Thursday at the Home

Last Thursday we spent the day at the Children's Home. It felt like we hadn't been there forever. They are doing a huge remodeling project right now. For those of you who have been at the Home, we will give you a few details. The kitchen was moved to the area where the kids used to eat. The old kitchen was made into a bedroom for some of the girls. There was a huge pila to wash dishes right by where the kids ate. It had a huge water reservoir because they used to haul water from the river. Now they have a well and the big pila was actually in the way of the new kitchen so they took it out. Bethany took a picture of where the pila used to be.

The kids are now going to eat in the tortilla kitchen. Part of the project was to repaint all of the tables and benches. Caleb and Don were helping with this part of the project. Both of them came home green!

Also new at the Home were some baby chicks. Here is one of the many pictures that Bethany took of the new babies.

We had a good day at the Home. It will be another couple weeks until we return because we will head to the city this week to get Hannah's cast off. We have only one more day at the Home before we return to the United States. It seems hard to believe that our time is almost up.

We had mentioned Rachel's horse in the previous post. Here are pictures of Hannah and Bethany on "Chica". Hannah only received a little ride around the yard since she already has a cast and all! Rachel took Bethany for a little longer ride (not long enought according to Bethany!) and she really enjoyed it.

Dr. Bethy Doolittle

Bethany just loves animals. Joe and Rachel's horses have been staying at the house for the last week, and Bethany just can't get enough of them. Tadpoles, cats, puppies, you name it. Basically, if its alive, she loves it.

Yesterday, a little birdie fell out of its nest. Well, she was all over that. At first, we were a little concerned that the bird was hurt. That wasn't the case. Bethany found a birdcage in the trash pile, built a nest, and started collecting ants for it to eat. The more time the little birdie spent with her, the more attached it seemed to be to our little girl. Here are several pictures of the afternoon.






As it turns out, the mother bird came looking for her little one. Bethany let the bird go with its mother and the little one soon disappeared. Today, two more little birdies came for a little visit, spending a couple of hours in the little cage. Their mother also came for them and they were seen flying back to their nests.

Unillá Clinic

Unillá is a small aldea in the Zona Reina. It is near San Pedro, where we have held medical outreaches before. Like San Pedro, Unillá is also very isolated. It is within twenty miles of the Mexican border roughly north on Canillá. It is about a three hour walk to get to the nearest road which is then a several hour ride to get to a large town. Duane had flown in a load of supplies on Wednesday to prepare for our trip. We flew in to Unilla in two plane loads on Thursday, stayed the night, and flew back home on Friday. Here is a picture of Unillá from the airplane followed by the sign on the building where we held our clinics. The clinic building also served as our quarters for the night. (the soccer field is in the center of the village, the clinic building has the shiny roof just up from the soccer field, and the runway cuts off to the right)


When we got there, there were official introductions. Here are pictures of Duane and Leslie being introduced and of the people gathered outside.



Over the two days of clinic, we saw around 400 people. Here are several pictures of clinic. The first two are of Craig and Arlen seeing patients.


Here is a picture of me with a family that I had just treated.

One of my sickest patients was a young girl with a badly infected finger.

Can you guess what I had been doing? If you are really interested, you can click on the picture and look closely at the lower right corner. (here is a clue, I was treating a very old man who couldn't hear very well)

Here is Arlen with a very sick man who was brought to clinic in a wheelbarrow. He appeared to be in liver failure. He felt so much better after a liter of IV fluid on the first day of clinic, he was brought back on the second day for more fluid. (and, no he had not passed, he just kept his face covered with that towel)

On Thursday, we were treated to a lunch of chicken soup and tortillas.

After lunch, we had a time of worship and prayer before restarting clinic.

Adjacent to the clinic is the latrine. Here is a picture of the upscale concrete facilities.

Here are pictures of some of the kids of Unillá who had come out to see the strangers.



Several kids were seeking a little shade under the wing of the airplane. I started taking pictures and the boys lined up for a picture.

