My sister, Jodie and Andrew, just had their second baby, it's a girl!! Ethan will be a great big brother. After Guatemala, I was able to spend a week in KC helping them out. It was so special and I already love her so much!
Friday, March 28, 2008
2007 Year In Review
Pictures from St. Kitts and our house in Ohio!
Hi all! So we are finally going to start using this blog, feel free to check it regularly. We have a lot of friends and family who are interested in our lives and hope this helps us stay updated!Here's our year in review, briefly:
July: Moved to Ohio
August: Vacation to St. Kitts and Nevis
September: Mike started new job, optometry, and I started my third year of med school and am on rotations now
November: Found out we were expecting our first little one!!! This is the SAME month we were told we wouldn't be able to have kids on our own w/o IVFw/ICSI or adoption!! God works in amazing ways doesn't He =) We still plan to adopt someday though.
December: Waited. . . and finally told our families! They were sooo excited and we had a lot of fun sharing the news.
We are very blessed that God has trusted US to be parents! It's amazing to think about. It will be an exciting time and are truly looking forward to it. Miracles still happen every day and we have no doubt that all kids are miracles, including our little "sprout".
Sunday, July 16, 2006
HOME =)
sorry it took me so long to post my return post. last wednesday was a very busy day for us and i didn't have a chance to use the computer. then thursday and friday i was traveling home and finally got a chance to go to the library today and write a little.
my ride home was crazy and i'll tell the short version. i flew from acapulco to mexico city on thrusday morning. my next flight was to chicago. i was offered by aeromexico chance to stay overnight in mexico city for $300 in international credit so i volunteered. i was a little nervous about being in mexico city alone and wasn't sure what mike would think. but we could travel if i got this! anyway, at the alst minute they didn't need me after they already gave away my seat. so they put me in first class to chicago =) well, the plane ran out of fuel and we had to stop in houston. this put me 2 hours behind so i missed my connecting flight to KC in chicago. i ended up staying overnight in chicago courtesy of delta and was booked for a 7:40 flight the next morning. well, i go tthere really early fo rmy morning flight and they told me i didn't have have a ticket, just a reservation. to make a logn story really short (because i'm going to be logged off this computer in a minute) i spent the next two hours talkign with the delta ticket agent and he finally got my tickets straghtened out. i didn't exist in the computer or something. so i missed the 7:40 and went on another flight at 9:40. i'm so thankful for that guy and i'm also thankful to be home!!!
god bless,
kristi
i might post more pics later!
my ride home was crazy and i'll tell the short version. i flew from acapulco to mexico city on thrusday morning. my next flight was to chicago. i was offered by aeromexico chance to stay overnight in mexico city for $300 in international credit so i volunteered. i was a little nervous about being in mexico city alone and wasn't sure what mike would think. but we could travel if i got this! anyway, at the alst minute they didn't need me after they already gave away my seat. so they put me in first class to chicago =) well, the plane ran out of fuel and we had to stop in houston. this put me 2 hours behind so i missed my connecting flight to KC in chicago. i ended up staying overnight in chicago courtesy of delta and was booked for a 7:40 flight the next morning. well, i go tthere really early fo rmy morning flight and they told me i didn't have have a ticket, just a reservation. to make a logn story really short (because i'm going to be logged off this computer in a minute) i spent the next two hours talkign with the delta ticket agent and he finally got my tickets straghtened out. i didn't exist in the computer or something. so i missed the 7:40 and went on another flight at 9:40. i'm so thankful for that guy and i'm also thankful to be home!!!
god bless,
kristi
i might post more pics later!
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
two more days!
we had a great time making cookies with areli. we were forunate to be able to use susie yanez´s kitchen. it´s super nice because she loves to cook and they just built a new kitchen. it´s amazing, there is a 6 burner stovetop and everything =) she also had baking powder, vanilla, and chocolate chips which are about impossible to find here. we even had to go to FOUR different stores before we found one that carried flour, nobody bakes things like that here =) we had to go to three different stores to find one that carried butter too. it´s funny the things that are our staples that are impossible to find anywhere else. we have cookies to the yanez, dr. steinneman, dr. nela (she also owns the hotel we are staying at), and of course, our cooks (las cocineras)!
areli, megan, and i hung out and talked last night. it was a great time to just chat. we listened to different praise songs in english and areli wanted to learn some of them. we also practiced saying each others name and of course, making fun of how are pronounce it. i could just never say her name right and she couldn´t say mine because the r´s are so different you really have to grow up with the language to say it correctly. it was funny!
today we were at the hospital again all day. i never feel like i tell very exciting stories about the hospital but i don´t know that it´s all that interesting to everyone!! we always have great discussions with dr yanez about how medicine is practiced in the united states. the privacy act HIPAA would be appalled at how things are handled in mexico. but it works for them so that´s just fine. patient confidentiality doesn´t really exist. Curious patients have been known to stand in and listen to others, there are 10 people in one hospital room with no dividers or privacy, and after an ultrasound many patients just get up and walk out-bearing their backside to everybody in the hallway on the way to their room. it´s just really funny here. medicine is a lot simpler and there´s not even patient history forms, dr yanez explained . many people can´t read or write anyway so it´s actually more of a hassle but he says it takes up a lot of his time getting a family history on them. and, of course, everyone is in charge of their own medical records, dr´s don´´t keep that info. it´s really been interesting learning more about the logistics of a hospital in a third world country. it´s a lot simpler and sometimes i think that´s a very good thing!
one funny thing that happened is that dr. yanez was talking to a patient about her separation from her husband. he asked me what i think she should do. i said, i don´t know because i don´t know her. he asked me again to give her advice since i am the married one of us girls, and so i said, i would talk to God about it and go to church. this was great because then it was kind of an opening for him to talk to her about her spiritual life. they talked about it at great length and he was telling her about some of the churches in ometepec. maybe she can find strength in the church because she´s having a rough time.
tonight we are going to the church again to hang out with the young adult group. it was a lot of fun last time so i´m looking forward to it. and tonight we get PIZZA! it´s our first time to eat at a restaurant in mexico. we had the same pizza at church the other night so i´m sure it´s fine. and we don´t really care, we are looking forward to some americanish food. hopefully i´ll get to write on wednesday. it will be our last day and the woods are having us over. it should be very nice =)
have a great day!
love in Christ,
kristi
areli, megan, and i hung out and talked last night. it was a great time to just chat. we listened to different praise songs in english and areli wanted to learn some of them. we also practiced saying each others name and of course, making fun of how are pronounce it. i could just never say her name right and she couldn´t say mine because the r´s are so different you really have to grow up with the language to say it correctly. it was funny!
today we were at the hospital again all day. i never feel like i tell very exciting stories about the hospital but i don´t know that it´s all that interesting to everyone!! we always have great discussions with dr yanez about how medicine is practiced in the united states. the privacy act HIPAA would be appalled at how things are handled in mexico. but it works for them so that´s just fine. patient confidentiality doesn´t really exist. Curious patients have been known to stand in and listen to others, there are 10 people in one hospital room with no dividers or privacy, and after an ultrasound many patients just get up and walk out-bearing their backside to everybody in the hallway on the way to their room. it´s just really funny here. medicine is a lot simpler and there´s not even patient history forms, dr yanez explained . many people can´t read or write anyway so it´s actually more of a hassle but he says it takes up a lot of his time getting a family history on them. and, of course, everyone is in charge of their own medical records, dr´s don´´t keep that info. it´s really been interesting learning more about the logistics of a hospital in a third world country. it´s a lot simpler and sometimes i think that´s a very good thing!
