clinic

As I mentioned in the previous post, we travelled to Guatemala with I Care International. Our clinic was the goal and mission of the group. Although our clinic days were busy busy busy they were very much enjoyable.

We set up in the 'salon,' which is a large concrete building in the center of town. It was only a 10 minute walk from our hotel, and when we would arrive in the morning there would be people lined up outside waiting. Some of them, 200+, would make it inside before lunch. The others would wait until we opened again in the afternoon. I was amazed by the patience of the people. A lot of them travelled from nearby villages, and if they were able, they would hire a pickup truck to bring them. Others, probably the majority, walked hours. They thanked us often and sincerely.

Buenos Dias!!

Jen and I with our translators. The intermediate school sent translators for us. This was wonderful, except that most of them couldn't speak english! They could, however, translate the many mayan dialects that were spoken by the people. Our girls were wonderful with the patients, but could hardly understand a word of what we would say.

Jason and Dr. Dan finding the "perfect" prescription

once again...

and this is what we did...for 4 days straight.

I would also tend to the diabetics when they came through. Although diabetes wasn't prevalent, those that had it frequently came through with blood sugar over 500.

Ian is Jason's classmate, and also the one who got us set up with the group. He has 3 little girls, so his wife stayed home.

This girl was adorable. She was there with her mom and we couldn't resist putting a few frames on her:)

These ladies have formed an organization within the village called 'seeds'. They are trying to teach young girls the value of education and so on. We hired them to prepare lunch on our last day. Those who ate said it was amazing, but as my stomach was still unsettled from an earlier run-in with unfriendly food, I was advised to politely decline.

Jason examining our very last patient! Patient #1600...give or take a few...

outside the clinic on our last day

Travels

Our time in Guatemala far exceeded our expectations, and we were a little sad to leave the lovely weather and head back to N. America...but the 60+ degrees that greeted us here in TN has made it a little more bearable!

We traveled with I Care International which is a non profit organization that carries no religious or political agenda, but travels and performs clinics strictly to promote eye health and offer vision through glasses to those who don't have access. We carried a couple thousand pairs of glasses and other medical equipment with us. Jason performed full eye exams and I did visual screenings as well as diabetic screenings. We were rather spoiled and only worked about 7 hours a day, stopping for lunch, but did manage to see right around 1600 patients in our 4 clinic days. They were busy days!

We landed in Guatemala city in the early morning and had hired what is referred to as a "chicken bus" to take us to San Lucas Toliman, a village about 3 normal driving hours from the city (make that 5-6 in a "chicken bus".) Although the bus looks pretty snazzy from the outside, it did leave a bit to be desired..as did the extremely windy road through the mountains. At one point after crossing a VERY narrow bridge, making a crazy sharp turn and heading up the mountain the bus came to a standstill and began rolling backwards toward the edge of the bridge before the driver could get it back in gear...quite eventful. I didn't get too many photos as I spent most of the ride soaking in all the countryside and then trying to erase from my mind the fact that we were spending a good quarter of the ride within 6 inches of a very... and I mean very...large cliff. That, and the fact that my window didn't go up or down.

We were amazed at the farming! Any open speck of land had something they were attempting to grow, and it didn't matter the size of the incline it was on! If necessary men would use a rope to tie themselves to a tree at the top of the field while they worked it. We saw a lot of cabbage, corn, and some areas of flower farms with carnations and lilies.

Our first views of the Lake Atitlan. It is quite a large lake with 12 villages scattered around it. Some are fairly touristy, however San Lucas Toliman privatized it's harbor so no public boats are allowed in, which cuts down the number of visitors.

Our hotel grounds...we were quite spoiled with beautiful lawns, a pool and a deck to relax and enjoy the view of the lake.

One of the larger volcanoes surrounding the lake. We were usually only able to see it for a few hours in the afternoon, as smoke from cook fires and field burning settles quite heavily into the valley.

More photos to come soon....

My Valentine and I

We drove down to Hilton Head, SC for the weekend and loved every minute of it (excluding the snow storm).

5 years ago last weekend we met for the first time..and I'm so so so glad we did!

Outerbanks, NC

We had the opportunity for a mini getaway last weekend, so we decided to head to the "outerbanks." It is a thin strip of land off the coast of northern NC, accessible by ferry. It's connected to the mainland by bridge on the north side, but since we were coming from the south we took two small ferries for a total of 3 hours! It was quite the experience and we would love to go back for a summer visit...

Our first ferry was a little smaller than expected... 2 bathrooms, a couple chairs for walk-ons and that was it... it was a little cold and windy to be outside, so we used the opportunity for a little extra sleep in the car!

Pulling into Ocracoke Island you get a beautiful view of the harbor and lighthouse. The sun was just coming up so lighting wasn't the best, but I did try to get a few photos.

Ocracoke has a bit of pirate history, and holds claims to the fact that Blackbeard was killed here.... Tales are told by the passing wind that his treasure is buried somewhere just offshore.

We made a few quick jaunts out to the beach, but 30 degrees and windy is not quite the weather for outdoor lounging.

There is a herd of horses on the island which were at one time wild. Although their origin has not been successfully determined, some believe them to have been tossed overboard by european ships battling storms years ago. They are now fenced in on 200 acres of land as they were becoming a nuisance to the town.

The road to the northern end of the island is quite impressive. Just a small strip of pavement with sand and water on both sides!

We hopped another ferry from the northern end of the island up to Hatteras Island. The ferry is free and runs every hour so it's fairly easy for residents to get on and off the island.

Hatteras has a much greater population and there are a few business that stay open year round.

Driving north from Hatteras we frequently passed heavy machinery along the side which they use to remove sand and water from the highway after storms come through.

Typical road signs

...and another lighthouse!...

The next day we headed to Kill Devil Hills which is the site of the Wright brothers first successful flight.

These stones represent the distance of the first 4 flights.

Joel and Holly arrive tonight! Temperatures into the 60s are forecasted for the weekend! Looking forward to thawing out a bit!!