My New Job Description

Hello all,

Happy Halloween!

My job description has now changed. I spoke with Fr. Bernie and told him that it might be time to split Matt and I up to focus on our individual strengths rather than just doing everything together (i.e. taking the food to the aldeas). I think he was glad to hear this because I will be able to help him out more at the monastery. Matt will continue teaching (he’s really good with kids and has the energy to keep up with them – more than I sometimes have…) and I will be taking over the new school here in Coban.

I can already tell it was a good adjustment. I feel much more productive in this element – as I should after working in an office for the past four years at St. Johns (Hello office ladies!). I get to organize all the aid that we received, set up our office, make sure construction is coming along correctly, documenting everything, etc. Essentially, “get this school and office operational so we can open in January.” I am looking forward to the challenge! Its fun too because I get to meet a lot of Fr. Bernie’s contacts and try and bring the right people together to create some synergy that will make things happen, all the while trying to fundraise as well (cough, cough).

Last night at dinner we had some food that really looked awful. Normally, there is an alternative choice, but not this time! Talkin about bad luck. One of the monks heard me making a joke about the god-awful food and apparently agreed. We dipped out after dinner and went to a Chinese restaurant (actually the first time I’ve ate out in Coban). It was really good and I don’t think I’ve ever appreciated variety more. After dinner we went to a small, second floor local bar and enjoyed some drinks before arriving back at the monastery where we were greeted by one of our guard dogs…thank God she was in a good mood – that could have been bad. I found out this morning she was out because three guys were trying to break into the other entrance gate near the new school and the security guard set the dogs loose on them. Wouldn’t want to be them.

I’m off to Semuc Champey now, which is supposed to be the most beautiful place in Guatemala, check it out on Google. I’ll post another update when I get back-

Have fun at Lambo this weekend, dad. Man that would be fun…

PD

Quick Update + Purchasing Wood Locally

Hello all,

Thought I would give you all a little update. I got word yesterday one of the septic babies was being discharged. Good news! No word on the other baby or the situation with the pregnant daughter/step-dad, but I will update you as soon as I hear.

We are in the process of building a large scale chicken coup right now. In an effort to buy local, we are purchasing much of our wood from a local family. We requested 1ft wide by 8ft long boards - pretty standard. Well, he didn't cut them that way. He said he had 20inch wide boards. Ok, so I recalculated EVERYTHING for purchasing and building with 20inch boards. When we got there to negotiate price, many of the boards were 17 or 18 inches. I told him this was a problem because I drew the plans for 20inch boards. He said, "no problem, I have 21inch and 22inch boards as well to average out to 20inches..." For anyone that has ever built anything, they know this isn't exactly how it works. Just had to roll with it and hope it works?!

Looking forward to Halloween in Central America, it should be pretty crazy and VERY different than in the States! Take pictures of your costumes and send them my way!!!

What a heartbreaker for the Vikings Sunday…

Miss you all and look forward to seeing everyone after Christmas,

PD

Medical Mission - Esquipulas

So I just got back from Esquipulas. It’s the site where Michael Anderson, Waconia and SJU, volunteered two years ago. A 24 member medical team from Catholic HeathCare West (California, Nevada, and Arizona) came to town and needed some extra help. It was really great. We worked REALLY hard, but talking about rewarding. Just the amount you learn being around all these doctors and medical professionals is remarkable. We had a septic baby the first day, seizures and all. It was pretty scary, but luckily we had a full pharmacy set up so they were able to give the injections immediately to try and stabilize him before rushing to the hospital for a full septic set-up. I hope he recovers, but the doctors thought he had meningitis, which is hard for a 26 day old to recover from. The worst part of the whole situation was that the local doctor that was with us wanted to send the baby home with Tylenol. Then, word for word said, “Call me on Saturday, but don’t come in to the clinic.” Basically wanted to cut the loss and not waste time or medicine on the baby. It turned into an argument with our doctors who pretty much told him, “f*#@ you, we are giving him drugs and sending him to the hospital regardless of what you think.” (Spurred on by one of the nurses that was rightly fired up about the situation)

It obviously made me feel better that we were doing the right thing, but at the same time this situation points to a much larger problem. With such limited resources, the doctors here are forced to be realists. They are not heartless human beings. They share the same compassion for helping people that all the doctors on the American team exert, but with the baby’s long-term diagnosis he couldn’t rationalize ‘wasting’ medicine. It is a concept difficult for us to fathom in the States. I know I struggled with it all day.

