Isla de Ometepe

Here in Nicaragua, we recently visited the largest island within a fresh water lake! Isla de Ometepe is an island within Lake Nicaragua (or Cocibolca). This island is really quite remarkable because it has basically been formed by two volcanoes that protrude from the lake. Volcan de Concepcion and the slightly smaller Volcan de Maderas form two sides of the island that is only connecting by a small piece of land. Originally they were two separate islands before one volcano erupted and joined them together. It is possible to hike up both volcanoes, but after our last summit in El Salvador we weren't feeling too eager to climb another. Instead we opted for the best beach on the island.

Playa Santo Domingo is on the strip of land between the two volcanoes and offers a long 4 kilometer stretch of gray sand. During our walks along the beach we hardly saw a soul! It was a pretty relaxing time since we stayed in a little guest house outside of the "town". Each night offered great breezes off the lake as we lounged in hammocks reading and listening to the thunderstorms and insects chirping.

One day we ventured to a little swimming hole (3.5 kilometer walk) just outside of the town. This little place is called El Ojo del Agua, where we swam in the cool water collected from a flowing stream. We had to tromp through an orchard of plantain trees to get to the swimming spot, but it was worth it. After the long walk we really appreciated the refreshing swim. This impressive island really offers a lot of opportunity for relaxation and we took advantage of it!

Cerro Verde Park

After some relaxation and mall visits in Suchitoto and San Salvador, respectively, we went on the hunt for adventure, heading north to Santa Ana with the hopes of using that as a jumping off point to Cerro Verde Park where we would climb one of the three volcanoes. We had to make sure to leave early because the hikes last around 4 hours and we needed to be able to catch the last bus back to Santa Ana at 3:00pm. Arriving at the bus station at 8:05am to catch the 8:30 bus we were told that the bus now left at 8am and we just missed it. Extremely upset we asked it there was any other way to get there. The friendly ticket salesman (everyone in El Salvador seemed VERY friendly and helpful) told us that we could take a different bus at 8:30 that would somehow catch up to the first bus, that would take us all the way to the park entrance. A tad nervous, but not wanting to miss our chance to see the park, we went for it and sure enough, met up with the first bus after about a half hour. Once there, we had hoped to climb one volcano that we had read about in our guide book that offered a beautiful view of the nearby lake, however once arriving we talked with the guides who told us that it had unexpectedly erupted a few years back and that no one was allowed to climb it anymore. With some time to spare before the climb began, we walked around an orchid display and breathed in some fresh mountain air. Come 11am, we began the hike to climb the newest volcano, essentially a cone of loose cinder rock. The climb consisted of about a half hour of stairs down, the a scramble up the cinder cone that took about an hour in the thin air. Once to the top the view was nice, even allowing for a view of the Pacific Ocean, many miles away, before the clouds rolled in from the north. Around the rim of the crater we walked around and explored some of the steam vents at the top that were a nice relief from the biting wind. The way down was a different story... A few hundred meters from the way we came up was a very loose cinder slide, covered with scree (sandy like cinders). The fastest way down was to simply run and slide, letting the loose rock arrest one's fall. Perhaps the highlight of the trip was watching the group of Mennonite women who accompanied us to the top, do this in their nice dresses. We all had a good laugh watching everyone make their way down, some more graceful than others. Once off the cone, all that remained was the massive staircase that while taking only 30 minutes to descend, presented much more of an obstacle on the way back up. We treated our then tired bodies to some papusas from a woman at a small eatery at top and some Gatorade. Toby also befriended a little fox that gladly accepted a few of his peanuts and nipped him just the slightest bit on the finger.

Despite the effort needed to pull ourselves back up the hill to the top and the subsequent days of sore legs, the trip was fun, beautiful, and helped us to justify having a latte or two after the physical exertion.

Suchitoto

Planning on only having about one week in El Salvador, one of the places we wanted to make sure we visited was Suchitoto. Having heard that it was "Antigua before the tourists got there," we were anxious to see what it was all about.

We got into our Hotel Balanza just before a HUGE rainstorm hit. This was the first hard rain we had seen on our travels...although there are many more to come since the rainy season is beginning. We really lucked out with a great hotel that was basically an entire house almost to ourselves, including a kitchen, but the best part was our sweeping patio with hammock, table and chairs, and a view of Lake Suchitlán.

Although we stayed 3 days in this little colonial town, we really didn't do too much. Brittany purchases an indigo dyed shirt in the market, since indigo (añil) has been a pretty big industry in this par of the country. This town also has lots of galleries and local art, so we wandered around some of these. Most of all we just enjoyed the peace and quiet of the town and the lake vista. We got plenty of reading done as well, which is important, because we're carrying a lot of books around with us for the trip. Visiting Artex Café was a daily ritual to get 75 cents lemonade and americanos, where we also established a long running tally for who is the Backgammon and Rummy 500 champion of Central America. We haven't yet decided what the prizes for each title will be, so any suggestions are welcome.

