Antigua, Guatemala

2005-01-20T21:21:00.000-08:00

lbp @ 13 weeks (ultrasound performed by yours truly...[I'm very proud of that])

2005-01-17T09:50:00.000-08:00

little baby page @ 6 weeks

Someone's still logging on!

2004-11-26T20:08:00.000-08:00

Wow! I just happened to check on the blog tonight and found a new comment... Good to know people are still checking (even if it's just one of you), and sorry there haven't been any recent updates.

So here's one: Since we've been back, our lives have been thrown back into organized chaos. It only took about a week for us to forget that we were in Central America not long ago.

I remember the first morning we woke up in our room here in Chapel Hill, it felt eerily quiet. Almost like a crypt. I got so used to sleeping with my window open to buses, firecrackers, roosters, and all the great sounds of life that I forgot how we like to shut everything and everyone out in America. It was really sad.

As for our grade 3 spanish, that's probably back to about grade 1 1/2. It's hard to use it when you don't have other spanish speakers around. Cristy and I have tried to hold conversations, but they generally end up being very simple and very boring...so we move on. Every now and then I'll turn on the spanish radio station just to see if I can understand it. I recognize a few words but that's it.

We also canceled our TV subscription. It was so nice to have a life without the intrusion of television for so long. You realize that you don't need it... We actually sit at the table and talk over dinner now! Imagine that.

Well that's enough. If your attention span is like mine then you probably got bored about 3 paragraphs ago. I'll try to get some more pictures up here real soon.

Thanks for checking on us!!

Oh! And if you're reading this and we haven't yet had dinner or lunch or something with you. Please email us and let's work it out.

A new look

2004-11-10T17:28:00.000-08:00

In case you thought you logged on to the wrong site...I just decided to change the format up a little. I think the darker color makes the pictures stand out better.

Calicia and the giant nacho

2004-11-01T13:54:00.000-08:00

I made a special trip to Blogger just to see Calicia chowing on a nacho--it was all I had hoped for! Good to see you two at MB's wedding--sorry we didn't get to chat more!

2004-11-01T11:29:00.000-08:00

...at the edge of the volcano.

2004-11-01T11:26:00.000-08:00

...a giant stone monster was looming in the background.

2004-10-25T21:13:00.000-07:00

...this was our third tarantula of the day.

2004-10-25T21:12:00.000-07:00

Bob vs the Mayan temple.

2004-10-25T21:00:00.000-07:00

Ruins above the jungle top

2004-10-25T20:59:00.000-07:00

Jaguar temple in Tikal

...and we,re back!

2004-10-25T17:29:00.000-07:00

That's right. Our feet are firmly planted in North Carolina again. We had a very relaxing last day in Antigua. We got to see Bob in action at La Merced (the big Catholic church in Antigua) on Sunday morning. He read a passage from Luke nearly flawlessly for a crowd of about 1500 people. Got some exercise ine. We had lunch with Greg and Anita (missionaries that started the clinic) and their daughter. We bought more Guatemalan wares. We had a wonderful dinner.

And this morning we got into a van at 5am and drove to airport. From there it gets really boring. Two planes later we were back in NC.

We'll put some more pictures up on the blog in the next few days, so if you want to come back and check it out, please do so.

Sorry for the long absence...

2004-10-23T18:28:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry we've been neglecting the blog this week. The last week's been pretty hectic with finishing school and helping out at the clinic. This will be the abstract update...tomorrow we'll include the full article.

We both finished at school on Thursday. We were able to finish the 3rd grade (Grade C) without having to take a test.

We worked at the clinic all day Tuesday and Friday. Both were very long days, with lots of sick patients. But our follow-up with past patients showed that they were getting better. Very encouraging. Diagnosed probable TB vs. lung cancer, possible lymphoma, and saw a little baby with a cleft palate/lip.

Hanging out with the bomberos makes you very popular in Antigua. I see some of them almost everywhere we go, and they always come out and talk with us and give us their cards to contact them later on.

Today we went to Tikal ...amazing. Mayan ruins towering in and over the jungle. Animal count - tarantulas: 3, tucans: 1, other scary big spider: 1, howler and spider monkeys: too many to count. Pictures will be forthcoming.

Tomorrow we're meeting up with Anita and Greg (the clinic founders), relaxing, packing our bags, and saying good bye.

