Guatemala Day 7

March 9, 2013 (Saturday)

            Well today was the big day that we had to head back to the real world.  I got up with Gary, Amy, and Michelle at 0700 and went for a little walk.  I split off after a while and headed back for some breakfast.  Then went to the Galeria market to make my final purchases.  I got the purchases made just in time to head back to the hotel, finish packing a few things up, and get ready to head out.  It was so kind, Sabina wasn’t going to be driving us back, but she came to the hotel anyway on her day off to say goodbye to us.  So we got the truck all loaded up, packed in and headed off to Guatemala city to hit the airport.  Gary and I rode with Clay and Jonathon in the truck and Omar took everyone else in the Van.  It was a real nice drive.  We discussed a little bit about the week, and also how the process of having other groups come down goes, and just some of the different dynamics.  After about one hour we arrived at the airport, said our goodbyes and boarded the plane.  We did a reverse flight as on our way out, hit San Salvador, then caught a 4 ½ hour flight to JFK.  And here I am now on the bus ride back to Fairfield finishing up this weeks Journal.
     I’ve had a fair bit of time to reflect on this week, and I’m sure that a lot of it will continue to hit me over the next days and weeks.  I restarted writing in this journal about a month ago to take time every day and reflect on the hand of my Heavenly Father in my life, this week has helped show me just how much he is in my life and how much I have to be grateful for.  This trip was in a lot of ways similar to my full-time mission yet in a whole lot of ways different.  As I am sitting here I’m just realizing that I am only about a month away to the ten year anniversary of leaving for that incredible experience.  That mission definitely shaped and polished me to be a better person and prepared me for what life is really about; this mission I believe helped me truly see how much our Father in Heaven truly loves and cares about all his children, and that it is important for us to have clear eyes and full hearts to be an instrument in his hands to bless and love others.  I saw and did things that I did not expect and often had to remind myself that it is not all about me but that there is a grand scheme that is much bigger than I am.  I remember thinking on the plane ride home from Atlanta eight years ago, about all the incredible experiences both good and bad and also thinking about the amazing people I was able to both serve and serve with.  As I was caught up reflecting a line from a song we often sang at our meetings kept coming to my head and now I can’t help but think of it again “building friendships that will be eternal.”  I know that I will never see the vast majority of the people I interacted with in Guatemala, and I presume that many of the folks I worked with will over the years no longer be in contact, but just like with my first mission the friendships that were forged in the furnace of adversity will always be locked deep in mi Corazon.

Sabina, our translator

The LDS Church house, we past it on the way to Guatemala City

Clay, Jonathon, and Omar

     

Guatemala Day 6

March 8, 2013 (Friday)