On our last day we met the local gringo Robert who runs a little restaurant called El Rinconcito del Gringo with his wife. He is very involved with the local community and helping to establish better tourism initiatives as well as help run non-profit projects throughout El Salvador. We had a great time visiting with him and gorging on a veggie burrito and gourmet pupusas (a local El Salvadorian dish).

Honduras Recap

On our way to the Utila, we planned a stopover in Copán Ruinas to have a rest and visit the Mayan ruins just outside town. Although small in comparison to Tikal, they have quite a lot of detail and they're known for their glyphs. One of the most impressive parts of the ruins is a grand scripted staircase leading up a temple. Each step is ornately carved telling history about this ancient community with side channels and larger figures that go up the middle. This was a great little afternoon location to chill out in the grass and appreciate the splendors of this ancient place. We even were lucky to spot quite a few great macaws. Then, we were on our way to Utila.

Here's a little recap of our time spent on the island. Our main goal was to dive and get my Open Water since Toby already has his. This island is supposed to be one of the cheapest places to dive in the world so "they say." We arrived on the island at a perfect time when there seemed to be few tourists around. We were fortunate to head to Utila Water Sports and lock in a private instructor for my course and for Toby's Advanced Open Water at the normal rate. We also ended up staying in a little apartment with kitchen right on the water for dirt cheap. Special thanks to Erik and Kris for their excellent instructing and personal attention.

Our classes went really well, and after our first free fun dives (4 included with each class) we figured Toby should just do his Rescue Diver course as well to get 4 more fun dives and have a private instructor. It was basically 3 to1 for him, since 2 Dive Master Trainees (Kiara and Jonathan) were assisting in the course. Why not take advantage of this unique opportunity and feel much more confident in our diving abilities for the future. Needless to say, Toby's class was pretty exhausting since he was on high alert from the time we left the dock until we were safely back again. At one point 4 people jumped in the water that he had to go and rescue. During one of the simulations of rescuing a victim that wasn't breathing, Toby actually kissed Jonathan because he was so in the groove of giving mouth to mouth and had his adrenaline pumping. Kiara and I had a good laugh at our husbands and we all joked about it the rest of the trip!

As we already mentioned we did see dolphins on our trip. We actually spotted them on 4 different occasions including our ferry ride back to the mainland when we left. We believe they were spinner and bottlenose dolphins. Other cool stuff we saw while diving or snorkeling included: spotted eagle rays, yellow tail rays, southern stingray, 2 hawksbill turtles, trunk fish, parrot fish, arrowhead crabs, ocean and queen triggerfish, black durgon, green moray eels, lobsters, anglel fish, and many more creatures!

After just about 2 weeks of being on the island of Utila, we decided that it was time to move on. We really didn't want to leave, but we have other things to see and do in Central America, so it was necessary.

SCUBA Diving and more SCUBA Diving in Honduras

Well, this is our first time getting to the internet in awhile, but, alas, we are safe and sound and very happy in Honduras. After a total of 11 hours on a bus and a one day stopover in Copan to visit the ruins outside of town, we made it to the island of Utila in one piece. After a dingy motel stay across the water in La Ceiba and finding a private boat to get us (and some other stranded tourists) here when the ferry went down the day we were to come over. We made it though as about 30 of us had to get over and were on the first boat of 10… so we were lucky. We found a great dive center upon our arrival called Utila Watersports, with cool staff members and not a lot of students, so it just so happened that both Britt and I are one on one with our instructors. We also got our course, four extra fun dives each, and a private oceanside house (small) for 250 dollars each which is a great deal. Britt was a little weary in the water at first but after a total of 5 dives she is a Certified Open Water Diver. All she has to do now is use up her four free fun dives, hopefully on a few trips to the northside of the island in search of whale sharks. Toby's first dive was a little rough, being his first in about two years, but the second dive was much better as his skills came back to him. Just the other day, Toby and his instructor dove to a wreck at 100 feet (anything more than 60 feet is advanced only) where they saw some big tarpon, a huge grouper, and a giant spotted eagle ray that was very cool. Toby has since done 5 additional dives and wrapped up his advanced certification. After Britt planted the idea in Toby's head, they have decided to stick around on the island a little longer, enjoying the oceanfront house while Toby does one additional course to become a Rescue Diver. This course dives (no pun intended) into a skillset that focuses on rescuing struggling divers and diver specific first aid. With one on one instruction and a discounted price, the opportunity was hard to pass up. In general, Honduras is HOT, as we only get down to about 83 at night and it is constantly humid. It is much better when the wind picks up but still, hot. We have jettisoned a sweatshirt or two and a pair of pants each along the way to cut weight. I think we are looking forward to Oregon as much as we are looking forward to the rest of our time here in C. America. So far nothing is as good as Guatemala in our eyes, but we will see. I think we will like Nica a lot. Prior to the island we visited some ruins as mentioned earlier where giant macaw birds (the big red and blue parrot like things) were flying around wild which was cool. The above picture is of some dolphins following the dive boat. We would later jump in and swim with about 20 of them for a minute before some other dumb divers scared them off.

