Eight houses down, two more to go!!

From Mary...
Today was a great day.  The houses are coming along like we had hoped they would. 



Jayne and I had time with the kids today and we broke out the crayons, coloring books and stickers.  The kids came out of no where when they saw the coloring books and crayons. 

We also had our second food distribution and gave out socerballs to the kids.  It is so much fun to see the kids react to an unexpected gift, they were very excited when Twig handed them their socerball.

The weather has been great too, no rain which has been an answer to prayer since this is the rainy season!!

Gary H - I have been trying everyday to get my hands on Wes' lunch bag, but he always seems to be one step ahead of me.  I still have two days, I will try to make you proud!  :O)

We played Farkel last night, I was way behind but came back to win!!  We gave each other nicknames such as' Alan was Digger since he loves to dig post holes, Jayne was Two by Four since she and I messed up our measurement on the door we were making, but don't worry we figured out how to fix it, Wes was Big Red due to his NC tshirt, mine was Lil' Red because that's the nick name Alan gave me when we first dated, Twig was log, Mary Margaret was Puddin' Head for no apparent reason.

MEDICAL CLINIC
From Mary Margaret...

"Hola, Dios Le Bendiga de clinico medico"...which means ..."Hello, God Blessing from the medical clinic" . Gail, Brenda, myself, Clark and Jenny (two volunteers who are billingual and doctors!)and Laurie have spent all day treating all kinds of  families, children and elderly. The majority of families suffer from respirtaory problems secondary to cooking with wood stoves inside their kitchens with no ventlilation.

The children are extremely well behaved and very brave. We have treated hundreds of people in the last two days.Today, one seven year old boy really stood out to me: his lower ear lobe was completely severed off six months ago. His mother explained through an interpreter that a piece of metal had flown off of  a roof  and slit the childs ear and now it is infected.Although, the medical clinic has a variety of supplies, we don't have the luxury of all the supplies available in a US clinic. We have to improvise with what we have: I cleaned the ear with water, but I only had alcohol to disinfect it. Before I applied the alcohol to the weeping open  crusted wound,  I explained the alcohol might 'burn' and the boy  just smiled at me. I was not sure he understood that it might burn, so I had the interpreter explain I might cause him some pain with the alcohol. The boy again looked at me and smiled. I scrubbed the wound with the alcohol,  but every few minutes I asked  if 'he was OK'.......and ....every few minutes he would smile and giggle at me. I told him he was  'mucho macho', and he smiled and giggled again. (He probbaly was giggling at my poor spanish!) I taught the mother how to care for the wound, clean it, apply antibiotic cream and also apply a bandage to secure the ear in alignment to heal. There is a great need for health education here: basic first aid, nutrition, hygiene, pre-natal care, infant care, etc.

God is using each of our hands as instruments in this medical clinic to show love and do His will. I have reveived many blessings here in Gulatamala. I am also grateful to share my first medical mission with the support of such tremendous, outstanding Christians.

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