using "we" instead of "i"

is the theme of the last 9 days. Julie and i (we) had a fantastic time together - seeing, doing, experiencing, talking, talking, talking, listening, eating, hiking, sleeping a little, and just enjoying a grand adventure. i was the primary communicator with anyone who speaks Spanish, and it took a few times to get used to asking questions with the "we" form of all the verbs. one of the hardest things for me in this new language is the conjugation of verbs, but it was a pleasure and delight to get used to using the "we" form for 9 days.
to give an overview of our travels:
Feb 19 julie finally arrived, 12 hours late after being diverted to Guayaquil, Ecuador due to thick cloud cover over Quito. Much rejoicing and a fairly quick turnaround to the bus that took us 5 hours south to Shell. arrived without incident. basically went to bed.
Feb 20-21 my last day on call. and a busy one. julie kept the camera all day and took many photos of me "in action" as well as was an excellent resource for a very complex medicine patient who came in at 2 am. she ended up in the ICU and i don´t know what happened to her yet. we basically didn´t sleep that night and i wrapped things up the next morning at the hospital (see photo - some of the people i worked with and my favorite patient, Darlen with her mom. Darlen was burned badly about 2 months ago and comes now for dressing changes. she sang songs for everyone including my favorite, "arriba doctorita!"). in the afternoon we went to a wildlife preserve and saw some jungle animals. great fun! (see photo of julie with rebecca the monkey on her head).

Feb 22-23 goodbye Shell and off to Baños, small city in Ecuador where i would want to live if i had to pick a place. Baños = Baths. as in thermal springs from "al dentro del volcán" (inside the volcano) which have been channeled into pools where people can go and soak. we went only for about 45 minutes (way too short) and paid $1 each for this fantastic experience. also around Baños we hiked, visited some INCREDIBLE waterfalls and soaked up this charming, quaint little town at the foot of majestic mountains. a highlight of Ecuador for me. (Photos: Pallon del diablo waterfalls, thermal baths at the foot of a waterfall and our dinner entertainment)

Feb 24 goodbye Ecuador... off to Perú. Landed in Lima(so nice to fly with a friend!) and were welcomed warmly by various Peruvians who helped us get to our lovely hotel. We both decided that this busy, loud city of 9 million people was NOT the highlight of the trip, but it served to allow us to travel on to the next adventure: Machu Picchu.

Feb 25-27 Cusco, the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu. Not having known all that much about this wonder of the world, i was eager to go because it is renown the world over and especially in south america. and i´m here... so i should see it. well my tune has now changed after seeing it: Machu Picchu is a MUST SEE in this world. the price in money and time to get there is completely worth it. proabably the most incredible thing i´ve seen in my life. Julie and i had a grand adventure getting there, complete with multiple modes of transportation: plane to Cusco, little van to Otallantaytamba, train to Aguas Calientes, feet to Machu Picchu, bus back down the mountain. these pictures aren´t going to do it justice, but perhaps give you the itch to visit. it is steeped in history and mystery (and rain when we were there...). incredible, incredible... no tengo palabras sufficiente! (i don´t have sufficient words...) Photos: boarding the train, the mountains from inside the train, Aguas Calientes, Julie starting to ascend the steps to Machu Picchu which we started at 5am using our headlamps, and the ruins.

And that was the way i spent the last 9 days. Fantastic. Julie - thank you so much for coming to a different hemisphere and continent to encourage me and have a fantastic adventure! it was a JOY to spend such great time together in these amazing places.

what i do every day...

i thought after looking back over the last few posts that anyone reading really doesn't have any idea what i do on the days i'm not flying over the jungle, spending time in Makuma (which has been a total of 3.5 days out of this month, notable though they are...) or buying ridiculously cheap, delicious fruit/vegetables at the market. And at one point i had posted a synopsis of my day/night on call (called a "turno") but it has disappeared into the netherworlds of cyberspace and is not on the blog now... if anyone has seen this missing piece of my musings, please return it to it's home here.

