July 31, Saturday

Just a quick note to say that I accedentally deleted my first post when I pasted a picture over the words (Thanks Mom and Dad!)

I have reposted my day 1 entry.

Warren

Friday, July 30

Warren here, it is Friday morning now and we are wrapping up the week. Since I blogged last Monday, everyday has been more interesting and rewarding than the last.

On Wednesday we had moved most of the students in the school through the clinic already and we had opened up to the public. This proved to be the point where knowing Spanish would have really come in handy. With the students I could get by with knowing “come with me” “blue line” “right eye” and “left eye”. It was much tougher to actually discuss what the problem was so we could determine if they needed an optometrist or reading glasses. I got a break and was able to go over to the Guarderia where the pre-schoolers are to help Jack and James make playground repairs. The playground is relatively new, but 6 months of rainy season every year had rotted out some boards and railings.

Now the Guarderia is about two blocks from the dump. Standing on top of playground equipment you can see the surrounding housing leading up to the dump walls. There are no dump tours this week due to violent activity at the cemetery overlooking the dump. This is the best vantage point I will get this week. Buzzards wheel constantly through the air and dogs walk about all over the streets. Men are burning the plastic coating off of piles of copper wiring. People everywhere are sorting stuff into piles. Dump trucks rule the roads. And there is the smell. Inside our little oasis, we are sawing, drilling and varnishing in front of a happy little crowd of faces pressed against the windows of the lunch room. There are also kids watching us from just a couple of feet away – but on the other side of the Guarderia wall. These are strong images that will stay with me for a while.

The three of us go in with the Guarderia to buy some fresh wood chips for the play area. We fix up some drainage issues in the tunnel and under the tire swing. We fix broken railing and replace the floor of the play fort that had broken. Apparently, the playground had been off limits to the kids recently. There are just two Maintenance folks for all three of the Safe Passage buildings. They let us borrow tools and supplies and get us wood when we need it. This is some pretty productive work.

Shared Beat, as a group, are a pretty good bunch. My cousin Marie, sums it up pretty well for me – She doesn’t mind the work, but its gotta be fun. So at night, the fun comes out! A couple of times we have gone out and couple of times we have stayed in. Last night we went to the Sky Bar that had a great view of the city and volcano. The night before we self produced a talent show. I know, I know, I should post a few pictures. The most fun place to shop has been in a little gift store run by Safe Passage that features jewelry made by local artists out items they found at the dump.

I have had a great time talking to folks – There are 4 teenagers on this trip and several young health care professionals in training. Plus several of us who do not have a health care background but can help out regardless. When us seniors sit around and talk we are very impressed with the youths in the group for all their hard work and willingness to help and sacrifice their time during the summer. All of us are nice people to talk to and work with – a versatile and flexible mix! It would be nice to bring down a group of people who had skills in plumbing and wiring to help with maintenance projects around the buildings. I’m starting a little list for if/when my wife makes it down.

That’s it for now, Warren

July 28th, The Clinic is open to the community;

If you don’t mind I’d like to tell you a little about myself before I write this blog……..my name is Jason Trull and I currently live in a small town nestled in the piedmont region of North Carolina; I am seventeen years old and will be a senior in high school this coming school year. This is my first time blogging and, to be honest, I have absolutely no idea what to write about. I think that the main
objective is to elaborate on what happened today, so that’s what I will do. Also, please excuse my not-so-great writing skills; I’ve still got quite a lot to learn.

If you’ve had the chance to read the blogs previous to this then you know that the clinic has only been available to the students and a select few others; today marked the clinic’s opening to the entire community that surrounds the Guatemalan City Dump. Unluckily, the dump also welcomed us. The wind decided that it’d be a great idea to blow in our direction, carrying the (oh so sweet) aroma of the waste that belongs to the landfill.

Today my job was to check-in the people before they went upstairs to the clinic. I had to acquire each person’s name, date of birth, age, and their reason for being there. This proved to be quite a difficult challenge, due to the fact that my Spanish conversational skills are rather atrocious. After a while I actually began to get the hang of things, the words “huh?” “repita, por favor” and “otra vez” were used less and less frequently—I would also like to throw in the fact that we had a ton of patients today, way more than days past--. The great thing about doing check-in was that I was able to interact with the people; every single one of them was amazing. They are all so grateful for what little they do have and it motivates me to truly appreciate the things that I have and the life that I am able to live (even if I think that it’s not so great).

I encountered some very……..interesting experiences with the patients today, as well. For instance, when Luis—another Shared Beat volunteer—signaled a young woman to step up to the desk she didn’t come alone, she was carrying a passenger. Right then she pulled the top of her shirt down, revealed a breast, and commenced to breast feeding the baby. It’s not that I was disgusted by it or anything like that, it just really caught me by surprise. I had never witnessed this take place before, and it was like I was watching a video in health class. I’m sure that all of you—older folks—take no alarm by this, but you have to realize that this was a big deal to me. I also had a few children that didn’t even know when their own birthday was; this came as a huge shock to me because, in the States, a person’s birthday is a very big deal. It marks many milestones that I couldn’t imagine not celebrating, let alone not knowing what day to mark as my birth.

