Swine Flu

I have the swine flu! ehhhh probably not, but I did wake up this morning with a killer sore throat. I think it is probably from going to sleep every night with wet hair, and last night it was relatively cooler than other nights (relatively because I mean 70* versus 80*). But its more adventurous to pretend like I have swine flu. Maybe I will get to spend a month in quarentine when I come back! One can only dream!

Week 2 is done, and I think with the way the months are, I will actually end up being here 9 weeks (8 wks and 6 days) instead of 8 weeks. Next week we are continuing to prepare the clinic for the surgeries that will start Saturday, Sept 5th...around 100-150 in all. This last week was full of cleaning equipment (found a defibrillator out of the stone age) and preparing packets for sterilization. Apparently we are a little short on surgical nurses coming from the states...so this may get interesting if I get pulled into the OR. If I pass out, it´s better to fall backwards than forwards onto the patient, right? Just kidding. After paps, I should be able to handle it. Gosh, that was my own personal form of torture!

Supply and demand is at full swing in Guate....all the tiendas are out of calling cards because last week it was buy one card and get triple the minutes so they got cleaned out. There should be another delivery next month.... :)

The family and I are getting along great. Jose (9 yr old son) loves my Harry Potter dvd´s, and I have to admit, I was a little selfish last night when we were watching it because I put the subtitles in spanish so that I wouldn´t have to read. But hey, its good for him to practice reading....all in the name of education. The daughter, Silvia (24) always squeels my name when she sees me, so the dad has taken to doing the same thing to joke around with me.

There are a couple of really sweet special-needs girls that live close to my house, and they have taken a liking to talking to me when I walk by. But there is one great problem there...throw on spanish with some kind of speech impediment and-or cleft palate and I can´t understand their precious souls! One of the girls is 21 with a cleft lip repair (maybe from Operation Smile?) and she had an unrepaired cleft palate by the way she was talking. Sweet as could be....but I have no idea what we talked about.

Today is a relaxing day at the house, maybe I will pull out some more Harry Potter....I´ve got 4 other movies! I should have brought my Lord of the Rings and Star Wars too though. I should have brought more books and beef jerky and goldfish too. Just an FYI for anyone else that is planning a trip!

Here is the newest from my readings.....

The Ragamuffin Gospel:

p. 111 ¨The conscious awareness of our resistance to grace and the refusal to allow God´s love to make us who we really are brings a sense of oppression. Our lives become fragmented, inconsistent, lacking in harmony and out of sync. The worm turns. The felt security of staying in a familiar place vanishes. We are caught between a rock and a hard place. How do we resolve this conundrum? We don´t. We cannot will ourselves to accept grace. There are no magic words, present formulas, or esoteric rites of passage. Only Jesus Christ sets us free from indecision. The scriptures offer no other basis for conversion than the personal magnetism of the Master.

p. 112 Ïn prayer, Jesus slows us down, teaches us to count how few days we have, and gifts us with wisdom. He reveals to us that we are so caught up in what is urgent that we have overlooked what is essential. He ends our indecision and liberates us from the oppression of false deadlines and myopic vision.¨

Just some thoughts from people who can say it better than I can. Thank you to everyone for your love and encouragement! Praying for you daily.