So here's a typical day.
7:30 Devotions and Rounds at the hospital - in spanish, a summary of the patients and presentation of any new "ingreso's" (admissions) from the night. such presentations are done by the Intern (of which i am one) on call the night before.
8ish dressing changes on patients already admitted, assisting in surgery for the morning, or taking a spot in the ER to await patients that come in for more urgent issues.
i've spent most of my days in the ER.
some of the things i've seen -

• a lot of pregnant women who are starting to go into labor
• kids with vomiting/diarrhea/fever/cough/pneumonia who have often been brought in by their parents after 8+ days because they live so far away and can't afford to come in for every little bug their kid gets. often, too, these families from "al dentro" (literally, the inside but used when people are from the jungle) speak an indian/tribal language so getting the real story can be tricky or impossible. the other night i admitted 3 infants under the age of 4 months all with pneumonia and one with dehydration, all from "al dentro". they're all doing much better now and their mothers probably saved their lives by bringing them in when they did. much more time with pneumonia and dehydration could have been fatal.
• what else? snake bites. amazing that these are becoming fairly routine for me to handle in the ER. but true. i've seen at least 5 snake bite patients. i have yet, however, to see the snake that did the biting - apparantly sometimes people bring it in too.
• various skin infections.
• stomach pain.
• oh, and the one that i was woken up for at 3 am the other night: "i've had pain in my back and my neck and my arms for 10 years..." how long? (thinking my spanish was a bit shaky at 3am and i hand't heard correctly)... "10 years". and why did you decide to come in ahora? (now) ... i never got a good answer. on exam, he had no pain to any of my palpation and was able to function pretty well, so we gave this dear old man some IV pain medicine and told him to come back in a few hours for a more in-depth evaluation. he and his wife (also very cute) thanked us and went back out into the night.
• fever for a month/weakness/weight loss/pain all over... turned out to be malaria.

so that's what i've been seeing.
midday try to steal away for a quick lunch at home
5pm home, unless on call and then i stay until there are no more patients in the ER.

that's pretty much it. i have another call day monday-tuesday and then that's it. ... off to do a little traveling with dear friend JULIE who is coming tonight!!! and then to Peru. for one more month.

sick

so i've now joined the distinguished ranks of those who have endured sickness in foreign lands... and lived to tell about it.
sue - malaria in zambia
caron - typhoid fever in india
jen caye - some bad GI problem in india
daphne - i'm sure you've had something but i just don't know where or what
brook - same for you in zambia

well my bout started on friday as i was treking, tromping, slurpingthroughmud and hiking in rubber boots up a large, large mountain to get out of the jungle. led by our teenage guide who was being corralled into being our guide by his dad, dan and i made it after 6 hours of the aforementioned journey. wet, dirty - filthy, thirsty, hungry, sore, exhausted, we ended up on the closest thing to a road we had seen in hours. 6 to be exact.
so we found some beverages. and a waterfall. and later a river. and eventually a bus. and then another bus after waiting on the side of some road. which took us to 2 bridges we had to cross on foot over the raging Pastaza River. to another bus. to Shell. at midnight. we started at 9am.

so i fell into bed shaking after my hot shower (praise the LORD) and knew that my body was not well. the next day i was on call and tried desperately throughout the day to lay down for a little rest, but kept getting called. and lasted (barely) until about 11:30 pm when my housemates convinced me to own up to how horrible i was feeling and tell the doctor on call with me that i had a fever after 1g of Tylenol and 400mg of Ibuprofen... that i ached all over... that my cough was getting worse and i was feeling weak and dizzy. so i did. my blessed roommate Emily took my calls from Saturday night at 12 midnight until monday morning and i stayed in bed for about 36 hours.
they did all sorts of tests and have given me all sorts of medicines to "cover" whatever it is. not sure entirely, but i did have some intestinal parisites which are soon to be history after i take the second drug to de-worm myself. pleasant, isn't it?
Gracias a Dios, today i have returned to the Land of the Living. i'm praying i'll stay here for quite a while.

