Caleb's favorite day so far

Wednesday, Duane & Joe needed to fly to Santa Cruz del Quiche. Duane needed to meet with a lawyer about Abi's adoption. They are having to start the paperwork all over again with a different lawyer. Please pray for a quick, easy adoption this time around. Abi is almost three and they have been waiting and praying for that many years.

Anyway, Duane asked if Caleb and I would like to come along for the ride. We also needed to do a little shopping at the Despensa Familiar (think micro-WalMart). This was Caleb's first time up in a small airplane and he loved it!



Here is me, scared!
(just kidding - Caleb loves it when I embarass him like this!)



The flight there went well. Our shopping took a little while but it went well also. We found fresh berries in the market which are a real treat here! I bought 10 lbs. of strawberries & 5 lbs. of blackberries for a little under $10. I'm getting french-toast with fresh blackberry syrup for breakfast tomorrow!

Here is Joe getting us ready to take off again to go back home.


Here is the view of the Ficker's property as we are coming into Canilla for a landing. (see our post from 8/23/08 for comparrison)


Rachel arrived to make sure that the runway was clear etc. Roaming cows are the most common trespasser. The airport is only about a mile from their home, so the Fickers usually drive 4-wheelers or motorcycles (plus its just more fun!) Rachel had driven a 4-wheeler, but rode home with Joe on the back of his motorcycle. That left a 4-wheeler for Caleb and me. Since we had the whole runway to work with, I let Caleb drive. After I realized I needed to hold on so I didn't fall off the back, I decided to let him drive the whole way home. We even stopped to fill up with gas. Here are a few pictures.







So, after a day with his dad, flying in an airplane and driving a 4-wheeler, I asked my son what his favorite part of today was. He replied, "both." I know that he meant to say that spending that much time with his dad was first - the plane ride and the 4-wheeler tied for second!

A quick update...

We have ordered a set of recovery discs for our laptop. We found out that we can receive envelopes here in Canilla, so the CD's can be mailed down to us. Yeah!

Venuncio (little Ben) is doing well and gaining weight. Our family, on the other hand, has had a virus run through it. We are all running a little slow and had a day off of school today.

The clinics went well this last weekend. The most interesting case was the mother and daughter who came to clinic in Canilla, Saturday. The daughter was 14 years old and happened to be 14 weeks pregnant (not too uncommon down here). The mother wasn't feeling well, and after some discussion and an ultrasound, it was discovered that she was just over 15 weeks pregnant - with TWINS! Needless to say, the mother was a little shocked at the news. We had visions of a Guatemalan remake of "Father of the Bride II".

Computer Crash!

Sorry that it has been a few days since we posted. Our new computer has crashed. The HP people say that it is a VISTA problem. We are still working on a solution but thanks to Katie, we are able to get back on the internet. If anyone has any ideas, please let us know!

We spent Thursday and Friday at the Children's Home and actually brought Venuncio home with us again. He is not sleeping well at night and Oralia is very tired. Leslie, Katie and I thought we could take turns and give Oralia a break. The kids love having him here (so do us big kids!). Venuncio is now about 4 months old and he only weighs 8.5 pounds. We are hoping to fatten him up a bit as well while he is here.

The other big news is that the Ficker's dog (Josie) has had 11 puppies. Bethany took some pictures!






This is actually a picture of a horse and her colt that crossed the road in front of us on the way to the Children's Home. Bethany happened to have her camera out at the right moment!

David is home!

Duane, Leslie and David flew back home this evening at around 5:30 pm. David had to have surgery on his finger. The first physician was very pessimistic, and thought they may have to amputate the finger to the first joint. But the hand surgeon came later and was much more optimistic. They took a skin graft off of his forearm to repair the damage on his finger. It was a long day in the city for all of them and they were very happy to be home. We are very thankful that it turned out the way it did. The airplane is such a blessing. It made a 5 to 6 hour drive to the city (and the hospital) a much shorter half hour ride. Thanks for praying!

Prayer Request for David

Tonight, David Ficker was working on the Tacoma. The end of his left index finger was badly crushed by the rear leaf spring of the truck. We cleaned it out but weren't quite sure where to even put sutures. Duane & Leslie had already planned a trip to Guatemala City Wednesday. David will now go with them so that he can have it looked at. Please be praying for safe speedy travel & for his evaluation tomorrow. Also, please be praying for healing & restoration for this painful injury.

