Goodbye Guatemala...

So, I made it home safely! I wanted to share with you a few things about my last couple days in Guatemala. On Fridays, we see patients at the main clinic, instead of going out to mobile clinics. Typically, we have about 40-50 patients, but this day, we had over 150 patients to see! They had all come for consults to see if they were candidates for surgery for when the next American surgery team came down.

I saw a 9-month old baby strapped onto his mother’s back. He was extremely burned and had scars all over his face. When he was 1 month old, he had accidentally pulled a pot of boiling water on himself. The front part of his scalp had no hair, like an old man, because it had burned off. One of his eyelids was almost completely shut, but I could see a little part of his eye. His nose and mouth were one jumbled mess, and I could barely distinguish between them. His left hand looked like a nub, and his right hand had only one finger. The other fingers had melted off. It was so sad. His mother had brought him to see if he was a plastic surgery candidate. He was, thank goodness. I smiled really big at the baby, and he grabbed my finger with his one finger. He didn’t look like a human being, but I could almost make out a smile when I said his name.

We also saw a young girl. She brought us her x-rays, which showed something large and solid, lodged in one of her nostrils. We took a look up her nose with the flashlight, and sure enough, something metallic was up there! She said the foreign object had been there for over 3 years, but she swore she never put anything up her nose. Interesting…

One lady with an incisional hernia came in. Dr. Lux had to step out of the office to check on something, leaving the woman and me alone. I guess I look pretty official with scrubs on, because she leaned over and asked me, “Are YOU operating on me next week?” I wanted to laugh and say, “You would NOT want that, ma’am!” but I just smiled back at her and said that someone else would be doing the operation.

After seeing all the patients, a huge storm blew in. The river that runs through the main clinic campus rose and nearly flooded. Macie and I played in the rain until it was time to leave for Guatemala City. The roads to the capital were awful because of the huge storm. I don’t usually do this, but something came over me, and I asked Carlos if I could pray over our road trip. I prayed that God would protect us and get us to Guatemala City safely. Several power lines were down and lying across the streets; however, someone got out and stood on the live wires so that we could drive over them! Also, the line of traffic was backed up for miles, but God was with us and for some strange reason, we got personally police ESCORTED to the front on the traffic line!

This whole time in Guatemala, I have never seen a wreck, even though I have witnessed the craziest driving ever. That puzzled me… tons of wreckless maneuvers being done all the time, but I never saw any wrecks. Well, there was one that Friday night. We were 5 minutes from where we were going, when suddenly a pickup truck reversed into our lane and sat perpendicular to the flow of traffic. Health Talents director, Carlos, who was driving us, slammed on his brakes, but it wasn’t enough. We slammed into the other pickup. It felt like a bad rollercoaster ride. Thank goodness we were wearing our seatbelts and sitting up, because earlier we had been lying down sleeping. We got out of the car, shaken up, but without cuts or breaks, thanks to God. It started to rain, and Carlos’ in-laws came to pick Macie and me up and bring us to their house. We got to see Carlos’ one-week-old baby, Dante Carlos, while we waited. We finally made it to our hotel at 3 a.m. We took showers, slept for an hour, and had to meet the airport shuttle at 5 a.m. Our two flights home went well, and I can now say I am safely home. God was definitely with us in the wreck. I only have a scraped bruise from the seatbelt that held me in place. What a crazy way to end my stay in Guatemala!

I learned so much in Guatemala. I learned that I DO for sure want to be a doctor. I learned a ton of Spanish. I picked up Guatemalan phrases and customs subconsciously. I learned to trust God EVERY DAY. I met amazing Spirit-filled people who pointed me more towards Christ. This was an incredible experience, and although parts of it were very trying, I can say that I am very grateful for everything I went through. Muchas gracias for your continued prayers. I felt them, and they made a difference.