one funny thing that happened is that dr. yanez was talking to a patient about her separation from her husband. he asked me what i think she should do. i said, i don´t know because i don´t know her. he asked me again to give her advice since i am the married one of us girls, and so i said, i would talk to God about it and go to church. this was great because then it was kind of an opening for him to talk to her about her spiritual life. they talked about it at great length and he was telling her about some of the churches in ometepec. maybe she can find strength in the church because she´s having a rough time.
tonight we are going to the church again to hang out with the young adult group. it was a lot of fun last time so i´m looking forward to it. and tonight we get PIZZA! it´s our first time to eat at a restaurant in mexico. we had the same pizza at church the other night so i´m sure it´s fine. and we don´t really care, we are looking forward to some americanish food. hopefully i´ll get to write on wednesday. it will be our last day and the woods are having us over. it should be very nice =)
have a great day!
love in Christ,
kristi
Monday, July 10, 2006
galletas!
have i ever told you all that we have cookies for breakfast here? fine by me but it´s always a little funny taht we have like four packages of cookies to choose from every day.
so italia won and that made me happy since the french people don´t really like americans. yeah for italia! it was fun to watch the game here!
today we spent hte whole morning in the hospital as usual. it was really interesting and megan especially saw a lot of interesting cases-a woman with bell´s palsy who was pregnant, a baby who might have achondroplasia (dwarfism), and other interesting ones. we had agreat review of EKG´s today with dr. yanez, the cardiologist. it´s good to keep up on this stuff and review!
this has to be short because we´re going with areli tonight to make cookies (galletas) to say thanks for all of the doctors and cooks especially. we get to use susie yanez´s kitchen and i´m excited to see her house. i´m also excited to taste the chocolate chip cookies =) we have to go to the store today and since nobody bakes here we think it might be a little hard to find the ingredients! i better look for a recipe!!
have a great day!
to Him be the glory!
so italia won and that made me happy since the french people don´t really like americans. yeah for italia! it was fun to watch the game here!
today we spent hte whole morning in the hospital as usual. it was really interesting and megan especially saw a lot of interesting cases-a woman with bell´s palsy who was pregnant, a baby who might have achondroplasia (dwarfism), and other interesting ones. we had agreat review of EKG´s today with dr. yanez, the cardiologist. it´s good to keep up on this stuff and review!
this has to be short because we´re going with areli tonight to make cookies (galletas) to say thanks for all of the doctors and cooks especially. we get to use susie yanez´s kitchen and i´m excited to see her house. i´m also excited to taste the chocolate chip cookies =) we have to go to the store today and since nobody bakes here we think it might be a little hard to find the ingredients! i better look for a recipe!!
have a great day!
to Him be the glory!
Sunday, July 09, 2006
NARNIA =)
so narnia was great and i´m so glad that i saw it. mike and i just never go to the movies so i didn´t have a chance. i still really want to see End of the Spear, a movie about ecuadorian missionaires. it was supossed to be great too!
it was nice watching the movie, there were about 15 of us there. andy wood made popcorn and brought pop. the wood parents were in acapulco so it was nice that we could all get together so that andy and susie would have something fun to do =)
this morning we went to Fe y Luz, areli´s presbyterian church. i enjoy the worship and singing but it´s so hard to listen to the sermon. the sermons are about an hour and it just is hard to concentrate in spanish for that long. i always miss a lot but this preacher was VERY vibrant and i really didn´t think the use of the microphone was necessary =) he´s so welcoming and they all prayed for us while we were there. tonight i´m going to the later service. there is santa cena (communion) and a baptism. i´ve never had communion here or seen a baptism so i thought that would be fun to go to. there´s another sermon so hopefully i can concentrate better this time!! we´ve really made quite a group of friends here and all of them attend Fe y Luz. carla plays on the worship team and areli plays the guitar so it´s fun to see them doing what they love. i´ll really miss them areli a lot. she´s 25 and this is a small town so it´s hard to meet new people. i told her that i´m going to pray that a new christian guy moves in town for her =) i better go, i want to see how france and italy are doing!! i can hear everybody cheering and the t.v.´s are all on so something is happening!
love in Christ,
kristi
it was nice watching the movie, there were about 15 of us there. andy wood made popcorn and brought pop. the wood parents were in acapulco so it was nice that we could all get together so that andy and susie would have something fun to do =)
this morning we went to Fe y Luz, areli´s presbyterian church. i enjoy the worship and singing but it´s so hard to listen to the sermon. the sermons are about an hour and it just is hard to concentrate in spanish for that long. i always miss a lot but this preacher was VERY vibrant and i really didn´t think the use of the microphone was necessary =) he´s so welcoming and they all prayed for us while we were there. tonight i´m going to the later service. there is santa cena (communion) and a baptism. i´ve never had communion here or seen a baptism so i thought that would be fun to go to. there´s another sermon so hopefully i can concentrate better this time!! we´ve really made quite a group of friends here and all of them attend Fe y Luz. carla plays on the worship team and areli plays the guitar so it´s fun to see them doing what they love. i´ll really miss them areli a lot. she´s 25 and this is a small town so it´s hard to meet new people. i told her that i´m going to pray that a new christian guy moves in town for her =) i better go, i want to see how france and italy are doing!! i can hear everybody cheering and the t.v.´s are all on so something is happening!
love in Christ,
kristi
Saturday, July 08, 2006
truenos y rayos!!!
well this past week has definitely been great. i have been hoping and praying to be able to work with the church more and i got to do that a lot this week. yesterday was friday and we were at the clinic. i had the opportunity to work with dr. steinneman again. he is a really great doctor and i also enjoyed talking with him about the opportunity to have medical students come and work. i got a lot of valuable information that we can share with the medical benevolence foundation about this. i also found out a little more about the history of the hospital. apparently this hospital was rebuilt in 1995 after a horrible earthquake here leveled the entire place. there are many temblors (tremmors or small earthquakes) but this was a terremoto (big earthquakes). he invited me to go with his wife to a nearby village for their vacation bible school. that was probably one of the highlights of my trip.
he met his wife here and they married in 1982 and had at least three children (i can´t remember exactly). he said he misses switzerland but loves it here. i went with his wife and two girls to Alianza . it is a nearby very poor village that doesn´t have a single church. the wife explained to me that they are hoping that if they can get the children interested, then the parents will follow. they called them all to school through a loudspeaker that reaches many parts of the neighborhood. they came running barefoot and smiling =) there were probably 30 children that showed up for the vacation bible school last night. we met outdoors under a makeshift cover with wooden poles. on one side was a pig pin and the other was a local area set up for the women to wash clothes together. the children were so sweet and very eager to learn. i enjoyed learning the spanish praise songs too! sra. steinneman put all of the songs to hand signals and had little word charts for them to follow along with music from the stereo she brought. i´m very happy that these children have someone like her who cares so much about them and wants them to be sure they know that they are ALL loved by a great wonderful God. that was the theme of almost all of the kids songs. sra also told them the story in Daniel of Shacrach, Meshak, and Abednego which is one of my favorites. it was wonderful to hear it in spanish and hear her animations along with her. then we broke them into groups according to ages and they all did activities related to the story. it was a wonderful time!!