Weekend Notes

Sunday, we had clinic in San Andres. With all of the rain, the roads are in poor condition and we had a few less patients. In addition to the normal ear infections and prenatal checks, we had a couple of interesting visitors. First was another young man named Andres. Andres had a significant heart defect as an infant. It was not found until he was older and doctors in Guatemala now say it is not operable. He is a sweet 11 year old boy who is about half of the size you would think he should be with a large smile and a loud heart murmur. I enjoyed talking with him and after years of all sorts of people listening to his chest, I enjoyed letting him use my stethescope to listen to my heart. With the continued rains, we gave him and his mom a ride home after clinic.

Our other interesting visitor was Pastor Rodimiro. Pastor 'Rodi' is the pastor of Torre Fuerte, the church that the workers from the home attend in San Andres. He stopped by to talk with us and offer words of encouragement. After this, he prayed for us.

A quick update on little Enrique. He is back at the home, having spent a week at the hospital. He is doing well. He did not have to have surgery but was treated for pneumonia and anemia.

This last weekend, there was a chicken that had baby chicks. Here are a few pictures.

Rain, Rain and More Rain

I think I mentioned in the post yesterday that we are in a tropical depression. It is sitting over Central America. Yesterday the info that I could find said that it was right over Honduras which is to the SE of Guatemala. We have had solid cloud cover since early Thursday morning. It has rained with very small breaks since then. Everything is very wet and it is hard to get the clothes dry. What I was reading yesterday said that is was suppose to dissipate yesterday. Well, we woke up this morning with sprinkles, clouds and no electricity. I am not sure if the "no electricity" is related but it made for an interesting morning. Thankfully, someone has given the Fickers a large generator that can power all of their house and the clinic with electricity. Duane started it this morning so I am trying to do the things that need to get done with electricity.

Things such as laundry. Then I started thinking that many people in this country do laundry by hand. They use a pila. I love the pila. Here is a picture.



On the left side is a "washboard" molded into the concrete. The middle is the biggest and is used to hold water. The other side is for draining etc. The idea is to keep the middle "clean" so you do the scrubbing on the left and then scoop water from the middle to wash. Here I am scrubbing socks.



Then dipping in to get clean water.


Then rinsing my socks.


The pila works great for cleaning or scrubbing muddy clothes, socks, etc. When we would live at the children's home on previous trips, we would also use the pila to wash dishes. You clean the dishes on the left then rinse with the water from the middle. Then we would soak the dishes in bleach water on the right side. Now as much as I love the pila, I enjoy having an actual sink in a kitchen here and I also really like having a washing machine. Having no electricity makes me really appreciate it when we do have it! We are so blessed!

Cumpleaños de Hannah

Yesterday was Hannah's seventh birthday. Her day started at 6:30 am with her big brother lighting off firecrackers outside their bedroom window (Guatemalan tradition!). We were actually pretty happy it was 6:30 - all four of the kids slept in a little bit compared to their normal wake-up time. Originally, we were going to go on a field trip and picnic to some Mayan ruins that are near here but it has been raining for several days straight. We are in a tropical depression or something right now. Intead of our fieldtrip, we played card games and had a little birthday party.

Here are Leslie, Rachel, Sylvia and Katie.


Here are some more attendees with Hannah. Bethany, Don, Jesi, Joe, Samuel and Leslie.


We had cake and Pepsi (in a 3-liter)!


Later we watched a movie. Hannah had a great day! We will try for a picnic on Bethany's birthday which is in December. She thought a picnic would be great fun since usually we have to do inside parties for her!

One Month

As I was lying in bed this morning listening to the rain, I realized that, as of today, we have been here one month. We have settled in and have a routine going that includes school and clinics and the Home. The Lord is teaching us about being flexible with unexpected things happening that change our routine periodically, but I think the kids have adjusted well. We all are calling the clinic building home.

I also realized that we haven't posted for a few days. The kids haven't been taking as many pictures lately and as we have settled in, there doesn't seem to be as much "news". I decided to just give you a summary of the last couple days.

On Monday, we did school in the morning and then I went on a little outing with Duane and Leslie and Katie. We drove up a mountain and down the other side to a town called Zacualpa. The Fickers like to go to a plant/tree nursery there. It was fun to see the different types of plants and flowers. We stayed about an hour or so while they shopped and then went back up and down the mountain back to Canilla. Needless to say, I was a little carsick when we got home. But it was a fun trip.

