Guatamala Day 1: A long day of travel, but worth it

We arrived in Guatemala City in shifts. When I say "we", I mean myself and 30 other people from across the US who had volunteered to work on a weeklong surgical mission in Guatemala.

I know it sounds crazy that I'm using my vacation to work in a third world country, but this was something I've always wanted to do, and finally the dream was coming true -  I was going down as the surgical team's historian.

Some of the team had come the day before, but many of us left on Friday night via the red eye and met at the airport on Saturday afternoon. After traveling so many hours and landing in new country, it was nice to see all green Faith in Practice t-shirts. Suddenly, I knew wasn't not alone.

But my day of traveling wasn’t over yet. My team still had to take the bus from Guatemala City to the hospital outside of Retalhulea. This would my glimpse of the country I’d be living in for the next seven days.

During the four hour ride, the group got to know each other. Nervous and not sure what to expect, there were a number of us who were first timers to Faith in Practice.

I was glad to hear this as I was worried I would be the only out of their comfort zone.  If you've ever met me, then you know that unless I'm working out or cycling, I'm not exactly the casual-go-without-makeup type. I'm a true city-girl.

But at least I wasn't the only one new.

“I’ve wanted to do this for five years, but there never seemed to be a good time to go,” said Karla, a RN from Portland. “Finally, I just decided to do it.”
Each of the new people had their own reason for joining Faith in Practice, and each had found out about it different ways.

“My physician had gone on the trip and told me about it,” said Susana from Northern California. “I’m a retired social worker and I wondered if there something I could do on the trip.”

There certainly was something that Susana could do. Being fluent in Spanish, she’s one our team’s translation people. She assisted the doctors as they triage patients.

While Susane and Karla were a few of the new people, others were Faith in Practice veterans, such as Maggie. She has been on 14 or 15 trips and this was her third time with a surgical team.

“The last time I was at this location was for a clinic trip. We had people lined up out the door and down the hill,” Maggie said.

OUR FIRST VIEW OF THE HOSPITAL

My team arrived in Retalhulea around 8 p.m. Even though I was hot and tired from traveling, I was still excited to see the hospital I would be working in.

The hospital was old and not at all like the hospitals in North America. It was going to take a little fixing up before we would be able to take in patients. The hospital contained 70 beds for the patients and one of our first jobs in the morning would be to transform the rooms into pre-op and post-op rooms in preparation for the upcoming week.
“We are all very happy you will be working with us this week at the hospital,” said Sergio Lopez, he hospital administrator.

The whole staff was happy to see us and it showed in their faces. Hugs were exchanged with those whose faces they recognized, while the rest of us were greeted with warm smiles.

“Welcome all the new ones and a double welcome to those who have come back,” said Dr. Cesar Joaquin Barrios, Director of the hospital.

In addition to the hospital building was also an area where people could stay if they had come from far away and needed a place to stay before and after their surgery.

“We have room for 30 to 40 people,” Lopez said. “And they can have with them one family member.”

The operating rooms were recently remodeled with the help of Faith in Practice. But the pride of the hospital had to be the brand new dental clinic which was also set up with the help of Faith in Practice.

It contained two dental chairs and could be used to do both evaluations and restorative dentistry. It is also air conditioned which was going to come in handy – they expected 100 patients on Sunday from a nearby school.

I looked around and knew we had a lot of work set out for us in the next week. But the team was ready to take on anything. And how could we not be?

The people were so gracious and so glad that we had come. Their smiles were enough to make the miles between us disappear.

“Welcome. You are the like the light for our people,” said the hospital’s supervisor. See? How could you not want to help?