Happy Monday

Greetings from sunny and warm Guatemala. All is good.

The girls let us sleep in this morning (6:15am).

Yesterday we decided we needed to relax so in the morning we went to a water park and had some wet fun. It was our family, and the Loveall family and the Dempster family. The Dempster family is from Tennessee and is down here while they're going through the hoops of adopting a new baby girl. They're a very nice family.

When we returned from the park we went to a school football (soccer) match. That was a hoot. Afterward we went to the local grocery store to stock up on food and other essentials.

From Ken: Today I did my first morning at CSA (Spanish school). Tested into Grado 'A'. They're going to do a couple days of review and then let me take the test. If I pass then I'll do some work in the next grade level. Definitely had Spanish overload.

Had chance to look at some of the computers they want me to work on and surveyed the school and their current setup. Is going to be a challenge but should be fun at the same time.

Tonight we're going to go out and celebrate Nancy's birthday. Nancy is one of the other American missionaries working with the Loveall's.

Well, that is all I have to say so far... oh yeah, Emma took three steps for me today!!

From Joy: I have spent the day at the school with Becky. There have been a lot of people speaking very fast Spanish, but my brain is adjusting quickly. There is a 9 year old boy from the school named Luis Angel who is in the hospital recovering from an operation. He was born with a birth defect where his femur was outside of the hip socket, so the school paid for him to have an operation. This is very risky at his age, but Luis could barely walk. The operation he had put a pin into his hip and then he was casted. Unfortunately when the doctor took off the cast he also took out the pin, and come to find out, dislocated Luis' hip. Now he has an infection, and the doctors are basically giving the gringos the run-around. We went to the hospital this morning to get an update, but all they would say is that they have to wait for the infection to go away. Apparently then they will start thinking of a plan to help him. They blame the infection on the fact that he lives in a house with a dirt floor, but we think that the dislocation is what started the whole problem. They could have given him a preventative antibiotic, since they knew his living situation, but they didn't. Becky tried to help keep the wound clean at the house, but could not even touch him because he was in so much pain. They put him back in the hospital, where at least he has meals and a TV, but not the best medical care. After blaming all his problems on not keeping the wound clean, they called a few minutes ago to say that they couldn't clean it because he was screaming in pain. Apparently it is not customary to give a child a shot to help with the pain before such a procedure. So now, everyone in the office here is scrambling around trying to come up with a better plan to help Luis.

Please pray that things will happen quickly and that poor little Luis will be feeling better soon.

On our way to visit Luis this morning there was a young boy waiting at the door of the school to talk to Becky. He desperately wanted to study here, but they don't have any room, and his family didn't bring him in to register before the school year started. I was very close to tears as I watched Becky tell this child that he would have to wait to go to school yet another year (he is probably 7 years old.) This happens a lot down here. It is such a blessing to have Escuela Integrada here to help the 287 kids that they can.

I have started coming up with a plan for the music classroom, though I will have less time than I thought, as of today. Tomorrow I will be taking school pictures to be used for the new prayer cards and when I post this blog I will begin translating all their life stories. Pray that God would help this process to go quickly and that I would not feel pressured to get everything done. Pray that He will show Becky and I what are truly the most important things for us to accomplish while we are here.

The girls were great when I left the house this morning, Abigail really could have cared less and Emma was falling asleep. I am going to go home for the day, but will do another post if I learn anything new about Luis Angel.