Since the last entry, things have stayed busy and all over the place. Most notably, Mom and Dad came to visit for Holy Week and I spent all of last week working on a medical team. Having Mom and Dad down was a great change of pace. In comparison to normal, I lived like a king for a week. We started out Tikal, then came down to Coban and Semuc Champey before heading down to Antigua and Lake Atitlan. For me, Tikal was the highlight as I had yet to make a visit. Compared to Coban or the highlands, the Peten is it's own universe. For one, it's flat and hot. Inside of Tikal, it's a lush jungle with loads of monkeys, ocellated turkeys and jaguars (so we heard).

After Tikal, we spent a few days around Coban and my site. After that we spent about 5 days just taking it easy in Antigua. One day, we went up to visit my training host family and another we took a day trip up to Lake Atitlan. Just relaxing in Antigua was great. It is definitely a tourist center, but it's just really good to soak it up sometimes. Check out Dad's photo site for the pics:
http://www.jimmyo.smugmug.com/

The week after Mom and Dad left turned out to be pretty slow. As I was gone for Holy Week, I really didn't plan anything for the following week. As such, there was little to do and it was hotter than hell, so pretty boring all around. This past week however, there was a medical mission in a town about 45 minutes from Coban. I had met the organizers before and they asked me to come down and help out with translating. Basically, a group of about 30 doctors, nurses, dentists and helpers came down from Michigan for the week to perform operations and give consultations. Since their time is limited, they cram in as much work as possible.

I spent the first part of the week helping the recovery nurses to communicate with patients after surgery. Most of the people had were having their gall bladders removed and hernia operations. It was myself and a few other volunteers doing most of the translation, so they had us working long days. We would usually get up around 7 to start and would still be helping the post-op nurses till about midnight. It was exhausting, but the need and the importance of the work seemed to keep us all awake and somewhat alert.

As the week went on, the surgeons started inviting us in the OR to watch. Later, they let us scrub in and get involved in the operations. This mostly involved holding retractors to keep people open. By about Wednesday, most of us had gotten a chance. At first I thought I'd get grossed-out by the whole thing, but the doctors got us right in and we didn't have time to think about ourselves. Basically, I just stood there quietly and did whatever the doctor said so to not screw anything up.

That night, I was beat, so I crashed early. At about 11:30, another volunteer came in as I was sleeping to tell me that "I was need in the OR, stat." My reaction to that was, "OK, this is total bullshit. I'm the only person in the hospital asleep and they just wanted to wake me up so I can run into the OR all excited and what not only to get laughed at." Also, you don't generally call history majors into the OR. As hard as it was and still is to believe, they actually did want me in the OR. The last scrub nurse had been working all day and about passed out, so they were out of people. Somehow I got the call.

One of the doctors had been trying to remove a gall bladder when the woman's main bile duct ruptured. So what was a routine 2 hour surgery ended up going over 5 hours. When I got into the prep room expecting to find everyone laughing, they were waiting for me with scrubs. So in about 10 minutes, I went from deep sleep to holding retractors across from a doctor covered in blood. What was so crazy is that I didn't even have time to ask questions. They just threw the scrubs on me and sent me into the room. At the time, I didn't have the slightest idea of what was going on. It wasn't until afterwards when everyone was calmed down that I had any idea of what kind of surgery it was or what had happened. I just stood there holding this woman open without a damn clue of what had gone wrong or why in the world they would want me as a scrub nurse.

Luckily, things turned out well for the patient. She's got a bit of recovery time yet, but should turn out all right. After that whole ordeal, the doctor had me scrub in for the rest of his surgeries. It was interesting and somewhat flattering, but completely exhausting. I've been sleeping 10 hours straight every night since I got back.

Overall, the week was a great change of pace. With medical missions, no one has to worry about sustainability. They are just providing a very needed to service to as many people as they can. In this work, you see the results right away as opposed to the years it takes with my normal job. I do enjoy what I'm doing right now, but it's simply nice to see things happen so quickly. A good week for sure.