We also had a lady come in for generalized body pain. She had her 15-year-old daughter with her, who was holding the mom’s infant daughter. After her examination and discharge, the woman just stayed sitting on the bench. She didn’t want to leave. One of the doctors was able to read the situation, and brought her back in. After a long support session, it came out that the woman’s 15-year-old daughter was four months pregnant – with her husband’s baby. The stepdad had more than likely raped the child and now she was pregnant. The mother was irate, but hadn’t said anything because the father threatened to kill her.

Doctors in the US are obligated to report situations like these. But here, things are different. Death threats like these need to be taken very seriously. Most people carry guns, or at least have them, so situations escalate very quickly. Unfortunately, safe-houses and a just judicial system don’t exist. While discussing what to do, our local contact told us, “She won’t live a year if you report this. Additionally, you guys won’t ever be able to return here because he knows she talked to the ‘American’ doctors.” The doctors are desperately trying to figure something out, but I had to return to Cobán before we found a solution, if one even exists. I know this story probably breaks every patient-doctor confidentiality agreement known to man, but I needed to tell it. It still has me off my rocker. I said I was going to write about “the good, the bad AND the ugly.”

On a lighter note, I split my time between the pharmacy and working as a triage ‘nurse.’ While taking vitals, the team ‘camera man,’ who is also a doctor, decided to get me in an ‘action shot’ – yes, cheesy I know. Anyway, he starts making fun of me for being really slow at taking this lady’s blood pressure. After getting the same number twice, I move to try her other arm as well and he just starts ruthlessly making fun of me. I then tell him that I need him to double-check my number (hopefully we don’t give this lady a blood clot in the process) because I got 225/110. I didn’t think that high of a number was even possible, so I am totally doubting myself. He gets the same number. My self-esteem goes up.

We move her up the line and get her into a doctor quickly. The doctor comes out, takes my equipment and without saying anything leaves. She comes back. Looks at me and says, “Oh my God. It’s real.” She is from Panama, so that expression with her accent just got me laughing. So now I know – it is possible to be alive with blood pressure twice the healthy range.

In the evenings, the doctors took us out to REALLY nice restaurants. They can’t afford to get sick from contaminated food, so they demand the best! This is awesome though, because we got to come along on their tab the whole time. Drinks too!!! The last night, the three women that head the medical mission met with us and said they will right letters of recommendations, job search, help with scholarships, anything for us. What a great group of people!

Check out their website (with pictures of our work):

http://missionsblog.chwHEALTH.org/

Miss you all back home-

Cookies, Waterfalls and Riots oh my

Hello all-

What a week for Minnesota sports!

Well I am once again behind on my blog - sorry David. This time I have a legitimate excuse. I finally got sick. It had been over a month without a single incident, so it was long overdue. Luckily, it wasn’t the bad food, throwing up sick like you’d expect. The flu, or “gripe”, has been going around one of our schools. With all the kids holding your hands and touching your stuff (water bottle, dictionary, hat, etc.) it was bound to happen. It had me in bed all weekend. Sore throat, plugged ears, headache. No fun!

But I am better now! So back to the good stuff. Matt and I have successfully created peanut butter cookies from scratch. You may be thinking to yourself, “Oh, nice work boys. I could make cookies from scratch in the 4^th grade,” but from scratch is REALLY from scratch down here. We started by buying peanuts from a street vendor. Make sure and get the roasted peanuts, as most of them are not, making them inedible. Next, you need to shell the peanuts – tastes better that way. After that, we put them through a grinder used primarily for grain and corn. Next, we had to translate the recipe into Spanish, which would normally be easy, but when you are using ingredients not common in Guatemalan cuisine life can be difficult. For example, there is no baking power here. Or brown sugar. We needed to improvise a bit! Using our homemade peanut butter, along with whole grain flour and oats, we were able to develop a nutritious cookie that tasted really good. This was the primary goal, as our aldeas produce eggs and peanuts, and we are trying to create a market for them to sell their goods. Our organization can purchase these inputs for our Nutrition Program, and produce the protein-packed nutritious cookies.

I hate the Yankees.

Spanish classes started this past week with my teacher, Mirna. She has been teaching for twenty years and seems like a very good match so far. We meet three days a week for two hours per session. In between she assigns homework. This should help speed things up a bit!

Happy Birthday Christine!

