f/11 & Be There

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Onesight Guatemala Mission -- Santa Cruz del Quiche

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Clinic Life

For some reason -- (bribes? who knows) our inventory of glasses was held up by the govt. It supposedly had to do with paperwork.

After waiting and waiting for a whole week the Guatemalan govt. finally released our inventory of glasses.

Saturday we worked at the clinic site until 8:00pm to unpack and organize the glasses. We then pulled glasses for all of the people who had attended the clinic during the first week. This was a portion of our inventory.

OneSight Guatemala Mission Hotel Sitio

This was the view from the front door of our hotel.

This is how our hotel got its water on a daily basis. No hot water to speak of and if you weren't prompt about taking a shower maybe no water at all.

This was a fairly typical dinner -- Chicken with rice and a mild red sauce that was the regional dish of choice. This night we had a potato and two huge chunks of carrot.

We were assured there would be internet access at the hotel. Very important considering none of the rooms had phones. However, Central America being what it is -- this sign greeted us upon our arrival.

This was our hotel -- The Hotel Sitio. Unquestionably the best one in town.

Chilling out in front of the hotel with a couple of the Optometrists after the last day of clinic. Mui cerveza!!

Inexplicably we had a plate of hotdog buns set out every night for dinner. No hotdogs -- just the buns

Other than two beds and a small night stand this was the only furniture in our room

In the hotel lobby.

OneSight Guatemala Mission -- getting there

Getting there:
So the trip from Guatemala City to Santa Cruz del Quiche was supposed to take about 3 hours. It ended up taking 6 hours. One of the reasons was that our bus got stuck on a curb in a narrow street in Chichicastenengo -- a small town which was on the way to Santa Cruz. We all had to get off the bus. Our driver and his assistant lifted one side of the bus up with 2x4's and rocked the bus back and forth to get it un-stuck.

This was not a problem for the local "chicken busses" -- Guatemala is where old school busses from the US go to be re-born as public transport -- complete with spiffy new paint jobs.