This morning began with devotion all at 5:30am – we are looking at stories of biblical hospitality, and we too might practice the giving and receiving of hospitality as guests in this country and also extending the gifts God has given us to share.
We set out for the village Nimina, an hour drive away, which ended up taking 2 and a half hours, because of the roads. The rain makes the roads very muddy, and we were trying to go up a mountain. Other vehicles, mostly pickup trucks packed with a dozen people in the bed, would pull over for us and get out and help us place tree leaves and branches under the tires of the bus do that we could get through the mud. We finally made it to the village to be greeted by the cheers of over 300 adults and children standing at the entrance. It was quite a site, and brought me to tears. We were so late, and they had been waiting for probably two hours before the clinic was supposed to open.
We set up our respective rooms and then joined the people for an opening prayer – The photo is the gathering of the welcome to the village as we are about to pray together. Guatemalan prayer is a beautiful experience – one person begins to pray and then everyone joins in praying their own prayers, almost as if layers of prayers are softly landing on top of each other. And when everyone is mostly done, we are done. There is no self consciousness about saying the “right” thing in front of others or to God.
Over 450 people visited the clinic today. I was able to help the ear nose and throat doctor, and quickly learned how to do hearing tests and look in people’s ears at their eardrums for any signs of abnormality. I also learned how to fit people with hearing aids. Although I did see that many people need ophthalmology help, which we don’t have, as their can’t read the numbers on their hearing aid. So we did the best we could, and if they had family with them, we taught the family too. The dentists today pulled teeth from 83 people – that’s all a dentist can do here, because we can’t provide follow up care, we have to be careful what we provide for people’s health. Over 20 people we referred to surgery, which will happen in a couple of weeks when a surgery team will come down for a week.
The clinic was in the local school, where class was cancelled until Wednesday – so we were the entertainment for all the children, who leaned in our windows while we were examining people and asked us how to say their names in English and what certain American phrases meant, like “you’re crazy!” The children are so sweet and gregarious, it’s hard not to fall in love with them!
Many many times people wrung my hand thanking God for us being there, kissed my cheeks and gave me hugs, even if I just happened to be chatting with them in my limited Spanish (which is quickly improving!). It’s been such a gift for me and for the team to be receiving their hospitality.