Makuma - otra vez

Makuma - again.
this time for 3 days. Dan (another hospital volunteer, a Radiographer from the UK) and i along with some other Ecuadorians were flown in to Makuma's airstrip on Wednesday last week. Upon our arrival, we met Alexandra (another HCJB volunteer from the UK, an engineer leading the water project there) and the Headlands as well as many other Makumans. that afternoon consisted of Alex assessing the status of the "minga" (the work day) and sorting out where Dan and I could best be put to work. We ended up at the "bodega" (a little shop that sells medicines and other items) helping 2 lovely Health Promoters learn to take blood pressures. it is hard enough teaching someone to take a blood pressure reading in english, let alone in Spanish! ... and then what is normal, why it is important to know, and what it can indicate in the whole picture of a person's health. Alex and Dan helped me, and we took turns all taking one person's blood pressure and hopefully getting the same result. they learned quickly and by the next day, Dan reported that they were all getting the same reading each time.

Health Promoters are amazing people - they are volunteers from their community who are being trained by a nurse practitioner or doctor to be more eyes/ears/hands/voices of health to those around them. the often act as nurses to 'triage' patients who may need more medical attention and are educators, in as much as they themselves are educated, on hygiene, nutrition and prevention of illness. Miriam, the nurse practitioner who has been working in this community for 20-some years, is back in the US for a few months, so i did not have the opportunity to work with her.

Screenings at the Colegio (high school more or less)...

• 36 youth.
• 4.5 hours.
• 4 really sick kids. (referred to the new doctor in the community)
• 32 others who don't drink enough water or eat sufficient food for their 30 minute to 2 hour walk to school every day, soccer game each afternoon and same walk home.
• and a marked difference between the children from clean-water communities and no-water-system communities.

i asked the same questions to each of these children all morning long, and with the exception of a gal with 10? days of fever and vomiting, a boy with 2 days of fever and bloody diarrhea, a gal with a nearly-infected decaying tooth, and one girl with some skin problem i didn't have a clue about ... the complaints each one had were: head ache and stomach ache. and after hearing that they only eat yuca (a potato-y type starch) and drink yuca or a bit of water but have few symptoms of parasites or other more serious reasons for either complaint, i gave the same 'prescription' to every one:
start drinking at least 6 cups of the clean water here at school every day
eat more/different than yuca for breakfast (if anything), lunch and dinner

after seeing all these children and making notes about where they live, if there is a water system there, their age and complaints, Alex and i spoke with the director of the Colegio. it was very encouraging to be able to report that the majority of the youth we saw were generally "healthy" - in that only a few were acutely ill... that the problems were not medical but rather environmental and habit-related. the kids from clean water communities are visibly (skin is without rash/bites from bathing in the river) healthier. they aren't used to drinking water because for ages, the water makes you sick if you drink it. she assured us that there ARE other natural or very cheap sources of food than yuca - but that many people just don't know how/what to cook differently so as to have protein in their diet. and that the families who have attended classes on nutrition have been able to make changes in their diet which still fit within their culture and environment.
i met the doctor later that evening and we spoke at length over these issues. he is newly graduated from medical school in columbia and is in Makuma for a year before starting his residency. he agreed that changing habits will effect the greatest change. i was encouraged that this new doctor was eager to educate and help this community grow in understanding how to take care of themselves and their future.

i'm very thankful for the opportunity to visit Makuma again. the people there are lovely.

one more note on the "minga" -
this is a work day for the water project... but not by 'paid workers' to install clean water to people's houses... it is a work day for the people who want water for their houses to get it there. there have been many mingas for this project and will be more. if you or someone from your family doesn't work on a minga day, your family owes $5. this is how the project is being accomplished. it's a fantastic approach to community development. the community really "owns" their system this way. no one has done it for them. by the sweat of their brow and the labor of their hands they will have clean water in their home.

