Posted on August 5, 2008 - by Frank

Jerald and Tina Hernandez - Dental Work in Guatemala

About the authors: Jerald and Tina work with YWAM (Youth With a Mission) and live about 3 hours away from Guatemala City. Jerald is from Nicaragua and Tina is from New Zealand. Their work focuses on healthcare and community development.

———————————-

Last week we were joined by Bill and Peggy Pratt, Luke their grandson and a family friend, Kelsey, all from Washington along with Jacobo and Janet Pineda from here in Guatemala.

Bill is a dentist and Jacobo is a medical doctor, so we spent 8 days running clinics in three separate communities. We spent 4 days in Chicholom where we visit weekly already to have medical clinics or visit houses and pray. Plans are now in progress to start a dental monitoring program there with some of the children.

Chacalte is a neighbouring community where we had never visited but often patients come from there to our clinics in Chicholom, we spent 1 and 1/2 days here before travelling back to San Miguel Chicaj (our home town) and finishing off with one day in Javalliel/Bramadero, a community were YWAM San Miguel hopes to work in the future as well.

We had so much fun as Janet and Jacobo can hardly say a sentence without making a joke and Jerald was kept busy harassing and being harassed by Luke and Kelsey (both 15).

It was nice to meet Bill and Peggy who travel extensively and use a lot of their time to run dental clinics here in Guatemala as well as in Mongolia and Ecuador among other countries. A highlight of the week was seeing Bill piggyback Peggy (both 71) over the stream which had risen in just two days and covered the stepping stones we usually use. Unfortunately I did not get a photo and the following day we found a new way across.

It is sad that it is the last time we will visit Chicholom - the first time I stayed here for 2 weeks running a health clinic at the beginning of 2005. It was so cold you could see your breath even in the middle of the day. But the past week was the perfect way to finish our time here in San Miguel Chicaj.

This Sunday we will be all packed up and heading out for some time in Nicaragua.

For a previous article from Tina, click here.