Friends and family,
Since I last wrote in my blog, I have been to the Weston Priory Monastery, to Montana to visit our Diocese Mission Office and Bishop George Thomas, my brother and family and now I am in Seattle. Today I will go to Bellevue,WA for the Assembly of CSJP congregation of which I am associate for the weekend. In ten days I will be back home in Guatemala. It has been wonderful and rejuvenating to be with family and friends. One feeling I felt immediately on arrival to the US was a sense of security. Guatemala is going through a difficult time of crime and violence and increased poverty. Though it is not always on ones doorstep, the news paper brings it home daily. Accompaniment by friends is most important to us.
The Health Plan for all Americans is in the news daily here as Congress and the People voice their concerns and hopes. In Guatemala Health Care is not a Human Right as it should be in all countries. Basic minimal care is available to some but not all the poor through the Guatemalan Ministry of Health. Once one is diagnosed with a more complex disease the poor are at the mercy of whoever will help them. Health Care in Guatemala is in CRISIS! as it has been forever. As CHURCH people we try our best to accompany them, using National Hospitals and at times Private Hospitals. Since I have been home I have had two urgent appeals from our clinic for help!
One woman was brutally attacked by her husband and suffers many machete wounds, almost fatal. The machete is the large knife used by field workers to cut whatever. Her husband is in jail. The woman is in the National Hospital but needs to purchase a metal prosthesis to achieve healing of a wound that fractured her leg. The cost is 500. dollars. The family includes four children, three are students at our School, ASUNCION. The oldest is married. The community responded by obtaining a loan from Sr Anna for the prosthesis. They have been able to come up with some money to begin to pay off the loan, but are still in need. They are visiting this woman almost daily and giving some emotional support to the family. We will accompany her until she is home and is emotionally and physically well. Violence to WOMEN is on the increase in this society.
The other patient is close to home. The wife of one of our workers, Marcos, who is one of the auxiliary nurses who has worked in our parish clinic for 12 years. She suffered a medical emergency as she had been apparently healthy until she became acutely ill with abdominal pain. She was admitted to a private hospital in the middle of the night. Her diagnosis is Pancretitis and a new diagnosis of Diabetes, type 2. Her glucose was over 400 and she was anemic. She has She went to the hospital on October 9 and was still hospitalized when I received an update on October 15. We are selective in offering financial assistance for private medical care and loans because of our financial capacity and the economic needs of the service we offer in own Parish Clinic These two instances would be examples of exception. . The RIGHT TO LIFE touches every aspect of life, from womb to tomb. Thank You for responding to our needs in accompanying the people we have been called to serve. I am including a photo of MASS at the Weston Priory and also a picture of the woman injured in family violence who awaits surgery.