Beaching...and More...Wish You Were Here

We thought we would post a picture of were we will be in about 2 days as we leave Guatemala in...7 hours on a 3:30am bus for Honduras and ultimately the island of Utila in the Atlantic Ocean where we will be Scuba diving for...well, as long as our hearts desire. Hope this makes you jealous :-)

Dad & Yee Visit

Cutting it just under the wire of our departure from Guatemala, my dad and his girlfriend Yee made a little visit to us. Yee traveled all the way from London and my dad worked in his visit between business trips to Los Angeles. Although we only had four days to visit, it was very nice to share sometime with both of them. Due to the fact that we were ending our work with Ajb'atz' and sending home our kitty Nieve to be with my mom, we only spent time with Dad and Yee in Antigua. It made for a much more relaxing vacation and pleasant visit to not be traveling around to other cities.

During most of their visit we hung out around the city, enjoying the many shops and cafes that abound. Lucky for us, Dad and Yee to a liking to one of our favorite coffee places, & Cafe, which became a daily ritual. Many thanks to Dad and Yee for taking us out to quite a few delicious restaurants like Nicolas, Nokiate, and Cafe Mediteraneo for dinner. We hadn't eaten that well in a long time!


Other highlights included drinks at Sky Cafe on the rooftop and driving up to the Cerro de la Cruz lookout over the city. But, probably the best experience was visiting the Valhalla macadamia nut farm just outside the city. We were treated to a personal tour from the owner, Lorenzo, and privy to a lot of his dirty jokes as well. Dad and I received special facials with their macadamia nut oil and we all oggled over an adorable kitten. He was at first nursing from his mother but allowed us all to hold and pet him before he climbed a rock wall to get outside! This kitty encounter has helped "seal the deal" for Dad and Yee to get a few kittens of their own now that Yee has fallen in love with them again.


We had a great visit and really appreciated all the traveling, expenses, and energy Dad and Yee put into visiting us in Guatemala. Our time with them was a great goodbye to Guate, but also a send off onto our travels in Central America.

Goodbye Quiché, Ajb'atz', and Friends

On Wednesday the 30th of April we finished our work "officially" with Ajb'atz' Enlace Quiché in Santa Cruz del Quiché, Guatemala. We do plan to keep in contact with the organization, doing work from afar when needed and also continuing to donate to their programs. We believe very strongly in the organization's work and hope to maintain a close relationship with everyone there. We are now part of the Enlace Quiché family!


Although we had been saying goodbye's for about a week, Wednesday was a big day of goodbyes. Earlier in the day we stopped by Blintz Café for one last smoothie and frappé with Lucy, the owner. Unfortunately, she just started a frequent visitor stamp card...a little too late for us!! We would have had tons of free drinks during our time in Quiché. Lucy and all the friendly cute staff like Lety, will be missed. This was our great little hang out spot!


At the office many of our friends and co-workers also gave us a despedida with a delicious cake from the new bakery in town, Holandesa. (We had tasted one a few days earlier when Brittany's students Rita and Evelyn brought one to say thanks for her teaching them.) It was sweet to hear the kind words of our peers at the organization and to share a few ourselves. Office celebrations and refecciones were so common for birthdays and welcoming new members to the team and provided a time to socialize and get to know each other.


When we finally left the office, we had yet another goodbye obligation before Toby headed to the fire station. Doña Carmen, who was the landlord of previous volunteers Alex and Sopia, has been a very sweet host to us in Quiché since our first visit in 2006. We had originally planned to liver in her apartment as well, but when we arrived it was occupied, so we ended up renting from other relations. We've visited with her on several occasions always eating well, so of course she invited us over once again! We ate dinner with Carmen and her sister, Toby particularly enjoyed the wine made out of nance fruit. We've really appreciated Carmen's hospitality and hope to return in the future and bring some childre for her to oggle over.


One of our big goodbyes was on Thursday when a dozen of us on the Ajb'atz' team headed to nearby Chichi to check out a little adventure at the Parque Ecológico. The highligts of the day, besides sharing time with our friends, were the zipline ride almost all of us did and the giant rope swings that swung out over the trees. Toby was very sweet and gave all the girls a push so they could fly out even higher. We all brought food to share, but the time was cut short with our necessary departure to Antigua. Everyone was very thoughtful at Ajb'atz' and gave each of us some very beautiful gifts - Toby a nice quality "man bag" and Brittany a gorgeous hand-made shawl. Many thanks for these wonderful souvenirs of our time with Enlace Quiché.