(NOTE: picture is me in the tiny plane over the Pastaza River, i think.)

my first "turno"

In the States we call this "being on call". Well no matter how you call it, it usually involves a lot of hours at the hospital, not much sleep, and needing a day to recover afterward. I had no idea how I'd fare with this first "turno" in a different language, limited hospital resources and diseases/conditions I've never encountered in my brief medical experience.
The way it works here is that the interns (4th year medical students) see each patient first, evaluate them in the ER and then start deciding what needs to be done while consulting with the resident on call. It could also include being called in the middle of the night (la mitad de la noche) for emergency surgery or anything. I live close enough to the hospital that I go home and keep the phone beside my bed, half sleeping, expecting to be called. I'll have a total of 6 turnos, one of those coming next weekend both Saturday and Sunday.
So yesterday/last night, I had a steady stream of patients to evaluate (only about 5 from afternoon until 12:30 am)... and of course here all things take more time.
1. an 8 month old girl who had just had a seizure but was doing fine. Her mother kept saying they didn't have "plata" (money) to see the neurologist in Quito (5 hours and $5 by bus if the buses can get through the land-slide-prone road...). So we gave her some anti-seizure medication to start and insisted she return to the clinic next week.
2. a 45? year old man with sinusitis and a rough throat
3. a 15 year old gal with abdominal pain for 8 days and fever. No diarrhea, no vomiting, but no appetite. The 35+ man who was with her I discovered was her husband. I was just about to try to ask some more sensitive questions (how in Spanish I'm not sure yet...) when the resident came swooping in and got right to the point ... are you pregnant? The test that came back about an hour later revealed the answer: YES. And it showed she had a pretty bad urinary tract infection. They live "adentro" ... meaning in the jungle, more or less.
4. a 41 year old woman came in with her husband who knew nothing of her history because they've been separated, except that she was in the hospital in another city for 3 months with "sickness of her brain"... and that since then she doesn't talk normally, not much more than "yes/no/I can't/I don't know" . And earlier she had had an "ataque" (attack...) of some sort. This sketchy history was confounded by the odd physical findings - some weakness, confusion, and as I listened to her heart, it was very irregular and her oxygen saturation was low as well. She had an elevated white blood count indicating infection - but we don't know where. We ended up admitting her with our list of possibilities being very long. And this morning we still don't know what her difficulty is. We only have so many tests available here.
5. and at 12:00 midnight, an 11 year old boy was brought in by his dad because of leg pain for 2 hours. Dad was worried that he was going to get the same condition as his cousin who has a ? – a degenerative muscular or neurologic condition due to which he doesn't walk now. The boy was happy, strong, walked fine... and on a bit more questioning, he had been playing a lot of soccer lately. So I tried to explain 'growing pains' to this Ecuadorian man and assure him that his son was completely fine. We gave them some Tylenol anyway.

and no calls en la mitad de la noche.

to the jungle

i went on friday with a group of HCJB volunteers/workers to visit a community called Makuma. it was a community first inhabited by missionaries who found it a good place to land a small plane in the jungle and be near several Indian tribes. so we took a MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) plane seating 6 including the pilot 35 minutes by air over the jungle to Makuma and landed on a dirt airstrip. i have never been weighed before going on a plane. another new experience. (picture - the two planes coming and going from Makuma)

we spent the day meeting people in the community as well as the missionaries (Jim and Norma Headland) who have been there for 35 years. they are now involved with local members of the community in a massive translation project - translating the Bible from Spanish to Schuar. i was just fascinated by the process and deeply moved by their passion for providing the Word of God in a language the people can understand. Umbato, a man from the area who is the main translator, works tirelessly and shared with us his heart for this work. his hope and prayer is to live to see the completion of this work. the Headlands echo this same prayer, as they are in their 60's and forsee another 10+ years of this project. they are also praying for people to join and continue this work alongside of them in the days ahead.



we learned of the need for health care workers there, as their nurse practitioner has left for several months and there is no doctor nor rural intern available. i am hopeful to have the chance to return there for a few days to do some basic health checks and evaluate if patients need care at the hospital in Shell. if so, this would mean they are taken there by air.
there is also an impressive water project going on lead by an HCJB staff named Alexandra and several of the members of the community. clean water is something i will never again take for granted.