This has been a great trip. Thank you everyone for your comments on the blog. They've really been great for us to see that so many of you can keep up with us. And we've enjoyed what you have to say. Thanks for your prayers. We've been very safe and felt protected the whole time we have been here.

We'll be home on Monday, but I'll keep adding to the blog as we remember stories and have new pictures.

later...

Go Red Sox!

2004-10-21T09:27:00.000-07:00

I'm not really a baseball fan, but even I realize the significance of the amazing comeback the Red Sox pulled out over the Yankees. This one's for Bob and Nat.

Pearls from Guatemala...if you ever come here #4

2004-10-20T16:31:00.000-07:00

Power outages.

They don't usually last very long, but they occur frequently. So it's always good to have a flashlight or candle handy.

That's all.

And our friend, Dana, suggested you could probably apply these tips to most other Central American countries.

2004-10-18T20:06:00.000-07:00

2004-10-18T19:59:00.000-07:00

Aye carumba! Calicia (la perra) munching on a nacho. It doesn't seem to be curing her "shakes" unfortunately...or putting any meat on her bones for that matter...Poor puppy :-(

2004-10-18T19:54:00.000-07:00

Los Bomberos!

Friday night with the Bomberos

2004-10-17T15:45:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a few days without an update...

Friday was a very busy and exciting day. We spent all day working in the clinic. We got to do follow-up with most of the people and children we worked with on Tuesday last week. It was extremely rewarding to see that most of them were doing much better.

Then Friday night we did a 12 hour shift with the Bomberos Voluntarios. They are the main prehospital emergency service in Antigua. They're mainly responsible for 911 calls (which are 122 or 123 here) dealing with trauma, pregnancies, medical emergencies, and fires.

They were extremely kind to us. They spent a lot of time with me explaining their system. As you can tell by the name, it's a primarily volunteer service. However, there's a strict training program everyone must go through first, and while we were there the chiefs were teaching a lot. It is a very positive, very structured organization.

Over the course of the night we went out on about 6 calls. Saw one pretty nasty head trauma (who turned out to be a difficult intubation once he got to the hospital), COPD exacerbation, a few pregnancy related calls that I won't go into detail about, and a few others. They said it was actually pretty slow for a Friday night.

Now that we're part of "the team" we can do some other stuff with them. I went to one of their training sessions last night. It's great to see the contrast between their service and ours in the US.

Pearls from Guatemala...if you ever come here #3

2004-10-14T17:06:00.000-07:00

Firecrackers.

If you've ever been here, you know what I'm talking about. Fireworks are like saying "Hey!" in America. They go off all the time for any reason whatsoever. Except it's also like saying "Hey!" at about 4am and then every 5 minutes afterwards until everyone you know is awake.

Two days ago it was the birthday of a family member in our house... So at about 6:15am a long round of fireworks went off right outside our door. it was great, seriously...

I found a great description of the firework experience online. Skip down to the fourth paragraph, but the rest is pretty interesting too.

While we appreciate this culture's unique traditions, we're glad to leave this one behind when we leave.Firecrackers.

Pearls from Guatemala...if you ever come here. #2

2004-10-13T17:14:00.000-07:00

Chicken buses ...they're the only way to travel in Guatemala.

On the one hand, they are reminiscent of your days in elementary school when you rode the bus (because they really are old US school buses). On the other hand, the bus driver never filled the bus beyond capacity. And when I say "beyond capacity" I mean every single nook and cranny that will maintain life is supplanted with a human being. This means you become much too intimate with everyone around you.

However, they are colorful and cheap and get you where you need to go. And I've never seen a single chicken on one.

Antigua, Guatemala

2004-10-13T17:00:00.000-07:00

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.

Pearls from Guatemala...if you ever come here. #1

2004-10-13T16:50:00.000-07:00

No matter how far you turn the handle on the shower...it will never get hot. Fortunately, all the showers have this strange electric device attached to the spigot that heats the water as it goes through. Therefore, you have to turn the water on very very gently if you want it to be warm. You have two choices: pressure or heat....choose wisely

2004-10-12T11:45:00.001-07:00

People waiting to get into the clinic in the morning.

2004-10-12T11:45:00.000-07:00

Children at the clinic.