#135 our story
It was a quiet Sunday with a light rain early followed by a heavy rain later but the children had plenty of play time.
The law in Guatemala is that if a child fails a subject they are allowed a make-up test so tomorrow that will happen. This is the first year in memory that no 8thgraders nor seniors failed. Billy and Flor do a great job with the school.
Back in the 1990s the army and police had checkpoints everywhere. Honestly driving either in the city or on the main highways you were certain to be stopped. An Indian mother from Poaquil brought a cleft lip baby to us that weighed 3 pounds. We took her immediately to Dr. Dumas. He told us to get her to a hospital.
We brought her to a nearby hospital and they immediately told us that the baby’s kidneys were shut down. She died within the hour. When I asked for a phone to called the coroner the hospital personnel said, “No”. They demanded we leave with the baby.
The only thing that we could do was to wrap the baby and have Dottie pretend to breast feed her. On the 50 mile trip to Poaquil we were stopped twice by soldiers. They looked at my ID and the paperwork on the car. But both times they just looked at Dottie and smiled. They did not ask to see the child because they thought she was breastfeeding.
We drove to where the mother lived and within 30 minutes there were dozens of Indians there. This would be our first experience of this sort with Mayans. They asked us to stay and there was an all night wake for the baby. In the morning they asked if I would say some words at the funeral.
When we returned home we were informed that Dottie’s niece has been diagnosed with ALS. She was the mother of 3 sons.