A few days and I am off on VACATION

Friends and Family!
This Saturday I will leave for Guatemala city with the Ophthamologists. Times on the road are still very difficult due to continued rains and landslides, bridges out. I will stay in city for rest, errands and to visit a few friends before I leave on vacation on TUESDAY; I am off to New York and to Ireland. I am excited and happy to travel. I have all my first cousins in the EMERALD ISLE so it will be fun. I also will visit with Irish and English former missionaries and visit also CSJP in Rearsby, England. I am an associate of the Sisters of St Joseph of Peace, CSJP, and prior there was an English Province; now we are one Congregation. On return I will go to New Jersey and to the CSJP assembly in October. Visit our CSJP web site to know a little of that part of my life and committment. I am bringing some Guatemalan crafts to sell at the assembly and I hope also to visit the Irish Catholic Relief to look for support for our clinic.

Emergencies and surgeries for the POOR are an necessary expense for the clinic. We all have the same human rights and dignity as human beings. As an American I have always enjoyed excellent health care. It is impossible at times to send a child to the government hospital, when it is a matter of life and death. Yesterday, a two month old infant, who has been to consult here with a hernia, arrived with the hernia strangulated. We had anticipated that this infant would have surgery at the Minnesota mission in their surgeries by volunteer american surgeons in October. Now it was an emergency. We knew it was high risk to send this baby to the national hospital; the availability of Pediatric anesthesiologist is rare. His surgery is less than one thousand dollars. The surgery was performed last night in a private hospital. His dad is an unemployed construction worker. The mission has much work in maintenance that is pending so the clinic contracted the father to work in the clinic maintenance and he will pay this debt gradually by work. Last week we also paid the surgery of an 80 year old woman who needed urgently the intervention of a urologist. We have also asked the son to do garden work at the mission to pay some of this debt to the clinic. Last nite a family arrived at my door. Their 13 year old son fell carrying fire wood. He is in the government hospital with a fractured thigh and the family has to pay for the orthopedic pin and a special powder needed for healing of the bone. Again the cost is over one thousand dollars and this is in the government hospital where one expects the care to be free for the POOR, but not reality. Our Doctor Ever works tonite at the government hospital and he will investigate this need and see how we can help this poor family with this health crisis.

We are grateful to friends who make occassional contributions to help our budget. Many of the eye surgeries are done without cost. Others do pay less than one hundred dollars for Cataract surgery, so there is a little extra income to the clinic this week. Most of all thank you for your prayers and accompaniement to the Mayan people of Guatemala. We are all GOD´s CHILDREN!!!

Enclosed photo of Manuela, 80 year old patient with her daughter, at clinic for check up. Also a photo of infant Diego, post op emergency hernia operation, being examined by Ever, our clinic doctor as his mom looks on.

You can donate to help our patients of the Clinica Maxeña at web page
www.helenadiocese.org Note it is for the Clinic

Thank You! and blessings from GUATEMALA.

Ophthamologists from CALIFORNIA arrive!

Friends and family,
Determination and committment to share their expertise with the Mayan population of Guatemala, brought a team of knowledgeable opthamologists to the Clinica Maxeña this week. This is the 15th year for the Eye Brigade to come and perform cataract and terigium surgeries; they come faithfully two times a year.

This year was a great challenge. The Ministry of Health is making it extremely difficult for volunteer doctors to enter medicines and surgical equipment, through customs, for these types of medical campaigns for the POOR! It appears related to the loss of finances through taxes that could be charged. Although the clinic filled all the necessary paper work as instructed, permission was not granted. However, thanks to faith and committment, this did not deter this Medical Team. They put all needed for the surgeries in their regular baggage and passed through customs as tourists.

The wheather is also a huge obstacle. Instead of a three hour journey from the city to the Mission, it took six hours. They had to wait in a line of cars for three hours to pass through a two mile dirt road detour because of a collapse of a bridge. Rains continue to cause landslides, floods and major highway damage.

The patients also were not deterred by the wheather obstacles. They are arriving in bus, car and on foot. Surgeries began Monday and will continue through friday.

Pray for a safe return of the Doctors and their medical assistants who have made this journey to provide this excellent service in the Clinica Maxeña.

Thanks also to Dr Joe Kuptco, Ophthamologist of Hamilton Montana, who made possible the construction of the Optamological operating room in the Clinica Maxeña, many years ago.

Love Sheila

Please send donations to: www.diocesehelena.org to assist us in care of patients in the Clinica Maxeña. Note that it is for the CLINIC.

