Proof

ATTENTION EVERYONE!!!!

Missing:
1 Handbasket

Concerned about the state of said handbasket given the amout of people currently trying to fit in it.

Amy would really appreciate it being returned unscathed . . .

My Apologies to the People of Calgary

In the interest of public safety and prevention of further natual disasters, I have decided that the likelihood of hurricanes, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions is lowest in Canada. Thus I will be returning early to avoid reigning futher terror on the Guatemalan coast after my recent announcement that I would be visiting. A collective sigh of relief was heard in the Pacific districts when my flight was confirmed for Sunday, and previous plans to arrive in Monterrico were cancelled.

Yes. I`m coming home early. I`m scheduled to arrive in Calgary on Sunday November 27th at 2:45pm. After much thinking and discussing about the situation, I have decided it is the best choice. My work commitments here are finished. There are extra people available to help with the container when it arrives (probably late next week), and I am simply, in a word: exhausted. The prospect of returning home and having only 48 hours to readjust to Calgary life and climate prior to returning to work isn`t going to be enough time. I will really enjoy having some extra time to process the experiences I`ve had here, and leisurly visit friends and relatives before jumping back into the business of work. I think that I am needing a holiday from my holiday. The proverbial hamster is lying on the bottom of his now silent wheel, weakly holding a tattered white flag in his atrophied little arm. I need home for a rest.

I will be updating once I`m back home, providing more detailed information about the amazing time I have spent here. And until then I will leave you all with a quote from the CTV Calgary weather website:

¨A high temperature record was set in Calgary on Wednesday, for the second day in a row. The 17.7 degree high beat a record that stood for almost 50 years. We could make it three in a row Thursday. If we reach our expected high of 16, it will surpass the record of 15.6, set way back in 1890.
The weather pattern is expected to change by the weekend. The omega block aloft will break down, and the chinook will end. That will allow more seasonable weather to take over for the weekend. For a change, November will feel like November.¨

A Change of Pace

Whew! What a busy few days. The last 5 days have been spent with a group of 6 people from Abbotsford B.C. and one City of Calgary Firefighter. They came down here to help Poco a Poco do some re-building of houses and to do sort of a fact finding mission so they can go home and raise some more money. It has been a busy few days of going from location to location looking at the different needs that exist here currently, and having lots of discussions about the economy, government, and the provision of aid. They have been a great group of people to connect with. They all left this afternoon, along with Jill, to Antigua. Jill is heading back to Canada on Thursday (Tony will be going as well), so it will be a little different around here now that it is just Sharon and I left. There are still mountains of bags of clothes that need to be sorted through though, and the next container from Canada will be arriving in the country (hopefully) tomorrow, so I´m quite sure we will be keeping busy.

This is my first-aid class week at the multicultural english school here in Panajachel. Today I did my first class with the jr. high aged kids (and have a whole new respect for jr. high teachers) and managed not to strangle anyone during the 1.5 hour lesson. Tomorrow I´m with the grade 4-6 class and Wednesday with the high school kids. Then Thursday is (American) Thanksgiving which I will be enjoying here with Sharon´s family at the house of a friend of hers. I think we are going to try to have a restful weekend and I may duck off to the Pacific Coast for a couple of days at the beginning of next week. I am going to try to get back for the arrival of the container here in Pana, hopefully by Wed or Thurs next week. Then, amazingly enough, it is my last weekend to help out before heading home. Hard to believe that I have already been away for 7 weeks . . .

Hope you are all doing well. I will try to get my hands on some more photos in the next couple of days . . .

Love to you all,
Catherine

More Photos

As I promised - more pictures! Thanks to Jill´s digital camera . . .

The first three are all examples of how we have been delivering things to people - and the incredible ability people here have to fill a pickup truck.


The supplies the hospital from San Pedro Necta took back to their town:



Off to deliver 3 beds (with 8 children, myself, Tony, Sharon, and Jill and two other women):



Off to deliver a matress and wheelchair to a handicapped girl living in the mountains above Solola:


Me and a very grumpy little girl (she was mad because we took off her shoes and wouldn´t put new ones on):


Antonio and I helping a man up the stairs (that´s Sharon in the doorway):

Continued . . .