As I took more pictures, the boys got a little rowdy. Here is a picture of them all trying to be the center of attention.

Overall, we had a great trip. The people were so inviting and so appreciative of our help. It was a blessing to be able to serve in Unillá

Home again

The first load back has been home for about an hour. As I write this, I can hear the airplane returning with the second load. We all had a great trip but are all a little tired. We will get pictures loaded and get another post up later. Blessings, Don.

A Good Day

Duane flew the two men from Uspantán back later in the afternoon today. Since Uspantán is close to Canilla he went ahead and came home for the night. He needed to get some additional medicines for the team as well as spend a little time with Abi and Grace. He told us that it was a good day in clinic. The people were great and helping with the organization of the clinic as well as taking good care of the team. They even made them take an hour lunch break. Everything sounded very positive. We are just praying for a good night's sleep for all there and here. Duane is planning to head back as early as possible tomorrow morning. Please pray for safety and another good day. Thanks for reading!

Unilla Update

If you were praying for the Lord's favor on the weather this morning, He heard you!! Duane had been told that it never clears before 9 am and to be prepared for that. This morning Leslie came rushing into the clinic at 7 am saying that they just called from Unilla and the sky was clear! The first plane full left at 7:30 am with Leslie, Katie and Arlen. The second plane full left at 8:40 am with Don, Rachel and Craig. Duane will have to go to Uspantán to get the mayor and evangelist once he drops off the second load.

The kids and I have decided to stop and pray every 2 hours (except when we are sleeping!). If you want to join us we started at 8 am (central time without daylight savings time which means 9am in NE and SD). If we hear any more, we will let you know! Thanks for praying.

Prayer Request

There will be a new clinic in a remote village called Unilla tomorrow and Friday. From what the Fickers are hearing, there has never been a medical clinic outreach in this area. The closest road is a 3 and a half hour walk away. It is in the jungle region of Guatemala so it rains alot more there and it is hot. There are several things that we would like prayers for if the Lord puts us on your hearts.

First, Duane will be flying 3 flights into Unilla tomorrow for the clinic. However, the weather has to be clear for him to land the plane. They have told us that it will probably not be clear until 9 am. Please pray for the Lord's favor over the weather there in the morning. Please pray for safety in the travelling to and fro in the airplane.

Second, Duane is also flying in the mayor of the area as well as an evangelist who speaks their Indian dialect. This is a medical outreach but medicine is just a tool to open the door to talk about Jesus. The team will be bringing a projector with the Jesus film in their language. Please pray for softened hearts and open ears to the gospel.

Third, we have been hearing that there are alot of people in this area. They are expecting to see around 400 people. They will set up clinic as soon as they get there, spend the night and finish up on Friday. Please pray for perserverance, endurance and strength. The team going is Leslie, Katie, Don, Craig, Arlen (a friend of the Fickers from IL) and Rachel who will translate for Arlen. It will be very long days for them and they will be sleeping on the floor of the building where they will have clinic. Please pray for a peaceful night and rest.

Fourth, please also pray for those of us who will be in Canilla during the clinic. Please pray for peace and protection for us as well. Those here will be Aaron, David, Joe, Abi and Grace as well myself and our four kids.

Don and Rachel are both taking their cameras so we will try to post some pictures as well as a report of what the Lord did in Unilla when the team returns. Thank you for your prayers!

A Busy Saturday

Yesterday was clinic in Canilla. It was a little different than normal in a couple ways. First, Duane and Joe had flown to Brownsville, TX on Thursday. They went to pick up new propellers and airplane paint for the Aztec. We expected them to be back later in the day on Saturday. (They did make it back safely just before dark last night. Check out the Fickers' blog for more details for their trip). Our normal routine for Saturday includes volleyball at the river in the afternoon usually spurred on by Duane! This Saturday however included a housecall in the place of volleyball.

There were about 45 or so people in clinic which is actually a little lower than usual. However the numbers don't mean quite as much when whole families come in under one number. Also, you can have only 45 people but they can all be really sick as opposed to 75 who are mostly here for prenatal visits or aches and pains.