Bienvenidos a Ecuador...

(Welcome to ecuador) i arrived safe, sound and very weary on Tuesday afternoon and stayed at a guest house in Quito with HCJB World Radio's ministry base here. lovely people - the riemers - took good care of me and i was able to rest and regroup for the trip south to the jungle. Quito is very modern, busy, big, has no beans or tortillas to speak of, and is set in the Andes at about 9,000 feet. Beautiful but a very different feel from Guatemala. (picture above taken from the plane flying into quito)
On Wednesday, another medical student in her 4th year, Emily, from Indianapolis joined me in navigating the bus on the 7 hr. trip from Quito to Shell (which usually takes 5 h.). The LORD provided a way through a strike 2 days before and a landslide across the ONE road going from Quito to all points south and we made it after a long, long day of travel. the picture is from inside the bus, through the window, of the car in front of us going past the landslide.









my first few hours in shell included getting some groceries at the market for $2.80 and another $.54 for my 4 eggs (in a plastic bag) and 4 rolls. thank you renae for the "Extra Bag!" i take it everywhere now. i settled into my new house for the month with Emily and Elizabeth who is from Ohio who has been here for 5 months working as a nurse-aid/nurse/youth worker and is hoping to go to medical school this fall.
i have my own bedroom and a great bed, a desk and a window that looks out to jungle-ish plants and some houses in the town. a rooster wakes me up every morning at about 3-3:30 am and yet i usually fall back asleep to the rain pouring down. it rains about 6-10 times a day, sometimes a downpour. we cook our own food and have an american-type kitchen with most of the needed utensils and bowls/pans/etc. it's really not hard to live there aside from the occaisonal unwanted guest. like today, i encountered a spider the size of my palm (legs and all) when i opened the door to leave. not my favorite. elizabeth killed it. then i went to work.

the last days in guatemala...

were bittersweet. excitement about moving on toward the next adventure ... but reluctance to leave the dear people in guatemala and things that had become familiar. the weekend prior to leaving, i went with the group to Tikal... a place of mystery and history of the Mayan people. i was amazed by the ruins of these people's temples of worship and their ability to construct such structures having none of the equipment or "technology" we have today. (see if you can find me in the picture!) amazing indeed. it turned out to be a relaxing weekend and i returned to antigua with the group Sunday night to prepare to leave monday noon for guatemala city.


on monday in the morning, i went to a clinic in Chimaltenango (about 40 minutes from antigua) that is aided by my father's regional church organization (the Baltimore Presbytery). Ronaldo and his wife work at the clinic and showed me around and introduced me to various others who work there. they explained the different works going on there - health care, health promotion in neighboring communities, education and leadership development for adults, and a psychology/counseling service. the whole morning was in Spanish, thus a good test of my ability to understand and ask questions. i fared pretty well. the picture is of the room that was built through funds from the baltimore presbytery. (escuela de teologia y tecnica - school of theology and technology)










i said good bye to my host family and to the gals i lived with (philly, carrie and becky - all PA students from UNMC... a lovely group of new friends) and went on my way to la capital (guate city) for an afternoon of rest and puttering around before my 6 am flight to Qutio, Ecuador. i met a Guatemalan friend named Josue there for a late lunch at a wonderful taco place (buena comida en guatemala!!!) and then spent the evening enjoying a bookstore, the Holiday Inn's small exercise room, the pool (outdoors, warm water, under the stars... all to myself... dreamy!) and a phone call to home. my flight left as scheduled and i was on my way to ecuador.
farewell guatemala - i hope to return someday very soon. three weeks was too short!