Today I also met a woman who I now admire so much. She’s a little woman who fried chicken for a living; one day the cart that she used to fry the chicken somehow managed to tip over and spill the boiling oil all over the surface of her body. She was sent to a burn center to recover and stayed there for a few months—if I’m not mistaken--. When I met her I didn’t notice any visual abnormalities until she drew my attention to her feet. Her feet, legs, and basically the rest of her body had scar tissue bulging about an inch about the skin. It looked incredibly painful and I admire her so much for remaining a joyful and beautiful woman, despite the obstacles that she has endured. It is people like her that make this trip even more amazing for the volunteers; to see her thriving with the aid provided by Shared Beat is extremely pleasing to me.

In closing, I’d like to share with you what went on tonight when we got back to the hotel. First I went with a group to buy ice cream, I bought galleta (cookie dough) and it was delicious. Following our ice cream excursion I went shopping in the market and bought some pretty awesome things; it’s really interesting because you have to bargain your way down to a reasonable price. Needless to say, bargaining was such an adrenaline rush! I can’t wait to do it again. We made it back from the market just in time for supper—pizza and salad!—and it tasted great, as usual. Dinner was followed by a ‘talent show’ which turned out to be a very fascinating time. Jenny started it off by saying the alphabet backwards, Mi Chel said supercalifragalisticexpialadocious backwards (I’m not even sure if I spelled it correctly just now), and there were a few other miscellaneous talents shared amongst the group.

I hope that I’ve provided you with a somewhat decent blog, I am having a blast here and I will most definitely be taking back an abundance of tremendous memories.

Adios from Antigua,
Jason Trull

27 de Julio de 2010

It’s 7:30pm and we have just filled our stomachs with chicken and salad at the Aurora Hotel. We are recalling today’s successful trip to a shelter in Zona 3 for Hurricane Agatha victims. Today’s group of 6 traveled to this small shelter down in the valley of Zone 3 near the Puente de Las Inscripciones. The bus dropped us off at the top a hill this morning, and we trekked down the little hillside which is only accessible by foot. A narrow cement walkway with a steep decline of 300 feet brought us to our destination. You could look over the edge towards the right where there was a ravine. We followed 3 local shelter volunteers through the neighborhood. One of them, Astrid, pointed out her house on the hill as we passed below. The structures that we passed were bare with the only indication of life inside being clothes of all sizes hanging outside to dry. The walkway is clearly only traveled by locals. We were welcomed with smiles and shouts of “Buenos dias” as we made our way down. After 15 minutes, we arrived to a cement church that consisted of a small common room with an altar in the back, no bigger than a convenience store. At one point, 14 families were sheltered here during the aftermath of the storm. The shelter volunteers had already arranged 3 curtained clinic stations with care. They had let the community know of today’s clinic in days prior. This morning a megaphone-like “horn” was used to remind everyone. The first clinic station was designed for history-taking, vital signs, and lab work. The second station received the adults in order to perform physical exams. The third station dealt entirely with the physical exams of children and adolescents. Once patients were seen at their respective stations, they were then sent to the make-shift pharmacy in the middle of the small room. The histories of present illness and treatment recommendations were documented on Shared Beat intake forms. Surprisingly, the line of patients moved efficiently with the help of the shelter workers and staff from Camino Seguro. The clinic flow was constant from the morning until we left in the afternoon. Around lunch time, we were about to take a short break for some PB&J’s when one of the shelter workers alerted us that they had already prepared a special lunch just for us. At first, the 6 of us were a little hesitant to try locally prepared food since sanitary conditions (such as purified water, clean hands, etc.) are often questionable in third world countries like Guatemala. Nonetheless, our meal of tripe and potato in tomato sauce with rice and tortillas was served piping hot and all of us felt honored to try it. After a short lunch and bathroom break, the waiting line had grown out the door and we jumped back into our stations with renewed energy. Patients of varying ages and conditions were seen throughout the day. Our youngest patient was one month old while our oldest was 102 years old. Without a scale or prior medical records, many weight and birthdate estimations were made. Upon leaving, around a hundred patients had been seen. It was difficult to turn people away, but time constraints wouldn’t allow us to stay any longer. People were grateful that we had come and allowed us to leave without much commotion. As the rain began to pour down, we quickly gathered any remaining medications and supplies and sloshed our way up the hillside back to the van in the afternoon downpour. Standing at the top of the hill, watching the rain gush down across the cement steps, we walked away with a sense of accomplishment for having helped this small community in their time of great need.

