It was one of those days. Not the one where everything goes wrong but the one that had a line of people needing things right now and you have your own list of things that have to get done today but don't. I'll share the two most important. It started this morning with Chris going to Buena Vista and saying "I'll be right back" - famous last words in Guatemala. The kids and I were home waiting for him to go into town to get some things at the grocery store. On his way back from BV he stopped to give a lady a ride to Magdalena who told him up ahead was her son and daughter in law who were on their way to the clinic with their very sick 4 month old baby so he stopped and gave them a ride too. He found out that they had taken the baby to the clinic 2 days ago but now she was worse. ** Let me break away from the story for a moment. Medical care here is so bad I can't even tell you how bad it is. Poor people don't have access to decent medical care and as a result they die from the simplest things. All around us babies, children, and adults die from things that can easily be treated. This is something that deeply bothers us and we want to help anyone that we know of who is sick. A few weeks ago we crossed paths with Brittney who is here for 2 years with Students International on a medical internship. She works at a free clinic close to here that has an excellent doctor - both have a heart for the poor. We know God crossed our paths for a reason and that is to have a place to take people who need help and we know they will get it. The clinic here is Magdalena is not good. ** Back to the story...Chris offered to take them to the SI clinic but it was late in the morning and they will only see 15 patients per day and usually there are 15 people waiting when the doors open at 9. He called me and I told him to give it a try. When they arrived Brittney said they had a visiting doctor there today along with the regular doc but each were maxed out on their patients; they had 36 patients today instead of 30. She went back and the visiting doc said if the family was willing to wait a couple of hours until he was done with the other patients, he would see the baby. They did and it was one of those God things because Brittney told us the medicine the other clinic gave the baby was not right and if they hadn't come in, chances are the baby would die. We are just so thankful....
In between that our friend Marta came to our door crying about her sick daughter and begging us to take her to the hospital. Marta lost her newborn baby last year so she was really upset about her daughter being so sick and losing her too. We went to see her and called a local doctor "Dr. Carlos" and took her to see him because the SI clinic was already closed. Dr. Carlos is good but he's expensive so most people can't afford him. Marta also took her daughter to the clinic in Magdalena a few days ago and now she is worse. She has a respiratory infection but I think she will be fine.
Mixed in between were knocks on the door and people needing to talk to Chris about this and that. I could list all of the things that didn't get done today but they don't really matter. What was most important got the help that was needed. When we lived in the States, each day I would pray and ask God to show me someone I could help. Some days I never found anyone. Here, all we have to do is wake up because there is always someone who needs help every single day. It's a blessing and that's why we're here....
Awesome stuff!!!!
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