It was sad to say all these goodbyes, but we are uplifted by knowing that we will eventually return to be with our friends. Guatemala is not too far away that we can't come back and stay with all our lasting connections in the future.

Ultimo Servicio

This last Sunday was Toby’s last turn at the fire station and it will always be remembered. Every Sunday, all of the volunteer firemen get together to discuss any business and Toby took the opportunity to say thank you for his opportunity to serve alongside of the Guatemalans as a volunteer firefighter. Toby has made numerous friends and will always have a bed to sleep in with the volunteer firefighters in Quiché. In departmental tradition, Toby was given a baño with a few of the other newly admitted firefighters, during which they ran in a circle while they were soaked down with a fire hose. It made for a great video. After thoroughly soaking Toby, all of the other firefighters made a line and gave him hugs. The next Wednesday, our last night in Quiché, Toby had a more informal going away party with the guys during which Toby brought six pizza and plenty of rum and coke to make of a happy night. The night was very bittersweet with over 25 firefighters coming to the station to say goodbye to Toby. The crew also surprised Toby with a nice new hat and a few t-shirts to make sure he didn’t forget about his fellow firefighters when he left. Although sad to leave, it is guaranteed that Toby will one day return, most likely with donation, so it wasn’t goodbye forever…

Chicabracan Clinic...Otra Ronda

So a week ago yesterday...we thought we'd give a helpful hand to our dear friend Dr. Heidi once again at her rural clinic in Chicabracan. It actually worked out perfect since the power went out across the city of Quiché, so we really couldn't do anything at the office or at home either.

This time around the pastor friend of Heidi and Matt came out to the clinic to pray and preach to the "waiting room." He is a very nice guy and I'm sure he is touching the lives of these rural Guatemalans. Unfortunately he is getting married in June and will be moving to be with his wife in Honduras. We pray that God helps find an adequate replacement to help witness at their clinic.

During our morning at the clinic we seemed to be seeing patients with almost all the same symptoms. Many children and adults are suffering from dry skin, lips, mouth and allergies. Right now is the tail-end of the dry season so it is very dusty and the air is dry. We passed out lots of chapstick, moisturizer, and allergy medicine. And we recommended that everybody drink much more water and bathe with actual bath soap and not laundry or dish soap because those are very harsh on the skin. A few of the regular diabetes patients came for checkups and meds, but in general it was a low-key clinic.

It was nice for us to help out the Mayans, but also Heidi in particular. Since her and Matt have a 9 month old, it is much easier to conduct clinic if the little tyke stays at home with Daddy. It was a pleasure to assist with what we could.

Zach's Visit...Better Late than Never

During the month of February Zach Kaza paid us a visit here in Guatemala. Zach, who is currently living in Panama City, needed to renew his visa and thought he'd come up here and visit family in Guatemala. A little undecided at first, he was able to find a really cheap flight, so that sealed the deal. Unfortunately, Zach had all the photos of the trip, until recently, and so I have delayed in writing the blog. It's better late than never though, right?!

At the start of his trip, Zach came to stay with us in Quiché for a few days. He was able to visit our office and see me in action teaching my class. We also visited with our friends Matt and Heidi, ordering some delicious dos por uno Telepizza. One of the days Zach got a much needed haircut from Toby's friend and fellow firefighter, Tumba, who did a fine job as always for a small fee of Q12 ($1.25)! And of course, we took Zach to Blintz for yummy cheap crêpes.

When the weekend rolled around, I was able to head down to the lake with Zach, while Toby stayed back home for an extra day to teach. We hung out in Panajachel savoring the wonderful coffee and goodies at Crossroads Café and shopped for souvenirs. Zach in his usual fashion took over an hour trying on hats and figuring out which one he wanted, but finally was successful in the end! Later that evening we took a boat over San Pedro La Laguna to enjoy the restaurants and nightlife of this town, visiting Jarachik, Zoola, and Freedom (where people were performing fire dancing).

For the next two days Toby caught up with me and Zach in the lakeside community of Santa Cruz La Laguna. Here we stayed at La Iguana Perdida; and while I laid out in the sun, Toby and Zach shot a lot of pool in the community area. We also had 2 very nice big community dinners with all the other guests, although we weren't keen on taking part in the cross-dressing event one of the evenings. Since Santa Cruz La Laguna is quite small, we decided to return to San Pedro La Laguna for one more evening of entertainment and cheap eats.

The week Zach visited we didn't have any vacation time available so Zach had to entertain himself for the rest of his trip. We headed back across the lake to Panajachel and boarded a bus together. However, Toby and I would get off and part ways with Zach prior to his arrival to Antigua. Fortunately, Zach was able to visit with Matt once again, this time in Antigua, and also spend time with his friend Esly from Chimaltenango.