Carin and Christian

these two people have been dear, sweet blessings to me this week. i met carin outside of a coffee shop on saturday morning last weekend when i was in antigua by myself (without the group... but not alone). i asked her if she was waiting for someone and she told me she was adopting a boy from guatemala and was waiting for the social worker. on monday she and Christian, her 3 year old son, moved to antigua to wait for the necessary paper work to go through. so since wednesday (today is friday) i have seen her and Christian for an hour or so between my classes. i have heard her beautiful story of God´s work in her life and in the life of her family, been blessed to play with and hold her sweet boy, and enjoy learning about the process she has been through to give this beautiful child a home.
his story is that he was left on the street by his mother or father when just a few days old. he was found and taken to an orphanage in Guatemala City where he has lived for the first 3 years of his life. he will soon be going to his new home near minneapolis, mn to join his new family.

... for He sets the lonely in families ...

what a beautiful picture of this promise.

PICTURES!!!

take a look at the older posts... i just figured out how to add pictures!!!
so exciting...
more to come, i hope!

Flori

Flori...
i have spent the last 3 weeks, 6 hours a day with her. she is largely responsible for teaching me this language i have wanted to learn for many years... in fact, since 1993 when i first went to the Dominican Republic. i have been daily grateful for her. She is around 55, i would imagine, has 9 children and has been married for around 30+ years. she had a 10th child who died at 43 days old. the day she told me about the circumstances surrounding his death, i was deeply touched by her heart, her faith in Our Father in Heaven, and how that has held her through such painful waters of suffering. she has raised all 9 children with her husband who worked 3 jobs at times to make sure that their 9 children could all attend university. and they did. she has been teaching spanish for 15 years. we have laughed together at her jokes and stories about cats, we have cried as she has shared about her life, as we talked about adoption of children abandoned by their mothers and fathers (but not by Dios, she adds), we have gone shopping together for sandals and fruit in the market. Today we went to a nursery (for plants) and had coffee and treats as a thank you to her for her time and investment in my life. i was fighting back tears most of the morning...
Flori has taught me not only Spanish, but about life and family and children and the world and about what it looks like to live a life of faith in Jesus, above all things.
Thank you Flori. i can´t thank you enough.

the last week of school

and so today, the second to last day of school, i thought i would share a bit about what i've been learning.
1. spanish is a very easy language to learn when it comes to pronunciation (unlike english - think about how to say "through", "though", "thou" and "threw" for example...)
2. there is actually a verb for "to intuit" : intuir. i've often wanted this in english. now i have it!
3. most of what i need to learn at this point is the WAY things are said beyond the words that are used. for example, we "ride" a bike. here we "drive" a bike. we "set" the table. here we "put" the table. there are probably a thousand expressions of this sort and i'm barely scratching the surface.
4. entiendo mas que yo hablo (i understand more than i speak) is still my favorite phrase
5. BUT - i understood 90% of a church service i attended last night and 95% of a tour of a hospital - all en espanol. praise the LORD.
6. at this point i speak like a 5 year old... but at least my pediatric patients will feel comfortable with me, and most people understand 5 year olds anyway.
7. after 3 weeks i am able to function in conversation at markets, restaurants, and for several hours a day (6) speaking with my teacher, Flori, only in spanish.
8. that God knows our needs and provides specifically for them - my teacher is just wonderful and i adore her. every day it is a joy to spend 6 hours with her.
9. pienso que ahora, necisito practicar, practicar, practicar! (i think that now, i need to practice, practice, practice)
10. estoy aprendiendo que a veces, necisito solamente escuchar. (i'm learning that sometimes, i just need to listen.)

