Una Bendición

I cannot believe that my flight takes off in exactly 8 days. I can make the number 8 on my two hands. Before, I would have needed 10 hands to show how long I'm here. But this is just one way to look at it. The other way I can see it is that I've already been here for six amazing weeks. Now I am going to catch you all up on my last week in Punta de Palma, Izabal, Guatemala, at a mission called El Faro (Lighthouse). Dennis and Chochy Ruano are a part of Carol and Forrest's ministry here. Dennis is their dentist, and Chochy hosts concerts and travels to all parts of Guatemala with her group of singers and dancers. They have three kids, Dennis and Rosanna (12-year old twins) and Bryan, their 10-year old. They're all incredibly smart and know English pretty well. Bryan is a bit like a bilingual dictionary. However... just because they know English doesn't mean they use it when they don't have to. So I had a week of complete immersion. All the workers at the mission knew English but refused to use it. Another American, Nathan, was with us as well. But every time we tried to talk in English they made us stop. So that was one great thing about the week. I learned a lot and became much more confident in what I understand. The hardest thing about Spanish here in Guatemala is that there are palabras chapinas. Most of these words start with "ch" but there are other phrases as well. And these words are no where to be found in any dictionary. Anyways these are phrases used only by Guatemalans, some of them being chilero (cool), chambom (clumsy), chucho (pig as in someone who eats a lot... but it actually translates as dog), or tienes huevo (which literally means: do you have egg? but translates as: are you tired?) Now onto what we actually did. Like I said in my quick update we had two of Chochy's concerts on Sunday. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, we went to different aldeas (villages) to do dentist clinics. Even though I am not a dentist nor do I have any desire to be a dentist it is amazing to see some of the transformations. On Monday, in a village called Escobas, I was assisting Dennis (and by assisting I mean getting him the tools he needs, letting people squeeze my hand, oh and suctioning all the blood out of their mouth) with a 17-year old girl named Carol. She had three partially rotten teeth. Those teeth right in front on top. Essentially her smile was partially rotted. But Dennis did his thing, I held her hand and smiled, and after some time she had a brand new smile--one of the greatest gifts a person can be given in my opinion. After she was all finished she got up and walked towards the door. Then she turned around, walked back to me and gave me a hug and told me how thankful she was...all the while flashing her beautiful smile. That was one of the most rewarding experiences I have had here. Later that day, I found her and all of a sudden, she started talking to me in English. She is a tour guide. She told me she learned English in her school and it amazes me that anyone can learn anything in the awful public schools. But some people just do. The second place we went on Tuesday and Wednesday was a bit poorer. The unfortunate thing was that they didn't speak Spanish. It's very difficult not to be able to communicate through words. However, that does not mean that communication is impossible. We were still able to show compassion and love through our actions. There was a group of 4 or 5 little girls and a few of them were still waiting to have their teeth fixed. One of those girls had already been seen the day before but had to come back for more. The first day she was crying and screaming and it took her mother, her grandmother, and me to hold her still enough for Dennis to work. The second day, I went and sat with her beforehand and made her a glove balloon to play with. Then when it was her turn she held my hand, got right up on the chair, and didn't make a noise. Little things like that are things that I remember forever. Along with the work though came play. One day the villagers treated us to a hen soup with limeade (which is actually made of what they call lemons but they taste like limes) and tortillas of course and then we swam in the river. We also swam in the ocean every day. But the ocean was not refreshing at all because it was like a lukewarm bath. One day I got really car sick (because the roads are terrrrrribleeeeee) and I was completely overheated and so I decided the best thing I could do was to take a cold shower. To say the least, the water was not cold enough. You know that you are so completely overheated from the inside out when the coldest water is not enough to cool you down. Along with swimming Rosanita and I made cookies and cake for everyone. However, they became filled with ants... but hey this is Guatemala so we ate them anyways... We also had a karaoke night and we played a lot of cards. It goes without saying that it was a blessing that I met the Ruano's and they invited me to go with them.