after that, i met the girls that evening for some mango hunting with areli and carla. we were on the church property and found some great mango trees. so naturally, we decided it would be a good idea to get them. fortunately we didn´t run into any snakes!!! Using a net we found on the ground hooked to a long bamboo piece, we were able to get about 5 mangoes. i got mine by climbing a tree and using the net-so fun!! we had dinner that night with areli and carla and afterwards we all sang around listening to megan and areli sing praise songs. they are both so good. it´s really fun when we can sing the same song in different languages at the same time!
that evening there was a horrible storm and i heard some awesome thunder. melissa and erin thought that megan and i were crazy for falling asleep and sleeping through it but i can sleep through anything-it´s a gift =)
today we decided to go to the market with areli and carla since it was our day off. we all bought some things for our families and ended up walking around town for 3 hours!! i´m not kidding when i say that we walk a lot here! the market was lively because all of the people in the small villages come to the ´big´ city, ometepec, to sell their crafts and food. we all bought a fresh coconut and the guy on the street opened it for us. we enjoyed fresh coconut juice in the zocalo (town square) with areli. her sister, leslie, came later too and went shopping with us. right now it´s the after noon and i need to take a siesta and then i´m off to the deportivo!! tonight we´re watching Narnia with areli, leslie, and the wood kids. i´ve never seen it and i´m really looking forward to it. forunately, we have an english version because my head needs a spanish break =)
thanks for the prayers!
God Bless YOU!
center-areli and megan
photo 2-anesthesia machine (you have to turn your head to the right!)
photo 3-operating room
Thursday, July 06, 2006
hace fresca!
whew, finally it´s a little bit cooler here because i think it´s going to rain which is good because i´ve been drenched in sweat all day. lovely, i know . . .
last Tuesdaywas super fun playing volley ball at Areli´s church. we played with the young adult group and there were about 15 of us there. i was really thankful for that time because i had been hoping to do more with the church. again, it was nice to hang out with people our age and be able to talk with them and learn a little more conversational spanish. the church we played at was the first Christian church built in ometepec by the tim and barbara´s parents along with boyces, other missionaries from the states. i just finished reading a book about them and how they got started in ometepec. i love reading books about missionaires and this one is called I Heard the Donkey Bray by Marguerite Boyce. She was the lady who came and visited the first week mike and i were here. i´ve been doing a lot of reading here actually. it´s been good for me and i always enjoy having extra time to do more devotions and time with the bible.
i was totally motivated and planned on going ot the deportivo yesterday morning but my bed was just too comfortable. (actually, my bed is at a slant and i need to pillows under my head to make it even =) we had a full day at the hospital yesterday. i worked with dr. yanez jr again and learned alot. megan even got to apply osteopathic lymphatic techniques to help a patient with all of the edema in his leg. he had ascites (for all of you med nerds) from drinking and had the biggest belly i´ve seen. it was very distended and we drained it with a tube. it was like deflating a balloon. i felt sorry for the man as he was very cachectic and probably wouldn´t make it much longer. there was an interesting surgery involving taking a bullet out of a man´s leg. it had been in there for FOUR years!! they´ve tried surgery on it twice but is in the synovial cavity and keeps moving around in the knee. there is not endoscopic surgery here!! the man also apparently tried to take it out on himself. well, they got it out and erin was excited to assist. there were many other patients but i can´t remember them all now. every day we work with dr. yanez is fun and i always learn alot about medicine. i also enjoy it because we all get to help with taking patient histories.
areli and her friend, Carli, invited us to go to church with them again yesterday. it was a wonderful worship service in spanish and a good message about ephesians 2 8. areli is a very talented guitar player and it was beautiful to hear it. afterwards we heard a guy from the youth group play the piano. he was amazingly talented and learned it only two years ago. he was playing chopin, mozart, beethoven-all by ear and without music. truly amazing, he has a great gift that he is able to share with the church.
today was our last day in xochis. but i´m rnning out of time and only have one minute to write about it. dr. carmelo took us to the museum over lunch. it was a cute little museum and he was very excited to show us it. our time with dr. carmelo has been fascinating. i am just so glad that i met him. he really has devoted his life to translating the word of god and that is truly amazing. he is just the nicest person you´ll ever meet. he would like to come visit churches and sights in the states but says it is impossible to get a visa. our time there has been totally worthwhile and hopefully we helped that little town. we gave a lot of chupas (suckers) away today and left the rest of our donated gloves and mouth covers with dr. carmelo. that about covers it, i better go eat with the girls now. there is always so much to say!!
love in christ
photo 1- me, erin, dr. carmello, melissa, megan outside the clinic in xochis
photo 2-melissa, me, erin, riding in the combi from xochis
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
july 4th!!!
Happy July 4th!!! Erin started the morning off by giving us barrettes she brought from the states. they are in july 4th colors and we all wore them in our hair. this morning the woods invited us to susie´s graduation from sixth grade. she is their youngest and only daughter. i could tell they were very proud of her because she is in the top four of her class. the graduations here are a really big deal. there was a parade at the school with a flag salute, songs, and marching by the four top students in the class-susie did a great job! she was adorable and definitely stuck out as the only caucasian!! the younger grades all did a presentation for the sixth graders. it was some sort of typical dance with regional costumes. the girls wore beautiful braided hair with large flowers on the side. they were gorgeous. they had on long colorful flowing skirts with beaded tops. the clothing is so beautiful that it always makes me feel very plain!! the sixth grade class also did a dance for the guests and i took a lot of pictures. the tradition here is to give the students fake flowers for graduation. it´s kind of funny but i guess it lasts longer. the flowers were HUGE displays that they carried to the graduation. i can just picture steph´s face if we brought something like that to here dance recital =)
i´m glad we got to experience a typical mexican graduation. the doctors weren´t in today so there wasn´t much work to do. we are planning on not going to xochis on friday so that we can do more in the hospital. also, last night areli came by with another girl. areli is so nice-she copied for us a CD of a christian band. so i gave her my new favorite CD from Jars of Clay called Offerings. it has amazing worship songs on it and i gave it to her to copy. of course, it seems even more illegal to copy a Christian! CD but i rectified it by saying that it was because you can´t buy them here. hopefully she will enjoy it-she plays music for her church and enjoys it a lot.
well, i better go we are going to the bank together and then going to teach english. areli is coming by later tonight to play volleyball with us. it is such a blessing to have her as a friend here. i better remember my bugspray!!!
in Him!!
i´m glad we got to experience a typical mexican graduation. the doctors weren´t in today so there wasn´t much work to do. we are planning on not going to xochis on friday so that we can do more in the hospital. also, last night areli came by with another girl. areli is so nice-she copied for us a CD of a christian band. so i gave her my new favorite CD from Jars of Clay called Offerings. it has amazing worship songs on it and i gave it to her to copy. of course, it seems even more illegal to copy a Christian! CD but i rectified it by saying that it was because you can´t buy them here. hopefully she will enjoy it-she plays music for her church and enjoys it a lot.
well, i better go we are going to the bank together and then going to teach english. areli is coming by later tonight to play volleyball with us. it is such a blessing to have her as a friend here. i better remember my bugspray!!!
in Him!!
