Quiché is a department north of us, but much closer than it was 5 years ago before an essential bypass was put in, and a main road was paved. Now the drive only takes about 3 and a half hours on beautiful mountain roads.
It's in Quiche Peniel and Stephanie have Sion- the maternity and nutrition clinic I've described in a previous post. They provide care to many in remote surrounding villages.
Nutritionally, a number of little ones came in either to check on their progress as members of Sion's formula program, or to ask about another health issue. Here, like everywhere in Guatemala, I really wish we had a dermatologist because nearly everyone who comes has a skin impairment to ask about. In a number of children that week, scabies looked to be the culprit.
The smiles on these kids though-- Incredible!
One on the clinic days, Joy made the drive to make a day of ultrasounds available to the ladies. This was quite the blessing and she took the time to teach us some of the basics.
One of our days, we were able to go for a home visit. We took the car as far as it could go up the mountain. Then we walked the rest of the way. We walked and walked, and sweat quite a bit. At the top, I was reminded of the challenges of not understanding each others language as Quiche is spoken, rather than Spanish in most of these rural areas.
After our walk, my mind was blown that R does this walk with two small boys and a baby strapped to her back every time she needs to go down to town. This trip would take her entire day. She does this alone because her husband goes to work 3 weeks at a time in the fields o the coast, just to earn 500Q for that time. That's about 67USD. Meanwhile, R showed us the strands she braids what will eventually woven into a mat.
I had trouble following much of our conversation because, although translated, I was somewhat distracted by a few new friends.
So, I thought we would be covering the clinic and some home visits while Stephanie finished out her maternity leave. And we did this... It' just, I think the real reason God pulled all this together was for me to have a time of rest.
I'm a busy person and when I'm already not busy, I find a way to be busy. Out here there was nothing for me to make myself busy with, and it was a powerful time of prayer and reflection- with a little clinic time thrown in. This has been so refreshing, but also incredibly challenging. It's been a time of deep personal growth that is continuing now that I am home.
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