better and we had great fun!

However, it is hard to witness such poverty and sickness. Apparently, parents in these villages do not name their children until they are one month old, since after that age their chance of survival is greater. Yesterday we saw a 1 1/2 year old who's 1 month old sister died the day before. The father would not allow the mother to take the baby to the clinic even after 2 weeks of fever! We gave the mother money to buy a coffin for the baby, but the father had buried the baby in the ground while she brought her other child to the clinic! How sad! The one that survived had a pneumonia, and we were able to load her up on antibiotics and rehydration formula....hopefully she'll return on Friday. Please pray for her and the rest of the children.