guatever

My mom was very worried about Kevin and I going to Guatemala.  But never in her wildest, freaking craziest dreams could she have imagined exactly where we ended up.   It was an eleven hour bus ride that went further and further out, and then further and further up.  Beyond the cloud line..but then still we went on.  There was a million little hills that made up hundreds of mountains, disected by valleys, shrouded by smoke of dozens of villagers slash and burn fires.  The fire seemed so out of place as the heat was already so heavy,so insistent, such an intergrel part of every breath we took.  The beauty was overwhelming.  And the hills are dotted with families, corrugated roof huts, the occasional pig.  We stayed in a village that I still don't know what its name was.  It couldn't possibly be on any map.

We had gone on this adventure with 40 something other people Kevin works with and a service group that pulls these things together.  It was an opportunity to see how other people live, interact, learn from and see what I- if anything - could do to help.  The guatemalans were easier to understand than the A-type   mortgage bankers...ha.  It was an incredibly interesting week of people watching.

We put up a tent city on their "soccer" field.  Remember the shower set-up on M*A*S*H ?  How I would have appreciated such luxury.  Our shower was an open pipe that ran from their cistern to plastic draped around the abundant corrugated metal of the area.  A few pieces of wood had been placed on the ground so that one wasn't standing in mud.  It goes without saying that it wasn't heated water.  Not that I would have turned on hot water if there had been.

ohhh, good place to segway into sweating.  Never, Ever in my entire life have I sweated as much as I did this past week.  I belivive  that I put out more liquid than I have accumulatively throughout my 52 years. It just NEVER STOPPED.  The aforementioned cold shower was a sweet -albeit - brief relief.  By the time I got back to the tent I was sweating again. Kevin would take a shower and then lay down on his bed and sleep in his wet swimsuit.  Blessedly I did bring a swimsuit to shower in as I was walked in on more than once by those aforementioned A-type bankers.  Could have otherwise made for some good jokes around the old water cooler once back home !

The expedition also included a doctor and a dentist.  Kevin and I helped in their "office".  It was a wooden shack with a couple of wooden benches.  The dentist dragged down 4 of those crappy plastic chairs from K-Mart as his dental chairs.  Both of these men were Awesome !!  What they did for these villagers with So little on hand..the patinence..the compassion...they will forever be my heroes !!  And the way they handled us incompetent volunteers was even more amazing:)  We got the rythmn of the doctor down as best we could and then just went as fast/best we could. The first day we saw something like 170 people.  They don't speak spanish ( they speak qui che ) so the language barrier was a struggle.  A few of the local people spoke some spanish and then worked as interpreter.  The next couple of days they invited other nearby villagers to come if they needed help.  People were walking miles/hours to come.  Then they very patiently waited for their turn...sort of camped out on the hill in front of the "office".  The dentist part always had a crowd gathered in the doorway watching this "live" show.  The dentist showed his volunteers how to pull teeth and once he showed them how and would administer a little novaciane would have them pull away. There were too many people to do any "work"..just pull rotted or abscess teeth out.  One lady had to have 14 teeth pulled out and her mouth was so infected that pus was ooozing out of her eyes ( that one is for you Sue.)  Kevin pulled some teeth, but I stayed in the doctors side.  I dispensed medicine.  Everyone who came in the door got a wormer (huge problem) and then whatever the doctor thought they needed.  He had brought bottles and bottles of penicillin, benadryl, ointments etc. I rather enjoyed this part of the experience.  One older woman was dying of cancer and he had me give her an envelope of 30 tylenol to ease what pain it would.  she wasn't going to be lasting many more days than that. She had never been seen by a doctor, but it was clear to all of us in there that she was dying. The doctor handled it so humanely...I know the rest of us just stared at the scene in shock.  Another teeny,tiny little girl didn't look like she last the day..but he treated her with antibiotics and was more hopeful than I.  Kevin was amazingly kind with the people...they loved him. It was so easy to picture him as the missionary I wrote to down in Ecuador.

We hauled down those big water coolers ( misnamed here, as the water was anything but cool) to the office to help with the pills I was giving out. Then I started asking if they would like more - hand gestures/charade like.  They liked it, I was actually Doing something for someone !  The OCD melded with the mothering instinct and I went crazy giving the stuff away.  NO INDIVIDUAL WENT THIRSTY.   Mother Earth grasped the need/desire/life sustaining quality of water.

The people weren't starving, although I know their diet was lacking. Oh, I was giving out vitamins too. Extra ones to nursing or expectant mamas, but really everyone needed them. Our meals were in an open kitchen with a tin roof. They were simple but good. Not just the children, but everyone in the village gathered round and watched us eat. The first meal was unsettling indeed..but incredibly we got use to it. I take it that they weren't exactly hungry as much as curious. The service company hired some of the people to help in the "kitchen", and paid the children recycling money on all our cans and empty water bottles.  So I was gathering armfuls when meals were over and giving them to the kids.  On our last night there we had a huge dinner for everyone combined. It was catered...funny. Who on earth took That job way up in the mountains !!  The catering truck looked SO out of place..but they brought up coolers full of ice cold cokes - HEAVENLY!!  We ate out in a field because the kitchen couldn't hold everyone.  The insects and creepy crawlers went CRAZY,  but our XXXL Deet spray did the trick.

The guys digging ditches and hauling rocks saw plenty of scorpions and some snakes.  There was a scorpion in the shower..but I wasn't the one to find it : ) Big spiders were everywhere..the villagers could care less about them - didn't even try to flick them away.  There were dogs roaming around, their ribs sticking out.  No one treated them well.  People were always kicking them and the children threw rocks at them.  This was very hard on me.  It is better to be a dead dog than a dog in these villages.  One day one of  our bankers kicked a puppy right in front of me.  Inexcuseable !!  He is forever on my JERK list !!

 
 The children lined up in two lines and took us weary travelers up to our new homes for the week.  They were very sweet. The tents kept all the flying/creeping crawlies away. The blow up mattresses were the best item we brought along. Never needed the sleeping bag though.

 The laundry room.

 The sunsets were amazing...and SO appreciated !!  The end of another furiously hot day.

 I loved the way the women dressed, so colorful. Baby is in a sling on the fencepost.

 A pig that was wondering around someones home. Oh, they gave him some tortillas to eat.

 People waiting outside the doctors office. I took the picture from a little hill where Many others were waiting.  Very patiently I might add. Although I also noticed that they never "gave up" their seat for an elderly person or nursing mom.

 This is my hero in the blue shirt !! The woman in the orange is the village midwife..and a very bright capable person.  She sat patiently by until the doctor needed her for female problems. Very  gracious. The community has one mobile generator that they moved around where it was needed, so when we worked past dark they would bring it down to light up that one light bulb.

 These two darling girls showed us their house. Their mama was cooking tortillas over an open fire.  These homes had to be well over *100. One house where they were roasting coffee beans ( which they grow there) was like walking into the hottest sauna I have ever been in. The upside was that it smelled really, really good.

Was it worth it ? Yes.  Would I do it again ? absolutely.  Is it the best way to help out these disadvantaged people ?   I am still giving That a lot of thought.