You can imagine my disappointment when the FBC team canceled their trip to Guatemala this year. Of all the teams coming after the disasters that struck Guatemala, it had to be from my home church....bummer. However, that did not mean that the people who had been promised a dental clinic would be disappointed.
Manual Chavez is one of the most dedicated, energetic, committed people I know. He was more than willing to carry on with the clinics on his own. He is pretty much a one man show anyway. The pictures above were taken at the first clinic in El Durazno at a little church called Iglesia Fuerte Ciudad Majanaim. The man in the picture with Manuel is Pastor Hector.
I went to the clinic around noon to take him some lunch and he was in the midst of extracting a tooth from the lady in the first picture. These are some tough people. He was having a hard time getting the tooth out and while I won't go into detail, just know that if I had been that lady, I would have been hollering like a banshee.
The next day's clinic was in Taxisco, about an hour and a half drive from here. Again he saw around 40 people. He also took 80 sheets of lamina (tin) for houses for which FBC provided funds. The third day was in a village near Chimaltenango and again he saw another 40 or so people. In three days Manual has relieved the suffering of between 100 to 120 people.
The last clinic was to be today, Thursday, but the pastor asked him if they could postpone it until another day. He leaves tomorrow for Panajachel for a five day jornada (dental clinic) there.
Guess what....I get to have lunch with Scott, Julie, and Aidan tomorrow. Nanner, nanner, boo, boo.
Luisa