Monday, July 03, 2006
salimos acapulco!!
okay, just wanted to write and say that everything is fine. erin is feeling much better so we are leaving at 100 for ometepec! hope all is well with you all-thanks for the prayers!
love,
me
Sunday, July 02, 2006
Acapulco time =)
well, i woke up saturday with the girls ready for our acapulco trip! we were excited and left at 7am to get a cab. the ride didn`t make me really sick this time because i was sitting in the front seat which was nice. our driver was interesting and everybody is full of questions as to why we are in ometepec-it`s not exactly a tourist town.
we arrived at the beautiful hyatt regency hotel three hours later. i think God had that preordained for us becasue megan found it for only $70 a night!!! i checked on prices for them again and it`s now $174-night so i`m not sure where they`re staying after the trip (the rest of the girls are spending a weeks vacation in acapulco when we`re done but i didn`t want to do that and especially not without mike). we felt like real people today, getting to relax by the pool and getting dressed up. i think our favorite part was getting ready to go out to dinner again because we could wear nice clothes. we spent most of saturday by the pool. i prefered the pool over the sand because there nobody was nagging you to buy things every 5 minutes. plus it was sooo HOT there and i had to cool off. we went for lunch at a restaurant called 100% natural and it was wonderful. i am a little forgetful and forgot my money, well nobody takes credit cards so i`m trying to survive on $9 in cash for the weekend, we`ll see . . . i ended up with a large juice which was delicious and ate the free bread-but hey, i`m a student and that`s typical =) that evening we went to a nice restaurant in the evening (that takes credit cards). it`s called the Flamingo and apparently it`s where Tarzan stayed. its really beautiful but it was in old acapulco and nobody goes there much but the history was worth it. we saw his house (actually we are still trying to figure out who the real Tarzan is ?) and enjoyed some lovely fish. this was the famous restaurant where many well-known drinks are made, including the CoCo Loco. it used to be owned by Carey Grant and that just made Erin`s day that we were in the same place that he might have been.
one thing that`s funny about mexico is their rules regarding election day. today is election day and all day saturday and sunday they don`t serve alcohol, i guess it`s to keep the people in proper voting condition =) fine by me but it was interesting none the less. oh, and the elections are going fine, we feel safe and no craziness is on the streets.
after dinner we went to see the Quebrada, they are the famous cliff divers. they jump from a really high cliff (hence why i called them cliff divers) into water below and they have to time it exactly with the tide. it really changes depths quickly. there were even three children who started the show diving off shallower depths. the final diver was really high and it made me nervous for him! our taxi driver stayed with us the whole night and then drove us back to the hotel afterwards.
the bad part is that during the night erin got really sick. we had ordered the same thing to eat all day so it couldn`t have been the food because i wasn`t sick. she was sick all morning and afternoon. we were supossed to leave at 430 today but she wasn`t well enough to travel. so we are staying another night, it would be impossible to take that drive with her getting sick and feeling so queasy. so please pray for erin, she hasn`t eaten all day and we finally got her to drink some gatorade tonight-that we bought at Wal-mart-imagine that!! hopefully she`ll feel better tomorrow. it`s just so horrible to be sick in a foreign country, there`s nothing like it to make you miss home even more. so please pray for erin and that she doesn`t get dehydrated and feels strong enough to travel tomorrow-also please pray that the rest of us don`t catch it from her.
the rest of us just kind of hung around at the pool all day and watched over her. it`s been relaxing but we certainly weren`t wanting to stay in acapulco for this!! thanks for your prayers and responses to my blog, i love reading what you think!!
have a blessed day!
ps-i hope you like your present, steph =)
photos are of acapulco beach!
Friday, June 30, 2006
finally-really its june 30th
can you believe i wrote all of this in one day!! i had some major catching up to do. i was supossed to go to Xochis today to work with the girls in the clinic but i have been struggling with a little bug in my belly i think. i stayed back because its not so pleasant to ride on that bus when your GI system doesn´t like you. i slept till noon and i wrote most of this in the afternoon and came back tonight to post pictures. i feel so much better now so i hope it stays that way. please pray that all of us stay healthy. we have a big weekend ahead of us. we are taking a trip to acapulco this weekend since we don´t have to work saturday or sunday!! megan reserved the hotel today and we are planning on having some good time relaxing and enjoying the city.
i´m going back now to Hotel Yeni to sleep but hopefully you all have enjoyed this update-feel free to ask questions and let me know what you think!
love in Christ =)
i´m going back now to Hotel Yeni to sleep but hopefully you all have enjoyed this update-feel free to ask questions and let me know what you think!
love in Christ =)
29 de junio-thursday!!
well, back in Xochis again today. we started out with a lovely trip and finally figured out how to get to the xochis combi stand on our own. we can walk there now and it's a good 15 minute walk and then an hour ride to the city. a combi, is what they call the mexican buses that i described. i'll have to get a picture of one of them. sorry i don't have more to download!! today wasn't as busy. we always feel like we help our a lot at Xochis though because dr. carmelo really enjoys the interaction and the patient flow. he made announcements for us that we were doing children physicals. we gave all of the childrens suckers that i bought at the store!! they were so afraid of us though. it was a good time for all of us girls to quiz each other and review some pharm and micro. we're getting a better handle on treatments and what to use. today i diagnosed someone with scabies, a little three year old-i hope i was right!! what was really sad about the kid wasn´t his scabies, it was his teeth. his front four teeth on the upper set were completely rotted out. his aunt was with him and i tried to explain to her how bad this was and that he needs to see a dentist, as this can easily cause a systemic infection. i´m not really sure why it was so bad in this young child and just those four teeth-any ideas my dentistry friends?
today was really great though to speak with Dr. Carmello (Valtierra Lopez) about the current situation of the clinic. it was a great discussion and i´m glad he shared all that he did. we all wanted to get an idea of what his needs are and how the presbytery can be of more support. right now they are in a huge need of a roof and that is by far the number one priority, it will cost about $4000 to replace it. he would really like an autoclave, more medicines, and eventually a lab and sonogram machine, among many others. there is a not a single one of these things anywhere in Xochis and all of the patients have to go all the way to ometepec for treatment. he told me a very long story about how he came to be in the clinic. i´m very impressed with his hard work!!!
when he got to the clinic, it had been built in 1980 and wasn´t in use for 5 years. there were no windows, bathrooms, floors, or even paint. the medicines that were sent for him to use were so rotten and old that he couldn´t use them. he said "it was a home for drunks and dogs". he basically started from scratch, and built his own windows and bathrooms. he´s done a great job working with what he has but would really like a nurse or other doctor. he says nobody wants to work there because the money isn´t there. i feel really bad for him and hope to talk to the presbytery about the situation-as they were excited to get our input- and see if anything can be done. he´s planning on going to acapulco for a one year refresher course next january and isn´t sure on his returning plans. the current situation of the clinic is basically almost unsuitable to work in. the vision was a great one but now hopefully somehow he can get some more help to encourage the functioning of this MUCH needed facility.
all of us girls have been very impressed with his skills and what he does with what he has to work with. he seemed very up to date on his eye diseases, mike noted while he was there. how much more he could do with a lab though!!
