A little break...and a birthday

Well, we finally have arrived back in Guatemala City after our long, hot, sweaty, and awesome adventure in San Miguelito and San Pedro la Cocona in Punta de Palma along the Gulf of Honduras. Last year, I went to this place and traveled an hour and a half along a dirt road in the back of a 4x4 in the rain of a legitimate jungle, only to take a trail of muddy tears to a village called Lampara, which looked like something out of Indiana Jones. This time, our trip was not nearly as long, and most of the people actually spoke Spanish which was really nice. I worked in intake again with two women from the new team from Eastpoint Church in Spokane. I really enjoyed this team and they were very cohesive with one another and really knew why they were there.

The children played on the soccer field (per usual) and I played a little bit with them on our set up day. They set up the ball for me, one kid politely hocked a loogey and the ball and stomped on it, and I was ready to go. Since I have always claimed myself to be an aquatic mammal and not a land mammal, I expected to completely miss the ball and fall flat on my back like Charlie Brown. Luckily, my foot actually connected and the ball went flying through the goal. I felt bad though cuz I almost clocked the kid playing goalie in the face.

Throughout this clinic we saw 75-80 patients per day and just did it in one fell swoop because it was too hot to try and do two separate sessions. We started at about 9 and finished at around 1:30 or so. The last day we measure the temp and it was 107 degrees in the sun and 114 degrees on top of the truck we were loading. It was tough work and I was sweating like a stuffed pig in the extreme heat and humidity, but it was really worth it. It was incredibly sad, however, to see some of the faces of some of the people. A lot of these people do not have more than $100 worth of possessions to their name, a statistic which is staggering to me.

Although I don't work in dental, I saw for myself that the dental situation in these remote villages is nearly non-existent. Some of these kids have probably never brushed their teeth before, and thanks to the advancement of modernization with junk food products such as Coke and other sweets, their teeth just rot. I was shocked when I was talking to one of the women and she had only one bottom tooth. All the rest had rotted out. Some children's teeth were blackened with cavities, and others were broken in half and merely shards. I have heard from the dentists that it is so sad because these people need a lot more work than they can give them. They have had to limit themselves to a policy of just one extraction or filling per person, due to the sheer time and volume of people we see. A lot of the patients need a whole mouth worth of fillings. Brian told me awhile back when he was working in dental that one older patient was having their tooth extracted and when the dentist pulled it out, it practically disintegrated and she had to go digging in the gums for the rest of the remnants of the root of the tooth. (Sorry for those who are grossed out easily). We seriously take something so simple as a bi-annual teeth cleaning and basic preventative dental education for granted.

Another thing which shocked me about this round of clinics was the amount of children that came in and the ages of their mothers. Almost all of the people I saw come through intake were women with at least 4 sick children in tow and usually one having a little snack from his mother right in front of my face :/ Brooke, one of the women who helped me in intake, noticed how strong these women are in the face of such adversity. They have to deal with such difficult life situations and do not seem to be phased by the immensity of their situation.

At first, in San Miguelito I was confused with my patient lists. Five kids would show up with their mom, and several of them had different last names from their mother and from each other. I didn't realize until I asked one of them, that the reason they all have different last names is because they have different fathers. Of course, in most cases, the father was nowhere to be found with his sick children. One time, a woman came with her children of all different last names, and then a few patients later a man of the same last name as one of the kids showed up, separate from his children. Apparently, it is common for the women to be empregnated by several different men...and it doesn't seem like they observe the concept of alimony checks. Maybe they have a communal type system of help, but these women, for all the mouths to feed and love to provide, show a remarkable amount of resilience.

Another shocking thing was the young age of the mothers. There was one case that really took me aback. A women came in with five children and she was only 20 years old. When I asked her how old the oldest one was, she said 7. She has been having children almost every year since she was 13 years old! After awhile, I had to make it a habit to ask 13 year olds if they were pregnant, which was a sad thing to have to make part of my intake routine. Yet despite this seemingly hopeless situation to me, these mothers clearly loved her children and were there to get them help.

Personally, this past clinic was a very important one. Since I have been here, I have been having some trouble with my personal relationship with God and feeling close to Him. Since my last trip was so life-changing, I had placed the same expectations on this trip...waiting for some revelation from God or some epiphany of faith. For the most part, I haven't really had any until this past clinic where I was able to relax next to the beach in time off and could actually ask God for guidance.

One thing God led me to ponder about was the fact that while Jesus was on the cross, He was thinking about THESE people. This 20 year old mother of 5, this old man bent over 90 degrees from osteoporosis, this drunken man who is probably the father to 10 different children throughout the village. Regardless of your belief on predestination, as far as we know, Christ died for ALL of these people, no matter how black their teeth are, how promiscuous their sexual habits are, or how much they smell of human feces. He knew they would lead these seemingly impossible lives. While we stand in awe at how little material possessions these people have, how much more awful is the lack of hope and the pure love devoid from their lives.

Tito talked to me about his OB/GYN rotation in med school and how they would work at these clinics for the prostitutes in Guatemala. He said he saw and smelled some of the worst things he has ever experienced. But hearing that makes me think, as digusting and calloused as these people may be, we cannot just act like they don't exist. Sometimes such problems appear to be just abstract feature stories we hear about on 20/20, where the reporter merely seems like a story-teller recounting the tale of some fictional tragedy. But these problems are REAL. And these people cannot just change the channel to their lives.

Everybody has their own charities or methods of humanitarian efforts that they pursue, and as nice as it would be, we cannot all give money to every poor child we see flash across the screen. But doing this kind of work has made me realize that as much as we would like to live in a bubble of self-satisfaction and prosperity, we cannot ignore the plight of our fellow man.

If you don't already work with the homeless or have never been to a soup kitchen and have some extra time, why not give it a try. I'm not saying we need to sell all our things and become the next Mother Teresa....I HATE it when people shove charities down others' throats as if they know exactly how they should serve others. Every person is given their own social responsibility and that is between them and God. Plus, different seasons in life call for different service. But if you do have a chance or an extra night free, why not see a world very much different from your own and serve the people who you may not love, but Jesus died for to save.

I am actually kind of shocked that I am writing this because this message is totally a conviction to myself. Throughout this trip I have struggled with feelings of selfishness, ignoring the reality of these people's lives and exhibiting a lack of faith that prayer for these people will accomplish anything. Often I get so focused on my specific goal or task that I ignore the process it takes to get us there. Luckily, God has started to change my heart, but that would be my prayer request for now. For whatever reason, I have kind of had a crisis of faith throughout the trip, saying all the Christian things about prayer and love, but not really believing or feeling them.

Well this post is a lot longer than I expected, but blogs are supposed to be about self-expression and rambling, right? Thank you all so much for your support, and I can't wait to see many of you again. Oh, it was Brian's birthday yesterday and we went to TGI Friday's and he had to stand on a chair while everyone sang....public embarrassment which he absolutely hated....but I absolutely loved. :)

Verse for the day:

"Then Jesus said to his host, 'When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite our friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.'"
---Luke 14:12-14