Friday, May 25, 2007
Home...
And here I am, safely at my house 2 days later suffering through some culture shock. But it is super nice to have some things that are somewhat familiar. Thanks for all your prayers and support through the last 4 months. Hopefully I will be able to see you all soon!
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
One week!!!
So there’s less than 7 days left now...and the countdown for many has already begun.
It’s definitely a bitter-sweet ending. I’m looking forward to coming home and seeing all of you, but I’m going to be sad to leave this beautiful country and the people that I’ve gotten to know here, in Guatemala. I know that God has begun a good work here in this country as well as in me.
As I look back on the trip and see all that I’ve accomplish and all the ups and downs that this trip has brought, I can say that this is one life experience that I will never forget. I’ve seen suffering, poverty, as well as happiness and joy and a sense of hope. This country is broken and has been broken since their civil war. However, there are positive changes being made. Sometimes I think the changes are difficult to see, but they are there if you just look a little harder. However, this country still has its problems as any other country does. For example, instead of doing something about the poverty in the country, the government decided to work on the main road from Guatemala City to Antigua.
But I see the positive changes occurring every day in my ministry site with the patients and the nurses that I work with. One thing I’ve learned is that things are a lot different than they appear. When we first received a tour of the hospital, where I work, I only saw hopelessness and a sense of despair. However, after working there for nearly 6 weeks, I can see the hope that this hospital does have. Many of the nurses are so good with the patients. I have seen the nurses be able to understand those patients who aren’t able to talk and also help the patients laugh. This is one thing that makes things seem worthwhile: being able to see the patients laugh, smile and have a good time. Sometimes this seems like an impossible thing to do, but generally all they need is someone to talk to, to sit with, or to color with. I’ve been taken back to elementary school with all the coloring and painting I’ve done these past weeks, but hey, I figure that’s not a bad thing. I’ve also acquired the ability to guess or understand what some of the patients want, when they can’t necessarily express to me what they want. A lot of it is asking yes and no questions, but at least they can be happy and enjoy themselves. One thing I learned, especially today is patience. In the afternoons we go to the Cerebral Palsy Unit to feed the children lunch. Some days you get the easy kids who like to eat and eat really fast, but other days you get the hard kids who don’t want to eat or eat really slow. Well, today I got the second. Diego is the name, he loves to smile but he doesn’t like to eat or he just takes his time. He was the only child that I feed today and he didn’t even finish his lunch. And after that, one of other girls in our group asked me if I could try feeding another boy named Alex because she wasn’t having any success. Let me tell you how small Alex is: if you put your pointer finger to your thumb and make a circle, his legs are probably half of that size. He is the tiniest child I’ve ever seen and he is probably around 7 years old. Well, he doesn’t like to eat either and I probably tried to feed him his bottle for 15 minutes and he didn’t eat anything. But his smile is the cutest and most precious smile I’ve ever seen.
Oh and now you might be asking, why are all these children at the hospital? Well, a lot of the children are sons or daughters of the indigenous families that live in the mountains and don’t have to resources to take care of their children with cerebral palsy or other disabilities, so they bring them to Hermano Pedro, where the children live. Their life is somewhat sad. They sit in their wheelchairs all day doing pretty much nothing unless volunteers, like ourselves come and play with them. It is great when we get a smile out of them or a laugh or any response. They all love the attention. For a long while I was just very sad for these “abandoned” kids. But soon I saw, with my own eyes, that their parents do still love and care for them. Some of their parents came and visited them, feed them lunch and then played with them. This brought lots of joy and hope to my heart. It encourages me that they have parents and family who love and care for them.
I won’t lie, this has been a struggle for me. I’ve had to look past a lot of stereotypes that I’ve had about people with disabilities. It’s been hard, but I’m so glad that I’ve been able to work with these patients and learn so much. I never ever thought that I would be working with people of this type, but I couldn’t be happier to be put in the position that I was. It was a lot of stretching in ways that I never thought of, but the end result is the best result. And I’m even more excited to see what I have to learn when I return back home. Thanks for all the prayers that you all have lifted up on behalf of the group as well as myself. Oh and as far as I know, I’m now more or less healthy. And we’re all finishing out our last days in Magdalena strong. Oh and I’m going to a quincenera on Saturday, which is a fifteenth birthday and is a really big deal here. And on Friday we have kind of a closing banquet with the staff that we’ve been working with. Sunday we move to Guatemala City for 3 days of debriefing and then Wednesday we leave at about 12 from the airport or something like that and then around 10 on Wednesday night I’ll be in the Minnesota airport! So I’ll see you all soon!!!