once again, the website for my school is: http://sanjoseelviejo.com

Alex

one of the people i've met here in antigua is alex. he is 12 and works on the streets shining shoes. perhaps doing other things as well. he wouldn't tell me. i met him in a cafe when he asked me for food, in english. i gave him some crackers i had with me and prayed he and his younger brother would have a warm meal that night.
i didn't expect to provide it a few hours later.
when i returned to the town square i saw him again and called him by name. this time our conversation was in spanish and he again asked me for food. so we walked to a fast food place and i bought him 2 pieces of chicken. as we waited 10 minutes for the "fast" food, i tried to get his story. his mother is very poor, he said, and lives in a town hours from here. he is in Antigua to work and says that he goes to school. at 8 pm, however, as he took the chicken from me and said "gracias" he also said he had to go work. "are there a lot of shoes to shine at night?" i asked. "i have to get money for food" he replied and ran into the darkness.
i haven't seen him since. but every day i see many, many children like him, shining shoes.

when i grow up...

i want to be like Sita and Peter, Betsy and George. these two couples are in their 60's (i'm guessing...) and are in Guatemala for 10 days exploring and learning and enjoying a trip together. the wives didn't know where they were going until they were on the plane and this is the 9th trip (9th country!) they've taken together! Betsy had just recently had an ankle surgery and was walking with a cane sometimes and using a wheel chair at others. (and imagine cobblestone streets in a wheelchair! she was such a trooper.) i met them on a little tour of a coffee farm (la finca) and museum of Mayan music/culture outside of Antigua this past Saturday. i became the interpreter for the guides of the tour who spoke only Spanish. we continued to talk and get to know one another and each one was just dear, kind, encouraging, interested in my life and plans and family. they are from Baltimore, MD. what a small world. they treated me to lunch and conversation and we parted ways after pictures and hugs. i assured them that my parents and grandparents would be thankful. thank you, sita, peter, betsy and george!

today i hiked a volcano

not something everyone can say in a day. but it's true. led by our fearless guide, Rolando, my group and i hiked, then climbed and scrambled over lava-made rock to get to the top of Pacaya Volcano. it is one of 40 or 50? in guatemala and not nearly the highest. we could see all of guatemala city below as well as 'across' to Volcanos Fuego and Agua. we saw Fuego errupt a few times, little puffs of smoke. it was amazing to be face to face with such power and heat and intensity of the earth. take a look...

the weekend

this past weekend i experienced what most people visiting guatemala do. la vida de la tourista. (the life of the tourist). i´ve been somewhat depressed ever since. perhaps some of it is related to the " honeymoon" wearing off and the reality of 3 more months setting in... missing friends and family and church and brushing my teeth with the water that comes from the faucet... anyway.
the difficulty of the weekend was staying in a hotel right on the water of Lake Atitlan (you should google this and see what you find... or wait for my pictures) with 3 mountain-volcanos surrounding it, as well as many towns which are a dreadful contrast to the beautiful resort-type hotels for us, the tourists. on friday afternoon we arrived in Santa Catarina and after checking in to the hotel, picking up our jaws off the floor and recovering from the bus ride through twisty-turny-upsy-downsy mountain roads, we (as a group of 19 americans and 1 guatemalan) took a walk through town. literally through the town. between houses (imagine: cement blocks making 4 walls and a tin roof and dirt floor = nice house), over trash, beside women hanging up clothes, children playing in the dirt, mangy dogs running around, through people staring at us like the spectacle we were. smiles speak a universal language, but my stomach turned at what they must be thinking.
and after walking THROUGH the town, we walked down the main street on which the buildings became more and more grand, with beautifully manicured gardens and flowers, overlooking (still) the magnificent Lake Atitlan, until we came to a resort like none i´ve ever seen. all 20 of us walked through the iron gates opened by dutiful guards and the 3 pequeño niños, following us all this time asking for a quetzal (1/7.5 of a dollar) or to buy their little crafts, were left outside the gates. i have no category for this.
on the patio grande of this resort, we rested from our "long, tiring walk" and ordered drinks from the extensive menu, each costing at minimum 30Q ($4). i ordered nothing and went off exploring because i couldn´t bear to make small talk about the amazing lake and resort and refreshing drinks... and those little girls following us?
so i sat on a bench up many, many stairs above the hotel in this resort and prayed. prayed about how to live in my position in this world, with integrity, with compassion, with love, with eyes to see the people we walked by as PEOPLE intead of as "the poor" and grace to accept what i see and who i am.
and after watching the sun set over Lake Atitlan, we walked back ... out the gates, into the streets, this time staying on the main road all the way to the hotel, through more iron gates back to our clean, bright, comfortable ´home´ for 2 nights.

