Guatemala

Homeward bound

 

   We are wrapping up our last day in Guatemala.  On Sunday we headed out of Solola and moved into our plush new hotel in the colonial Spanish town of Antigua.  You have never seen such a  rush on bathrooms.  Meghan said that she now understands what heaven looks like and it seems to consist of a real mattress with flowing water and shampoo.  We still cant flush the toilet paper or brush our teeth with the water, but who cares.

   Yesterday we went to the Finca Filadelphia which is a medium sized coffee plantation just outside of Guatemala.  We did a 2 hour personal tour of the coffee plantation and discovered that no one in the US would be willing to work this hard to produce coffee that sells for one dollar a pound.  We owe the Costa Ricans and Guatemalans praise everytime that we go to Starbucks.  We were able to see the entire process from the nursery, planting, picking, sorting, drying and roasting.  Then we sat in their restaurant on a beautiful patio with a woman handmaking our tortillas over a wood stove with a view of the valley and volcanos.  When we got into town, John went on a  crazy Guatemalan shopping spree.  We then had dinner at the 5 star Casa Santa Domingo on the grounds of a collapsed monastery from the 1700s.  The 8 course tasting menu was $30.  Meghan suddenly felt the entire trip was worthwhile.  She was a little confused on why the wood carvings from the 1600s were sitting in the hallways next to the flaming candles.  Only in Latin America.

   Today we went back to the plantation, loaded into an open air jeep, drove 6000 feet up a cobblestone trail on the side of a cliff, and went zip lining with all instructions in Spanish.  Bill will be happy to know that my life insurance policy is up to date.  Meghan and John had a great time and then we sat for our 5th cup of coffee of the day.  Meghan is still a pleasant pale pasty color after her 2nd bottle of SPF 70 and is keeping Norine out of the sun. 

   Tonight we have the banquet and will be heading home around 400am tomorrow.  Upon arrival, Meghan will be finding a bag of prunes.  She cant quite do anything as expected, even when everyone around her is dropping with travelers diarrhea.

Guatemala

From Meghan

I had a minor surgical procedure on my eye this morning to remove a lump caused by a clogged gland that then filled with a "tapioca pudding like substance".  I got eye drops to numb my eye ball, a local injected into my eye lid, then my eyelid was flipped back and held with a clamp while the doc used a scalpel to slice open the inside of my eye lid.  She then used what she called a small ice cream scooper to get out all of the goo.  I have to hot pack it and use an antibiotic gel for a week.  All of this happened on a table in a concrete room with mostly sterile equipment and random team members coming in to chat and see what the fun was.  One of the handymen offered me a foot massage while we were waiting for the local to take affect.  Norine thought it was awesome.  I was seriously freaked out.

 

 

From Norine

     And we have WATER!!!!!  We have honestly had a wonderful time and this has been an amazing and educational experience.  The Guatemalan people have been extremely grateful (when they actually got through the gate to be treated and were not rioting).  There was a 15 year old girl who had a seizure and fell into a cooking fire.  She came to the hospital with her face covered and not even wanting to be examined because of the damage.  After her reconstructive surgery with the plastic surgeon, she left smiling and asking to have her picture taken.  It makes it all worth a few viruses and a few missed showers.

Guatemala

And things just keep getting better.  So yesterday, I got sick.  Meghan is apparently sharing her cooties.  Though it is hard to not share when there is no running water.  I have no idea how the hospital kept doing sterile surgeries, but they figured something out.  So I spent all day in bed yesterday and Meghan kept throwing up.  John showed amazing sensitivity by trying to get us out of bed jsut so that we could take him shopping and use our Spanish to help with the bartering.

   Today they set up a hair washing station on the lawn outside of the cafeteria.  No one has been able to wash hair or shower in 4 days.  It looked like the set of South Pacific with women helping each other lather and rinse.

    We shut everything down this morning and packed it all up.  I sorted through all the anesthesia meds with the soon to be outdated meds going to a nearby clinic that agrees to use them in free clinics.  John wrapped up the kitchen with cereal for dinner and breakfast.  And Meghan, well Meghan had Guatelmalan eye surgery.  Yes, you read correctly.  With 6 staff members staring at the surgery, and lying on top of a table in a concrete room, Meghan had her chelazion incised by the opthomologist.  Brave girl.  Rumor has it that they did wash the scalpel beforehand.  Not so sure about the Sharpie pen.

    We are off to take the group picture, if we can force the Guatemalan soccer team off the field.  We leave for Antigua tomorrow and look forward to seeing you all soon. And running water. 

Guatemala

  We are going to start recruiting for next year right now.  There are luxurious accomidations, fabulous food, fun and interesting people and a chance for fame and fortune.

   In other words, the water is gone.  Not the hot water, the running water.  Everywhere.  It sounds like the toilet might be back by tomorrow, but no showers until Antigua in 3 days.  I am so glad that I brought an entire bag of shampoos.

    No water, very little cooking.  I don't want to know and it is probably better that way.  It is amazing what they can do with canned pears.  Dad does make a mean apple crisp though.