Love you!!!
It’s definitely a bitter-sweet ending. I’m looking forward to coming home and seeing all of you, but I’m going to be sad to leave this beautiful country and the people that I’ve gotten to know here, in Guatemala. I know that God has begun a good work here in this country as well as in me.
As I look back on the trip and see all that I’ve accomplish and all the ups and downs that this trip has brought, I can say that this is one life experience that I will never forget. I’ve seen suffering, poverty, as well as happiness and joy and a sense of hope. This country is broken and has been broken since their civil war. However, there are positive changes being made. Sometimes I think the changes are difficult to see, but they are there if you just look a little harder. However, this country still has its problems as any other country does. For example, instead of doing something about the poverty in the country, the government decided to work on the main road from Guatemala City to Antigua.
But I see the positive changes occurring every day in my ministry site with the patients and the nurses that I work with. One thing I’ve learned is that things are a lot different than they appear. When we first received a tour of the hospital, where I work, I only saw hopelessness and a sense of despair. However, after working there for nearly 6 weeks, I can see the hope that this hospital does have. Many of the nurses are so good with the patients. I have seen the nurses be able to understand those patients who aren’t able to talk and also help the patients laugh. This is one thing that makes things seem worthwhile: being able to see the patients laugh, smile and have a good time. Sometimes this seems like an impossible thing to do, but generally all they need is someone to talk to, to sit with, or to color with. I’ve been taken back to elementary school with all the coloring and painting I’ve done these past weeks, but hey, I figure that’s not a bad thing. I’ve also acquired the ability to guess or understand what some of the patients want, when they can’t necessarily express to me what they want. A lot of it is asking yes and no questions, but at least they can be happy and enjoy themselves. One thing I learned, especially today is patience. In the afternoons we go to the Cerebral Palsy Unit to feed the children lunch. Some days you get the easy kids who like to eat and eat really fast, but other days you get the hard kids who don’t want to eat or eat really slow. Well, today I got the second. Diego is the name, he loves to smile but he doesn’t like to eat or he just takes his time. He was the only child that I feed today and he didn’t even finish his lunch. And after that, one of other girls in our group asked me if I could try feeding another boy named Alex because she wasn’t having any success. Let me tell you how small Alex is: if you put your pointer finger to your thumb and make a circle, his legs are probably half of that size. He is the tiniest child I’ve ever seen and he is probably around 7 years old. Well, he doesn’t like to eat either and I probably tried to feed him his bottle for 15 minutes and he didn’t eat anything. But his smile is the cutest and most precious smile I’ve ever seen.
Oh and now you might be asking, why are all these children at the hospital? Well, a lot of the children are sons or daughters of the indigenous families that live in the mountains and don’t have to resources to take care of their children with cerebral palsy or other disabilities, so they bring them to Hermano Pedro, where the children live. Their life is somewhat sad. They sit in their wheelchairs all day doing pretty much nothing unless volunteers, like ourselves come and play with them. It is great when we get a smile out of them or a laugh or any response. They all love the attention. For a long while I was just very sad for these “abandoned” kids. But soon I saw, with my own eyes, that their parents do still love and care for them. Some of their parents came and visited them, feed them lunch and then played with them. This brought lots of joy and hope to my heart. It encourages me that they have parents and family who love and care for them.
I won’t lie, this has been a struggle for me. I’ve had to look past a lot of stereotypes that I’ve had about people with disabilities. It’s been hard, but I’m so glad that I’ve been able to work with these patients and learn so much. I never ever thought that I would be working with people of this type, but I couldn’t be happier to be put in the position that I was. It was a lot of stretching in ways that I never thought of, but the end result is the best result. And I’m even more excited to see what I have to learn when I return back home. Thanks for all the prayers that you all have lifted up on behalf of the group as well as myself. Oh and as far as I know, I’m now more or less healthy. And we’re all finishing out our last days in Magdalena strong. Oh and I’m going to a quincenera on Saturday, which is a fifteenth birthday and is a really big deal here. And on Friday we have kind of a closing banquet with the staff that we’ve been working with. Sunday we move to Guatemala City for 3 days of debriefing and then Wednesday we leave at about 12 from the airport or something like that and then around 10 on Wednesday night I’ll be in the Minnesota airport! So I’ll see you all soon!!!
Love you!!!
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