the next day we crossed the lake on a tour boat, went to Santiago (another town) for shopping and more history lessons from Dr. Garcia (our guatemalan guide and leader here). and then to a town called San Lucas... and the next day to a large market... and then back to Antigua.

and so begins week 2...

a life we can´t imagine

one night at dinner, miriam share with us what had happened that day... a fairly common happening, i gathered. she and mario (her husband) were at the bank to collect their money for the month and were held at gunpoint outside the bank. the robbers took all their money. for the month. she told us this happens to guatemalans often, but rarely to tourists, because the police are much more careful about tourists. she believes this phenomenon has increased in recent times due to more drug trafficking and people in guatemala needing more money for their own habits.
she then proceeded to put an amazing meal in front of us and say "that´s life."
that is her life... their lives... not ours. i´m still not sure what to think about that.
(and please don´t worry about my safety - i have not once felt endangered... )

and so it begins...

guatemala is beautiful. i could stop there. the people, the land, the crafts, the buildings... antigua is a small colonial town that used to be the capital of guatemala and behind the uniformity of its walls there are hidden treasures of gardens, hotels, restaurants, shops, homes, cafes.... wonderfully quaint and delightful.
i wake each day in the home of mario and miriam. they have a large home about 3 blocks from my school. mario works on a finqua (coffee farm) and we have coffee from his farm cada dia (every day) and it is like nothing the US offers. amazing! miriam is a spanish teacher at another school and is about 4 foot 8 inches and twice as sweet and gracious. their 3 children (Mario III, Pamela and Angela) live with them on the 2nd floor along with pamela's nino, Jose. jose is learning to walk and is nearly one. Mario Sr. and his wife Victoria live in a part of the 1st floor and we live in the other area. i share a room with Philly, a PA student from UNMC who goes to Core Comm. Church with her husband. the other 2 girls from our group share a room nearby mine. we are fed 3 meals each day by miriam's hand and they are wonderful.... fresh vegetables, beans, tortillas, eggs, some pasta and chicken... and of course the coffee each morning.
i walk to school down stone streets past buildings all connected with walls of different colors, and say "buenos dias" to all i pass. my school (www.sanjoseelviejo.com) is just barely different from what Eden must have looked like. birds chirp all day long and sometimes sing so loud you have to pay attention, the water in the fountain is the constant undertone, and my teacher Flori and i sit under a roof in a little open air room all day, talking. she is about 50 with 9 children (36 to 25 years old), kind eyes and deliberate, carefulthatiunderstandwhatshesays words. her heart is precious and 'we' have already talked (aka: she talks and talks and i listen really hard and ask questions a lot) about matters of faith, politics and government, the need for education to prevent teen pregnancy and STD's, how her son's cat died after eating the neighbor's bird... and we laugh and laugh and laugh.
i love learning here, living here, soaking up here.
all for now...

leavin' on a jet plane...

in a few short hours i'll be leaving for Guatemala City, with 3 backpacks - small, medium and large. i've seen many of the people i wanted to but of course there could have been more time, better time... time, time, time. that seemed to be the hardest thing to find these last few days. thankfully, this morning i had a wonderful TIME with some dear friends in Lincoln today reflecting on the year past and toasting to the one to come. i'd recommend doing that with some people every year... and we decided, why not more than just once a year?
Welcome 2006... may it be better than any of us expect!