On Tuesday, Don had clinic in Chiminicijuan as usual. Clinic went well and they actually got done a little early. However, they got stuck in the mud on the way down. This is actually "expected" a little bit here. They have shovels and hoes in the truck to move the mud around. The people who came to clinic saw that they were stuck so they started bringing rocks to put on the road and under the wheels. Especially during the rainy season, this is just part of life here. They finally arrived back home about an hour and an half later than expected. Don got out of the back of the truck, covered in mud, and said "It was actually kind of fun!" Too bad he didn't have the camera!

Wednesdays are usually our Sabbath days here or we try to make them that. We think it is important to have a day without anything scheduled to spend time as a family etc., plus it is Biblical! :) Anyway, Leslie came over in the morning to tell us that we were going to be having 6 visitors that evening for supper. They were driving from Cobán which is about 5 or 6 hours if the road is good. I went over to the Fickers' house later in the morning and helped make lasagna and a banana cake for supper. Don was working on a project at the clinic and the kids were playing. After lunch we gathered as two families and prayed for the people coming and for the Lord's protection over their travels and their stay here.

At about 4:30 or so, there were people at the gate but it didn't look like four North Americans and a Guatemalan missionary couple. I went over to the house to see if I could help. Leslie told me that these were, in fact, not our scheduled visitors but two different groups of unexpected visitors. The first was the mayor of Canilla bringing over the new Peace Corp worker to be introduced to Duane and Leslie. The second group was a group of four men. Two of them were pastors and the other two had a common connection with another guy that the Fickers know. They came to talk and ended up staying for over 3 hours. The banana bread made for breakfast for the "scheduled" visitors was served with coffee to these visitors instead. This is very Guatemalan. Relationships are very important to them and they will just come over and spend time unexpectedly.

Our "scheduled" visitors are supposed to arrive today. The lasagna that we made for supper will instead be served for lunch! We are planning on being at the Home today so we won't see them until we return. We are not sure how long they are staying. On Friday, it is Hannah's seventh birthday. We are "scheduled" to go the Home but we have decided to have a field trip instead. There are some Mayan ruins close to here and we thought it would be fun to take a picnic lunch. We will hopefully take some pictures to post!

As you can see, the Lord is really teaching us about flexibility. We are learning to take the unexpected, adjust, smile and go forward! Thanks for reading!

Updates

We have a couple things we wanted to update from previous posts etc.

First, the little baby that we took care of for a little while (we called him "Little Ben") was taken to the hospital last week. We arrived at the Home on Thursday and they told us that they had taken him to the hospital in Quiche. Later we found out that they had put him on IV fluids and thought he had pneumonia. He was still in the hospital last night when we went to San Andres for church. Oralia took him and has stayed with him the entire time. This means that Lita and Zoila didn't get their normal days off and Oralia has been away from her family and the Home since Thursday. We are praying that they will be able to return soon and we pray for rest for everyone involved.

Here is a picture of "Little Ben" (they actually call him Enrique at the Home).



Second, we have set up a new blog at www.guatnewsletters.blogspot.com. (See our link "Monthly Newsletters to the left) We are required to write monthly newsletters for our church. We send them via e-mail to our church and then they are sent out to our distribution e-mail list. We realized that many of you may not be on the list so we wanted to make them available for everyone to read. We are trying to write something different than what we post in the blog.

Third, this relates to our newsletters. In our October newsletter we wrote about a little boy that the people at the Home found on the side of the road. We have an update about him that we wanted to share. If you haven't read the newsletter, you may want to read it before you continue. . . We had written that Oralia and Sebastian did not know his name at first. We found out later that they thought it was Heliolopez (I am not sure of the spelling!) A week ago Sunday they found out that it is actually Elias. On Sundays, some of the parents of the kids at the Home come to visit. Well, Elias' father showed up. Elias ran away from him crying. I asked Oralia about it and she said that his father drinks and Elias must be afraid of him. Oralia went and took his hand and led him over to the father. Soon after, the mother showed up with snacks. This seemed to make him happier as he quit crying. The whole situation is very sad. The parents seem to be ok with leaving him at the Home and Oralia and Sebastian think it is better for him if he is there as well. He is very happy there and smiles often.