This past Monday we never made it to work. It was Dia de las Razas (Day of the Races). It is recognized across the country and is celebrated with demonstrations for indigenous rights. One of these demonstrations took place on our road, the only road, to the aldeas. Like these demonstrations often do, things escalated and had become violent. Two people in a similar demonstration were killed in Guatemala City. Here, they prohibited anyone from passing. I have to admit; it is frustrating when you drive through this pass daily, clearly marked as “Rotarians” on our pickup. We eat our breakfast there every day on our way to deliver food/aid to the INDIGENIOUS population! Now they won’t let us through and consequently the kids at our two schools won’t eat today, let alone have teachers.

On a happier note - Welcome, cousin Leo!

On our way home from working, well TRYING to work, we decided to make a detour. The two guys we work with, Oscar and Alberto, showed us this swimming hole off the main road. It doesn’t exist in either of our guidebooks and was hardly marked, so we weren’t expecting much. Wow were we wrong! Here we walk down an embankment in the middle of the jungle. It is so untraveled that nothing but random rocks and a cable to hold onto exist for a path. With more than about two beers in you it would be impossible, and you’d have better luck sitting down on your butt and sliding. We got to the bottom and could see the small lagoons of blue water – similar to those in Glacier National Park, but not nearly as cold! We thought we were there, but Oscar told us to follow the path a bit further. As we rounded the bend, a massive waterfall with a large lagoon appeared from nowhere. It was honestly one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. The picture below cannot do it justice. The sides of the ravine shoot straight up from lagoon. Best part is there wasn’t another soul there except us.

After venturing behind the falls to the cavern, Matt and I returned and we all enjoyed a cold beer on the shore. Life doesn’t get much better than that.

Happy 62^nd Anniversary Grandma and Grandpa!

What a Week

So I got a little behind with my blogs this week, so this one is going to be a long one. Sorry, I'll try and keep it short and concise.

Last Friday we had a little "break" from the typical workings of Guatemala. The evening started with Confirmation Friday (92 kids in all). This is a big deal in the Church, so the Bishop came. Fr. Bernie happens to be good friends with the Bishop, so after the service we all went out to dinner together. We ate at another friend of Fr. Bernie's, Dr. Torey Viarte - out at one of his fincas (large farm/ranch). He comes from a very well-traveled affluent family, is a doctor and large land owner. He had a beautiful Spanish summer home on the property with a veranda out back where we ate (complimentary with armed body guards and all - sawed off shotguns seem to be the weapon of choice). We spent the evening sipping Chivas Regal, talking politics in English and eating steak. It was a great break from what I am exposed to day in and day out in my normal work.

The following day I was not granted the same luxury...we were supposed to have received two semi-containers of aid last Wednesday. Instead, they came on Saturday. No actually I lied. It would have been Sunday as it was at 1:15 am. We unloaded in the dark until about 6:30 am. On my one day off...at least we got a lot of good stuff. We will be working for weeks to distribute it all. Much of the aid will be used to fill the new school we are building in Cobán.

Sunday, Vikes pull off an amazing win. I'm happy again.

During the week, we worked in the aldeas a TON. We started at 4:30 or 5:00 am everyday. We were preparing for Dia de los Ninos (Day of the Children). It is a big celebration for the last day of school. We brought cakes and lots of special food, along with gifts donated by Columbia. We invited a private school (bunch of rich kids) to come out and experience the event. They brought along several pinadas which the students at Rio Palmeras absolutely loved. The whole event was really special. We even got the parents to participate some. This does not seem like a big feat, but the Mayan culture is EXTREMELY serious. It took us about fifteen minutes with the kids calling out particular names before we got anyone up there. Humorously, the first person to come up was a woman with no teeth. The event was "bobbing for apples." For a not so funny thing such as having no teeth, I couldn't help myself from chuckling. A lot. Students will be off of school for about two months now.

Wednesday, Happy Birthday Mother. Love you-

We finally got out grinder, so we will be making homemade peanut butter soon. Also, I start Spanish classes this week. Look for an update midweek.

Go Twins! Go Vikes! Possibly the greatest week in Minnesota sports history ever...

Typical Catholic Mass?

I only have a couple minutes, so I'll make this quick. Two absolutely ridiculous things happened tonight at Mass. First, the Celebrant's cell phone went off while he was preparing the Eucharist. He got startled and couldn't silence it. It rang again seconds after, but this time he tried to pretend it wasn't his - but everyone knew. Secondly, the congregation sang a hymn to the melody of the Bob Dylan song "Blowing in the Wind." The song is now stuck in my head. What a night. And the Catholics criticize us Lutherans for having informal services...(thats a sarcastic joke for all my Benedictine friends at SJU!)

