medical mission to the coast, and remembering Chloe.

What a great week! I had the privilege of spending 4 days with a team of doctors here on the coast (we were in the Monterrico area at the very bottom) :

The days were long and hot, but we saw many patients and really enjoyed one another’s company. Was a really neat group of both Americans and Guatemalans. Felt so spoiled to have this chance to join them and learn from them, and they let me travel, stay, and eat for no charge!

We had clinic in the laid-back, dirt roads, hammock-hanging, animals-running-around-everywhere, coastal community of Taxisco for 3 days, and did clinic in a church in Palín on the 4^th day. Both communities were  so kind and welcoming to us. Really beautiful people.

A majority of the conditions presented were: diabetes issues, parasites, women’s reproductive health stuff, and babies with fevers. I did get to see an incredibly massive tumor on the upper thigh of a man with AIDS; that was really sad. He needed a hospital, and the nearest one was an hour and a half away! There were also some extremely high blood sugar patients that needed IV infusions, which we were able to set up right there in the building we used.  This community of several thousand only has 1 little pharmacy, that’s it.

I went back and forth between working the pharmacy with these lovely ladies…

…and translating at the Integrated Health station, the place where patients wait for their medication, receive health education, and hear the Gospel presented to them.

I also got to do some nursey stuff with the sweet nurse from the States, Hatsie. We took patients as they came in and did weights, blood glucose checks, and blood pressures, and pregnancy tests every once in awhile.

This is my new friend from Canada, Diane:) Awesome woman who lived in Sevilla, Spain when she was about my age. She was actually visiting Sevilla in September, at the same time we were there!

Where we stayed 2 nights, right on the beach.

We ate all our meals here at a home belonging to one of the families in the community.

 Where the ladies slept. Our room had a BAT that got inside. It flew around at night above our heads. Scary!!!

 At the end of our 2^nd day, I just felt like talking to someone from home, so I dialed up my daddio and we chatted a bit before he told me the news that my sweet dog of 5 years, Chloe, had died the day before. It was so unexpected and the story pretty tragic and I just stood there on the Pacific coast and cried for my puppy. I still can’t believe she’s gone, really. She was mi amiguito, my buddy. We spent so much time together chasing each other around the kitchen and taking walks in the park and snuggling in my bed or on the couch. She was like one of those humanish pets people go on about….kinda annoying really, when people talk so much about their pets like I’m doing now, but truly, when I was sad or upset or nervous, she was always there. When I was happy, she was happy with me. My family’s been through a lot in the past couple years, and she was our “little piece of consistent joy,” as my dear friend Anne put it. It sucks that she’s gone. It really, really, really sucks.

Last September, Zach and I were on the Atlantic coast when we heard about his Grandma Ruth’s death. Once again, hearing about the death of someone I cherish this past week, I was standing on another ocean’s shore. Maybe it’s a coincidence, but maybe it’s God showing me that He loves me. Both times that I’ve grieved for someone lost that I loved in the past 6 months, I’ve been on the edge of His great, big, crashing-waves sea. I feel so devastated at first, but I look upon that ocean and am reminded that He is mighty. That He is the Author of life. He tells the waves what to do, he ends and begins lives, and he steadies my heart.

The rest of the trip was good, except I was just bummed out about my dog. I love my new Guatemalan girlfriends for letting me cry on their shoulder that evening. I felt really silly for crying about my puppy when Guatemala is just full of grungy, homeless, skeleton dogs running around everywhere. People can barely feed their families, let alone feed the dogs that just keep multiplying. They’ve never bothered me so much in the past, but for the rest of the trip every dog I saw just made me so sad!

Am missing my mom this week and really wishing I could be with her. She needs nurse Kristen, as her hand is pretty mangled from the Chloe accident, and her heart broken, too. Wish I could just see everybody. Ryry’s birthday is Monday, so Ryan, if you’re reading this, I LOVE YOU AND YOU’RE ONE OF MY BESTEST FRIENDS. You’re an awesome man with a spirit for adventure and a passion for music and love for others. Enjoy your first beer ever in your whole entire life ;) 

peace,

Kristen