Overall it was a very rare, but nice, opportunity to share so much time with Zach. Toby and I are very happy he made the effort to come and visit us here in Guatemala. It was a pleasure to share our home with another person.

Back in the O.O.O.R.

Well, this last Wednesday Toby was back with Dr. Heidi in the operating room at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Chichicastenango, this time for what turned out to be a much more eventful surgery. This week they were doing a vaginal hysterectomy and repair for a 40 year old patient that had been suffering for awhile with inconsistent vaginal bleeding and bladder incontinence. The benefit for the patient of doing the surgery vaginally rather than abdominally is a much faster recovery time and a lot less pain.

The surgery went rather well, with Heidi and Toby actually removing the uterus in about an hour. To accomplish this Toby had to hold a variety of instruments to help Dr. Heidi see while she clamped and stitched the elements that attached the uterus to the body. Toby would often have to remove clamps and cut the stitches while Heidi tightened the stitch to stop the bleed of the cut area. Once close to the end of the removal of the uterus, Heidi was having a difficult time actually taking it out. It turned out that a large baseball sized fibroid mass was attached to the end of the uterus. Previous ultrasounds had only showed 1cm fibroids so obviously over the last year this particular mass had been growing. Once the uterus was removed all that remained was to stop the extra bleeding…herein was the problem.

Heidi worked for about one and a half hours to stop the bleeding but for some reason it couldn’t be controlled. Heidi had thoroughly stitched the walls of the vagina but feared the bleeding might be coming from the abdominal cavity. The difficult thing about this situation was the circumstances of the surgery. First, the woman was fairly overweight, making it more difficult to see what Heidi needed to do. Second, unlike in the U.S. Heidi was operating with no backup and no additional doctors that could potentially help her or give her advice to stop the bleeding or to achieve a better view into the vagina where they were working. Here Dr. Heidi is in Guatemala, every week operating with only her skills, and the Lord watching over.

After a short break and an important prayer, Heidi felt it necessary to open the woman’s abdomen to stop the bleeding. So…Heidi went outside to talk to the family while the anesthesiologist intubated the patient and began the process to put the woman to sleep (she had previously been awake, although highly sedated). Fortunately for Heidi she had explained the possibility of having to do an abdominal cut to her family and all 20 of so of the family members waiting at the hospital were very understanding and told her to take her time. Rescrubbing in, Heidi rejoined Toby in the OR to start the abdominal incision. They began the procedure with Heidi giving Toby a small token of thanks for his hard work (it is in reality VERY physically demanding to assist in this kind of surgery) by allowing him to make the cut on the patient’s abdomen and begin the surgery. Heidi even allowed Toby to do some cauterizing and additional cutting during this procedure. Once inside the lower abdomen, Heidi was somewhat relieved to see that she had made the right decision when she saw a significant amount of blood in the abdomen. Once inside it was very easy to see what was happening and Dr. Heidi was able to stop the bleeding very quickly. Although the patient will take a much longer time to recover the bleeding had to be stopped and Toby had the opportunity to see some VERY interesting things. Once the bleeding subsided, it didn’t take Heidi long to stitch up each of the individual layers of the abdomen and get the patient to her room to recover.

After five hours in the OR; both Toby and Heidi were exhausted, but happy to join spouses Brittany and Matt, along with Matt’s parents at the doctor’s house for pizza and relaxation. Looking back, this was probably one of the most unique experiences in Toby’s lifetime and he was so fortunate to have a doctor and friend such has Heidi to allow him to share in that experience. It seems that this surgery may have solidified Toby’s desire to go to medical school after he retires from a successful career in law…we’ll see :-)

Goodbye Atitlán & Crossroads Café

On Friday we took a little day trip to the lake for one last look at the beauty and splendor of the volcanoes and water, and to say goodbye to our friends, The Roberts, who own Crossroads Café in Panajachel. Needing to liquidate our space in Quiché, Brittany decided to bring a big bag of various clothing items down to give Adele and the girls. Hopefully they can get a good second life out of these things.

Previously, Toby had been promised the cheesecake recipe Adele uses, so we came to collect on that! But, we also wanted drink some delicious iced lattes while we snacked on homemade tiramisu and cinnamon rolls. :p Lungi was assisting Mike in the coffee shop that day since her and her sister, Kasha, had a week break from homeschool, but she took a little time out to learn Backgammon with Brittany. Then, after securing her first win against Brittany (getting 3 set of double sixes at the end), she proceeded to beat Toby as well. We spent a few hours at the café until they were closing for lunch and then gave our farewells to all the family members. Mike even gave a free t-shirt to Toby as a parting gift. The Roberts' company, hospitality, and wonderful café will be missed greatly. We plan to continue ordering their coffee when we're back in the United States.

