Guatemala Trip Winding Down

Susanna and Madeleine

                Maddie, Susanna and Dad

The one-room homes in Guatemala usually don't have cooking stoves.  The women cook over a fire-pit in the middle of the floor and all the smoke stays inside the home.  Not good.  

The kids built a ventilated stove for this single mother and her son.

No doubt, she will be the envy of the entire town. 

I like to think that maybe my
contribution to their project
paid for this stove. :-)
Karen and Mark have sponsored a boy (Francisco, standing by Karen) for the last 10 years.  When they got to Guatemala, they realized he lived only a couple hours away from where they were working.  Yesterday, they drove over to meet him and his family and bought them all a Coke.  The family does not speak any Spanish dialect that the interpreter understood, but after a soda and a game of throwing a Frisbee around, they seemed to have a good time.  Love has no language barriers!

Just a personal note here--in my opinion, I think it would have been wise for Karen to present the Momma with a life-time supply of birth control pills!!!!!  Nine people in a one room dwelling?

Aren't they adorable? 
My little brown-eyed girl having fun with the other little brown-eyed kids.
I think they like her!






Mark playing some sort of Frisbee baseball with the kids

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Doctor's appointment with my primary guy this morning.  He walks in the room, "Hi Babe!"  (??)

"Hi Doc."

"I was just thinking about you this morning.  You were my first patient when I started this practice."

"Yeah.  How long now.  Seven years?"

"I think eight or nine."

"Time goes fast doesn't it?"

and then I once again complained about my low pulse rate--I have been complaining about it for over a year and he said to lower my one BP med and come back next Tuesday.  Then I happened to mention that I worried about my Potassium being low and so he decided I needed a blood draw.

When will I learn to just shut up?

So, Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy comes in and tried to find a spot on my inner arm that didn't have a hole in it from the IV's, and then my blood didn't want to flow out very fast, so it took forever!  Come to find out, she graduated with and knows my grandson Stephen.  She is sweet and I think he needs to get to know her better.  :-)

Then, on to the dermatologist this afternoon--no big deal, right?  AHA, he finds some sort of spot on the back of my right calf and I have another needle stuck in me to numb the area and it hurt like heck.  He had to take a small slice to send off for a biopsy!!  Never had a thing like that ever before.  To make the visit there worthwhile, he DID freeze a couple of age spots on my face so I will look better.  BUT, I have to go back in a month!

GEEZ LOUISE!  I wanted to get all these doctor appointments taken care of the first part of this year and now...I have to go back for repeat visits.  

I'm almost afraid to go to the ophthalmologist, he will probably tell me I gotta have cataract surgery!!!

Tomorrow the Chiropractor--hope he doesn't have some sort of needle injection in mind!!
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Saw this:

Sprayed with this:

He came back--took one taste, jumped off the feeder and hasn't been back.  AHA!!