even more impressive was his translation of the entire old testmant. he said it has taken 15 years and he is in his final revision. he is truly an intelligent and remarkable individual. we took a video of him reading from genesis and have a copy of the written language from genesis. his most important work right now is getting the word of god into the hands of the amuzgo people. can you imagine, we are so used to having an old testament in our language-it´s hard to imagine not being able to read the Bible in your own language. what a precious gift he has given to the people of this region!! i pray that God will continue to work through him in Xochis and through the new Old Testment. please pray that he will be able to find a publisher willing to print it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
whew, seems like enough for today!!!
for His glory!!
today was really great though to speak with Dr. Carmello (Valtierra Lopez) about the current situation of the clinic. it was a great discussion and i´m glad he shared all that he did. we all wanted to get an idea of what his needs are and how the presbytery can be of more support. right now they are in a huge need of a roof and that is by far the number one priority, it will cost about $4000 to replace it. he would really like an autoclave, more medicines, and eventually a lab and sonogram machine, among many others. there is a not a single one of these things anywhere in Xochis and all of the patients have to go all the way to ometepec for treatment. he told me a very long story about how he came to be in the clinic. i´m very impressed with his hard work!!!
when he got to the clinic, it had been built in 1980 and wasn´t in use for 5 years. there were no windows, bathrooms, floors, or even paint. the medicines that were sent for him to use were so rotten and old that he couldn´t use them. he said "it was a home for drunks and dogs". he basically started from scratch, and built his own windows and bathrooms. he´s done a great job working with what he has but would really like a nurse or other doctor. he says nobody wants to work there because the money isn´t there. i feel really bad for him and hope to talk to the presbytery about the situation-as they were excited to get our input- and see if anything can be done. he´s planning on going to acapulco for a one year refresher course next january and isn´t sure on his returning plans. the current situation of the clinic is basically almost unsuitable to work in. the vision was a great one but now hopefully somehow he can get some more help to encourage the functioning of this MUCH needed facility.
all of us girls have been very impressed with his skills and what he does with what he has to work with. he seemed very up to date on his eye diseases, mike noted while he was there. how much more he could do with a lab though!!
even more impressive was his translation of the entire old testmant. he said it has taken 15 years and he is in his final revision. he is truly an intelligent and remarkable individual. we took a video of him reading from genesis and have a copy of the written language from genesis. his most important work right now is getting the word of god into the hands of the amuzgo people. can you imagine, we are so used to having an old testament in our language-it´s hard to imagine not being able to read the Bible in your own language. what a precious gift he has given to the people of this region!! i pray that God will continue to work through him in Xochis and through the new Old Testment. please pray that he will be able to find a publisher willing to print it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
whew, seems like enough for today!!!
for His glory!!
24 de junio-wednesday
well i´m running out of time here at the cafe but i wanted to mention that i saw twins born today!!! that's always exciting, everytime i see a baby born i feel like i'm always holding my breath in anticipation of its first cry. it's so wonderful to see a new baby and be reminded of how awesome the Lord's creation is!
better go, i'm going to try to post some pics!
love, me
i'm back, i don't have the right connection here to post my pics so megan took a few for me and i'm posting some from her camera. this photo is of one of the doctors, behind her is a coffee pot to the right and after the babies are born, next to it is where they lay the babies!!!
june 27th-mike's gone
well he left early this monring. i was sad for a bit, it's always hard to say goodbye. but since being apart for a whole semester last year, i guess i should be good at it. we worked on the living arrangements and megan and i took a new room together with 2 double beds and erin and melissa stayed in the other room. so who did i come here with you ask?
megan and i met at KCUMB (as did all of us) and grew up in KC. she is amazingly athletic and played softball for KU for four years. i had the joy of playing basketball against her and jazmin, unfortunately mike got stuck with me on his team, and it was obvious that she was good at that too =) megan lives in my apartment building in KC and i'm thankful she showed me them! we're having a great time together!
melissa is from chicago and has a large family that she adores. i hope to meet them someday! her sisters sound like a lot of fun. we always sit together in class and keep it interesting. melissa went on a mission trip for a year in Kenya with the presbyterian church and is always sharing interesting stories about it. it's fun to compare different places we've been to where we are now.
erin is from nebraska and is a very talented dancer. my little sister would probably love to talk with her! she danced in Miami, FL and has a nephew and niece that she loves too (beau and bella)! it makes me miss Ethan, my nephew, to hear her talk about them. i'm having alot of fun getting to know her more.
so this is the remaining crew =) we all went to clinic again on today after a run at the deportivo. this time we got erin to come along! melissa worked with dr. steinneman and i worked with dr. yanez again. it was kind of a slow day but we just worked with consults all day. it's been a great experience for us to review medicines because dr. yanez is always asking us questions. we also really enjoy watching the surgeries together and reviewing the anatomy as they work on the caesareans. today i saw a young man come in who received stitches on saturday for cutting his hand at a tortilleria, a tortilla making store. by today, tuesday, one of his fingers was gangrenous so we watched that amputation. i'm sure the procedure would have been a lot different in the states.
we always eat lunch on hospital days in the back kitchen in the hospital. the cooks are so sweet and we've been able to talk with them a little bit. of course at every meal, there are tortillas. they've started to notice what we like and have stopped serving us papaya =) i guess we never ate it. we always have a lot of fresh pears, cantalope, pineapple, and apples. one day it think megan ate like three pears and the other girls ate a lot too. later we noticed that there is now three three pound bags of pears in the kitchen.
it's important at the hospital to be able to speak spanish too. otherwise, you really wouldn't be able to help at all. i think that if we were third or fourth years we could help even more but everything is still so new to us. the hospital is run really well and it's always busy as it has one of the best reputations around. it's been destroyed twice by earthquakes but god has been able to provide and it has been rebuilt. just for an idea, the hospital has one floor with about five different consult offices, three operation rooms with windows to view the palm trees, a patient wing with about 10 different rooms, a lab in the basement, and a large waiting room. patients can stay overnight and its open 24 hrs. hope that gives you an idea of our working conditions!
this mission has been a little different than others i've gone on. they've never sent medical students down to this hospital and are kind of seeing how the medical benevolence foundation can be of service. one thing is for sure, they must speak spanish-english is not helpful! also, most of the missions i've gone on have had an aspect of evangelism as a part of it. i think there is potential there but it needs to be a bigger part of the mission. i feel like i'm just helping out with the physical healing, but there are so many other ways to help too. we could offer to pray with the patients more, work with the local churches in having Bible studies, set up english lessons for students with the Bible. there are many ways but they would just need to be looked into more. of course, you can always show the compassion and love of jesus christ in whatever you do!!!!
all for Him!
