Day 20 - Guatemala City

Today was another eye-opening day for us here in Guatemala. We were up early this morning to prepare for a day of teaching at Roosevelt Hospital in Guatemala City. Roosevelt is one of the largest public hospitals in Guatemala and the needs of this hospital and the people it serves was evident everywhere we looked. We spent 4 hours covering various OB topics such as labor and delivery and neonatal positioning. I was fascinated watching the reactions of the nurses to the information presented. Much of the information emphasized such as hydration is foundational and basic in the nursing practices in the States - almost something second nature that we would encourage fluids during labor. The nurses at Roosevelt were astonished at the thought of giving a women something to eat or drink during this process. Although I feel as if we left these men and women with more knowledge about effective nursing and medical practices, I realized it meant more to me that we were trying to empower them. While we can present research and show evidence based practices, change will not come to Guatemala´s health care system unless we empower its nurses and doctors from the bottom up and continually remind them of the impact of their professions.

This afternoon we volunteered at a food program in the 12th Ward in Guatemala City. This zone suffers from extreme poverty and an immense amount of crime. While some of us were anxious about going into this zone, it melted away as we were immediately embraced by over 150 children with hugs and kisses. We were able to minister to the children of these families by serving them a warm meal. I was amazed at how long many of them waited for a scoop of rice, a scoop of beans, a tortilla and a glass of fortified juice. The pastor that runs this program told us that for many of these children, the meal we served them was their only meal of the day. I (Elise) was scooping out the beans for all of the dishes. As the bowl began to quickly diminish, I looked up at the ever growing line of children still waiting for food. I began to wonder how many other children in this zone, more or less this city, were in their homes waiting for food and wondering when their next meal would be. There was a picture of us scraping out the last bits of each of the dishes... it may be one of the most disheartening pictures I have ever seen. I can only hope and pray that other programs will continue to faithfully serve the families of communities such as this and how fortunate we were to serve these children today.