An interesting phone call...

I was working Welcome Desk on Friday, and in the afternoon, an interesting call came in...
"Hello, this is Dr <someone>, we have a patient in the hospital who is from Guatemala and we're trying to find someone who can speak their language. The patient does not understand any of the translators that we have. Someone told me that you might have someone who could speak their language."
Patti: "Ok.... I can do a search on our database and see if we have anyone who has indicated that they can translate for that language... what language is it?"
Dr: "It is strange, they wrote it down for me, it has two ways of spelling, one looks just like the food, quiche, and the other is spelled q'eqchi."
Patti: types in each of those spellings, no returns from the database of people on campus. "Hmm... I don't find anyone here on campus. Give me your name and phone number and let me see what I can find..."
Dr: gives me her name and number
Patti: "Does the person need to be in the DFW area? Which hospital are you with?"
Dr: "Actually, I'm in Michigan... it is just that my brother knows a missionary" [or maybe "is a missionary", I didn't pay close attention] "and said that you may be able to help."
Patti: "Ok, I'll see what I can do..."

So, I went in to the Center Director's office next to the Welcome Desk and explained what I needed. Immediately a couple of folks were mentioned who had been in Guatemala, so I went back to the Welcome Desk to try calling them. Mike walked up and looked at the name of the language that I had written down (quiche) and said, "Oh yes, key-shay."
"Oh, you know it?"
"No, I just know how to pronounce the name of the language!"
(Well, that's better than me saying "quiche" like the food name!)

Meanwhile, Doug, the new Associate Center Director, called friends of his who had served in Guatemala. They weren't home, but we left them a message and sent them an email.
I called folks in the DFW area who had been in Guatemala, and they recommended two couples - one of the couples were the folks that Doug had already called.
The other couple they mentioned, we didn't have in our database, but, I did a google search and found one of their prayer letters online associated with a church in Arkansas. I called the church, no answer (Friday afternoon, you know). There was an email address in the prayer letter for the couple who had been (maybe even now are) in Guatemala, so I sent them an email with the doctor's contact information and what was needed.

Result: I don't know -- I left it in God's hands to get the right people involved, but, it was so cool how everyone was working together to figure out who might be able to help, and each person had someone else that they knew who might be able to help... I pray that someone was able to get in touch with the doctor in Michigan and help the patient communicate.

Some online resources:
http://www.native-languages.org/quiche.htm
https://www.freelang.net/dictionary/kiche.php
I'm guessing that the doctor had already tried some of these online resources... I didn't try looking them up until this evening so I didn't suggest them to her.

Friday afternoons on the Welcome Desk are often a bit boring... so this livened up my day!