26 de julio-mike's last day
i know that some of you are wondering about daily life here, like people, what the city looks like, etc. it's funny to me how all of these third world or developing countries all kind of have the same set-up. of course all of these are my impressions.
there are many narrow streets in the cities, the shops are all very small and sell only a few items. grocery stores don't really exist because like barbara said, where would they park and what would they carry that many items in? the first "big" grocery store just opened this week on main street and it was quite a commotion. i went in and actually found m&m's that melissa was looking for! the size of it is like a third of the size of a walgreens to give you an idea. of course everybody stares at us here, we haven't seen any other caucasians yet (except for the wood family) but that's to be expected because ometepec isn't really a tourist attraction. but i think it's lovely and the people are very nice! air conditioning is very much a luxury, my internet cafe doesn't even have air conditioning but most of them do.
most of the people in the city dress like they would anywhere else, jeans t-shirts, tennis shoes and sandals. the most popular sandal is made out of old tires and then has leather strapped on top. the women wear TIGHT clothes. i'm always amazed how they can fit into them. here, we can wear jeans or capris but no shorts (except at the deportivo, and we are still the only women in shorts). we also wear long skirts and scrubs to the clinic and hospital.
the town is a bit sleepier than the states, most people are at work by nine and take a long lunch around 200-300. my friend, areli, doesn't eat until 500 and then has dinner at 9 or 10!! we eat a little earlier at like 730.
that said, mike and i went to clinic again on monday at nine. it was the same routine, where we followed dr. yanez most of the day and watched another birth which was exciting. that evening, areli came over to give us a tour of the cities churches. there were many beautiful catholic churches. one was just finished a couple of years ago and it was magnificent, with beautiful blues and yellows. all of the churches were very brightly colored. instead of a crucifix, it was usually an actual mannequin of jesus standing at the front- that seemed a little weird, but that's the tradition here. as always, we walked A LOT that day, and did i mention that ometepec is full of hills? one time when we were walking, melissa said that she actually understands now how you can walk up hill both ways =) we saw where she worked and i showed the girls and mike the graves of the woods parents. i'm glad mike got to walk around town a little bit before he left.
mike and i ended the evening by sharing an helado-a nestle ice cream sandwich. nestle is by far the most popular chocolate brand down here-fine by me!! i'm going to miss him a lot but i'm glad we finally got to share a mission experience together a bit. this was really short but it was interesting to travel together, at least he knows the people that are in my stories now. it's nice to be able to connect that way. please remember to pray for him while i'm gone too, that he can concentrate and have time to study for his upcoming kansas licensing exam. thanks for reading all of this!
may God bless!
there are many narrow streets in the cities, the shops are all very small and sell only a few items. grocery stores don't really exist because like barbara said, where would they park and what would they carry that many items in? the first "big" grocery store just opened this week on main street and it was quite a commotion. i went in and actually found m&m's that melissa was looking for! the size of it is like a third of the size of a walgreens to give you an idea. of course everybody stares at us here, we haven't seen any other caucasians yet (except for the wood family) but that's to be expected because ometepec isn't really a tourist attraction. but i think it's lovely and the people are very nice! air conditioning is very much a luxury, my internet cafe doesn't even have air conditioning but most of them do.
most of the people in the city dress like they would anywhere else, jeans t-shirts, tennis shoes and sandals. the most popular sandal is made out of old tires and then has leather strapped on top. the women wear TIGHT clothes. i'm always amazed how they can fit into them. here, we can wear jeans or capris but no shorts (except at the deportivo, and we are still the only women in shorts). we also wear long skirts and scrubs to the clinic and hospital.
the town is a bit sleepier than the states, most people are at work by nine and take a long lunch around 200-300. my friend, areli, doesn't eat until 500 and then has dinner at 9 or 10!! we eat a little earlier at like 730.
that said, mike and i went to clinic again on monday at nine. it was the same routine, where we followed dr. yanez most of the day and watched another birth which was exciting. that evening, areli came over to give us a tour of the cities churches. there were many beautiful catholic churches. one was just finished a couple of years ago and it was magnificent, with beautiful blues and yellows. all of the churches were very brightly colored. instead of a crucifix, it was usually an actual mannequin of jesus standing at the front- that seemed a little weird, but that's the tradition here. as always, we walked A LOT that day, and did i mention that ometepec is full of hills? one time when we were walking, melissa said that she actually understands now how you can walk up hill both ways =) we saw where she worked and i showed the girls and mike the graves of the woods parents. i'm glad mike got to walk around town a little bit before he left.
mike and i ended the evening by sharing an helado-a nestle ice cream sandwich. nestle is by far the most popular chocolate brand down here-fine by me!! i'm going to miss him a lot but i'm glad we finally got to share a mission experience together a bit. this was really short but it was interesting to travel together, at least he knows the people that are in my stories now. it's nice to be able to connect that way. please remember to pray for him while i'm gone too, that he can concentrate and have time to study for his upcoming kansas licensing exam. thanks for reading all of this!
may God bless!
el dia de dios-25 de julio
today is sunday! this morning we are going to the wood's presbyterian church at 1000. church was so fun. i always enjoy the praise songs in another language. i always think its amazing to hear people from other countries in other languages worshipping God! we started with praise songs and then everyone split up into their age groups. this morning service was really sunday school but we were going to miss church that evening. sunday school lasted until 1230. so it was a long time especially because it was hard to understand the whole lesson in spanish. after church, we had comida, and hailed a taxi to Marquelia.
we thought it would be nice to see the beach since it was mike's only weekend here. the taxi was very very very frustrating. the driver was purposefully speaking fast and in a bad dialect to confuse me. he was annoying and it bothered us all. we all went, plus the two nurses, so we had to take two taxis. i knew he was ripping us off and charge a lot more than he should have and just pretended like he couldn't uderstand me. then he refused to give me back my change!!! because he decided to charge more. all of us were kind of grumpy when we got there, it's really frustrating when people are deliberately dishonest and use you. plus it was the speaker for the group and it was stressful. mike and i went over to the beach though and enjoyed it once we were there. the waves were very strong so we didn't go out. it was definitely a local beach with stick poles in the ground and old palm branches making shelters everywhere. we sat under the shelter all afternoon and relaxed and read and stood in the edges of the water for awhile. it was a nice break and very much needed. it had been a busy week.
we stayed for about four hours and then went on the search to get a taxi back home. my faith and trust was restored in the mexican taxi drivers this time. the driver from the beach to the city (where you have to go to get another different taxi to ometepec) was so excited to be driving us and he even took us by his house and everything. it was kind of cute. the way back we all split up and mike and i stayed back in the city for a bit because the taxi driver wanted to wait until he could take a larger goup. that larger group was insane!!! there was the driver, a mom and her THREE children on her lap in the front seat, mike, me, and two other large mexican guys int he back seat-did i mention we were in a nissan sentra?? so unsafe but fortunately it was only like that for halfway (half hour).
whew, we were back to Hotel Yeni safely. the woods invited us over later taht night for a barbeque but we were so tired we just ate dinner and relaxed. it was a nice little day trip!!
