Jungle Fever

Today we finally returned from our journey across the whole country of Guatemala...literally. When we last met I was writing my blog entry fro

m the office last Saturday night. Needless to say, that whole night was a mad dash. First, the team of high school seniors from Two Rivers Church in Tennessee arrived at around

3 (6 hours before the Guatemalans thought they were going to arrive). After they got situated at their hostel we still had a ton of work to do packing up the trucks to head out to “The Hot Place.” Suitcases and giant duffle bugs capable of holding three midgets were flung across the office into four different pickup trucks, cinched down with tarps to protect from the rain. Then Makko and I rushed to take the new gringo team to dinner while we shopped like crazy for all the lunch food at the Guatemalan Costco minutes before it closed. I have never seen more loaves of bread purchased in my life. We returned to the office to continue packing. It was a classic Guatemalan moment when at 11:30 at night, Koki (one of the Guatemalan workers) asks me to start drilling holes into 30 plastic buckets to use for the water filters

we would be handing out. Keep in mind I needed to get up at 4:30 the next morning to take the previous team of women to the airport and then leave for the next clinic with all our gear at 5:30am. But here I was drilling holes into plastic buckets at 11:30 at night without a care in the world, because I just know that’s how things work down here.

To make a long story short, after getting 3 hours of sleep, we got off the next day relatively without a hitch. The ladies got to the airport, we picked up the new team and off we went on our 7 hour car ride to “The Hot Place” which always lives up to its name. This is the farthest that La Mision goes for its clinics, and in this place we see some of the poorest people in the whole country who live in the jungle. We have to take the 4x4 trucks over the rugged roads in order to reach these far off places. However, the place where we stayed this time was a plush resort about 2 hours away from ou

r first clinic site. This place had air conditioning, a pool, slides, and even a tank of iguanas and turtles. While we didn’t really feel like we were rough

ing it like missionaries, this place was truly a place of respite and a blessing from God since these clinics are very draining with the extreme heat and humidity.

We did clinics in two different villages, the first being more remote with the people who

speak the Mayan dialect requiring an additional translator. Here I worked both in intake and pharmacy. The new wrist blood pressure cuff I got for intake worked like a charm, except for the complication of the women who had 5 children in tow and needed to pass off their baby to someone. These people are incredibly poor, and all t

heir possessions wouldn’t amount to more than $100. Notice in the picture the emaciated and mangey dog that laid beneath their feet the entire day at intake without them thinking twice about it.

La Mision has developed some new forms of ministry since I was here last, all of which I really am happy they are doing. Along with the medical,

dental, and vision services they provide, there was a station for prayer and handing out clothes and shoes, a station for the adolescent girls to do girly stuff like paint their nails and talk about life (luckily I was NOT asked to help with this one), a construction team, a team to play with the kids and teach them about Jesus, and a group that went out to families‘ huts giving water filters. I accompanied one group that handed out a filter to a family and I absolutely loved it. Water filtration is something I am very passionate about because we can hand out all the vitamins we want to but if the people are continually ingesting and cooking with diseased water, we are fighting a losing battle. These filters are a simple design of a bucket and a filter device attached to a hose. All they need to do is fill the bucket with “clean” water (water without a bunch of dirt) and open the spigot at the bottom of the filter. Supposedly, all they have to do to clean it is about once a week use this syringe to shove water through the filter to cleanse it. The filter

instructions claims it filters out a ton of the specific bacteria, viruses, and other microscopic pathogens that often plague these people, so I am really excited and

hope over time it makes a big difference in the health of these villages.

Over the course of the four days we were there (two days at each clinic) we treated about 320 patients in medical, not including dental. Watching all the different stations in action and all the different ways that the La Mision team serves these people, I am always amazed at the strength of people working together as a team. Everybody had their own tasks but we were all working together--Gringo and Guatemalan--to help these people. It is truly a beautiful representation of the body of Christ and I love how all our different gifts and abilities are used to serve a variety of needs in these communities.

Also, for those of you who don’t know, several high school students from America

Latina come on these trips to help out. Honestly, without them, we would never be able to do these clinics. These Guatemalan

high schoolers are so mature and work so hard to help their people, I always have so much respect for them. It has been wonderful getting to know them better, whether

it be working together in the clinics or giving each other whiplash at the bottom of the water slide after going down 10 in a row at terminal velocity.

