PINATA!

Jorgito, the son of Judy's housekeeper Isabel, turned 9 on July 25th. Here are a few of the FUN pictures from his birthday.

FELIZ CUMPLEANOS, JORGITO!

Jorge with his brand new bycicle!

The life cycle of a pinata:

1. Alive and well. Meet Clifford, our big red pinata!

2. Running from all bat swinging children.

3. Attacked by said bat-swingers:


4. Se murio. Pobre Clifford! (He died. Poor Clifford!):

Clifford was a good pinata who lived a full life (of about 36 hours in Judy's house) and left lots of candy for everyone. :)

As you can see, we had a LOT of fun at Jorge's birthday party and everyone had plenty of candy and laughs!

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Coming soon -- pictures from my trip to the beach this past weekend! Stay tuned!

Panajachel

Yesterday we spent time in Panajachel. Unfortunately it rained like CRAZY, so we were mostly cooped up under a shelter in a restaurant trying to stay dry. We still got some CUTE pics though!

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Seidi and Victoria looking at the rain.

Gracie (who very much resembles Dora the Explorer).

Waterfall coming down the mountain in Panajachel.

Tuc Tuc! These little death traps are EVERYWHERE! haha.

Happy Father's Day!
I will share more pictures soon. This week is mostly preparation for the next team which arrives July 4th and 5th. They are mostly medical students from Pikeville College who will stay two weeks (until about July 18). Once that team is done and wrapped up...I will be on my way back home! I get back on July 25 with pictures, stories, and hopefully some new recipes to share!

Seidi

Meet Seidi!
She is the precious little handful that we are growing to love more and more every minute. She is really amazed by the fact that I live in Los Estados Unidos, and she likes to point to basically everything that belongs to me and say, "esados unidos?"
It's adorable, but she is seven and the fact that she has SO much trouble saying simple words like "fish" in Spanish makes me realize how little time has been dedicated to her education and growth. Say a prayer for our nena!

Que bonito

Here are a few shots of Antigua and the beautiful flowers I have found around the country! There is a lot of poverty and many unmet needs, but Guatemala remains a historically rich and naturally beautiful country!

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The hallway of the convent ruins at La Merced.

Beautiful flowers...

Looking through a window at the ruins of Capuchinas.
The beautiful courtyard at the Capuchinas ruins.

The ruins of another convent in Antigua.

We spent a lot of time touring Antigua on Thursday and then spent today at Panajachel! It rained a lot, so the pictures didn't turn out very well, but I am sure there will be more beautiful pictures to come.

Also, I will try to post some pictures of Seidi. She is a little girl from an orphanage in Cuilapa who should be headed to the states in August for eye surgery. When we went to pick her up yesterday she wouldn't speak and she cried through half of dinner. Today, she was hanging off my shirt, dancing with me, and repeating everything we said! It is amazing to see the change that has come about after less than 24 hours in an environment where she is safe and has copious amounts of attention! The orphanage in Cuilapa does the very best it can, but because Seidi has been abused, I think she needed more care and attention in order to open up quickly. Say a prayer for her as she goes back to the orphanage in a week and will probably have to see her mom. Pray also for her safety and her operation once she comes to Kentucky in August.

Thanks to everyone for your prayers when I was sick! I am feeling 100% better now and cannot tell you how much I appreciated the prayers!

Dios les bendiga!

Chimaltenango

Bienvenidos al hospital de Chimaltenango!
Here are the pictures of new friends, patients, and more!
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This little girl taught me how to say turtle: "tortuga." She also told me pink is her favorite color! :)

Post Op picture of a little girl who had a hernia. She had the cutest pink cowboy boots that she put on as soon as they told her she could go home.

This is the cutest little guy in the universe with Theresa and Hannah, two of the team members. His name was Wilson and he had the best disposition. He was so sweet and so patient. Everyone fell in love with this little guy!

This is Blanca Emerita. I got to know her Mom, Sarai, really well. She had ear tags removed. Isn't she precious!?

Sarai and Blanca

The O.R.
Doctor Cunning was working on a bone graft for a palatal fistula patient.

This little guy was hilarious! He was playing games with people in the pre-op area and cracking up like this was the most enjoyable place in the whole world. Adorable!

Hannah looking very official, yet beautiful as ever.

Doctoras Blanky and Kathy with the patient, Sara. Haha.

I will post more soon!

Thunderheads and the Market

Check out the photos! These are pics from the mercado! So many colors and some delicious fruit!






This is a picture of the thunderheads that rolled in as I landed in Guate! How crazy is that!?!? (I took the picture especially for Mom, the science nerd.) I can honestly say I have never been nor do I ever hope to again be THAT close to a thunderhead. Haha.

Luckily, the landing was very smooth despite the apparent storms.


More pics to come soon...

I AM HERE!

Hey all! I want to thank everyone for your prayers! I arrived in Guatemala safe and sound. Things are really busy as we had a clinic the day after I got here and then again today. The area I am staying in is really safe and the internet appears to be working okay now that I have figured out the tricks to make it work! :) So, keep up the prayers and I will do my very, very best to post some pictures as soon as I can. Get excited because the pictures are really awesome!

Feel free to e-mail me if you have time. I will respond whenever I can!

Leaving on a jet plane...

Destination: San Lucas, Sacatapequez, Guatemala.

(The highlighted area on the map). I leave tomorrow morning and really, really hope I am going to have a wonderful internet connection so that I can update you all once I am there. Be sure to pass on any updates to others you know might be interested, but don't have access to my blog. I should be able to e-mail and I am going to try to Skype, although the connection may create a video feed up there with a bad voice-over. Anyway, we shall try and see. Keep me posted on how you are doing and I will do my best to update as often as possible either here or via facebook.

Say a prayer! I fly out tomorrow, Tuesday at 3:10 and then get back to the U.S. of A. on Saturday, July 25! Can't wait to share stories and pictures with you!