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Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Hey look! Chocolate cake for breakfast!
Doc L. here tonight. It's 11:10 PM and time to post today's activities. Our dental and medical clinics today were located here at the Clinica Ezell. There was no bus ride. I really missed it. What a true adventure. Many of us are learning new driving techniques and strategies to get around pesky traffic jams by watching our driver practice his craft. Did you know that you can drive on the left shoulder of the road and merge across oncoming and right lane traffic after making a left turn when you shouldn't have. Think about it. That was when I decided to sit in the back of the bus so I couldn't witness the details.
Today, one of our first pediatric patients was here after seeing several medical providers over the first 18 months of her life. When her mother pulled up her shirt to reveal a myelomeningocele, my heart sank. This lesion in the United States is next to hopeless; here it is tragic. We were all grieved as our new friend Carlos gently explained the implications to her madre. It was all new to her. When she wept aloud, everyone in the room wept with her. We formed a plan to help with all of the complications that accompany this paralizing problem, and we discussed how we could find a way to get a wheelchair or other device in order to allow her madre to be able to take her along on her daily multiple mile walks along the dusty, rocky roads. Leila was able to help her madre with some upper body strengthening and physical therapy. These precious members of this community are now even more complicated. I will never forget them.
Dentist and the people that help them have become my new heros. They worked late on Saturday night in Samayac. They work tirelessly. They work without complaining. Their compensation is an outsrtetched hand and "gracias", then a smile that could brighten any day. The only problem is that there is no way to give back the change after the overpayment.
We see the hope in the children's eyes. They know what "fun" is. It hurts to see that hope is not prominent in the adults. We hate to think about the possibility that these presious children could loose hope also.
Tomorrow, we leave Clinica Ezell and travel for three hours on our bus to Panajuochel on Lago de Atitlan. Wednesday is a rest day. Sight seeing and food. Then on Thursday we travel by boat to San Juan La Lugana to participate in a family camp. Supposed to be more primitive than HyLake, believe it or not. All that to say that this will be the last blog of the trip as we will not have access to the internet after tonight. To our families and friends, gratitude for your prayers for safety and effectiveness. We continue to ask for them.
God is with us here and will remain as we leave because Carlos, Sylvia, Alex, and Dr. Walter and all their staff will be here. We will never forget them, either.
Today, one of our first pediatric patients was here after seeing several medical providers over the first 18 months of her life. When her mother pulled up her shirt to reveal a myelomeningocele, my heart sank. This lesion in the United States is next to hopeless; here it is tragic. We were all grieved as our new friend Carlos gently explained the implications to her madre. It was all new to her. When she wept aloud, everyone in the room wept with her. We formed a plan to help with all of the complications that accompany this paralizing problem, and we discussed how we could find a way to get a wheelchair or other device in order to allow her madre to be able to take her along on her daily multiple mile walks along the dusty, rocky roads. Leila was able to help her madre with some upper body strengthening and physical therapy. These precious members of this community are now even more complicated. I will never forget them.
Dentist and the people that help them have become my new heros. They worked late on Saturday night in Samayac. They work tirelessly. They work without complaining. Their compensation is an outsrtetched hand and "gracias", then a smile that could brighten any day. The only problem is that there is no way to give back the change after the overpayment.
We see the hope in the children's eyes. They know what "fun" is. It hurts to see that hope is not prominent in the adults. We hate to think about the possibility that these presious children could loose hope also.
Tomorrow, we leave Clinica Ezell and travel for three hours on our bus to Panajuochel on Lago de Atitlan. Wednesday is a rest day. Sight seeing and food. Then on Thursday we travel by boat to San Juan La Lugana to participate in a family camp. Supposed to be more primitive than HyLake, believe it or not. All that to say that this will be the last blog of the trip as we will not have access to the internet after tonight. To our families and friends, gratitude for your prayers for safety and effectiveness. We continue to ask for them.
God is with us here and will remain as we leave because Carlos, Sylvia, Alex, and Dr. Walter and all their staff will be here. We will never forget them, either.
