November 3, 2013

  • Trip to Guatemala Part 2

    Friday morning, Oct. 4th– We were supposed to go to the Dr. office at 11:30 to hear what the results of the lab work but since we had no wheels we had to depend on, it was either a city bus or a taxi.  Vernon had Priscila Alpires to call a taxi for us.  We stood around waiting for it to arrive but it was getting later and later and it still hadn’t come.  Finally Priscila called them back and the driver claimed that he had been there and didn’t see anyone so had left.  Oh great.  Well, after awhile one did show up.

    While we were outside the mission waiting on the taxi, a man came out of the mission.  He shook my hand so I asked him who he was.  “Ross Good, and yours?”   I told him my name and mentioned that I’d heard of him.  He then shook Vernon’s name and asked “And you?”  When Vernon told him, a light bulb went on and he exclaimed, “Oh, yes, I have seen your face many times…….in the faces of your children!”  :-)

    Maybe I should also introduce a young man who lives at MAM headquarters:  he answers to the name of Craig Martin.   It turns out that Vernon is related to him in a couple of ways.  First, his mother is Vernon’s first cousin Ellen (Shirk).  Ellen’s mother was Vernon’s dad’s sister….so Craig is related to Vernon through the Martin’s.  Next, Craig’s dad, Jerry Martin, is Vernon’s mother’s first cousin.  So, Jerry is a first cousin once removed……through the Layman’s.  Then to tangle the mess just slightly more-  Jerry’s father was a brother to Vernon’s Aunt Matie who was married to Vernon’s mom’s brother David.  :-) :-)    I told you that Vernon has relatives and family connections everywhere we go!  It never fails.  :-)

    Back to the story:  We got into the taxi and went to the Dr’s office.  His secretary said he wasn’t in yet and wouldn’t be until around 4.  So we decided to go around the street corner to our children’s pediatrician office to see if he was there.  When we got to his office, Dr. Wyld was standing beside his secretary’s desk reading something and didn’t look up until I greeted him.

    He seemed happy to see us, asking how we were, and invited us into his office to visit.  There were no patients at the time, which seemed extremely different from when we would go and have to share the waiting room with a lot of others.   On the way into his office, he stopped in his tracks and said, “Martin’s!”  He had known we were former patients, but couldn’t put a name to us when suddenly he recognized us….he said Vernon’s beard had thrown him off.  Before we sat down, he assured us that he still had our family picture in his first exam room and took us over to show it to us.  He also had a photo of Lloyd Mast’s family.  I think he is pretty proud of those pictures as both are framed.  Ours is 11 years old so he would’ve had plenty of time and opportunity to discard them.

    We had a nice long visit, he telling us of the difficulties Guatemala has been facing with crime, etc.  He no longer works Friday afternoon since it takes him 45 minutes to travel 7 blocks to his home in the rush hour traffic.  There a million cars on the streets in Guatemala City alone not to mentions the thousands of motorcycles so when you are in rush hour traffic, you are really in it.   To walk is too dangerous and he fears of being mugged.  He said he would trade rural Wisconsin any day with all the snow for the freedom from crime.    He just kept commenting how he loves it when we former missionaries come to see him on our visits back.  He said he doesn’t understand why we would want to visit him and that he had seriously thought he’d never see us again when we left 11 years ago.  I told him that we have never found another Dr. Wyld and I seriously doubt we will ever find one we like better.

    Our time with him started back in 1984 even before Benji was born when Susana, 2, just wasn’t getting over the Guatemalan revenge.  After a number of doctors and about 22 different medicines we decided we had had enough of guessing for her and went to a specialist.  We have never, ever regretted our decision.  So, he was our pediatrician until after Jonny was born.  Saw us through all sorts of vaccines and traumas.  Pneumonia for a couple of them, measles, births for 2 of our boys, broken skulls for 2 of our girls, dehydration, surgery, concussions, burns that required hospitalization, the list could go on and on.  Through it all he was a calm non-invasion doctor.  We trusted him when he’d say that he wouldn’t recommend something for his own child, then we wouldn’t either…  Only once did he recommend something that we didn’t go ahead with and that was a CT scan to see if Melisa had brain damage.  Vernon didn’t think a scan would help even if she did have damage, it wouldn’t change anything.  :-)   He was a very good doctor and all of our children that remember agree about that.  He always humored us when we did our own doctoring.  Once when he saw some sutures in KL’s forehead he asked me about it.  When I explained that Vernon had sewn her up after she had fallen.  He wasn’t upset at all, he just said, “I’m not surprised coming from you, but next time use a smaller suture.”  Then he told us where to buy the smaller sutures.  Another time I was telling him about a hernia that came from coughing, his remark was: “If it happens again, come into the city immediately.   THAT is something that Vernon wouldn’t be able to fix.”  :-)

    Our dear Dr. Wyld--the world's best pediatrician

    Our dear Dr. Wyld–the world’s best pediatrician

    We had lunch at another little street side cafe before going up to the Urologist.  Dr. Tecero was there but the lab results still had not come in yet.   He called and asked the lab where they were as they were supposedly been on the way since morning.  Finally the doctor told us that the kidney stone was gone and that we wouldn’t get the urine culture until Tues.  Since this was Friday, Vernon asked if it would be alright to go to the Peten to visit our family there.  The Dr told us to go and enjoy ourselves and he would see us the next week when all the tests were in.