Blessings!
we thought it would be nice to see the beach since it was mike's only weekend here. the taxi was very very very frustrating. the driver was purposefully speaking fast and in a bad dialect to confuse me. he was annoying and it bothered us all. we all went, plus the two nurses, so we had to take two taxis. i knew he was ripping us off and charge a lot more than he should have and just pretended like he couldn't uderstand me. then he refused to give me back my change!!! because he decided to charge more. all of us were kind of grumpy when we got there, it's really frustrating when people are deliberately dishonest and use you. plus it was the speaker for the group and it was stressful. mike and i went over to the beach though and enjoyed it once we were there. the waves were very strong so we didn't go out. it was definitely a local beach with stick poles in the ground and old palm branches making shelters everywhere. we sat under the shelter all afternoon and relaxed and read and stood in the edges of the water for awhile. it was a nice break and very much needed. it had been a busy week.
we stayed for about four hours and then went on the search to get a taxi back home. my faith and trust was restored in the mexican taxi drivers this time. the driver from the beach to the city (where you have to go to get another different taxi to ometepec) was so excited to be driving us and he even took us by his house and everything. it was kind of cute. the way back we all split up and mike and i stayed back in the city for a bit because the taxi driver wanted to wait until he could take a larger goup. that larger group was insane!!! there was the driver, a mom and her THREE children on her lap in the front seat, mike, me, and two other large mexican guys int he back seat-did i mention we were in a nissan sentra?? so unsafe but fortunately it was only like that for halfway (half hour).
whew, we were back to Hotel Yeni safely. the woods invited us over later taht night for a barbeque but we were so tired we just ate dinner and relaxed. it was a nice little day trip!!
Blessings!
el sabado- 24th de junio
saturday-rest day! nope, not for us! our new friends areli and jazmin were taking us on a walk. teh day before jazmin went with megan and i to the deportivo. it has a nice gravel track that we can run on in the morning, it's safe, as you have to pay 3 pesos to get in, abotu 30 cents. i'm very thankful for it!
anyway, we went on a walk to the national park near xochis. we saw many burros, turkeys, horses, and people playing soccer. the national park was pretty with its beautiful waterfalls and coutryside. when we arrived to the park there were about 50 women doing their laundry in the water. it was actually set up for them and the park arranged drying lines and everything. it was amazing and of course, everybody stared at us =)
on the walk back we stopped at the technologico, a university here, to meet with some students. that morning mike and i met an english teacher on the road on the way to buy water. he wanted us to stop by and talk with the students. it was fun, they were in their beginning levels and only could ask basic questions but i think they loved the interaction. we received a lot of information about why its so easy to travel illegally to the u.s. for example, on july 4th, there isn't anyone doing car checks, hmmm . . .
this was a full day, so after comida, mike and i went to the wood house to watch mexico play against argentina. we are brasil fans so we had to cheer for mexico extra hard-argentina is their big rival. unfortunately, mexico lost but it did make the streets safer. there were a lot less fireworks!! it seems like somebody sneezing is reason enough to have a fireworks celebration here!! then mike went home to rest and i went with barbara and two other american nurses staying with her to visit the city. we walked down main street, saw some beautiful churches, shopped for tortilla towels, looked at the local merchants. we also visited the graves of tim woods parents. they were the first missonaries down here and tragically died in a plane crash. barbara said it has always been known that a bomb caused the crash. when the first woods arrived here nobody would even give them a place to stay becasue they were christians. but eventually the town grew to love them and i guess their funeral was a wonderful celebration of life. on tim's father's grave, it says the verse about how the word will never return void. it was amazing to stand there and know that though they died, the hospital still goes on and there are now three presbyterian churches in ometepec along with many others now =) their life was not in vain and now tim is back continuing the work. it made me think a lot of my friend brianna, all she wanted to do was serve the lord and she died doing just that in Nigeria. i know that people are still touced by her story and her memory will certainly never leave me.
well, i better go-this has been a lot of typing!
that ALL the nations may hear . . .
anyway, we went on a walk to the national park near xochis. we saw many burros, turkeys, horses, and people playing soccer. the national park was pretty with its beautiful waterfalls and coutryside. when we arrived to the park there were about 50 women doing their laundry in the water. it was actually set up for them and the park arranged drying lines and everything. it was amazing and of course, everybody stared at us =)
on the walk back we stopped at the technologico, a university here, to meet with some students. that morning mike and i met an english teacher on the road on the way to buy water. he wanted us to stop by and talk with the students. it was fun, they were in their beginning levels and only could ask basic questions but i think they loved the interaction. we received a lot of information about why its so easy to travel illegally to the u.s. for example, on july 4th, there isn't anyone doing car checks, hmmm . . .
this was a full day, so after comida, mike and i went to the wood house to watch mexico play against argentina. we are brasil fans so we had to cheer for mexico extra hard-argentina is their big rival. unfortunately, mexico lost but it did make the streets safer. there were a lot less fireworks!! it seems like somebody sneezing is reason enough to have a fireworks celebration here!! then mike went home to rest and i went with barbara and two other american nurses staying with her to visit the city. we walked down main street, saw some beautiful churches, shopped for tortilla towels, looked at the local merchants. we also visited the graves of tim woods parents. they were the first missonaries down here and tragically died in a plane crash. barbara said it has always been known that a bomb caused the crash. when the first woods arrived here nobody would even give them a place to stay becasue they were christians. but eventually the town grew to love them and i guess their funeral was a wonderful celebration of life. on tim's father's grave, it says the verse about how the word will never return void. it was amazing to stand there and know that though they died, the hospital still goes on and there are now three presbyterian churches in ometepec along with many others now =) their life was not in vain and now tim is back continuing the work. it made me think a lot of my friend brianna, all she wanted to do was serve the lord and she died doing just that in Nigeria. i know that people are still touced by her story and her memory will certainly never leave me.
well, i better go-this has been a lot of typing!
that ALL the nations may hear . . .
el radio en Xochis-23rd de junio
whew-back again-driving to and from xochis two days in a row makes for a long day so we are glad that it is on a thursday and friday that we go there!!
many people are wondering with what organization we are serving. mike and i are going through the presbyterian church USA, specifically through the Medical Benevolence Foundation. i think that you can find out more about them if you google the foundation, that's what i did. melissa, one of the girls we are here with, served with PCUSA for a year in Kenya. i'll give a little bio of the other three girls later after mike leaves.
today wasn't any different really, we saw upwards of 35 patients and mike did a great job. sometimes is very very difficult to work with no medicine, no glasses, and still figure out creative ways to help people. we are still getting better at patient physicals and have seen about everything you can put in an ear, there is a lot of people here complaining of hearing loss and we look in their ears and its just jammed pack with wax (and one case of a fungus), yummy . . . the local remedy is boil chammomile (is that spelled right?) tea with salt, pour it into the ear, let it sit for 10 minutes, dump it out, repeat. so that's what we explained to the patients. it's still difficult to not have another person here to speak amuzgo, dr. carmello is very busy translating the old testament, but we have to use him a lot to translate to amuzgo. hardly any women speak spanish and most start working in either a bar or store at the age of 10 or 11. it would be absolutely impossible for a group to come down if they didn't speak spanish. most of my friends here to and mike speaks it well so we have that advantage.
today was absolutely wonderful-usually we have lunch around 130 or 200 with dr.carmello and then go back by taxi after lunch. well, he had other plans. we first went to see some of the local crafts. the women here weave all of their clothes by hand on an interesting machine, i have photos too!! they are brightly colored dresses with a loose weave to allow air flow. barbara wood told us its the coolest thing she owns! we saw his house, a humble cement house. there were almost no walls or windows, his wife owns a pastry shop and that is in the front of their house. she is a friendly lady and we also got to meet his two boys and one daughter, who has downs syndrome. then we went up he mountian in his backyard to reach the radio station. this radio is the only form of communication and you can hear it blaring everywhere through the towns. this is how he notified the people that mike is coming to check eyes!!! so he asked me to speak on it-i was so surprised and nervous. i spoke about who i was and what our group was doing here. it was kind of exciting because thousands of people heard. he asked me say a little in english too so i taught good morning, good afternoon, and good night. so fun!! we also hiked to the highest point in xochis and had a beautiful view!
we relaxed with dinner back in ometepec and finished it off with helados-ice cream!!
