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Day 1 of clinics led us to Quebradas, a small village in the hills. We saw 152 patients with a variety of conditions. Many friendships were made with these wonderful people. We saw lots of skin infections that our NP Helen assessed and treated including a 2-year-old who had a wound on his back since birth. After a long day of Outreach Team has arrived in Guatemala. The consists of 7 nurses, 2 PSWs, 1 NP and 2 support staff. We started the day by organizing the many generous donations we have received to give to the villagers. Our pharmacy is also stocked and ready to go. The team then decided to face their fears and go for a hike in the jungle which led us to a lookout tower with beautiful views. We then crossed 2 suspension bridges to get back. This team bonded very quickly to make sure everyone made it through together. Tomorrow will be off to the clinics. Hasta mañana! Saturday March 2, 2024 Final Day of Clinics For our final day of clinics, we went to San Fernando. Marian got to hold baby Nancy who we have been supporting since we found her at 2 months old very malnourished. She is finally starting to eat with a spoon which was great to see. We sent Rosalie to do a few home visits where she helped a woman who had broken her elbow do physio exercises. She also met a fairly young lady who is sadly dying, likely from cancer but she has no diagnosis. Our interpreters did a great job of teaching how to use the washable period pads which were a big hit. It was a great week with many friendships and memories made while helping over 900 people. Friday March 1, 2024 Day 4 of the Clinics Day 4 the team went deep in the jungle to Tameja which is a K'chie village. We gave an elderly lady a walker and taught her how to use it. We all laughed when she got a big smile on her face and took off like a shot. She was clearly enjoying her newfound freedom.
We had a few tears as one of our nurses assessed a young lady who is blind. She suffers from anxiety and is not well supported. We treated her medical conditions, gave her some food as she had not eaten today and then made some contacts with local connections to support her ongoing. We fitted a young 17-year-old boy with a wheelchair as he had fallen out of a tree at 13 years of age and was paralyzed. Our hearts went out to this family as they also had a daughter who could not walk since birth. It is a tough life in the rural villages of Guatemala where support and healthcare are minimal. It makes the 2.5 hour drive out all worth it.  Thursday February 29, 2024 Day 3 of Clinics Day 3 of clinics took us to Nueva Esperanza Tunico which is a traditional k'chi village. Lots of smiles and kids along with rashes and coughs. Thursday February 29, 2024 Day 2 of the Clinic Day 2 of clinics took us high in hills to Santa Elana. We saw close to 200 people and they even let school out early so the kids could go to the clinic. This village had many indigenous families so we had to borrow some local men to translate from K'chi to Spanish and then our.team interpreters took over to English. We saw many beautiful traditional skirts and babies in bags that the mom carries. It was a very friendly village. Tuesday February 27, 2024 Day 1 of the Clinic Day 1 of the clinics and we saw so many wonderful children and families. We gave a wheelchair to a young boy named Danny whose mom carries him everywhere. He will need to grow into it but mom was thrilled. We saw many rotten teeth in very young children which was sad, so we handed out toothbrushes and health teaching. The team learned much on day one so it will be a great week. Sunday February 25, 2024 Traveling to Guatemala Yesterday the CNS team journeyed through 4 countries to arrive in Guatemala for a week-long medical outreach trip. They brought walkers and wheelchairs and crutches through the airport to donate. It was a long day of travel but spirits remained high. After a good night's sleep everyone pitched in to help bag the remaining meds and organize supplies. We then relaxed on the beach at Isla Caiman where some of us swam while Marian and Natalie bravely jumped off of the homemade diving board. It was nice to relax before we start the clinics tomorrow. Monday November 27, 2023 As we rounded out our final clinic day, some of the team members declared this their favorite. This time, our trek took us almost 3 hours up the mountain top - our bodies a bit achy, a lot of “ducking” from tropical branches and leaves as we diverted our heads and arms for cover; streams, creeks, rivers to be crossed; cows and turkeys to be “shooed away” from our path, and sprinklings of waving young and old villagers as we road by. In this village, we served close to 200 people today, making our grand total of people served approximately 1000! Lori, our “Jefa”, has suggested that this may be a record-setting trip with the most people served AND the most terrain covered! I think we all feel proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish this week and grateful to have done it together. A few additional reflections for the week: Healthy communities are a collective effort - While the villages we served are so vastly different than most of our everyday lives in Canada, there are also so many things that are fundamental and similar - parents trying to do the best for their families; children who are fueled with curiosity, energy and a thirst for life; a need to be connected with others even when language is an apparent barrier, and opportunities to thrive as humans.  There is a famous quote by Diane Ackerman (American poet and essayist) that reads, “I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I have just lived the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well."
This week, I believe that all of us lived both length and width, and I will be forever grateful to have had an opportunity to be part of this extraordinary team and experience. One crossed off the bucket list! Friday November 24, 2023  Today may have been my favorite day of the week. Thankfully, the rain subsided, and we were back to sunny skies as we boarded a boat to get us to our destination. If we thought the other villages were remote, this one felt like a complete labyrinth. After an almost two-hour boat trip on the Rio Dulce and then another bumpy ride to the village snuggled in the jungle, we set up our clinic with accumulating proficiency and confidence. It was a new perspective today - as we boated along the coastline and marveled at the beautiful mountains, the thought that we had been at the top of one of them the day before in the midst of a community that was utterly invisible from our new viewpoint gave us a moment of pause. A few other observations today in this village. When we arrived, there were only a few men waiting for us, along with a scattering of curious children. In these Indigenous communities, it is a patriarchal familial hierarchy, and so the first registrants are always men. They go through the clinic process, meeting with the nurse, physician, and pharmacy, and once approved (apparently there have been organizations that do similar work but ask for money for medication - money that people simply don’t have), then they invite women and their children to participate. Today, one of the community leaders, once he completed his “session”, called the village by using a conch shell that resonated through the trees! It was marvelous! Again, this was the first time coming to this community, and we served just over 200 people today. The villagers were extraordinarily grateful to the team including letting us use outdoor bathrooms that were located on personal property (the clinic space did not have any available), offered us freshly chopped coconuts with coconut water, and even invited the team to enjoy a meal. Our night ended with celebrating two of our team members’ birthdays - Tracey, our PSW who is one of our “veterans” and Monika, one of our translators who is originally from Switzerland but now resides in Guatemala.  |