    So, we hopped another bus and went back to the mission, stopping off at Walmart to get a few things to take to El Chal with us.  I was pretty happy to find a store that sold Bath & Body Works and that they had some of Holly’s favorite scent on sale.  Well, they were on sale as far as what most of the stuff cost but the price was comparable to what it would’ve cost normally here in the States.  We walked back to MAM and packed for our time up north.

    Priscila reserved tickets on the 10 PM ADN bus.  Now, this was supposed to be a first class bus since it was not a “chicken bus” (as the ones are called that hauls freight like baskets of fruit, avocados, veggies and live poultry and such) nor a city bus but when we got onto the bus I decided it didn’t deserve the rating of  first class.   Although this one had a restroom on board and they didn’t squeeze 3 or 4 persons to each seat, it was not like riding in style.

    My dear sweet DIL has assured me over the years that taking the night bus to El Chal is THE way to travel.   “All the stress of driving has been taken away….all you have to do is curl up and go to sleep and wake up at your destination the next morning”.  Best thing since sliced bread apparently.  :-0   Since my very first time to try this mode of travel, 7 years ago, was a huge eye-opener for me, I really wasn’t sure how it would go this time.  (That time was when we went up for Benj and Holly’s wedding—we had gotten the last 6 seats on the bus.  At the back of the bus we were scattered among the other passengers.  I had to  listen to a man loudly sawing logs all night, being blasted by the COLD air conditioner, a light shining down in my eyes for the first 4 hours, the smelly restroom just behind me and having a seat that rocked because a couple of the bolts were loose was bad enough, but when Lavina throw up all over herself just minutes after I had gone up and convinced the driver to turn off the lights, was the crowning touch!   It was the most miserable ride I had ever been on up to that point of my life.)  So this time, I faced the trip with slightly more hope….at least this time we were up front and it was just Vernon and I.  How bad could that be?  We were in seats 3 and 4.  No danger of getting carsick.  Unfortunately we had nowhere to stretch our legs so we ended up using the front rail for a foot stool.  My seat was nearly worn out and I could feel a pipe across my back.  We had a decent set of drivers and they didn’t scare me with their wild driving so it wasn’t all that terrible…..I just couldn’t fall asleep and let the miles go by.

    We arrived in El Chal early the next morning and the bus drivers knew exactly where to stop and let us off.  There awaiting us beside the road in their pj’s were 2 little grandchildren that we hadn’t seen for over a year and a half.  That made the trip worth all the discomfort.  Just to see their bright little faces and feel their warm hugs.  Also to see our 2 daughters was a joy.  Benj came strolling up just in time to lug our suitcase back to their house a block away.  We got there just before breakfast time.  It had been 6 years since I had been there and Vernon had never been in their home yet so this was very special to us.

    I do not remember every thing that happened that day besides reading to the youngsters, reading to the youngsters, and reading to the youngsters.  (It wasn’t quite that bad but I believe they wouldn’t have cared if we had read to them the entire day.)

    Reading stories

    Reading stories

    IMG_9261

    Grandaddy’s turn

    Vernon went up to the “hill” where our son is building a house.  After lunch, I went up to see it too.  The view was spectacular…..it is part of a Mayan Indian ruins.  I want to post pictures of the hill and house site on my next blog.  I didn’t get the pictures uploaded to do it now.

    I am sure I made myself useful that day but can’t remember much besides hanging up the laundry.  Holly made pizza for my and Sue’s birthday and we added some Pringles to the party.  I had seen some Mug or A&W rootbeer at the first Paiz we had shopped at but it didn’t occur to me in time to get a can just for tradition sake.  By the time I’d thought of it, Walmart didn’t have rootbeer so we had to skip that part.  :-(

    We went to the other side of town and slept at Judy Lehman’s and Sandra Benito’s house that night since B & H do NOT have any extra room in their house.  They have a 2 bedroom house…..one is for them and their youngest child.   The other bedroom is for Kendra Lily, Tiana and Priscila Munoz (the gal that KL is going to nurses’ training with.)  Oldest grandchild sleeps in a trundle bed drawer in the kitchen area and grandchild #2 sleeps on the couch in the living room.  They did add a lean-to bedroom to the house for Josue Ticas….. a 14 year old boy from the City who is going to the mission school in El Chal.  The school in the city doesn’t have upper grades and his parents didn’t want him going to a public school.  Any guests that come usually have to sleep in a tent out in the yard under the coconut trees.  But, fortunately for me, the tent was too worn out to use and they were waiting for her parents to bring a new one.  We could’ve camped out, I am sure but I wasn’t too disappointed that we got to sleep in a nice real bed.  :-)

    Judy Lehman and Sandra Benito

    Judy Lehman and Sandra Benito

    Sandra Benito is a close family friend.  Her daddy was our bishop most of the time we lived in El Novillero and she had lived with us a few months way back when she was learning to knit on the knitting machine.  Her father had wanted to buy her a machine to help support herself but she ended up going to El Chal and working at the mission clinic.  She’s been there 9 or 10 years working as the pharmacist and likes her job so the idea of making sweaters fell along the wayside.

    Well, I thought I would write all about our trip to El Chal in one post but I see that its already getting long enough so I think I will stop for now and resume on a different blog post.

    ~to be continued~

     

Comments (2)

  • Enjoyed reading through the trip part 2. Not seeing your grandchildren for that long is a hard thing. Love the doctor story. Everyone needs a doctor like that! :-) Would love to explore Mayan ruins too. Maybe someday.

  • I finally read this! Oh, how I love the pictures of you and Vernon reading to the children. I enjoyed the doctor stories too. Wow, your son and his wife really do have a full house!

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