The kitchen in one of the homes where we took beds to. The man in the white t-shirt is the father of the 6 children in the middle. Jill is there and Julio on the far left in the black jacket is the young man helping Sharon do all of the amazing work she does.



The eldest daughter making tortillas:



A heavy load:


Waiting for clothing:





The Panajachel riverbed - the width of the river in this picture is about the width the river was before the flooding. The rocks extend the riverbed to the level to which it rose during the hurricane, wiping out fields, houses and business along with it.

Amazing how the time flies . . .

I can´t believe it has already been a week! So sorry to all of you out there who have been expectantly waiting for an update. Things here are still really good, and very busy. A disappointing experience the day after I posted the pictures was having my digital camera stolen by one of the hospital groups that had come to pick up supplies. Too bad that one of the people we are trying to help found it necessary to do that. The fortunate thing is that most of the pictures on the camera are from the time when Tim, Amy, and Brigitte were here so they all have pictures of that time, and Jill takes a million photos every day and is going to copy all of those to disc for me. Now I have a really good excuse to buy a new digital camera! The other upside is that I have been hauling around my two film cameras everywhere we go and have gotten some great shots that I otherwise probably would not have had.

We have been busy sorting some 500 garbage bags of shoes and clothes that were donated by the Guatemalan government - they were distributed yesterday and we have an even bigger truckload of stuff coming in this afternoon. We´ve spent lots of the last week visiting the nearby communities trying to get an idea of the need and loss as a result of hurricane Stan. It is still so mind blowing to me that these people who had so little to begin with can now have even less. Yesterday we went across the lake to the village of Panabaj which was literally covered with 4 feet of mud in the middle of the night. It was a very sad place to be. Not only have people´s homes, businesses, and fields been washed away, but many people lost their families and friends now buried under the tons of mud. The area´s only hospital that was opened a couple of years ago through lots of hard charity work was also completely destroyed in the storm. The closest hospital now is in Solola - a half hour boat ride then 20 minute truck ride away.

In spite of all of the sadness and loss here, everyday is a wonderful and precious experience. The Guatemalan people that I am working with are stoic and warm people that display a depth of understanding and compassion that is truly amazing. I am learning so much about the delivery of smart aid rather than just aid, and the experience is really invaluable. The focus has shifted a bit away from the training because of the disaster relief efforts underway, but we are still working with a couple groups of Bomberos here that are really enthusiastic, and I am enjoying being able to help where help really is needed.

Hope you are all doing well. More pictures to follow soon I promise . . .

Catherine

Finally . . . A Post and Some Pictures

I will see how this works out. Maybe I will actually be able to do a sort of picture diary entry here. With the mystery of the sunglasses solved, and things getting into full swing here I wanted to share some pictures of where I am and what I´m doing. So, to start with . . .

The garden view from my patio:



My morning coffee date, Prince Phillip:



The boxes Tim and I sorted through:



Unfortunately I am back to sorting out boxes. Seems there was a bunch of stuff that wasn´t distributed from the last shipment that has been hiding in a closet at the fire hall. There is almost as much there as the things that Tim and I did, only half of the boxes are rotted and moldy:



Hopefully I will have that finished off today sometime. Jill is now here in Pana after meeting with the First Lady of Guatemala yesterday. They are trying to make the process of bringing things into the country easier. Hopefully everything went well. I´m teaching a class this afternoon to some young people. That’s all I know about it so far. I´m interested to see what we will be doing.

Continued . . .

My Spanish is coming along well - I am now taking private lessons for an hour a day during the week. I taught a class to the Bomberos (firefighter/EMTs) in Antigua about some new medicines, and did some scenarios and answered a bunch of questions here in Pana.

Jill and Tony made great patients to practice on in Antigua:


Hopefully tonight I´ll meet with the guys (and girl) here again and start riding along with them as well. Well I should probably head off, due to the wonders of technology I am now late for my 9am appointment with Jill . . .


And of course, what I have been reduced to after the unfortuante incident with the sunglasses . . .


Love to you all . . . Cath