As we finish our first week here, I am beginning to love the fact that life in Guatemala is lived very much one day at a time. Groceries are bought on a daily basis, tomorrow's plans are always "vamos a ver" (up in the air), and every morning the DJ on the radio thanks God for another day of life. I don't know whether this attitude springs from the fact that being alive is much more uncertain for many people here, or whether the Chapines just have a carpe diem approach to life. Either way, it is a refreshing change from our North American fixation on what's coming next.
School has been great all week- the kids are tons of fun and I love being able to teach music.
On Thursday, we went to the hospital to visit Winston's day-old niece. She was adorable, but the best part for me was getting to see the hospital. I shouldn't say the best part- what I saw made me incredibly sad- but it definitely reinforced my desire to become a doctor and hopefully help to remedy situations like this. When we got to the hospital, we had to wait in a line around the block for security to check our bags. Picture an old, badly maintained high school, add in some handwritten signs about using clean towels and some nurses in red checkered dresses, and you have a pretty good idea of what it looked like. (Keep in mind that this is a government hospital in the capital city- aka one of the best in the country.) The room we visited had 3 beds about 3 feet apart: all were full and no one had any vestige of privacy. Because there were at least 12 talktive and friendly family members swarming the room to visit the baby, we soon found out all about the other two ladies. One had just had twins, which were a total surprise to her since she'd never had an ultrasound. She delievered one naturally but because she didn't realize that the second was coming, she had to have a C-section as well. The other lady was recovering from a historectomy. Her uterus tore during labor but the doctors didn't say anything, so she ended up in the ICU with internal bleeding later in the week and had to have it removed. On top of that, we just found out that her baby died the day after we were there. As Irma said, "Asi es Guatemala" (That's Guatemala for you). What tragic mismanagement.
I'm beginning to love my host family. Being part of a close-knit, Spanish-speaking, constantly-eating clan is so much fun. On Friday, we had dinner with some of Irma's nieces and nephews, and got to eat Guatemalan enchiladas, which are completely different from Mexican enchiladas. They are delicious- in close competition with frijoles con pan for the title of Jessica's Favorite Guatemalan Food. Tomorrow we're heading to Antigua, the old capital city, with more of the family.
Today we took a break and toured the city with Dr. Zapata, America Latina's founder. He wrote his dissertation on Guatemalan history, so he was definitely the right person to lead us through the city. Among other things, we stopped at the sinkhole in the middle of the city! Afterward, we had lunch with him and his wife, Beatriz. They are quite the dynamic couple: he proposed to her on their first date and they have been happily married for over 50 years. More important than that, they model complete trust in God and have an incredible vision of sustainable ministry and empowerment through education.
It's been quite the week. On Monday, we'll start the medical part of the trip in Chimaltenango.
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