At the end of clinic a young man, Juan, came in asking for milk for his baby. Leslie does not give out milk without seeing the mother and baby so she asked where they were. Juan started to tell Leslie his wife's story. She had a baby six weeks ago. After the baby was born, her stomach was still big so her midwife told her to put a large rock on it while sleeping on another rock. This was supposed to make it go down. (I was wondering if that would work on hips!) She got worse and they took her to a hospital. She had an infection but the couple did not have the money to buy the antibiotics. Now she was in her bed because she could not walk and she didn't have any milk to feed her baby. We really had no idea what this all meant. Leslie agreed to a housecall and said that we would be coming at about 3:30 pm.

After lunch, all who were going (Leslie, Grace, Katie, Cali, Don and myself) climbed into Don's truck. We would be able to drive for a while but then we would have to walk on a trail to their house. When we arrived at the school, which was the point where we could no longer drive, Juan was waiting for us. In this picture, we are starting on the trail. Juan is in front then Leslie and Grace, Cali (she is the Peace Corps worker in Canilla), me and Katie. Don is taking the picture from where we parked the truck.


I am not sure how long we walked but it was straight uphill at first. I was thinking that walking this everyday might work better than the rocks on my hips! Once we went quite a ways up the mountain, we had to descend a little to get to their house. Here we are arriving at their home. Notice the smoke in the background - more on that in a little bit.

The mother and baby were laying in the bed inside the home. We all went in to see her. Their adobe homes are very dark because there are no windows and no electricity. It took us a minute for our eyes to adjust. Leslie began examining the mom and looked at the baby as well. The baby was little but looked healthy. Her name was Katarina (Kati for short). We found out that this was their third. The dad, Juan, was only nineteen so they were very young parents. Leslie's examination found that the mom did have breastmilk but also did have an infection. It turns out that the doctors had told her that something had died inside of her and she had a proceedure to clean her uterus (retained placenta ?). Leslie gave her the antibiotics she was not able to purchase as well as vitamins. She encouraged her to feed her baby every two hours to increase her milk. She also encouraged her to get out of bed because this would help her heal and start to feel better.

While this was all going on, I was outside with Grace trying to talk to the other children. There were lots of children running around plus the parents of the young couple. Here is the abuela (grandmother) with the couple's two sons.


Here are some of the other children. I asked if I could take their pictures and then would show them the picture on the camera. They really enjoyed seeing themselves and would ask me to take another. Notice the fire behind the kids on the right side.

Here is a better picture of the fire. It was very close to their two houses.

We have been seeing alot of smoke up in the mountains lately. The people are burning their fields to clear them for the next planting season. The issue is that it is very dry here. Leslie told me that towards the end of the dry season in April, the fires get even more dangerous. Her boys have been called upon to go and help put them out on several occasions in the past. I asked the grandfather if the fire was too close (which to me seemed obvious but they are used to this). He said that it was ok because it was below their house. However, as we were watching it, it was travelling up the mountain straight toward the grandparents home. I asked if they had water and they said no. This is a picture as we were making our way back to the truck. This smoke is right next to the homes. The whole time we heard the popping and cracking of the fire. Ash was flying up in the air (Grace thought it was birds flying). At one point, the smoke was so much that it burned my eyes.

This family has been on my mind since we left. I have been praying for safety from the fire as well as health for the mom and baby. This type of a housecall gives us a glimpse of the hardships experienced by the people who live up in these mountains. It is such a different world from the city, where we were just a few days before. We will include more of the pictures in our March newsletter! Thanks for reading.