Thank You and Blessings!

I attach three Photos!
Miguel gives instructions to the process of pre examination to the patients awaiting to be examined for possible surgery.

Dr Robert, assisted by his nurse wife, Nancy, perform cataract surgery in the operating room of the Clinica Maxeña.

An elderly cataract patient in one of dormitory beds in Mission.

Rains cause Chaos and Deaths, affect Clnic

Friends and family,
This past week or so has been very difficult as the rains continue to pour out of the heavens and saturate the earth beneath our feet. Yesterday was brought saddness in the country as two major landslides took many lives as the dirt came down unexpectedly on a bus and also in another area many are missing still under the landslide; some were walking, some in cars. Pray for these families. These two incidents have closed one of major hiways from city, except for emergency vehicles.

Here in the mission our electrical system was hit by lightning. It took four days to get all wires changed and circuit boxes fixed, but just in time for arrival today of Opthamologists from US, who will perform surgeries in the CLINIC. We are blessed to have Martin, head of maintenance in the Clinic, as he performed a complex job as a professional. All his knowledge, in plumbing,construction and electricity, he has learned from visitors to our mission. We are especially grateful to Monty Giles, who had put in the present wiring at the Mission. We did a telephone conference for advice to Monty when Martin could not figure out why some circuit breakers still did not have correct voltage. THANK YOU MONTY!!

News informs that to the wheather in Guatemala, "the worst is yet to come", and in the month of September and October. Pray for the POOR whose homes are not made to withstand this rain and many have already lost many personal belongings and family members because of floods and landslides.

You can support our work at the Clinic by sending your donation to:
www.helenadiocese.org
THANK YOU AND BLESSINGS!!!

Sheila

I include a picture of Martin, working into the night, to solve the electrical problems at the Mission of the diocese of Helena,Montana, in Guatemala"

Maria leaves as in patient at Clinica Maxeña

Friends and family,
Yesterday, we sent Maria, our 15 yr old patient with AIDS, to a home in her same community. She will be cared for by the president of Pastoral Social of our Parish, a single woman who lives with her aging parents.
Pastoral Social of our parish also will look for a solution for housing for this family and construct a simple home in another area than their present, unsafe, inadequate dwelling. Maria was smiling and content when she left the mission. She is excited with her ability to embroider and she quickly does the small projects we have provided. It is incredible how she mastered this art having never before embroidered. We hope to find her and instructor as we feel she could earn some income for herself through embroidery. Her mother and sister and other cousins are from the same community, but a short distance away. She will have frequent contact with them. She will return to the Clinic to be taken to her medical appointent and the AIDS CLINIC. She continues to receive psychological support from the Mayan Psychologist, Angel, who frequently assists us in these cases. The clinic will supply basic foods for the family caring for her. Thank you for helping us care for MARIA and other patients afflicted with AIDS. The state of Suchitepequez, where the clinic is located, is third in 22 states for incidence of AIDS.

The Catholic Church is very involved in accompaniement with compassion for persons living with AIDS. Two of our auxiliar nurses, Maria and Mari Elena, receive classes on AIDS monthly,
for a year and will be given a certificate from the University providing these courses, through Pastoral of Health of the Catholic Church. Lyncho, our Laboratory technician, represents the Pastoral health of the Diocese in a red of Institutions working to accompany and and find solutions and report statistics and problems for care and medicine from the Ministry of Health, for persons living with AIDS.

Yesterday, a woman from our parish, was transferred to Guatemala City Hospital, suffering complications of AIDS, while pregnant. Her husband recently returned from the US with this disease and passed it on to his wife; he then went back to the US. The babe died in utero before she could safely give birth by Caesarean. We will follow up with her care for AIDS when she returns home.

Health Care in this country is inadequate for the POOR and they do turn to the church for accompaniement. Thank YOU for walking and caring with us for these needs. You can donate on line to HELP US!!
Donate at www.helenadiocese.org Mention that it is for the CLINICA MAXEÑA.

Attatched are a photo of Maria, her mom, and younger sister, talking with the psychologist, ANGEL before she was discharged from the clinic in patient ward.

Also a photo of our laboratory Technician, Lyncho, our representative for AIDS. Lynch worked 25 years in the Hospital Laboratory and we feel blessed to have his committment and knowledge in the Clinica Maxeña. This photo shows the new microscope and microcentrifuge donated to the Clinica Maxeña Lab by a grant from the Diocese of Helena.