Day 7
Sunday, our day off! No, not for all. Healing doesn't stop when the children come out of surgery, healing continues 24/7. So Dr. Ron Gemberling, Dr. Don LaRossa, Dr. Al Goldberg, Dr. David Rosenberg, Dr. Julie Herndron and one of our beautiful interpreters, Bella Mahoney are up before 6:30am and on their way to the hospital to do patient rounds. So here you will see the doctors taking vital signs, removing sutures, giving the parents instructions for the child's care and building confidence in the children and parents.
The Sunday hospital rounds team is now back and some of us are off to visit a Mayan Archeological site. This site is most interesting because it is in the early stages of excavation and new discoveries. Here we see the beginnings of where the archaeological teams have unearthed some Mayan stone carvings from 3,000 years ago. You will also see the beginnings of the unearthing of stone pyramids, some of which provide boundaries and seating for spectators watching some kind of ball game, and other pyramids, which stand alone, are religious sites. We actually saw a couple of Mayan families burning ceremonial fires nearby and we were asked not to take pictures. During the burning of these fires, the head of the family asks for something from the gods.
While on this Archaeological walk I noticed that one of the doctors had something written in Spanish on the back of his shirt. See the picture of the shirt below.
Translation: "No, this is not a SCALPEL, it is a MAGIC wand".
We all believe it is a magic wand, we see it every day. The magic that's achieved on every child that comes here to be healed is truly a miracle. Just ask one of the children's parents- you see it in their eyes and you hear them praising God and the doctors. Their fear of the unknown is overcome by their joy in seeing how beautiful their child is.