Teaching Begins!

This week Matt and I began teaching in Yalchucti and Rio Palmeras. We will be there three days a week, teaching primarily English. It is a bit of a challenge considering many of the students don't speak Spanish - Q'eqchi' only. A couple of the teachers speak both languages though, so we use Spanish as the intermediary to teach English. Kind of confusing, but hopefully that makes sense? We teach for about 4 hours a session, with 55-60 students in the class (little different than the student-teacher ratio at SJU...)

This Wednesday, all the teachers ate in one of the surrounding aldeas. It was the home of our "athlete of the week." Her parents had a celebration in honor of the award, which is really humorous though - because as is customary, only the males ate/drank (even though the "winner" was his daughter). She helped prepare the meal, and then waited outside. As this example clearly indicates, gender roles are still very alive in parts, well most, of Guatemala.

The actual meal is another story. I need to tell you guys about it now as it is becoming very normal for me, and I need to highlight how "culturally unique," synonym for ridiculous, things can be!

We had to walk about twenty minutes from the gravel jeep trail to reach the aldea. During this part of the day, the temperature is about 100 F with humidity of roughly 250 to 300 percent. So as we get there, I am sweating heavily. We then precede to enter their home, which is a four sided chicken coup essentially with a dirt floor. The temperature is even hotter inside, as we have to sit next to the cooking fire and are separated from any breeze there may be outside. Additionally, the roof is a product called lamina (essentially sheet metal) and you can feel the sun radiating its heat right above your head. Tree limbs are laid across tree stumps for chairs and the table consists of two desks pushed next to each other, and closely resembling the desks from our school (coincidence...?)

Once comfortably seated inside, we are handed a cup filled about half way up with a clear liquid. It is poured from an unmarked bottle, but smells distinctly of a 50/50 rum and insect repellent mixer. Next you are handed a lemon, which you cut in half and squeeze as much juice out of as possible. Finally, you ask for "agua" which is Spanish for water. Humorously again, this is Q'eqchi territory and the language has no distinct word for soda, so "water" means "cola" now. Apparently they don't like mixers here either. I would have been extremely pleased with a "splash" of cola. Which would have been significantly more than the teaspoon poured in my cup. I asked for "poco mas" or a little more, but to no avail. For the record, I needed to stomach a second one of these drinks (cubre libre) for "dessert."

So back to sweating profusely. I am now not only extremely hot, but eating spicy food. Really spicy food. The sweating continues. We drink a hot drink called atoll during the meal. It is steaming when served, and now I am steaming even more. Literally sweating through my shirt. Along with two hefty drinks in my system, I don't think I've ever been this hot before. I'm glad it is guys only at this point.

The meal was called soupa organica. It is a mixture of carrots, onions, maize and spinach in chicken broth. There is some meat, chicken actually, but not exactly what you are used too back home. There is a chunk. A section. Bone, skin, maybe some feathers as I mentioned in my last post with Padre Pedro. I usually choose not to eat the chicken. Today, I did not eat the chicken.

Lastly, people usually have a family dog that sits under the dinner table waiting for someone to drop some food, or he sniffs out the weak one and puts on the begging face? Either way he usually gets some food. Well not here. If there were any dogs, someone probably ate them by now. Instead, we have ducks and chickens under the table looking for food. Again, no joke. I don't even notice them anymore. As we finish our meal, a woman drops off banana leaves at the table. We all take our unfinished meat, along with some extra tortillas, and wrap them up using the leaves and tie them shut with corn stalks. We then walk back to the road in the rain. What a day.

Despite my sometimes sarcastic remarks, I'm having a blast - for real. The hospitality at the meal today, for example, was exemplary. There wasn't a second where I didn't have food, drink or attempted conversation at my fingertips. The hosts were wonderful. I just keep putting a smile on my face and remind myself to have patience, for I will never experience a world like this again. Miss you guys, and look forward to hearing from all of you soon. We are receiving two semi-truck containers of aid tomorrow, so I have A LOT of work in front of me over the next few days. If you're around, drop off some Gatorade!!! Please.

Oh yeah, I got my first haircut down here. Old school barber shop. Used a straight blade and all. So despite what some people may think, I will not be returning to MN with long hair...