Guatemala, A Day Late

 


Dear Family & Friends. I hope you’ll enjoy this chronicle of our MOST Ministries mission trip to Guatemala with senior students from the CUAA School of Nursing. Several of us on the team will contribute their stories and impressions.

After a “false start” to our trip, we are on our first travel day, routed through Dallas to “La Aurora” airport in Guatemala City.

God is good! Though we were disappointed to delay our travel a day when our plane for Miami was discovered to have a flat tire, we got some extra rest at home. Dr. Z says the team will still complete all their required 42 hours of clinical work available with Dr. Elry in Guatemala.

Our prayers this morning were answered in an awesome way. One of our team left her passport in the car that delivered her to the airport. After many attempts, she was able to speak with the driver (her father) who turned around and met her at the “departures” door at the airport. She managed to check in and get through a VERY busy security line and board our plane with not even 5 minutes to spare. No sweat! We are grateful to have the many prayers for this situation answered so decisively. We can’t imagine not having this excellent team member with us on this mission. 
                       
                            



Traveling H-e-a-v-y

We are ten people with twenty suitcases and 10 backpacks. Meds, supplies and equipment are with us for our clinic that will be set up in a church. The Customs department in Guatemala has a list of everything we’re bringing help them (and us) avoid surprises when our suitcases are opened. 

After a stop-and-go trip from airport to our guest house, we arrived for a late dinner of delicious chicken-vegetable soup and “pachas,” a tamale-type dish of mashed potatoes rolled around pork ribs, folded into plantain leaves and steamed. Awesome! When our host’s wife decides to open a cooking school, we’re all enrolling!

A Little Disorganized

Day One of our clinic began with breakfast at 7:00 and clinic starting at 8:00, even though we hadn’t begun to organize the meds in our Pharmacy nor set up Registration, Triage, Ear-Foot-ECG, or Prescriber-Healthcare Provider stations. Despite the hectic start to the day, we had a long and wonderful day with 54 patients being treated. You can read about some of those patients tomorrow and see really good photos!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATIE!



































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