Shared Beat Blog

I arrived back in Guatemala last Monday for 5 weeks. My longest trip of 30 to this country in over 10 years and I have to say, I’m pretty excited. Why am I so enthusiastic this trip? My purpose is to work in the Safe Passage school clinic for 4 weeks, and the last week to lead a medical team of 17 from Maine, Massachusetts and Texas in 2 areas of Guatemala. The latter I’ve done over 15 times but working as a school nurse I’ve only done for 1 week.
Guatemala always welcomes you with that noxious smell of diesel! Sounds a little crazy but that familiar smell is as comforting to me as the smell of pound cake coming from my grandmother’s kitchen. I know I’m back when that airplane door opens and it hits me in the face. What that smell means? Soon I’ll be surrounded by the smiling faces of 500+ children from the Guatemala City dump community. And hugs, millions of hugs! That smell feels like home.
On Tuesday the 25th, I started my 1st week of 4 working in the clinic. I saw lots of “boo boo’s”, half the school had a stomach bug and the other half had colds. Like any typical school clinic. Not so bad. Add in the children from daycare. They can’t exactly tell you what’s wrong but you know something’s wrong. It definitely takes a little extra patience and maybe a colorful sticker to finally win them over. Now throw in their parents and community members. Pregnancy, hypertension, diabetes, burns… you get the picture. They have so much going on. Many of them work in the dump, are single parents and live in makeshift homes with leaky roofs.
Did I mention the employees? You have to make them better. They cook, clean, teach and keep the place running. They get every illness the kids bring to school but they still have to keep going. And let’s not forget the volunteers! They are awesome and most of them thousands of miles from their birthplace. Many are in their late teens, seriously away from home for the 1st time. They’re in a foreign country traveling, eating strange foods, and who knows what else! If you know, please don’t tell me! Do they have traveler’s diarrhea, malaria, a hangover -Oh My! So many things to consider in this community quilt.
This is my first time to blog and I will try to keep you posted on my adventures as the weeks go by. Some days I’m just too tired to think. On those days if I decide to blog please forgive the Spanglish, run-ons and things that just don’t make sense!
Feliz Dia
Jenny