After we were done with the clinics, the Guatemalan team headed back down to Guatemala City while the Gringoes, Makko, Tito, Ashley, two America Latina stu

dents, and I headed up to Tikal which was another 6 hour drive up north. Tikal is the site of the oldest Mayan ruins and has to do with the whole 2012 stuff. On the drive up, we were stopped by military soldiers for a random traffic stop. I’m not exactly sure what the purpose was for stopping us. Maybe to see if we were narcotic smugglers so that they could get a bribe for turning a blind eye? Regardless, they stopped us and had us

all get out of the van so that they could see our passports. Now I have been told before about stuff like this and been advised to at least carry a copy of my passport on me at all times. Since I do not want my passport to be stolen, I usually leave the original passport safe at Tito’s place and then take a copy with me in my backpack in case I need to prove identification. Well the time came for me to hand my passport to the intimidating Guatemalan soldier with the M-16, and I handed him my copy assuming that it would be okay. He looks at me and at the paper quite puzzled and I try to explain to him in Spanish how I don’t carry the original because I don’t want it to get stolen, but that it is a copy of the original. I failed to see Tito in the background giving me this horrified look which apparently meant, “Don’t speak Spanish...You need to act as ignorantly Gringo as possible!” The guard looked at the paper and then back at me and said these three terrifying words: “No es legal.”

Instantly, my heart pounded as I envisioned myself grasping the bars of a Guatemalan prison with eyes as big as saucers, holding up the tattered copy of my passport as an emaciated dog dangles keys to my cell from its mouth while hardened Guatemalan criminals snicker at me in the background. I definitely would not do well in prison. Thank God, that he apparently was trying to just intimidate me since he said something random and then decided to let us all pass. Needless to say, I learned my lesson and will now always have the correct documentation with me at hand.

We finally reached Tikal and stayed at this place called the Jungle Lodge. Tikal is dead center in the jungle and it had to the flora and fauna to prove it. Every bug was at least twice the normal size and we had to sleep with giant mosquito nets over our beds. Fortunately, while others experienced sleepless nights with stinging centipedes landing on their chest or scorpions near their shoes, Tito and I enj

oyed a very restful night.

Well, except for me constantly scratching at the multitude of mosquito bites I got from the days before on the beach at the resort. While the church group had a formalized tour with a guide, Tito, me, and two of the America Latina students (Josue and Jerson) took the express tour on our own. The ruins were definitely impressive, though it would have been nice to hear some more of the history behind them. We left at about 1pm to head back to Guatemala City which was an 8-9 hour drive while the Gringoes took a 45 minute flight overhead. However, because it got dark and the roads became dangerous trying to pass the slow trucks with about 2 feet visibility distance on the poorly lit roads, Tito decided to put us up in another hotel in the night and do the rest of the trip in the morning. It was quite the adventure, especially finishing it with Josue putting his feet on the seat in front of us to find a live scorpion crawling on his sock. It must have traveled with us all the way from Tikal and I could only imagine all the other critters that were probably rummaging through my bags.

We finally arrived in Guatemala City yesterday afternoon, and went out as a family to one of their favorite restaurants: TGI Fridays. Then afterwards Alejandro, Tito, and I got a haircut at this kids haircut place. I could not get over how hilarious it was that in a children’s haircut parlor they played music videos of rock bands from the 80s with outrageous hair playing songs like Final Countdown. I felt so proud because Alejandro asked specifically to get a haircut that looked like mine (well minus the blonde dye of course). Brenda and Tito told me that Alejandro really wanted to look like me and that even if the haircut didn’t turn out right I still needed to tell him it looked like mine. :) It actually turned out great and I got my first Guatemalan haircut as well and was quite impressed....especially since it only cost $5! Those rip-offs at Great Clips are crooks having charged me $14 all these years!

Well, I need to start resting some more because I have been having continual bouts with some uninvited GI critters. The food we have been eating on the road not only does not compare to Brenda’s cooking, but probably is not the best for my stomach which has still not converted from Gringo to Chapin (Guatemalan). Yesterday I had my first experience with Chicharrones (Guatemalan Pork Rinds) which I found disgusting but they absolutely love here.

Lastly, I wanted to thank you all so much those who are praying for me on this trip. Especially this past clinic off in the jungle, I realized how I am so at peace here. God has definitely quieted my heart to the anxieties I have had regarding school and other aspects of my future, and I feel so content simply existing in the present. It has been a unique experience and I truly feel like I am just resting in the Hand of God each day I spend here. While I am looking forward to starting school this fall and beginning a new adventure, God has made me so content and at peace with where I am now at this exact moment in time. For someone who has trouble with worrying and anxiety like I do, it has been such a refreshing experience. However, I do not doubt that a large reason for God’s peace that passes understanding during this time is thanks to the prayers of so many of you. This trip has definitely convinced me more of the power that prayer has to not only strengthen one’s relationship with God, but to also tangibly effect change in our world. So I thank you all so much for those who are praying for me, and want to let you know that it is absolutely making a difference.

I will leave you with some verses which many of us have heard before, but I hope God will use as a restful reassurance for you.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?...Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” ---Matthew 6:25-34