December 31, 2014

After breakfast, we set out to pick up the children in San Antonio. The plan for today was to be first a visit to a macadamia nut farm and then a visit to Antigua with a little walking tour. When we got to San Antonio, we met our groups in the town square. The expanded chicken bus that was supposed to be there was not. A yellow school bus arrived almost an hour late. The group played some parachute games on the square. Some of the locals walked buy and were intrigued by what was going on. We had to keep the children busy, so we with Joel's suggestion and provision of a ball, we taught my group how to play dodge ball.

We boarded the bus in groups and drove to the macadamia nut farm, Valhalla, about 20 minutes or so from San Antonio. We walked into the farm and met the guide, a woman about my age, fluent in English and Spanish, but who directed her comments to the children in Spanish. She told us macadamia nuts originally came from Australia and were then introduced to Hawaii. From there they were disseminated to other countries including Guatemala. We learned about the cycles of the macadamia tree's flower and about how the nuts ripen on the tree and fall to the ground where they are harvested and how there is a substance in the leaves that naturally repels insects. Once harvested, then nuts are laid on large table to dry. They are ripe when you can shake the nut and here the nut inside move around. We saw a machine that removes the outer husk. It is powered by something like an outboard motor that is started by pulling a rope. Our guide was unable to get it started, but Christopher, one of the older and handier boys in our group was successful. We saw another machine that sorted the nuts by size.

After our little tour we were taken to a patio where there was a long table for the children to sit at. We were served a pancake with macadamia nut butter and blueberry preserves. The children patiently waited to eat. The pancakes were very good and enjoyed by all. Before departing a line formed at the restroom. The women's toilet stopped flushing, so when the boys and men were done, some of the girls used that facility. However, some girls were very ingenious. The sink was outside. They found a plastic bag and filled it up with water and used it to flush the toilet, then refilled it and repeated the process for each girl. I was talking with four of the girls from my group while we were waiting in line. I asked them if in the future, they wanted to have a husband and if they wanted to be mothers in the future. All of them replied "no" to both questions. I found that really interesting, suggesting to me that they may not know what the future will bring to them, but that they see the possibility of opportunity beyond that of staying in the village and getting married and having children. One girl, Esmerelda, was wearing a T-shirt that said Government of Guatemala on one side and Educacion Fisico on the other. I asked her if she liked sports and learned she plays futbol (soccer). With further questioning she told me she would like to be on a women's team and would like to play in the Olympics. I hope she can achieve her dream.

We were about two hours off schedule at this point, so it was decided we would forego the visit to Antigua. We played some ball games with the children at the nut farm for a short time and then walked up to board the bus. One of the scheduled stops on the Antigua walking tour had been the Museo Choco, and the children had been asking about it. Ed went to the gift shop and bought chocolates for all the children which we distributed on the bus which sort of made up for not going to the Choco Museo. We arrived back in San Antonio at 1 PM, the scheduled arrival time for the children. We had snacks in the town square - bananas, cookies, and juice. A very elderly appearing woman came walking through the square while all of this was happening. She approached me, and I tried to explain who we are and what we were doing. She told me her name is Flavia. When she talked and opened her mouth I could see she only had three teeth. I asked her how old she is and she told me and wrote the numbers on her hand - 65, a year younger than me. I thought she was in her 80's. Life is hard here. They went home and we walked to Soraya's house. We met our group members who had been in San Antonio working on the house construction, and we all had lunch together. One of the projects of Nueva Generaccion has been to teach the women about good nutrition and healthy cooking. The group of women who prepared our lunch had been part of this project and were the same ones who had prepared lunch the first day we were in the village. We had chicken, homemade tortillas, and vegetables. Johnny, one of Soraya's brothers had brought some items to sell that his mother had made - purses mostly and some other woven items. I saw several things I liked and made a few purchases.

There had been discussion about a home visit with Soraya and Sheila, an occupational therapist who works with 0-3 year at risk children, and with Mark who is making a career shift and hopes to become an occupational therapist. . This family has two daughters with a history of cleft palates and school problems. When I heard about this, I thought it would be beneficial if I went with my pediatric training and some knowledge about the medical issues. We were greeted by Daisy, the 12 year old and went into the home and met the family. The father apparently has a history of alcoholism, but had a fall with the development of post-head trauma epilepsy. The family showed me his medicine, similar to Dilantin. It was unclear if his seizures were controlled with the medicine, but it was clear that it was very difficult for them to get the money to buy the medicine. We learned Daisy had four operations as an infant in Antigua, but surgery was done by an international team. She never had her hearing tested. . I did a very rudimentary test of hearing and did determine she could hear a whisper in each ear. She was referred for some speech therapy, but had difficulty keeping the appointments. Her speech is almost unintelligible and, as a result, she has no friends. She needs a complete evaluation and some extensive reconstructive surgery and dental work. I took some pictures of her and will share them with a friend who is a pediatric plastic surgeon specializing in cleft palates to see if there may be some idea of what would be involved. I was sharing this with Gordon and Sue and they know someone who would be willing to provide some money for her surgery. There is a project ahead of me when I return to see if we can help this girl. Sheila spent time with the younger sister whose medical/surgical problem is much less severe.

We went back and found that the people working on the house construction were still there. We visited the construction site and it was amazing to see how much had been done in a few days. Foundation had been laid and the walls were about half way completed. We all took the van back to Antigua, had some down time before reflections with the rabbi and our New Year's Eve Dinner. I had brought a few articles about the Guatemalan health care system and tonight was to be my night to share. I started with an article by a Greek Orthodox priest doing work here and his comparison about how the USA people react with a single case of ebola virus infection in the US compared with the deaths in Guatemala from preventable disease. He was working with a group building a rural health clinic. I had an article from the World Health Organization with a wealth of information about the Guatemalan health care system and its challenges. I was unable to complete sharing the information because others wanted to use the time for personal reflection. Privately I had shared an article with Joel S. about a project to expand echocardiography resources in Guatemala that involved some groups in North Carolina. Personal reflections focused on the intensity of feelings that everyone was having whether it be doing construction or working with the children.

We walked to Las Palmas restaurant for our New Year's Eve dinner. I had the special prix fixe dinner - smoked salmon mousse, beef tenderloin, and chocolate mousse. I started the evening with a Sunburn - a mixed drink with rum and amaretto and some fruit juices. I was supposed to get a glass of wine with my dinner, but somehow it ended up with Gordon who was sitting next to me. He told me he owes me one. The dinner was good although my medium rare meat presented itself as medium raw and had to be sent back to get cooked a bit more.

New Year's Eve is a big thing here. Fireworks are big on Christmas and New Year's Eves and Days. Many people were gathered in and around the central park. Many were wearing headpieces or hats with red electric lights. The most common seemed to be the red devil horns. There were cleared parts of the street that people were setting of small fireworks. On the street our hotel is on, but further down, there was a mariachi band and some people dancing in the streets. The trees in the square were decorated with strings of white lights. It was all very festive. I was tired so walked back to the hotel around 11. As I walked back, I could see some fireworks displays in the sky. Every restaurant along the street had some sort of band playing and there was a rock band playing very loudly right next to our hotel - lasted until 1 AM. No rest for the weary. At midnight I could hear lots of fireworks going off and was told they were lit from scaffolding around the park about every 10 minutes for a while after midnight.

Happy 2015!