Now it's July already!

Just a quick update -
I was gone all of May and part of June. Foprtunately we had Carolin, a wonderful german intern midwife whop magaed my waterbirth center in Guate City together with my daughter Elena - two transports , one birth, that's how it happens sometimes... and Carolin did a lot of care in Manos Abiertas 1 in Ciudad VIeja as well.
Ciudad Vieja was hit hard by hurricane Agatha, but both the clinic and my house are still standing. For a week Sandra, Caro, Norma and Evy helped shovel mud in San Miguel Escobar, where there are styill about 50 families without a home. Then the clinic started collecting clothes and basic food for the victims of the desaster. And the whole time Sandra and Norma did a lot of trauma counseling during the appointments.

Now things are slowly getting back to normal - it is still raining a lot and there are more hurricanes to come though.

Caro has finished her internship and is travelling and Clara has arrived - a sweet young californian intern, it's her first tiome in a third world country and she just started her spanish classes... it must be a lot at once for her!

At least the first birth she was at was not complicated - actually, we all almost missed it ... It was Claudias third baby and she went very fast after a long latent phase, no time to fill the tub even!
Clara got to take a few picturews and the baby was out...


The new clinic in zone 11 is becoming "ours" more and more. Gabi opened the doors three weeks ago and we are having clientele already almost every day, several ultrasounds a week and a few procedures as well.
Ciudad Vieja is humming as it was before the hurricane, though we still do not have as many births as we would like ... we are thinking of a little educational video about good birth practices... anybody out there who would like to fund this? ; )

The next project to put into practice will be the implementation of the VIA/cryo system for cervical cancer prevention. In a first jornada I will start training Gabi and Sandra and we will educate people about the advantages of getting treatment the same day they come for their test.

Internally, we are still struggling with our sudden growth - especially since administration seems to grow potentially in comparison to the linear growth of the clinics. I particularly am having a hard timeto keep track of everything I need to do in my new position as deçirector rather than care provider, and I believe the other team members suffer from similar difficulties.

This Saturday there will be a meeting of the board and hopefully we will be able to delegate some of our tasks to some sympathetic board member with the right qualifications!
Sopon I'll post a picture of the location of Manos Abiertas 2!