Sarah Scofield & Jared Winikor

Guatemala, July 2010, Day 2

Wow, the first amazing day is complete. One of our volunteers passed out a little flyer to help us start our journey. Jack didn’t say it was all his words but what it implies sums up what is in my heart to which I paraphrase:

Today begins our trip in Guatemala City and while many of us have been on this journey before, we know that this trip will be different that those other trips we have taken! Many experiences will be new; we will meet and serve new people. It is always a true adventure in faith! God has blessed you and will lead you to bless others during this time. You may be excited. You may feel nervous. You will get to watch the Lord unfold his plans right before your eyes! He brings us all together to laugh together, and maybe even cry together too. You will learn and you will teach.

The day began with Uncle Don grabbing my leg – man did I have a good nights sleep. John, a doctor, had mysteriously filled the third bed sometime in the night without me knowing it. Both Don and John claimed I was the snorer in the group. My earplugs seemed to have worked to perfection for the first night.

I decide the coffee is really good here.

The 45 minute ride is quick as I watch out the window. Love the landscape. As we approach the school it is not too different than any other part of the city. The only reminder of the nearby dump is the constant thump of dump trucks passing by the front of the school.

As it turns out, the clinic is run kind of the way I thought it might. There are several teams that function to check the kids in from the school, check height and weight, vision test, physicals, lab and pharmaceutical distribution. Several people branch out from the clinic to help in a local nursery and a camp set up to help recent volcano victims.

I am part of the vision team. Fortunately, I am working with two vision professionals and I get to make small talk, in very limited Spanish, with elementary age kids and point to rows of letters. For me, the day is slower than I expected – there are actually times I get to look out at the street life from my second story school window - I am told the real fun will be later in the week anyway.

I am pretty amazed at the story, means and ways that people work to help other people from around the world. We are but a part of an international team that is helping this school in Guatemala thrive. I am reminded in a video that the school would be nothing without the sounds of children’s laughter in the hallways. I look forward to the rest of the week.

Warren

July 25th, Travel and first day in Guatemala.

This is my first time traveling to Guatemala or serving on a mission. There seem to about 15 of us, though our numbers keep growing. We are gathered from several states across the middle and eastern seaboard of the U.S. and travel today seemed to go smoothly for all of us. I really don’t know what to expect but my wife asked me this morning on the way to the airport what I was looking forward to the most. Well, this is pretty much about reaching outside of your comfort zone and helping people. I’m also looking forward to being with good people who are doing good things. In addition to meeting new people, I will very much enjoy the time on the trip with my Uncle Don and Cousin Marie.

Many of us meet up in the Austin airport to fly to Guatemala together. My first impression of flying over Guatemala is what a beautiful country! It is very green and hilly with deep cut valleys. We are through customs quickly and on way over the mountainous terrain in a van.

We arrive in Antigua around 2:00, check into the Hotel Aurora and head out to lunch. Antigua is very much alive on this Sunday afternoon and full of tourists like me heading out to shop. I tag along with Diane and Vianca for a walk through the Market. We do a little shopping and haggling for ourselves, friends and family.

Back to the hotel to catch up with the team and eat dinner. After dinner we sort medications and Jenny briefs us on the next days activities. As a surprise mixer, we are asked to elect teams and representatives to dress up as cheerleaders for a sort of school pep rally the next day – a nice little icebreaker!

Uncle Don asked me if this is what I expected it would be – What, I say to him, is it supposed to be this much fun?

Well, the real work starts tomorrow. It’s off to see if Uncle Don really snores as loud as he says he does.

More after a real day of work.

Warren

Tomorrow Is Only A Day Away!

We hope all of you are excited and ready to go to Guatemala tomorrow. It is going to be a busy and fun filled week at Safe Passage. The kids, and the staff, are looking forward to us coming and are always so appreciative to have our group serve them. Give the kids (and the 4ft. tall grandmas) lots of hugs. They love it!!

Here are a few reminders before you leave tomorrow.

Passports: Have them ready at the airport. You still have time to make a few copies to put in your luggage. No one has ever had theirs lost or stolen before, but it is best to be prepared. Do not let your dog chew it up - Vianca.

ATM Cards & Cash: The easiest way to get currency is at the ATM. There are two ATMs on the city square in Antigua. There are also two banks on the city square where you can exchange currency. However, the lines can be quite long and you must take your passport with you. Most stores take debit/credit cards too. However, you will need cash if you shop in the market and you will also need cash to purchase your lunch at the comidor by Safe Passage.

Sweaters & Jackets: The forecast next week is for highs in the low 70s and lows near 60. Pack a jacket or sweater with you to Safe Passage - it can feel a little chilly.