Dios le bendiga!
many people are wondering with what organization we are serving. mike and i are going through the presbyterian church USA, specifically through the Medical Benevolence Foundation. i think that you can find out more about them if you google the foundation, that's what i did. melissa, one of the girls we are here with, served with PCUSA for a year in Kenya. i'll give a little bio of the other three girls later after mike leaves.
today wasn't any different really, we saw upwards of 35 patients and mike did a great job. sometimes is very very difficult to work with no medicine, no glasses, and still figure out creative ways to help people. we are still getting better at patient physicals and have seen about everything you can put in an ear, there is a lot of people here complaining of hearing loss and we look in their ears and its just jammed pack with wax (and one case of a fungus), yummy . . . the local remedy is boil chammomile (is that spelled right?) tea with salt, pour it into the ear, let it sit for 10 minutes, dump it out, repeat. so that's what we explained to the patients. it's still difficult to not have another person here to speak amuzgo, dr. carmello is very busy translating the old testament, but we have to use him a lot to translate to amuzgo. hardly any women speak spanish and most start working in either a bar or store at the age of 10 or 11. it would be absolutely impossible for a group to come down if they didn't speak spanish. most of my friends here to and mike speaks it well so we have that advantage.
today was absolutely wonderful-usually we have lunch around 130 or 200 with dr.carmello and then go back by taxi after lunch. well, he had other plans. we first went to see some of the local crafts. the women here weave all of their clothes by hand on an interesting machine, i have photos too!! they are brightly colored dresses with a loose weave to allow air flow. barbara wood told us its the coolest thing she owns! we saw his house, a humble cement house. there were almost no walls or windows, his wife owns a pastry shop and that is in the front of their house. she is a friendly lady and we also got to meet his two boys and one daughter, who has downs syndrome. then we went up he mountian in his backyard to reach the radio station. this radio is the only form of communication and you can hear it blaring everywhere through the towns. this is how he notified the people that mike is coming to check eyes!!! so he asked me to speak on it-i was so surprised and nervous. i spoke about who i was and what our group was doing here. it was kind of exciting because thousands of people heard. he asked me say a little in english too so i taught good morning, good afternoon, and good night. so fun!! we also hiked to the highest point in xochis and had a beautiful view!
we relaxed with dinner back in ometepec and finished it off with helados-ice cream!!
Dios le bendiga!
June(junio) 22nd-xochis!!!
Xochishualacua-i think that's the official spelling but i will probably spell it 20 different ways. i found out later that it means city of flower. beautiful. it's a small town nestled in the beautiful mountains of the state of guerrero, where we are. it's a short hour ride to get there. the ride itself is fascinating, watching everyone in their native dress and seeing how they carry on (i'm hoping to download some picture so you all can see this). the roads are curvy but i haven't gotten really sick, my friends are nice enough to let me sit in the front. we take a combi, which is like a minivan but now picture it with thin doors like a geo metro (sorry, jenny), and no side door. it's like any country bus, similar to the dominican republic, and many other countries. it's hot so the door is always open. mike tried to close it and we realized that hadn't been done in years. what we realized here is that car seats really just don't exist. people just take their babies on their laps. what's even funnier is that at first i didn't think anything of it!!
okay, on to the clinic. we worked with Dr. Carmelo Valtierra Lopez. he seems quiet at first but really is a funny man once you get to know him. the clinic is a humble builing. it is in badly need of repair and especially needs a new roof and better equipment for diagnostic purposes. Dr. Carmelo is visibly frustrated about this so we hope to talk to him more about it later once we know him more. there are two patient rooms, one room where the doctor sleeps overnight if necessary, his office with a bed, "bathrooms", and his office. what's amazing is all of the translating work he does. he is working on translating the entire old testament into the native Amuzgo language. all of this is in a city full of windy streets, colorful dress, beautiful handicrafts, and very very steep hills.
mike was busy in Xochis. most of the problems were dry eyes but we saw cataracts and a possible retina detachment. i think he was very helpful! we had 38 patients today. they were all there to see mike but the three other girls gave all of them a complete physical exam first so we got great practice at that. i mainly served as a translator working from mike to dr. carmello and then dr. carmello to amuzgo, which is what half of the patients speak. so you can see we are very busy seeing 38 patients and half of the time going through two interpreters. dr. carmello worked very well with mike. he even had some of the medicines mike needed and was really helpful in telling us what to tell the patients who only needed glasses. next time, it would be great for a team to come down with reading glasses!
it was a full day but was complete with a great lunch, comida as they call it, at a local restaurant. mike and i had chicken, rice, fresh avocados and salad, and some wonderful tortillas. we all love the food there. there was of course, soccer on the t.v. the restaurants are really small, usually the front of a persons home with dirt floor, open kitchens, and very authentic food. there are always only like two tables but this being a larger restaurant, had three. and, there is always plenty of coke (coca-cola that is) here.
well, that seems like enough for today. we'll learn much more about xochis as we spend more time there, it is a wonderful little town. please continue to pray for our safety especially in travels and to not get sick.
In Christ
okay, on to the clinic. we worked with Dr. Carmelo Valtierra Lopez. he seems quiet at first but really is a funny man once you get to know him. the clinic is a humble builing. it is in badly need of repair and especially needs a new roof and better equipment for diagnostic purposes. Dr. Carmelo is visibly frustrated about this so we hope to talk to him more about it later once we know him more. there are two patient rooms, one room where the doctor sleeps overnight if necessary, his office with a bed, "bathrooms", and his office. what's amazing is all of the translating work he does. he is working on translating the entire old testament into the native Amuzgo language. all of this is in a city full of windy streets, colorful dress, beautiful handicrafts, and very very steep hills.
mike was busy in Xochis. most of the problems were dry eyes but we saw cataracts and a possible retina detachment. i think he was very helpful! we had 38 patients today. they were all there to see mike but the three other girls gave all of them a complete physical exam first so we got great practice at that. i mainly served as a translator working from mike to dr. carmello and then dr. carmello to amuzgo, which is what half of the patients speak. so you can see we are very busy seeing 38 patients and half of the time going through two interpreters. dr. carmello worked very well with mike. he even had some of the medicines mike needed and was really helpful in telling us what to tell the patients who only needed glasses. next time, it would be great for a team to come down with reading glasses!
it was a full day but was complete with a great lunch, comida as they call it, at a local restaurant. mike and i had chicken, rice, fresh avocados and salad, and some wonderful tortillas. we all love the food there. there was of course, soccer on the t.v. the restaurants are really small, usually the front of a persons home with dirt floor, open kitchens, and very authentic food. there are always only like two tables but this being a larger restaurant, had three. and, there is always plenty of coke (coca-cola that is) here.
well, that seems like enough for today. we'll learn much more about xochis as we spend more time there, it is a wonderful little town. please continue to pray for our safety especially in travels and to not get sick.
In Christ
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