Nora and I will be blogging today. This is the first mission trip for both of us. At first Guatemala was hard to take in as it is a third world country and people are so poor, but it gets easier every day. We think that the biggest difference in Guatemala is the attitude of the people compared to Americans. In Guatemala, you walk down the street and everyone says hello, even people you do not know. Another change from America to Guatemala is stray animals. There are hundreds of dogs in San Lucas. Some are owned, most are not. In Guatemala, people take their time and have no kind of agenda. At home, you must be on time for almost everything. But here it is more of a general time. The Guatemalan people tend to have a smaller body structure and their diets consist of a higher sugar ratio. All their clothing is either traditional or western, compared to the United States where everyone has different trends. One big thing we NEED to remember is to not drink the tap water. We can not drink it because of the ameobas. The food is mostly beans and bread. There are two main languages here. The first is Spanish and the other is Catchatal. There are also other dialects of Mayan language. The climate here is wonderful. We are almost at the beginning of the rainy season, where it rains almost every day. Overall, we are having a great time. Nora is a little sick, but hopefully she will feel better soon.
-Elizabeth Peller and Nora Coughlan What a wonderful group we have! I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know everyone and their talents they bring to the team.
Yesterday was a day off on the lake. We visited San Antonio de Polopo and Santiago. We visited the church that Father Stan Rother was martyred in during the war. Today is our 2nd to last day of clinic. I am not sure whre we are going but that never seems to be a problem. We have had good clinics with a moderate amount of patients. I have noticed over time that there are fewer patients coming in with wheezing. I have to believe that is as a result of stoves in more of the homes. Good work San Lucas Mission! Other than the stoves there has been a lot of changes within the mission. Katie Wallyn and her father are going to be great assets for the mission in particular for the medical portion of it for us. The vision they hve for the people is amazing. As we spoke with them you could see the love and concern Katie and her father Christopher have for the people of Guatemala. As always, I am loving my time here. I think we have melded with our new members. Everyone on our team incĺuding our teenaagers have enjoyed getting to know our Guatemalan friends young and old. -Cathy Yesterday our team served in Porvenir. It is a village we have served in many times and is the hometown of Jesus Antonio, the health promoter we worked with that day. A highlight for our team was that Katie Wallyn, the Volunteer Coordinator for Friends of San Lucas joined us as an interpreter. We got a late start and only worked until mid-afternoon, but did serve 33 patients. It brings our total of patients served to 165.
Dave and I volunteered to help paint at the farm the mission runs on the edge of town. We were given some green paint, brushes and rollers and a ladder. After about 4 hours we were able to finish our assignment of painting one wall and touching up the trim and high places on 3 other walls. Chona fixed us a great lunch back at the mission. Dave and I took a tuk-tuk (a Guatemalan style taxi - like a 3 wheeler) to see Father Greg's place of burial. We visited a market with beautiful fruits, vegetables and everything under the sun. We were deeply moved to come across a funeral procession. It was something I have never seen. First, a young person carried a large framed photo of the person who passed. He looked to be in his thirties. Next the street filled with mourners in their very best clothes. The colors were dazzling. There were about 80 people and they walked shoulder to shoulder. The casket was one of prettiest we had ever seen. Men carried it at head level. It was wooden and had ornate carvings. Beside it walked what we presumed was his young widow, her children and his mother. Their sobs punctuated the air and their grief penetrated all hearts. We did not take pictures. It would not have been appropriate. But this memory will be etched in our hearts. In the evening after a delicious supper at the parish center, Rich, Cathy, Katie and I Skyped with Katie's dad who is with The Friends of San Lucas. We learned of new plans, new organization, continued efforts to carry on the 14 projects of the mission and much more. We very much appreciated the opportunity to collaborate and dream together about walking side by side in helping to serve the beautiful people of San Lucas. Several of us played cards later and the team all had a good day. Cathy and I believe this is a great team. Each and everyone is delightful, caring and works and plays well together. We are very grateful! This morning many of us went to Mass. After a fine breakfast of pancakes and eggs we took a boat ride to the villages of San Antonio and Santiago. It was a relaxing day with a lot of bargaining, bartering, buying, walking and laughter. I hear that we will play Pfiefer again tonight. In the morning we will go to another clinic. Thanks for all of your support! - Helen and the team PS - We will try to post more clinic pictures soon. Since I have been sidetracked in the construction type of work the past couple of days I don't have any to post. We are trying to get some from other team members but it takes forever to load them with slower internet speeds. Eventually we will be able to share them. Just a quick note about how Elizabeth and I served today. Because our team is unusually large and we are a bit overstaffed in the pharmacy I asked Katie who is the volunteer coordinator for the mission projects if there was a place where they could use a couple of extra workers. She said they are in the process of adding on to the Clinic/Hospital and really would appreciate more help in that area since they are trying to get the majority of work done before the rainy season. Elizabeth and I
agreed to do our duty on this work project. We helped twist pieces of wire which were about 20 inches long and bent in half. By grasping the one end with a wire cutters and the other with our bare hands we gave it about twenty twists until it was totally twisted. We clipped the ends and then made sure the end where it had been bent was flattened. It was heavy wire and our hands became pretty tired all the way up to our shoulders. We could produce one completed piece in about one minute of solid effort. We did this for about 2 and a half hours. Next we helped attach re-bar pieces together. There were 7 pieces going each way in a grid. We learned a criss-cross method and finally once again twisted about 20 times as we tightened it. This re-bar is being put into one of several holes which will be poured with cement. After our efforts we look forward to seeing the completed project when we return. There are men with wheel barrows, shovels, hoes, sledge hammers and so forth working away. Although our efforts might have felt a little labor intense and slow. we got a very good lesson in the dignity of the way much work is done in Guatemala - one step at a time. We also enjoyed working with some very nice folks from Cornell. All in all, we missed being part of the team and our role in the medical mission aspect of MDP but we do feel it is important to make sure all team members help serve the mission to the best of our potential according to their needs. Oh, and one more thing... Elizabeth is a very hard worker. She does not complain, is smart and so very capable and good! It was a pleasure to work along side of her today! - Helen |
Team Members
Catherine Davis, M.D., Team Co-leader and Medical Provider Archives
May 2014
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