Days 12-16 - Antigua

This past week we stayed with host families. Many of us were nervous about this experience because we were unsure of what to expect. Looking back on the entire experience, I am glad to say that we were thankful we had the opportunity to see what the typical middle-class Guatemalan lifestyle is like. One word I could use to describe this past week was exhausting. The daily schedule consisted of waking up early for breakfast, walking to school, attending Spanish school for 4 hours and then heading to different locations throughout the greater Antigua area to volunteer. We were split into pairs and were daily rotated through various volunteer opportunities such as working at the clinic in Sumpango or nutrition center in Hermano Pedro Hospital, or teaching in a nearby community. I am just going to talk about a few highlights from each volunteer experience.

Hermano Pedro:
Although this is quite a large hospital, we worked exclusively with babies in the malnutrition center of the hospital. What was shocking to most of us was the regimented schedule of the unit. All of the babies were bottle-fed at 2 pm, changed at 3 pm and given nebulizers at 3:30 pm – there were no exceptions in the schedule. It was disheartening to hold or pick up a child who was dirty or hungry and know that while we could change or feed them when they needed these things done, that these basic needs were not going to be met on a timely basis in the future. For instance, both Shauna and Laura ended up with urine on their pants from two different babies who had diapers that needed to be changed. When they asked the nurses for supplies to change the babies with, they were upset that they were going to do this early because this wasn’t part of the schedule. It was an eye-opening experience to see how little attention these babies were receiving. It was heartbreaking to see some of these children. One little boy I became attached to was nearly three years old, but only weighed 11 lbs. I kept thinking to myself how it is critical to address the children’s physical malnutrition, but their emotional and spiritual malnutrition, as well. It was difficult to leave knowing that perhaps these areas may not be addressed, but we can only hope that perhaps we spread a little sunshine in the unit.

Clinic in Sumpango:
Each of us got to take turns working as a clinic nurse for Dr. Oscar Paredes in Sumpango. The most difficult part of this experience was the language barrier. In our other volunteer experiences we had the luxury of having a translator or were working with infants who could not verbally respond to us – but in the clinic it was quite different. The clinic was always crowded from the minute it opened until we left in the evening. Patients arriving at the clinic presented a variety of different medical problems – infections, pregnancies, chronic substance abuse problems, etc. For instance, Christina saw an ultrasound of a 32 wk old baby, Shauna assisted Dr. Oscar in debriding an infected surgical incision, and quite a few of us gave nebulizers and other medications. One mother brought her 2 month old baby boy into the clinic every day last week for nebulizer treatments. He had a severe respiratory infection and was having difficulty breathing when I first saw him Monday afternoon. It was fascinating watching the mother’s response to having American nurses take care of her son – she seemed to trust us instantaneously despite the fact that we could hardly speak any Spanish. It appeared that many of the other students developed a similar rapport with the mother, as well. I think it is interesting to note how often we are reluctant to have medical or nursing students take care of ourselves or our loved ones in the States, but how quickly we were embraced in Guatemala because of the wealth of knowledge we already have. I was reminded once again of how privileged we are to receive the type of education we do in the United States and how in turn, it is our responsibility to share that knowledge with others.

Schools in Sumpango:
We worked in numerous schools in the Sumpango area teaching about basic sanitation, CPR, puberty, blood typing and basic microbiology. I think after all of our teachings, we have come to appreciate all of the work teachers do to put presentations together and how much energy is necessary to keep an audience´s attention. Some of us were able to use information from previous classes we never thought we were going to use... somewhat of a coincidence to say the least. One thing was for sure - we never knew what to expect, but that´s what everyone says makes our adventure that much more exciting.