Here is a picture of Elias with Leslie.

Days at the Children's Home

As a family, we are trying to spend two days a week at the Children's Home. This week it was Thursday and Friday. Oralia and Sebastian and their four children live at the Home. There are two other workers, Lita and Zoila. Everyone is supposed to get one day off a week. Oralia and Sebastian take Wednesdays (if they can), Zoila takes Thursdays and Lita takes Fridays. The issue is that the workload does not change when someone has the day off. There are still meals to prepare and clothes to wash and babies to take care of. We decided that going on Thursdays and Fridays may be when we can help the most by stepping in when someone has a day off.

Our main goal is to work. Don tries to help Sebastian with whatever project he is working on. On Thursday, they replaced a piece of plywood on a ceiling in a bodega (storage room). The roof was leaking somewhere and the wood was all rotted and moldy. They took down the old and cut a new one then hung it back up. On Friday, they were working on a planer that Sebastian uses to do woodworking. Someone has asked Sebastian to make some furniture but he needs the planer working. Don and Sebastian discovered that they may need a very specialized part to get it working. They are going to ask some more questions and think about it.

My typical day at the Home is spent cutting vegetables in the kitchen for lunch or plucking the remaining feathers from a chicken. Then I help serve lunch to the kids and then to the adults. After lunch I try to help put away dishes that the older girls are washing. The next item is usually folding the mountains and mountains of laundry. It is alot of work for them to keep everyone fed and in clean clothes. One day, Oralia told me that she was cooking lunch for 38 people. Many of us have done something similar at holidays but this is every meal, every day. It has been fun to be helpful to them and while we are working, I have lots of opportunities to practice my Spanish. Yesterday I learned, "Estoy doblando mucha ropa" which means I am folding lots of clothes. I tell them that I can only handle a few "palabras nuevas cada dia" (new words each day).

Yesterday, when we arrived, the vegetables were already cut so I asked what work they had for me. They said that I could help make tortillas. I think they were thinking that I would not actually do it! They often feel uncomfortable with giving me work, especially Lita. I told them that I would try. They make hundreds of tortillas a day. I was, of course, very slow. I made about 1 to their 7, but by the end, mine looked very similar to theirs. Bethany tried her hand at a couple as well. It was very fun learning something new! Here are a couple pictures with Bethany and I making tortillas.

New Friends

There is another family that lives with the Fickers. They are a mom, Nikolasa, and her three children, Kevin, Sylvia and Jessie. Kevin is 11, Sylvia is 9 and Jessie is 5. The girls and Samuel have played alot with Jessie and some with Sylvia. Caleb is just starting to get to know Kevin. They all three speak English because Nikolasa has lived here a long time. Her husband lives in San Andres but it is an abusive relationship. The Fickers took her in and gave her a job. She does all their laundry and helps with the cleaning. Leslie really needs the help and Nikolasa needed to be in a better place. The relationship has blessed both of them. Leslie has also taught her how to bake. She makes wonderful cookies! Here are a few pictures of the kids together.

This is Samuel, Jessie, Hannah and Grace on the trampoline.


Caleb, Rachel, Bethany and Kevin are playing soccer.


Caleb, Kevin, Sylvia and Bethany


After the soccer game, Leslie had a little birthday party for Jessie. She turned 6 last Sunday. We are hoping that the relationships will continue to grow and they will have lots more soccer games!

Tuesday Clinic

On Tuesdays, clinic is held in a Chiminisijuan, a small remote village. My GPS says it is a mere 8.24 miles "as the crow flies" from Canillá. The elevation of Canillá is about 4000 ft. The elevation goes up to almost 7000 ft. in Chiminisijuan. This last Tuesday, the trip took us just over an hour. The first half of the trip consisted of driving the Toyota pickup, with the new 4-wheeler in tow, as close to the clinic as the roads allow. Yesterday, we drove for about 40 minutes and walked for 30. Here is a picture of the 4-wheeler being towed to clinic.


Duane and Tomás (the translator) loaded up the supplies onto the 4-wheeler.


The other five of us started walking. We took the 'short-cut', a narrow walking path that cuts a little distance off of the trek.


The view of the valley below from the shortcut is unbelievable!


Here we are back on the road nearing the clinic. Armondo is trying to knock down some dirt to fill in the road for the 4-wheeler.


