2 weeks in...

Hi Everyone,

I've been meaning to write and finally found some time to give a quick overview of what I've been up to.

Since I last wrote we made our way up to Panajachel (on lake Atitlan). It is an absolutely beautiful place with grate views of volcanoes surrounding the lake. We stayed in a nice hotel with hot showers and flushing toilets! Our room even had a TV and a phone! We arrived on Tuesday March 17th around 4pm, which gave us some time to roam the never ending strips of markets full of beautiful souvenir's! It was hard not to buy a lot, as I knew I had to pack it along with me!

The Wednesday (March 18th) was our very first free day...It was lovely sleeping in, and eating delicious fruit salads at the hotels restaurant. We walked around, and took a tuk tuk (this little mini car/motorbike) to the nature reserve and took a long hike through the jungle...seeing monkeys, birds, and butterflies. We even saw this ant eater type thing that followed us and made me jump on a stool in fright. Even so, I could have walked around all day long. Later that afternoon, we had lunch down by the lake and roamed the markets yet again.

On Thursday (March 19th) we got up early and headed to a rural village called Cerro de Oro to set up clinic. There were many people waiting to be seen. More of the same types of problems were seen with many women and children having stomach aches and headaches, runny noses, sore throats and coughs. The most challenging part of that day was to keep going as we had 3 way translations. We would ask the questions in Spanish and a translator would ask the patients the same questions in their native language and vice versa. A lot of what we do is education, and it took some time to educate the people. For instance, we continuously reiterate the importance of drinking 'pure' water, and avoiding smoke and dust as much as possible, as well as eating balanced meals and maintaining hygiene. Many people cook their meals in their home over an open fire, creating a lot of smoke that is inhaled. An interesting symptom that many of us have come across is physical body pain being a symptoms of grieving the loss of a loved one. FYI The civil war in Guatemala lasted for 36 years and many people lost their families (1960-1996).

After an exhausting day we got back to the hotel, shopped some more, ate the best pizza I've ever tasted, had an emergency child birth course and went to bed. We got up at 4:30 am the next morning to make our way back to Guatemala City where we would stay with another nun (Sister Mary Faye) and her young female students. The house we stayed at was breathtaking, but the inside was abandoned and not maintained. The toilets ran out of water and there were a million spiders (large and small) in each room. Luckily, I was sharing a room with an arachnophobic, so our lovely instructor bleached our room and killed as many spiders as possible before bedtime. We set up our mosquito nets to avoid getting any creepy crawlers up bodily holes. Needless to say, I slept very little that night.

(Parental Guidance Advised)
The next day (March 21st) we had a pancake breakfast with the young girls and gave then a sexual health talk...which was very successful and absolutely hilarious. We even got the nun to help translate certain things and she got right into explaining foreplay, masturbation, and intercourse. The banana condom combo worked to perfection, we even had a fake vagina to demonstrate the process.

After our teaching session, we set up clinic in the church for the locals. I was very surprised and happy to see some young men come in for a check up. Most of the people we see are relatively healthy and mostly need some education. For them to have us assess their heart, lungs, and bowel sounds and confirming everything sounds normal is very pleasing and reconfirming to them. After clinic, that evening half of us split up to cook dinner (Fajitas) and the others spoke to the girls about headaches, managing stress, menstruation, and skin care. Once dinner was scarfed down we got ready to teach the girls some Jazzercise. Emily (one of my peers) is a Jazzercise queen so she lead the class.We had music and a tonnes of laughs...Mama and Sandra,you both would have had a ball!! I'll try to post a video when I have more time.

Sunday, March 22nd, we took all day to drive up north to Poptun in El Peten. We are staying at the Finca Ixobel, a large farm with many tourists and many amenities (caving, horse back riding, swimming etc.). The scenery is absolutely breathtaking. The climate is more damp and warmer as we are surrounded by rain forest vegetation. I can't wait to post some pictures. Our sleeping quarters are neat but there are lots and lots of bugs...I was told that scorpions come out of the walls when they hear the ants coming....I've surrounded and tucked my bunk into two nets in hopes of sleeping in peace with no buggy tickles.

I hope everyone is doing well back home and I'm missing you all. Will write again soon.

Buenos Noches and lots of love xoxoxoxoxoxox