After our caffeine fix we went in search of some traditional men's clothing used by the Mayans. Very few communities still wear the men's traje, while the women use it prevalently. Luckily we were able to find a very beautiful pair of embroidered shorts worn by men in Santa Catarina Polopó and two matching belts - not cheap mind you, but worth the quality and uniqueness. While we were in the area, we also decided to purchase a few coin purses, a long scarf-like textile, and two customized pens. We ate a delicious vegetarian lunch of tofu pita sandwich, tabbouleh, and burrito at Bombay Café before heading back on the bus to Quiché.

Lago de Atitlán and all the communities that surround it have been such a welcome break to our life in Quiché. Anyone who has been here can attest to the peaceful majesty of the blue lake and the three towering volcanoes that surround it. We have come down here more times than we count since it is only about 2 hours bus ride from where we live and never ceases to amaze us. This haven will certainly be missed! Goodbye for now Atitlán!

Primera Comunión

This past Sunday we were invited to attend the First Communion (a special Catholic occasion) of two children in Antigua. While studying in Antigua last year, we lived with a host family: Rony, Tere, Almicar, María Teresa, and Andrés. We have continued to visit with them on many occasions throughout our time in Guatemala, including Semana Santa in 2007 and 2008. Having grown close with all the family members, we were invited to share in the celebration of la Primera Comunión of Almicar and María Teresa. (Andrés is still too young and has to wait for two more years.)

The day began with a special mass in the Cathedral in Antigua at 8:00am. Having previously attended only a few masses in Guatemala, we were delightfully impressed with the service and the priest. At the beginning of the service all the children receiving their first communion walk into the church and gather together. And before taking communion each of their parents brought special offerings that the priest blessed. These ranged from fruit platters to bread to fancy wine glasses. The priest also spoke very sweetly and directly to the children about this special occasion. They already took 6 moths of courses in preparation, but his main message was basically that when you have Jesus Christ in your heart it is always a party. Siempre es una fiesta con Jesucristo. We loved that!


After the mass we took advantage of some photo opps with the family all dressed up. Then, we were off to have breakfast at Café Condesa with the family and a few friends. This was a nice time to talk with other people staying with the host family and to catch up with Rony, Tere, and the kids.


In the afternoon, we were invited to a lunch and reception at a very pretty garden location. Tere and others had worked all night before making lunch for around 50 people, even making something special for us vegetarians. We certainly enjoyed the salad, bread, rice, and a special mushroom sauce mixture. They also made about 30 gallons of horchata (an almond/ milk drink), storing the extra it in a 50 gallon garbage can!


After lunch a very cool clown provided entertainment to even more invited guests. We were kind of raising our eyebrows in question when he showed up, but we were very impressed by his non-creepiness and ability to involve all the crowd. He performed for at least an hour, involving parents and kids in the activities. Toby was even enlisted to participate in one of the games! Unfortunately, when we wanted to transition from clown to piñatas a rainstorm dumped on all of us for 30 minutes. This rushed the candy grabbing and encouraged the cake cutting so people could sit in the covered areas eating.

Eventually we had to leave the celebrations when they continued into the evening. But, we are very grateful to have been invited to this special occasion. We hope the children continue to be strong and committed in their faith into the future, and maybe we'll even be back in two years for Andres' shining moment. ;o)

