Graduated!

We had an awesome week in Chicago, and I have lots and lots of photos to go through, but thought I would post a few quick ones of Jason's graduation....more to come!

Rockefeller Chapel where the ceremony was held

Kerry threw a beyond awesome rooftop bbq to celebrate. It was a gorgeous evening with great friends!

On The Road Again.

Yes, we're on the road again, because....Jason's graduating Saturday!!! I'm beyond impressed with his dedication. He has a job waiting for him in Wenatchee so that is where we will be making our home. Exciting!! Although we've made memories we could never replace this past year, we are looking forward to becoming somewhat settled. Hope everyone is enjoying this wonderful spring weather..summer is on the way!

A few friends from neighboring states came up for the weekend, and we were able to get outdoors a bit and enjoy the spring weather.

We started Saturday out with a great hike up Buffalo mountain. It was a gorgeous morning!

Chuck and Jennifer celebrating our arrival at Tip Top

Chad and Laura

Temperatures were in the upper 80s all day. It was a little warm but that didn't stop any one from enjoying a crazy game of ultimate frisbee.

Chuck brought along a slack line. That takes some crazy balance! It's hard to tell from the picture, but it was about chest height from the ground.

chad's house

relaxing in the shade

The Volunteer State

We only have 3 weeks left here in Tennessee and I haven't even shown you any pictures! Our time here is going by way too fast! We couldn't have asked for a better place to spend the spring. Tennessee is beautiful this time of year! The redbuds and dogwoods have been in full bloom for weeks now. Pollen has been thick, but the occasional rain does a good job of clearing the air. We spent this past weekend hiking, camping, and fishing with awesome company...does it get better than that?

The Kloostermans were coming through the area on their cross-country roadtrip, so we met up with them, as well as Chad and Laura for a camping trip.

...before the hike in..

5 miles of beautiful scenery later, we set up camp

(How many guys does it take to start a fire?)

Actually they built quite the cozy fire. Perfect for smores and warding off pestering mosquitos.

We made it!

Gail and I happy to be sitting :)

On Sunday we headed up to Mountain City for meeting with Laura and Chad. There is only one couple in town there, so friends rotate trips up from the Johnson City area. It was a gorgeous drive.

Sunday also happened to be the elder's birthday, so after lunch we headed out on a fishing trip.

86 years old and happy as can be!

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....