   The midwife was out on Outreach team today.  Guess who got to fill in.  My life is now complete.  I did 25 pelvic exams on unwashed women who were all complaining of years of pain in the uterus and clear discharge.  And I had to convince most of them that this is completely normal.  Over and over again.  In spanish.  With a trough of used spleculums at my feet.  I never ever ever want to be a gynecologist.  Take me back to the ED where everyone just has an STD.

   And Meghan has the cooties.  She started puking into the garbage can last night at 2:00am and rudely kept me awake.  Luckily only a few episodes of diarrhea, especially when I remind you that there is no running water.  Around 1:00pm she was shaking with chills and wishing to die.  However, she gets twice daily house calls from the team doc and home delivery of nausea medicine and narcotics from her sister.  And she took pride in the temp of 101.5 as proof that she was really sick.  Don't worry mom, she is starting to look a little better and probably just has a virus. 

    And fame and fortune await.  A reporter for the Register Guard showed up today.  She has been taking pictures everywhere and been watching everything.  Apparently her daughter is living down here and she is fitting in a story while she is visiting.

     I will be distributing applications when we return.  You know you want to come next year....

Guatemala

From Meghan

 

Translating is going fine.  What's wrong with people is pretty simple, my stomach hurts, I have diarrhea, I have bad eyes, I want to see the dentist. 
 
We keep having to shut triage down early because the damn doctors are too slow.  So this afternoon I took a shower while everyone was still at work (yeah!) and then went down to the clinic to see if they needed help with translating.  Apparently they did since I hopped from room to room until they shut down for the day.  I translated for the ultrasound tech who was checking a pregnant woman because they thought she'd had a miscarriage.  Luckily there was a heartbeat because I really didn't want to have that conversation.  Then I helped Norine with a woman I'd triaged who showed up at the door when she wasn't supposed to come until tomorrow.  She was literally crying because she was in so much pain from a gallstone she'd had for a year.  Norine, being the rockstar that she is, managed to convince the surgery at 6:00pm to operate on her tonight because they wouldn't be able to fit her in tomorrow. 
 
And I got poked by more kids.  And some lady called me "señor".

 

 

 

Guatemala

Meghan and I are dirty.  There is, well, maybe I should have freshened up before dinner dirty.  And then there is I spent the day in a dust storm re-enacting the Dust Bowel and inspecting an entire population with parasite only to return home to find that the showers are broken...all of them.  On a high note, our snot is brown.  So is our ear wax. 

   Meghan and I spent the day on an outreach team in the small town of Rosario.  Meghan was pretty nervous about her Spanish, but spent the entire day with the Pediatrician translating.  We saw about 100 patients and diagnosed a few new pregnancies.  Most of the complaints are old people with cataracts,  young women with fertility or breast feeding complaints, and tons of kids.  It turns out that while Meghan despises kids, they love to jump on her and make faces.  And apparently the boys like to bark at her.  Maybe it's because she was throwing rocks at them. 

   Another high note, though not of course as high as having dirt in every orifice, Meghan finally got her luggage today, all wrapped in plastic Italian style.  This means she can stop wearing my socks and change her underwear.  Don' think about that last bit too closely. 

    Dad (John) is stuck in the kitchen.  The snoring is so bad that he is even moving out of his room and sleeping in the kitchen.  We hope that the feral dogs don´t get him. 

    We miss you all and look forward to spending a small fortune at Bliss Spa when we get back.

 

Guatemala

Meghan and I are reporting back from the balmy climes of Latin America.  In our lovely camp site with dust blowing through the walls it is a scintillating 40 degrees with winds attempting to rip off the roof.  Meghan has not showered in 3 days, but it is not a problem since her luggage still has not arrived.  Norine has just completed her 20th pelvic exam.  Meghan learned that after a 10th child, uteruses can fall out.  It was great lunch conversation.  Meghan has not received any marriage proposals yet, but she has had her hair pulled by half the pediatric population.  Apparently the Guatemalans think that she looks like a ''muñeca'' or doll.  John has completed his first fine dining chicken dijon meal for 120.  Sadly it beats the food at all the hospitals where Norine works.  Right now we are all huddled around our computers, using the fans for warmth, and appreciating that they were donated by US Aid.  Some how we could not donate running water or flushable toilet paper though.  We miss you all and will try to send more.

Kilimanjaro Pictures (Finally!)

Hello Everyone!

Thanks for all your virtual support during our amazing trek to the highest point in Africa! Special thanks to Mr. Romz for enabling us with a blog to post our regular travel updates while on the trail from 9 time zones away!

Kate and I have sorted through the hundreds of photos from our trip to pick the "best" photos to tell our story - and we defined 2 online photo albums - one with our arrival in Africa and the Kilimanjaro climb - the other with our safari adventure.

Here is the link to the first album including Kili which has photo captions (we're still working on the safari web album):
http://picasaweb.google.com/markdlazar/TanzaniaMtKilimanjaroClimb2009?feat=directlink

We look forward to catching up with everyone soon!

-Mark & Kate-