Dr. Piering...kind of

More playing doctor was in store for Toby last week while he went from the small clinic in rural Chicabracan to help out our friend Heidi in the operating room in nearby Chichi. Every Wednesday more or less, Heidi travels the half hour to the Good Samaritan Hospital in Chichicastenango to operate on a variety of patients. She usually schedules one to two surgeries per week, hoping that her patients don’t cancel on her. Heidi is an American OB/GYN and therefore more than qualified to operate on the variety of cases that are encompassed by her specialty, however, living in Guatemala has presented her with a very unique situation. Seeing as there are almost no well-trained doctors in the area where we live, especially those that will donate their time and facilities, Heidi can often be found operating on a variety of cases that in the United States would normally be handled by a doctor of a different specialty. Heidi’s presence in Quiché has allowed her to help numerous people that would otherwise have no where to turn. As living in Guatemala has provided Heidi with the unique opportunity to operate on a variety of cases and patients, it also allowed Toby the opportunity to scrub in and assist Heidi in a surgery last week, an idea unheard of in the United States. In fact many of Toby’s friends that have been in medical school for a few years have merely observed surgeries thus far. Heidi, not turning away a potential assistant and always eager to teach and help others learn, graciously invited Toby to help her take a biopsy of a large mass that had developed on what remained of a patient’s leg that was amputated last December. Toby, intrigued by medicine and eager to take advantage of this unique opportunity was very excited to help out. Once at the hospital Toby and Heidi changed into scrubs (apparently very comfortable according to Toby who has to try and talk Heidi into letting him buy a pair off her) and Heidi brushed up on her upper leg anatomy (not a bad idea). Once the patient was in the operating room and sedated, Heidi and Toby scrubbed in (just like you see on TV, more or less) with Heidi explaining exactly how to scrub, rinse and dry every bit of the hands, fingers, and upper arms while not contaminating the already cleaned areas. Heidi did point out the irony though of rinsing with the water from the sink that was at one time in the past undrinkable. Welcome to Guatemala. Once their arms were sterile (in theory), Heidi again played teacher, verbally guiding Toby as he dressed into the sterile surgical gown and gloves with the help of the scrub nurse. Once finished, it was important for Toby to never drop his hands below the level of the patient and the table, areas that were considered not sterile. Toby and Heidi then prepared to operate. The purpose of this surgery was to open the mass to take a biopsy that could be sent away for diagnosis to determine if it was cancerous or benign. With the mass isolated by sterile cloth, the working surface was actually quite small. Heidi examined the mass for the best area to begin her incision then proceeded to cut into the patient. With only a small amount of skin and fat to pass, the mass was soon visible.
Unfortunately, to everyone’s dismay, the mass was quite clearly cancerous from the beginning. Cancerous tumors actually drawn in their own blood supply by signaling the body to produce small vessels that supply it with the food it needs to survive and grow. The presence of many vessels was a pretty strong indicator of cancer from the beginning. Taking a small piece of the tumor, the task then was to stop the bleed that came as a result of the biopsy. Cancer, with its heavy blood supply, bleeds significantly for the size of the cut, and the small piece taken out required about 30 minutes to stop all of the bleeding. Heidi went to work with an electric cauterizing scalpel to seal off the small bleeding capillaries. While Heidi was working on this, Toby was suctioning the blood from the wound and the smoke from the cauterizing scalpel. He is also holding the wound open with the forks in the picture above. Once that was accomplished, she sealed up the incision with stitches actually in the subcutaneous layer of the skin which left no exposed stitches and only a small wound. Unfortunately for Toby’s first surgery and such a unique and amazing experience, the patient sees to have an aggressive form of bone cancer and will not likely have much longer to live, leaving behind four kids. Heidi has already enlisted Toby’s help for two more surgeries this Wednesday, a much longer vaginal hysterectomy (3-4 hours in surgery) and a breast biopsy. After this relatively short surgery, Toby has a large mount of respect for surgeons that must stand up for such lengthy stretches of time without breaks, not to mention the knowledge and skill it takes to operate on a person. This experience has sparked Toby’s interest in medicine, yet lucky for us he has already been accepted to law school and will not be changing his plans.

Chicabracan Clinic

After months of talking about accompanying our friends Dr. Heidi and Matt Bell to one of the many medical clinics they host through their mission Agape in Action, we were finally able to travel with Heidi to the nearby village of Chicabracan to help her do her thing. One might not think that there would be much to do to help Heidi, being that we aren't doctors, yet she put us to work right quick. Our presence also meant that Matt could stay home with their 9 month old baby boy Isaac instead of coming along to help Heidi. Things were a tad less chaotic for Heidi and also turned out to be a blessing in disguise as Isaac had a severe case of vomiting while we were off at clinic. Had he been there, it definitely would have been a worse situation. The clinic was a good chance for us to see all the crazy stories that Matt and Heidi tell us, firsthand. It was about a half hour from Quiché so we left around 7:30, riding in style in the newer Toyota truck their organization had just purchased.

When we arrived around 8:00am, the line was already pretty long so we didn't waste time setting up the supplies. The clinic is located in a small teacher storage room at the village’s school. Heidi has everything down to a science with all her equipment packed perfectly in four giant plastic toughboxes. In addition to those things we also brought a portable ultrasound machine and a laptop for keeping records. After getting all of our stuff set up, Heidi saw a patient out of order, something she rarely does, to hopefully acquire a key to the small room where they hold their clinic. It seems the man was the head of the Comité or leadership group of the town and had the ability to get them a key so they could have access to the clinic room in case someone else wasn’t there to let them in. After that, Heidi spoke to the group of patients waiting and explained to them the system of numbers that they could purchase to be seen by the doctor, one number per patient. Often the patients will try to buy one number and have Heidi treat both them and usually a child. Sure enough, one woman tried to do just this during our clinic, but Heidi wouldn’t back down and made her cough up the two quetzals (30 cents) which she had conveniently ready in the pocket of her apron. Overall the clinic was fairly routine by Heidi’s standards, with numerous patients complaining of abdominal pain (heartburn) and many with very high blood sugar. Heidi has mastered a speech explaining the two types of sugar, sugar and “white foods” (aka carbs) such as corn, rice, potato, tortillas, and bread, so that the Mayan patients can understand the concept. It was clear that like in the U.S. many of the ailments could have easily been treated with a better diet. With such a high number of patients with high blood sugar, Heidi, an excellent teacher, quickly taught Toby how to measure blood sugar and blood pressures and put him to work for the rest of the day. While Toby was pricking fingers for blood sugar, Brittany was manning the computer and quickly learned not only the records system, but also many medical abbreviations and terms.

Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of the clinic was all the pregnant women and using the ultrasound to determine an approximate birth date for the children. It seems that as more people in the town hear about the clinics, the more people are beginning to trust Heidi, coming to see her and let her examine the condition and health of their unborn children. Seeing that she is an OB/GYN, that is a very good thing. Heidi also believes that having the portable ultrasound is a big draw to the residents of this village that likely didn’t know such a machine existed. Of the 35 patients we saw on Monday, about half were regulars while the other half new patients. We had the opportunity to tell three women that they were pregnant, one of whom was having her 5^th child and another that for some reason didn’t look very happy at all to hear the news. We handed out plenty of vitamins, Tylenol for pain, Tums for heartburn, pre-natal vitamins for the pregnant mothers, a few toothbrushes and a few other random medications. The highlight cases of the day were one woman that had no control over her motor movements on her right side, explaining to us that while she was making tortillas she simply couldn’t make the necessary motion; and a little girl that had worms that tickled her when they came out of her culo, which Brittany had to explain to Heidi was a crude word for anus. Overall the experience was awesome and we are hoping to go back with Heidi in two weeks right before we leave Guatemala.

It is very important to mention that all of these clinics are possible due to the sacrifice that Heidi and her husband Matt have made to be down here. Rather than taking a much higher paying job, they are essentially donating their time to help the people of Guatemala and spread the love and word of Jesus Christ. It also would not be possible without help from their sponsoring organization Agape in Action, that not only pays for her to be here, but provide her with the medications and supplies she needs to help some of the poorest people in Guatemala. Please visit their website to read about their organization and should you feel inclined to donate, do so.

No Electricity

This weekend past weekend Toby and I took a little trip down to Atitlán so we could get out of Quiché for a bit and eat some good grub. Unfortunately, when we arrived home we were without electricity, and it appeared to have been out a while since our freezer had totally defrosted and melted everywhere. Periodically we are without electricity for a few hours so we weren't too worried, we just threw on our headlamps and made out like we were camping.

On Monday we still didn't have power back by the evening so we asked our friends Matt and Heidi if we could come over and take some showers (ours is an electrical shower head). Upon returning home we talked to our landlady Fabiola about the electrical issue. They were unsure what the problem was and planned to investigate on Tuesday. The most frustrating thing about this is that only OUR house was without power. Supposedly it all went out in our neighborhood on Saturday and the electric company people went around to fix things but nobody was home at our house nor Fabiola's mom's house that we are attached to, so we weren't serviced.

All day Tuesday went by with no electricity. Toby and I were having to get creative for cooking since none of our food could be refrigerated. Luckily, we have a gas stove so we were able to at least use that to make some dinner. It was a good excuse for us to go to bed early!

Wednesday we solicited the help of Matt and Heidi again for the use of their shower and washing machine. Thanks guys! Of course they graciously invited us over and invited us to stay for lunch. Little did we know we would be preparing that lunch, however! Really, it was the least we could do since we kept mooching off of them. Thankfully that evening we arrived home to find there was power!!! But, we now don't have working cable... Ahhh Guatemala!

Reflections on a Language

I was thinking this morning about the differences between Spanish and English and the strengths and weaknesses of the two. Spanish is very easy to understand in that they have different words for everything. For example, it is a different word for to shoot a basket (basketball) than to shoot a gun. Also, Spanish would never use read and read for past and present tense like we do in English. I bet you thought I made a typo there until you finished the sentence. Am I right? anyway, English is also a lot easier in some ways as it doesn't use feminine and masculine words or a different verb form for every subject, I, You, We, They, She, You all (plural you). What brought on this thought was thinking of possessive verbs and adjectives. English has Spanish beat by far in this category. For example: To say "at our friend's house" in Spanish would be "en la casa de nuestros amigos". It is really much longer and a pain in the butt. It really made me wonder who invented the "apostrophe s" and can I shake their hand. This one's for you Apostrophe S Man (in the beer commercial voice)!

The Earth Shaketh

We were unsure if it made international news or not, but we thought we would tell everyone we are safe and sound after a 6.1 earthquake last night off the coast of Guatemala. We were having dinner with our friends Matt and Heidi last night when Brittany felt the quake around 9pm. Sure enough, we all felt it once she mentioned it, as it lasted for about 40 seconds. We were actually quite far away frome the epicenter and imagine that had we been in Antigua it would have felt a lot stronger. This is about the 5th quake we have felt since living here and really wasn't nearly as strong as the big one we felt at work about a year ago.