The Best And Worst of Times

I am now in Guatemala City...after a long and tumultuous day of travel yesterday....

I left Kansas City extremely early and extremely frustrated, after not hearing from my dermatology doctor about the pathology results of my three questionable moles. Upon arriving in Houston for a brief layover, I called my doctor and left a somewhat exasperated message for her...I told her that the uncertainty of not knowing the lab results for 10 days was FAR worse than any kind of results she had for me, and she was to please call me asap and not wait upon my return to the States.

The flight from Houston to Guatemala City was a roller coaster...it was extremely bumpy, but I managed my anxiety and fear rather well. It helped that I was sitting next to a Canadian lady who does mission work in Guatemala City, working with children who suffer from malnutrition. We enjoyed talking about mission work, and she was delighted to hear about our mission and the feeding we would be doing.

After a delicious lunch of peanuts, or rather steak, mashed potatoes and cheesecake, we settled back and enjoyed the ride. Right. Up. Down. Sideways. Rock and roll.

Anywho, I arrived in Guatemala City, breezed through Immigration, and then went to Baggage Claim to retrieve my luggage. It was there that I was able to see that my doctor had called me and left a message.

And the message was not good.

It appears that two of the three moles are bad...bad enough that my doctor was reluctant to leave the message and only did so at my request...and bad enough that I must schedule surgery upon my return to do further excision upon them both. Oh, joy.

Wow. Arriving in the land of my dreams, where I am always the most happiest...to be hit with a message like that. But I asked for it, right?

I gathered up my suitcase, wiped away a brief tear, and then breezed through Customs to meet my friends, Ely and her son, Jose.

We went to a grocery store where I was hankering for chips and salsa...chips were easy to find, but no such luck on the salsa. We could not find it, and nor could the grocery clerks. How funny to not find salsa in Guatemala! After an intense search in the storage room, the clerk came running out, triumphant, with salsa! Success!

A long ride home...short mileage, but lots of traffic...hence, the photo above, to relax and catch up and laugh at each other and our pathetic attempts at our language barrier...her English is much better than my espanol....

First impressions upon my 8th visit back to Guatemala...rain, lots of mosquitos who have found a new target, and chilly weather...and much more American influence. We passed lots of new Taco Bells in the city, and one Chucky Cheese. Oh, the humanity.

Adios until tomorrow....!

Paz.