A Trip To The Hospital

As we stated in our last post, Hannah fell and hurt her wrist last Saturday. Initially, she only had a little pain and swelling. Well, over the next few days, that 'little bit of pain' didn't get any worse, but it just didn't get any better. Lori and I were both awake at 2am on Wednesday morning thinking (and praying) about her. We decided that we should take her to the hospital so that she could have an x-ray. The nearest hospital is in Quiche (a little over two hours drive). The x-ray showed a distal radial fracture not involving the epiphysis (i.e. it was broke). The doctors at the hospital wanted to admit her and 'fix' it the next morning under sedation. We just didn't feel peace about doing the whole thing up there, so we drove on another four hours to Guatemala City. We had not intended to stay overnight and hadn't brought any personal stuff with us. So, we made a quick trip to Hiper Paiz (Wal-mart) to pick-up a few essentials and early the next morning, we went to the ER of Herrera Llerandi Hospital. We arrived around 8am, and the Orthopedic Doc was working away by 9:30. With a quick stop for groceries, we were back on the road by 12:30. We feel blessed to have everything go so smoothly and for everyting to have worked out so well. Here is a picture of Hannah with her new cast. If you look close, you can see how it is already covered by signatures.

Children's Home

The last couple Fridays when we have gone to the Children's Home, Don and Caleb have been repairing bikes. They have replaced tubes and taken the bikes to the bike shop to have the chains shortened and replaced whole wheels. The kids were so excited and have been riding their bikes (they have 4 bikes for all of them to share). When Caleb and Don first fixed some bikes, we noticed that many of them didn't know how to ride a bike. They were very surprised when our kids jumped on the bikes and started to ride. Unfortunately, we did not bring our camera either of those Fridays so we don't have any pictures. We are hoping to add some pictures later.

This past Saturday we went to the Home to spend a couple nights there. There was a church service in one of the villages on Saturday night. Oralia and Sebastian and all of the older kids wanted to attend. We came to stay at the Home with the younger children so everyone could go. On Sunday, Don went to clinic while the rest of us colored and drew with the kids in the morning. We had purchased water balloons before we came and had saved them for this weekend. The water balloon fight turned into a huge water fight with everyone soaked by the end. Don missed it because he was at clinic but the kids all ran to tell him about it as soon as he returned. Sunday night we went to church. On Monday, I had promised to make Almuerzo Americano (American Lunch).

Most of the kids were in school but there were a couple around to help us. Wendy is stirring the Sloppy Joes and Angelita is stirring the "American Fries" (just fried cubes of baked potatoes for those of you not familiar with Cody's Steakhouse!).

Everyone was excited about lunch especially our kids. They were waiting at the door for the kids from the Home to return from school. Here Bethany is opening the door for Marta and the others.

Oralia is serving the sandwiches, potatoes and pasta salad.

I served the chocolate chip cookie bars!

Buen Provecho! (Notice Hannah's arm - remember the bikes? The one she was riding didn't have working brakes and she crashed. We think she bruised her wrist so Don wrapped it to help it heal. Apparently they need to work on the bikes a little more!)

Tadpoles and Trouble With Baggies

These last few weeks, I have been remimded of how much I take for granted. The other day, one of my translators was talking to a patient for a LONG time about the medicine they were given. I knew that they were saying much more than I had said for them to translate and quite honestly, I was getting a little frustrated with the delay. As I watched and listened, I realized that the translator wasn't talking about their medicine, but rather the baggie that it came in. He was opening and closing the zip-lock baggie. As it turns out, the patient had no idea of how to open and close a zip-lock. How many thousands of times have I done that, how routine this task seemed, how far from my thoughts was explaining this little detail. It reminded me of how I need to keep my eyes open and my mouth shut. I also need to keep learning and observing the people that I am serving. I learn something new every day. For instance, once when we were crossing the river and noticed the tadpoles, Leslie told us how the Guatemaltecans will catch them and immediately pop them in their mouths. How's that for fast food??

This last Wednesday, our Sabbath adventure was a little closer to home. We ran to the store for some pom poms (suckers) and drove to a creek just a mile from the Ficker's house.
Back under the trees was a shady spot where the roots were washed out. Spiderwebs kept the kids from venturing too far under.

The highlight was the presence of tadpoles (however, we did not eat any!). A homemade windsock (from science class) became a fishing net.

Thanks for reading!