Friends and family,
Time seems to fly here; more so when we have visitors accompanying us and getting to know mountains and villages and wonderful people we serve, our work and needs. This past week, Bishop George Thomas has been with us with two other priests of our Diocese, two teachers from Missoula, the Director of the Montana Conference and Mark the Director of our Mission. A newspaper editor from the Independent Record is also here with them. It is important others witness the needs here of the poor.
Each year our two important projects have expanded with the need. Our secondary school, La Asuncion and the CLINICA , which serves the Mayan Indigenous of this mountainous region of Guatemala. Bishop George Thomas concelebrated many masses, met with leaders of the different projects, and tomorrow we they will relax at Lake Atitlan.
In one week we will be welcoming the Opthamologists Brigade from California and Montana; they will perform many cataract operations in the Clinica Maxeña at minimal or no cost. Surgeries are an aspect of health care that has little or no acess for the poor in the Public Health system. Surgeries, such as hernias, are not performed until they are strangulating or an emergency crisis; gall bladder surgeries have a very long wait for the patients and consequently they suffer uneeded, excruciating pain. 0ther health clinics, often from other faith denominations, also send Medical Brigades to do surgeries, which is a wonderful service. These surgeries are usually performed for one hundred dollars or exonerated for the very poor.
AS WE BEGIN ANOTHER YEAR, I START BY THANKING YOU FOR WALKING WITH US AND THESE WONDERFUL PEOPLE IN THEIR WALK OF LIFE.
LOVE SHEILA
Will post some pictures later!