Before clinic starts, Leslie brings Atol, a Guatemalan rice drink/soup, to share with the patients. Armondo, a local pastor and gifted speaker, shares a message about Christ.


The people in Chiminisijuan are poor, malnourished, and isolated. Here is Katie seeing the first patient of the day.


Leslie and I saw a five-year-old girl with pneumonia. We started her on an antibiotic and gave her ibuprofen and fluids. We told the mother that she needed to go to the hospital, but the mother refused. There are many barriers for the Mayan people to go the hospital. In addition to a lack of access to transportation and inability to pay, they face racism and are often treated poorly. We prayed over her after seeing her initially and again at the end of clinic. We have to trust that the Lord will watch over her, there are no other options.


The young man on the right had a ear infection. The mother was asking for worm medicine for the young man on the left. I asked what his symptoms were. He was complaining of nausea, diarrhea, a bloated stomach and decreased appetite.... and, oh yeah, he had vomited up worms. So, with all of my training and experience, I concluded that he should, in fact, receive worm medicine.

A New 4-wheeler

Getting things down to Guatemala can really be a challenge. The Fickers purchased a 4-wheeler a couple of years ago, but had title issues and had not been able to bring it down until now. With a lot of work with the guys at Agape in Action, the paperwork was completed and the 4-wheeler was loaded into the 4-runner John V. drove down with me. Here is a link to a post with pictures of it being loaded - click here. (yes, they really did use a tree!)

Getting it out proved to be much easier than getting it loaded. Here are a few pictures that Caleb took when we arrived in Guatemala.

A Date!

Don and I had a date this morning. We went to the market together at 6 am. We left the kids - some were sleeping, some were up doing school - with a walkie talkie, just in case they needed us. We usually go to the market on Friday nights but we all went to the river yesterday. The kids played in the sand and water. The big kids played volleyball. So the next best time to go to the market is very early on Saturday mornings - less people. We took pictures of what we purchased.

We bought these fruits and vegetables in the market today for 95 Quetzales or Q. The exchange rate is about 7.4 Q for $1. So our total cost was about $13.


In contrast, Duane and Leslie went to Guatemala City yesterday and bought us these groceries for Q418 which is about $56. Obviously, fruits and vegetables are very inexpensive here. Most of the groceries we had them buy in the city are dairy products. We cannot buy them up in the mountains. We have not been eating much meat because it is expensive as well (we will buy some fresh chicken this week which isn't too bad in price) but we wanted to get some dairy for the protein. We are eating lots of veggies and fruit! Hope this gives you an idea of costs etc.


When Don was working on the roof at the Children's Home, he slipped and fell on the algae. He was fine but his shirt was covered in gross algae. I washed it in the pila (see picture in other blog entry) and then hung it to dry. He continued working on the roof without a shirt. I was telling the women at the Home that Don was "muy blanco" or very white. I also told Don that he needs some sunscreen - but because he is afraid of heights he did not want to climb up and down the ladder too many times. Well, now he is "muy rosado"! (very pink!) The kids took a picture for your enjoyment!

Lots of pictures!

We are a little behind in posting pictures. Bethany went a little crazy at the Children's Home the last couple times that we have been there. We have been going on Thursdays and Sundays just for the day. On Thursdays, most of the kids are in school until lunchtime so we usually help them with their work. I help Oralia in the kitchen and with laundry etc. Today Don was on the roof of the salon (their multi-purpose building) helping Sebastian sweep off water and algae. On Sundays Don drops us off. While he is at the clinic, we do some activities with the kids. Last Sunday, we just did puzzles and colored. Here are some pictures of the last couple visits.

These cute girls are Marta and Leslie.


This is Julio cleaning the pila. They use this pila to do laundry.


Hannah is with Paola, Cata and Grisman.


This cute little thing is Melissa.


On one of our days with no school, no clinic and no trips to the home, we took a walk. There is a irrigation canal close to the Ficker's home. There is a trail that follows it for 10 miles or so. We did not go that far and actually had to turn back because of the rain coming. The girls brought their camera and took these pictures.

Samuel and Caleb


These two pictures are just of the view from the trail. It was very beautiful. The kids have asked several times to go again. We are hoping for tomorrow.



These are just pictures of our awesome kids enjoying each other!


Thanks for reading!