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Sorry to post these last. Teri, you took great photos.  Passing time at the airport   Still passing time at the airport in Guatemala City!  Nick and Cathy   Shannon, Maggie and David  Susan with a cup of Guatemalan coffee  Teri and Maggie   Maggie and David  Cathy and John in parish pharmacy  Jill, Shannon, Maggie and David  Nurse Teri in action   Bob and Lia  Susan and Teri  Anna and Alyssa  Teri and a friend  Terri, Maggie and Shannon Add Comment These are some of Maggie and David's pictures. I will post Teri's soon.  A view from our hotel of the roof on the house nearby.  And there is beauty everywhere.                 Swarming Cathy!     Here are a few of Shannon's pictures.      The reforestation project.  San Andres  Our first clinic.  A wonderful photo with Maggie.   In San Jose.   Shopping friends    A cow at the park.  Shannon and Teri "What I do, You cannot do, but what you do, I cannot do. The needs are great, and none of us, including me, ever do great things. But we can all do small things with great love, and together we can do something wonderful." - Mother Teresa As has been mentioned before, Dr. Bob Christensen hopped aboard the plane and headed with our MDP group to Guatemala after less than 24 hours at home. He was fresh off of serving as a volunteer in Haiti for 5 weeks, which was a grueling but rewarding experience. Prior to that Bob, his wife (and two daughters) visited their son in Tanzania, Africa where his son is is a volunteer teacher. They had a wonderful three week adventure. Bob is still thinking of another stint in Haiti. We are grateful to Dr. Bob for his dedication to MDP!  Bob and Patty Christensen's Family in Tanzania, Africa About the Spanish Class that rocks… As Helen pointed out before, travelling to Guatemala with my Spanish class has been in my dream list of trips to take for at least a couple of years. Having recently had that opportunity almost seems surreal now, especially when I think that even Stephanie was able to make it from Peru. I realize what a huge blessing it’s been now that we’ve been home for 4 days and I keep on flashing back to many wonderful moments in Guatemala. The deep sense of pride and satisfaction that every one of my students, Jill, Cathy, Susan and John has brought to my life since they started taking Beginning Spanish lessons almost three years ago, is truly an enormous source of happiness and I do look forward with anticipation to every one of our lessons on Wednesday afternoon… Since I started the process of acquiring English many years ago, I have been a passionate believer in the idea that life with two languages –or more, is definitely a much fuller life. As you can imagine, having shared this trip and seeing each one of my students effectively use their Spanish during Clinic and outside of Clinic time rates very high as one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. It truly brought tears to my eyes on more than one occasion to watch (Mrs. P), Jill, doing intake completely in Spanish, with a big smile on her face. A couple of times she caught me looking at her, we’d both smile even bigger and give each other the “thumbs up”. Equally, watching John and Cathy conduct almost the entire appointment in Spanish without my help, was both marvelous and a little scary at the same time ---I wonder if they are going to dump me any time soon… And Susan, I was truly amazed at your courage and determination since I saw you in Chiapas doing intake in Spanish, all on your own, for every single one of the 282 patients we saw during the five clinics we had there!!!! So it is with sincere and deep gratitude that I say to you, “gracias mil” for your many hours of hard work, dedication and patience, and for everything you have taught me (I continue to learn English every day!). I hope you feel, like I do, that those hours are and have been a worthwhile investment. To those of you whom I hadn’t met before, please accept my apologies if I was excessively giggly and silly at times with all the teasing that went on. It may come as a surprise for you to learn that I am usually a serious woman, except when I am with my family in Mexico or with my Spanish class, who are really my family here in the U.S. So as you can imagine, being in Guatemala serving side by side with my daughter and my students, my family, was truly an amazingly exhilarating blessing. I am looking forward to starting a new class with Shannon, Teri, Helen and Melissa in the near future. I hope they will be an inspiration to others just like Susan, Cathy, Jill and John have been an inspiration to them. Very happily and gratefully yours, Lía Price Although this will be my last post today, I will be adding more photos from Teri, Maggie and Dave, and Shannon in the next couple of days. So please check back soon. I would also like to list the names of our team members. We had listed them on the first post but often only use first names in the blog. Our March 2010 MDP team members include: Susan Peller, Team Leader, MDP President and R.N. Dr. Bob Christensen, M.D. Dr. John Norris, M.D. Dr. Catherine Davis, M.D. Jill Frentz, Intake Interpreter for Patients and Nurses Lia Price, Interpreter for Doctors and Patients Stephanie Price Stokman, Interpreter for Doctors and Patients David Coughlan, Interpreter for Doctors and Patients Teresa (Teri) Simonette, Intake Nurse Shannon Juergens, Intake Nurse Maggie Coughlan, Pharmacy Helper Nick Davis, Pharmacy Helper Helen Peterson, Pharmacy Helper Please check out stokmanperu.blogspot.com. In a previous blog post here, stokman is spelled with a "c", which is incorrect. This is the blog of Stephanie (Price) and her husband Jim Stokman. Steph was a wonderful member of our March MDP trip. Steph and Jim are volunteering in Peru and working with disabled children. It is a beautiful bit of writing and is an inspiring piece to read. It is a witness to true faith and unconditional love in action. I had spelled it wrong previously in our blog and apologize. If you have time to read their blog it would be a good way to start Holy Week! Thanks, Helen Here is a sampling of Jill's Photos. More to come!  Maggie and friends.  Teri and friend.  Steph puts on the sunscreen.  Maggie teaches dance moves!  Susan  Jill and Susan   Shannon, Teri, Susan and Cathy   Steph and Lia   With Andres at his house.  Dave    In the kitchen at the Monastery with Lia and Jill.  Here are some pictures from Lia Price!   'Steph and I stood on this dock, the one on the left, and prayed The Angelus one morning, before we went for a walk around the lake. It's a memory I'll cherish forever...' - Lia  Lia and Steph  Cathy works on her Spanish!   | Author Helen Peterson ArchivesApril 2010 Categories |
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