Week 4 in Guatemala

All the last week was spent in the clinic in Guatemala City. There were more things I would have liked to organize in the pharmacy/storeroom, but I was busy working on powerpoint teaching modules for some health promoters in some of the villages. That project pretty much took up all my time at the clinic during this last week. Maybe one day I'll get to go with them and help with the teaching???

In the pharmacy with Dr. Oswaldo and Dr. Oliver

Jorge overwhelmed by donations in the pharmacy

Tuesday evening was a chance to show appreciation to our host family, so we took Makko and Alejandra out to dinner. It was a fun evening to just be able to talk and laugh over good food! Afterwards we went to see the "central park" area of the city. That is were there is a large cathedral, fountain, and Government buildings.
Wednesday afternoon after a nice walk around the neighborhood I was able to meet up with a friend for dinner. It was nice to see her and catch up from the last time I saw her a year ago!
Thursday was the other interns last day at the clinic and so they had a lunch planned to say goodbye. We went to TGIFridays and both of us were officially said goodbye to and they gave us some little gifts from the clinic and school. The whole staff was there and so it was a nice way to end the week.
Friday was a holiday in Guatemala City and so there was no work. I was able to meet some friends for lunch - Anel and her husband Leonel and their baby Anika. I also got to do some quick shopping to pick up some little gifts for my host family. As we were leaving the shopping center it started raining, hard and it was really windy. Within 10 minutes the streets were flooded with water coming up to the bottom of the car - it looked like we were driving through rivers! Finally we made it to the house and I got soaked trying to get inside. Thankfully it didn't rain for long. In the evening I was able to meet up with some friends, Ana and Sylvia, that stayed with me in Chicago about a year ago while they were trying to get from Guatemala to Indiana. It was fun to see them again, and I got to meet Ana's little boy as well. It was a blessing to see how my spanish has improved over this past year because we were able to communicate much easier than a year ago!
After dinner Ana took me on a driving tour of the city - I don't know how many of the 25 different zones we were in, but lots of them!!! It was fun to see some new parts of the city and to see the differences from zone to zone.

Here's a photo of us at dinner

The only photo I have from our driving tour - this is one of the streets leading to central park
Saturday I was able to see some missionary friends that I met last year at language school. They are now working full time about 3 hours outside of Guatemala City, but because they were in the city and close by we were able to meet up for lunch. After lunch they had a little shopping to do so I just went with them. We ended up by a large mall and I was looking for thank you cards . . . now, this was a large mall - and I never did find those thank you cards! However, I knew somebody that lived close by so we met up for coffee and then hung out with some other friends and went to see a movie. Thankfully one of them is friends with the owner so we even got free tickets!
Sunday I was able to go to my friend Argentina's church and see her one last time before leaving. Actually, she took me to a store that had thank you cards =), and then we were trying to find our way back to my house. We were close, but missed the one turn. Then we were in familiar territory and finally got close to the school and from there I was able to get her to the house. Maybe with a little bit more time I could figure that city out?

Argentina and I

Sunday afternoon was the big family birthday celebration for 2 year old Lucy. When I got home from church everything was decorated in pink and princesses! We had lunch and then there was the piñata and then cake and then opening presents. In the evening I had to get everything packed up and ready to go for Monday morning.

The birthday girl at her pink princess party!

Even YaYa was celebrating and wearing a birthday hat =)

The piñata

Lucy had just woken up for the piñata so she didn't participate much

Monday I still went to the clinic in the morning and was only there for a couple hours. There was a large amount of donations that were received on Thursday afternoon and so we hadn't had a chance to clean those up. So, the whole morning was spent organizing and finding a place for the donations. Then off to the airport . . . and back to Indiana.