Wrapping Up

Suzy presenting some baby gifts for expectant moms

Suzy here. We are currently riding the bus back from Huehue to the capital. Not a chicken bus this time, it's a nicer Pullman type bus but less than $10 for the 5 hour ride. No borrachos bothering us, we got seats right up front behind the driver. There is time to talk and look back on the last couple of days to create what might be our last blog entry.

Bob and Ana playing tug of war

Yesterday was the second day of the "Feria de salud". It was decidedly much better than the first, since we had learned some important lessons of chaos control, plus it was only a half day. Beto and I ran the ultrasound room again, this time we put a sign of the door "No Entre, Examens Privados", as well as locking it to prevent Cristóbol from barging in. I question the grammar of the ultrasound reports I wrote on the computer, but am not too worried, because Robert Gobbo's name is at the bottom of each of them, not mine. Flaminga the cervix queen did 15 paps in one morning which sent her into throes of ecstasy, and Gallo saw general consultas. 

After finishing up at the Casa Materna, we were treated to a special lunch in the garden with PCI staff and the nursing students who had worked by our side during the Feria de Salud.  There were of course the usual nice speeches--Guatemalans have such a nice way of formally thanking people and have the rare ability to use beautiful flowery language that is imbued with a humble sincerity that is really touching. El loro presented one of the models "Estela" to Doctora Ana, for them to use for educational purposes in their work that will continue on. We are kinda jealous that she gets to stay behind……

Meeting with Dr. Palacios

After lunch we had a nice meeting with the director of the National Hospital next door, Dr. Omar Palacios, where we discovered that there was a degree of openness to do a resident exchange in the future and where we also found out about a group called "Arco Iris" that is coming to Huehue in the spring to do some orthopedic surgeries on children.  This was very exciting news for some of the children of Santa Eulalia we saw earlier in the week.  Little Vicente has some hope to get his foot fixed if we can help facilitate that happening : ).  We then got a brief tour of the hospital, including labor and delivery, the pediatric unit and the mens and women medical and surgery units.

Nursing Students who helped us in clinic

Back at Casa Materna for the final goodbye, we gathered all the patients together in the back room to distribute the gifts our Portland friends had sent. Since there were all those ultrasounds this week, most of them knew the gender of their babies, so we could give them each a package of little baby girl or boy booties, t-shirts, blankets, hats, etc. They were probably a bit surprised to hear that people back in the US cared enough to pick out the clothes for them and send them down with us.  One of the women who was a bit more outgoing than the average shy Casa Materna patient suggested getting up and dancing on the tables much to our delight.  

Dinner at Manuel's house

Since we had already had our formal goodbye at Abesaida's house, we were free to accept an invitation to the "cool urban bachelor pad" of another friend of mine from a decade ago, Manuel Saenz.  Manuel and his former wife Lucky as well as their 3 grown children had the opportunity to study in the US as youngsters so he has a bit more of a worldly perspective and it was nice to be able to lapse into English at times.  He is of a well-known family who operated the town grocery store "Casa Saenz" for 70 plus years until the Walmart affiliated Paiz showed up in Huehue in 2001. They were forced to close the family business, and he has branched out to other business ventures over the years, but has also discovered his artistic side.  It showed through in many different ways: starting with the liquor cabinet which contained everything from fine Guatemalan rum to the more homespun moonshine of the region, Cushe, in different flavors. It was a great tour to take on our last night in Huehue.  Dinner was a tapas-style meal served from the restaurant below on large communal earthenware plates, and was just as beautiful to look at as it was delicious. To top it off, we got a tour of Manuel's artwork which included several local artists and his own creations. Melissa and I were both thrilled with our purchases of his original paintings to bring back with us, yet another recuerdo of our awesome trip to Guatemala. 

We will arrive to Guatemala City in a few hours and are staying at the same nice hotel where we met the other Providence team at the beginning of the trip which seems so long ago now. Melissa found a nice restaurant in her guide book for us to go to, where we will enjoy a last meal together before the flight home the next day. We have realized that the synergy of personalities during our trip has melded together to create a real team spirit (even though Chris Anderson will always be my bike rival) and we will miss being together. We have bonded!  But hey, maybe there will be future trips, with future adventures, learning and bonding in different configurations. Maybe one of you, who speaks Spanish or wants to learn, loves adventure, can be flexible, has an open heart and a desire to serve the most poor and vulnerable (and can handle assuming a bird nickname) might be writing the next blog…. 

Bal Maria offers her thanks and best wishes to us the the moms at Casa Materna

Parting Shot

We hope you have enjoyed reading about our adventures and seeing the photos that convey the amazing spirit of life in Guatemala. thanks for tuning in. it has been nice to have your company on the journey. Paz to all on behalf of the team, Suzy, Melissa, Bob and Chris.

P.S. We will post some of our best "dichos" (sayings)...words and pics later this week. Stay tuned.