Water Bottles: Either bring your own (empty) from home, purchase one at the airport, or purchase one in Antigua. You will need it all week. There are water jugs at Safe Passage where you can refill your bottle. There is also a small store across the street where you can purchase bottled water. Please remember to use your bottled water to rinse off your toothbrush!!!!!

Tap Water: Do not drink the tap water or rinse your toothbrush in the tap water. Use bottled water to rinse your toothbrush.

Toilet Paper: If this is your first trip to Central America, you are in for a treat. Do Not Flush the toilet paper - their plumbing system cannot handle it. All toilet paper must be placed in provided trash cans - remember this because you do not want to go "fishing".

Pillows: Have you packed yours Calla?

Cameras: Antigua is a photographers dream. At Safe Passage, however, we are asked to not take any photos outside of the building - that includes being in the bus. Inside the school, it is best to ask the children or adults if you may take their photo. After the trip, we would love it if you would share your photos with Shared Beat!

Safety: At Safe Passage we are only allowed to leave the building to go to lunch next door. Do not leave the building at any other time - doing so puts yourself, Safe Passage and Shared Beat at risk. In Antigua, stick together in one big group at night. Do not go out by yourself at night. During the daytime, be aware of your surroundings and who is surrounding you.

We want to thank all of you for making this trip possible. Have a wonderful week of service and remember to hug the kids!

Dos Besos!
Torri

PS: Please, Please, Please be at the airport on time in the morning.

Welcome!

In 2004, Jenny Hartsell RN, the founder of Shared Beat, asked Marie Berkenkamp MD, Mary Jackson, and me (Torri Wilson) to go to Spanish language school with her in Antigua, Guatemala. We all had been to Guatemala together before on a medical mission trip, but this trip was for fun. We spent our days listening to Jenny's Spanish teacher say "Jenny, Jenny, Jenny" after shaking his head in frustration. In the evenings we wandered the town, ate bruschetta at El Sabor and stopped by the Mono Loco where we tried to get Mary's professor to teach us Spanish slang.

At the end of the week, Jenny proposed that we visit a school in Guatemala City that she had read about. It was a school created by one woman, Hanley Denning, who gave up everything to help kids who have nothing. The school was Safe Passage, located next to the city dump in the poorest and most dangerous area of town. We would have to take the chicken bus from Antigua and have a local escort us to the school from the bus stop. We were told to not take photos and to walk fast and stick together. Marie and I didn't need to be told twice.

To tell the truth, I wasn't expecting much of the school after walking through the "neighborhood" but once we made it past the armed guard and into the building, it was like a little oasis next to the largest dump in Central America. The new yellow school was clean, organized, and safe. The name, Safe Passage, fit it perfectly. Kevin, a volunteer from Australia, gave us a tour and background information. Before Hanley created the school, the children would work in the dump or be left there unattended while their parents sifted through the garbage. Now they attend school daily and are given one hot meal a day. For many, that might be their only meal. There are showers and flush toilets - things I am sure not one child in the neighborhood has in their home.

Bayer Pharmaceuticals funded a small clinic upstairs and provided a full time nurse who looks after all of the 550 students and their families. Kevin said that various medical groups from the U.S. and other countries would come for a week to provide care, but it was all done as a one-time deal. There was no followup or continuity, and there was no hope of knowing when the next medical group might come. Even with the assistance from Bayer, it just wasn't enough.

I believe that was the moment Shared Beat was born. Jenny had this determined look on her face, and when we left the school, she pointed her finger at Kevin, as only a southern woman can do, and said "We will be back." Words I am sure they have heard before, but Jenny was serious. In less than one year, Shared Beat was created and the first biannual medical group travelled to Safe Passage.

That first trip was a learning experience for all involved. The school, rightly so, wanted to be present during exams and to be hospitable by providing lunch, snacks and entertainment. We, in turn, took steps to include Lucy, the school nurse, and to let the school know that we were there to serve them - not for them to serve us. We were there to work!

With the help from many dedicated Shared Beat volunteers and generous donors, each student now has a History & Physical chart documenting growth, vision and individual health issues. Medication, glasses, reading glasses and daily vitamins are being provided. An annual emergency fund has been created for the community, and three nursing scholarships have been awarded - one to a student and two to mothers in the Adult Literacy Program at Safe Passage.

There have been many challenges since that first trip, but relationships and trust have been built through Shared Beat's partnership with Safe Passage. Little by little, lives are being changed, and all of this was made possible by one dedicated woman with a pointed finger saying "We will be back."

On that note, I hope you will come back to check out our blog and Twitter updates. Our next trip to Safe Passage is 15 days from now on July 25, 2010.

Thank you for stopping by!
Dos Besos
Torri

If you need any summer reading, head over to Borders Sunday July 11th and Monday July 12th - they will donate a portion of the sales to Safe Passage. Here is a link for the coupon - just print and shop!