Machacalha

Wow! What an amazing trip. We left early yesterday morning and drove the 2 hours or so to the town of Dolores, where literally the road ends. We then strapped on our packs and headed out on the 2 hour trek to our destination of Machcalha, near the Guatemalan boarder. It was a long hot (and more than any thing heavy) hike but great company and awesome scenery.

Once we arrived in Machcalha, we visited with the family of the village chairman, where we ate lunch and then set up camp. After the tents were up, half the group went hunting for supper, and the rest went with me as we went house to house to provide whatever medical care was needed.

I saw about 100 people in about 4 hours. These wonderful people were very welcoming and appreciative. That evening we went for a dip/bath in a nearby creek which was oh so refreshing! We then ate some supper and met with another village leader about the well that is being planned for the village. Once this meeting was over, since there is no electricity and very dark, we went to bed, but this was certainly not the end of our night.

About midnight, we all headed down the river in a 40 foot hand made dory (canoe) to hunt Gibnut (a rat creature that is very popular with the locals). It was quite the experience. We did not get the kill but had a blast regardless. We made it back to camp around 2:30am and hit the sack.

6:30am we were up and broke down camp. I checked on a few patients and then on to breakfast (flour tortillas and beans) at 7:30. After sweet goodbyes, we started the hike back at around 8:30am. However this time we had a friend in the form of an unnamed horse to help us with our packs (at least for 1/3 of the hike).

God is so good to have allowed me this opportunity to show his compassion and love to these wonderful people. He loves and cares for them them so much and I pray that my actions and words over the past 2 days will have shown them exactly that.

Please pray for the folks with LOL ministry as they continue to work on this well project over the next 2-3 weeks. Time is of the essence as it has to be done before the rain starts otherwise the drill will not be able to get to the village.

I will post a lot more pics of the trip on the slide-show at the top of the blog.