New blog!

Hi folks,

We will no longer be posting updates to this blog. Click on the link below and bookmark it if you want to check up on our adventures.

Oh, and we are safely in Guatemala -- Jimmy, my dad, and I made it with all of our bags and are settled into our apartment. It was a lo-o-o-ong, but totally uneventful, trip.

Jimmy is posting pictures on the new blog as I write this, so hop over and check them out:

www.jimmyandkelsey.wordpress.com

Grand Teton Backpacking Trip

From the West Coast...

We've made it all the way to Oregon on our cross-country trip. We left Philadelphia on June 30, and made stops in Bethany Beach, Delaware (kayaking and playing Settlers with Erica, Kevin, and Suzanne); Ann Arbor, Michigan (Fourth of July fireworks and gyros with Caleb); Chicago (a fabulous immigration art exhibit and Ironman with Megan); Badlands, South Dakota; Yellowstone; a three-day, 25-mile backpacking trip in the Grand Tetons (moose, marmots, and super-sore muscles); and dinner at the finest steakhouse in Pocatello, Idaho (the Sizzler!).

We finally met up with Jimmy's parents (and many members of his extended family, including our niece and nephew, Lily and Aiden), in Baker City, Oregon. We also spent some time at Grandma Carol's farm in Enterprise, before heading back to Portland and Eugene.

We leave in just a week and a half (!) for Guatemala, and before that we have Kelsey's family's annual Sun River extravaganza and some more time in Portland, complete with interviews for next summer. Our next update will probably be from way south of the border.

A year from now/a year ago

I already feel like we are hurtling toward our August 1 departure date, but today, in particular, I am feeling how quickly time flies by. A year ago, Jimmy and I were wrapping up snapping wedding photos on the beach, and getting ready to exchange vows in just an hour and a half. In some ways, the trip to Puerto Morelos feels like a lifetime ago...in others, it feels like yesterday.

And I'm sure, a year from now, that's how our first few days in Xela will feel. At that point, we'll have spent the full ten months in Guatemala. We'll be familiar with the clinic that we have committed ourselves to on faith; we'll have established relationships with people whose names we don't even know yet. And I'm quite sure the experience will have been, in many ways, unlike anything we could have anticipated. It is always so strange to be in that period right before something happens that you have been anticipating for a long time. It feels like something that ought to be savored, because at no other point will you still have all that newness and unknown-ness fully ahead of you.

The real countdown is on. Kelsey's last day at work was Friday; Jimmy takes Step 2 (CK) on Saturday. We pack up and head out for our cross-country trip a week from tomorrow. And before we know it, we'll be rolling up into the Xela bus station after an overnight flight, ready for the new adventure.

I can't wait!

Looking Forward To...

Visiting Semuc Champey, a natural limestone bridge with a series of natural swimming holes fed by the waters of the Rio Cahabon.

Sooooo much more compelling right now than studying for a Federal Courts exam.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of...

One of the things we may be doing during the year is scouting out some potential sites for clinics based on the Primeros Pasos model. Once we have spent some time working at the clinic, this will involve traveling to a possible site and doing a general health needs assessment for the population. We would then try to determine which aspects of Primeros Pasos in Palajunoj would be a good fit for the new area. We have been asked to investigate Cancuen, which also happens to be the site of a major archaeological excavation -- they have uncovered one of the largest (if not the largest) palaces in the Mayan world.

In addition to exploring the possibilities for establishing a clinic, therefore, we fully expect to encounter opportunistic Nazis hunting for biblical relics and run for cover from a giant rolling rock.

We Have Plane Tickets!

Our plans for the summer are starting to shape up. After a cross-country road trip (with backpacking stops in the badlands of South Dakota and in Yellowstone), we'll spend most of July with our families in Oregon. Then we head to Guatemala at 12:30am on August 1. We'll be there until December 18, when we return to Oregon for the holidays and Keeley and Jason's December 27 wedding. Then it's back to Guatemala, most likely in early January. So start planning your visit! We'll post a calendar soon to help with scheduling...