There were places for massages, pyramids, (not the climbing kind) and other things that it would take several days to discover.  We were off to meet a Swiss doctor who had started a naturalist clinic here.  He comes several times a year and was here now.  There was also a nurse/midwife named Cindy who was here.  The clinic had started out very small and now after 3 years was expanding.  They use mostly natural medicine.  This really makes sense because so many clinics or outreach facilities that I have spoken too said that they can diagnose people but then what do they do.. they either can't access the medicine, or if they can they can't afford it.  Jane and several other people pointed this out to me when they talked about diagnosis in cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure etc.  They gave us a nice tour of the facilities they use now and the new facility.  They have herb gardens, a drying place and a nice room for the dried herbs.  After seeing the new facility we went and had a pop and did some talking. The Swiss doctor was very interesting.  They said there had been a big pick up accident the night before and that they had gotten quite a few patients to treat.  They said that at first when they started people were leery of coming but now are not afraid to be treated at the clinic.

San Marcos clinic

Dried herbs

Santa Clara where sister Liz works is about an hour away by pick up.  We decide to call her again so we could go see her.  She didn't answer at the clinic and Cindy says maybe we should just go up and try to see her.  I dig around for a cell phone number and say I will try another number.  Good thing. I get a hold of Sister Liz and she is in Pana at the Sunset Café trying to contact us.  She had come to Pana in hopes to meet us.  So. we got on the next boat. (Actually after about 30 minutes) and headed by to Pana.  This boat was really loaded and took us about an hour.  This was not a good ride as Steph had left her backpack with the boat driver, right next to me in the back and discovered when she hit Pana that some money was missing.  I guess we all learned a lesson there.  I don't see how he could do it so quickly.

Lake Atitlan

When we returned to Pana we met with Sister Liz and Sister Joanna.  Sister Liz had been in Sioux Falls for several years so we knew her then.  She had started the Berakah House and Steph had volunteered there quite a bit so we all got involved a little too.   Sister Liz and Sister Joanna have spent a total of 40 years in mission in Mexico and Guatemala. They speak Spanish fluently and are a delight to visit.  They now work at this clinic in Santa Clara.  We introduce them to Jane and we have quite a conversation about fair trade, cooperatives etc.  Ed is used to the conversations so tunes out.  I always think he is probably writing poetry.   After having lunch together we go and see a store where there is some shirts that Sister Liz wants me to see.  Ed and Steph head on back to the bungalow and I spent a little more time with them.  Jane is going back to the Maya Traditions shop so Sister Liz, Sister Joanna, and two other nuns they have brought along go back with Jane.  I think this will be a good friendship.

In the evening Jane has invited two people to come and visit us from the local board of Fundabeim.  This is an organization that works with disabled people.  The two women that came are volunteers with the organization and are teachers during the day at a local school. One of the women Carla told me that she teaches 3rd grade and has 36 to 38 students in her classroom.  She has no books except for the teacher's copy.  If she needs copies of anything she must run them off and pay for them herself. She makes Q1400 a month, which is about $187.00  She gets no benefits and has been teaching for 5 years.  I have found every school that we have worked with in Guatemala is in the same boat.  They have no supplies and classrooms full of students.

It was interesting to find out about Fundabeim because Sharing the Dream wants to do more with health care so we have been investigating different options.  Again Lana who is on the board will check out more options when she goes down.  She is the chair of the Physical Therapy program here at USD.  Fundabeim is a private organization based out of Guatemala City. The biggest part of the organization is there.  They said there were some problems at the head office in Guate so now they were financially being cut.  They were serving 90 children and 30 adults with all kinds of disabilities.  Cerebral palsy, language problems, Downs's syndrome, Muscular dystrophy, rheumatoid arthritis and many other things.  People with disabilities really don't have any options for education or therapy in Guatemala.  Flora, one of the women had a 20-year-old brother that used the service and Carla had a 7-year-old son.  They said with the cuts were cuts to services for most of the children.  They were looking for sponsors for some of the clients.  It would cost Q50 per month to serve some of these children.  That would be about $7.00 per month.  We will have to see about doing some sponsorship for some of these children and adults.  I don't think I would like to see us put too much other money into the organization, although they really need it, because it is not locally funded.  I am really leery of working with an organization that has such a bigger base.  I do however think they need a lot of help with training of the people that work with the clients.  They were telling how one of the physical therapist had been using a wax therapy with the children and had been burning them.  I think I will put this in Lana's hands to figure out.

We were all exhausted when the women left and went right to bed.  We were getting up early the next morning to leave for Vasconles.

More later.

Diane