            Well today was our free day.  We all decided that we wanted to hike the Pacaya Volcanoe.  It was on the backside of Agua and about an hours drive away.  It was a very cool drive where we got to see a lot of the countryside.  It is an amazing land where the people have adapted in incredible ways to utilize the fertile yet steep and rugged land.  When we arrived at the trailhead we were accompanied by a group of vacaroes (cowboys).  They hang out hoping to rent out their horses to those wanting to go on the trail.  They have an interesting breed of horse, it is much smaller than the American and European breeds.  It was fun to get to be around the caballos and talk to the people.  We opted to hike instead of ride with the exception of Michelle Lusardi who is starting to advance in age.  I am not exactly sure on the details, but I believe the hike was about five miles round trip and I would guess about 1500-2000 ft of elevation gain.  The volcano is still active with its most recent eruption in May of 2010.  The last half of the hike up we were hiking in the lava flows and I have to say that is an interesting hike.  At the end of our hike we came to an area where there are some fissures that the heat from the volcano still escapes.  They make a natural oven and we roasted some marshmellows and had some smores…what a cool and unique experience.  Myself and Cri roasted our own mellows and accidentally touched them to the roof of the oven, when eating them there was definitely a distinct taste somewhat sulfuric; so we decided that we truly experienced the volcano by ingesting it.  On the way back down myself and Clay decided to run down the we made good time at eleven minutes to descend.  When we all got down it was apparent that none of us had taken proper precautions for the sun and were cooked to a crisp, myself included.  We headed back to Antigua following the hike and headed over to the market.  I was able to help support the local economy well!  The items I ended up getting: carved wooden mask of a rooster (Mother Teresa), table runners (rest of family), little woven bracelets (friends and family), headbands (the ninas), and the stuff for Chels (skirt, jade earings and necklace pendant).  Following the market we went back to Iglesia del Camino for our final dinner.  Pastor Mike and his wife were our host for the dinner.  At dinner, the big souvenirs arrived.  There is a gentleman (Elio) that makes custom boots for people.  I got myself a nice new pair of cowboy boots, and I got Chels (without her knowing) a pair of those long riding boots.  Following dinner we got all of our luggage that we had used for transporting the shoes and headed back to the hotel.  We then went over to the crepe place adjacent to our hotel and had a ‘little’ dessert…the crepe’s were huge.  I had a strawberry banana with nutella and a strawberry banana smoothie, while most of the rest of the group had some adult beverages to finish off the day/week.  Following the crepe’s a few of us joined some of the church folk for some futbol in the church.  Every Friday night following their youth group they play some soccer, it was really fun to hang out with them, and very kind of them to allow us to really be a part of their lives.  Following the soccer a few of us went to the roof and just hung out, chatted, and had some good laughs, then it was off to bed.

Horses they were trying to get us to "rent" to "hike" the volcano

View of the volcanoes

Another view of the volcanoes

The boys

Tough Guys

Roasting marshmallows on the hike 

Yum!

All the men folk

"High on the Mountain [Volcano] Top"

Huge Boulder

Climbing out of a cave

Our Sweet Boots!

My Crepe

Playing Futbol

Guatemala Day 5

March 7, 2013 (Thursday)

            Today was our last clinic day.  Our group went to Santa Maria de Jesus.  This is a really cool village on the slopes of Volcano Agua.  The village sits at about 2400 meters (7200 ft) of elevation.  The people are indigenous people and a remnant of the Mayan people.  There has been very little mixing over the years; potentially being true descendents of the people of Lehi.  Among other things they are small in stature and have a very dark skin.  They are incredibly hard working people spending their lives working the land and producing beautiful and vibrant cloth.

            We set up shop in one of the local churches.  We organized the clinic a little different today.  We gave out a certain number of numbers and that was the cut-off of how many we would see; we also separated the people between those who needed treated and those who were just coming for shoes.  We ended up handing out I believe around 100 pair of shoes, as well as seeing around 30-40 people.  I was working with Nadia and for the life of me I can’t remember our translators name but she was dutch.  We mainly saw UE/cervico/thoracic issues; also, there was a lot of people who displayed signs of dehydration so we did a lot of educating on proper hydration.  One lady we saw had classic T4 syndrome which I had never experienced so that was cool to go through the diagnostic process and then be able to get some positive results with treatment.  Probably the highlight from a clinical perspective for me was the last gentleman that came in.  He had complaint of LE and LBP.  After a thorough history and assessment we determined that he had an MCL and medial meniscal tear.  He also presented with SI instability, tight hamstrings and tight quads so we were able to give him some exercises and educate him on what would help him return to health.  After treating we went for a bit of a driving tour around town and out to a building the mission is in the process of constructing.  The building will serve as a place with fresh water and that they can do some feeding/clinics for the village.
            We had the typical dinner tonight then went out on another soup run for the homeless folk.  The word must have gotten out on the street that we were giving out shoes, because when we got to the first stop we were completely mobbed by people.  We were able to hand out a lot of soup and quite a few pair of shoes.  By the time we were done at this stop we had pretty much run out of shoes that would fit the people, and only had larger sized shoes.  During that stop I helped prepare the feet of a gentleman whose shoes had almost completely served their purpose.  As part of giving them shoes we would clean and assess the health of the peoples feet.  To not get into too much detail his feet were healthy, but he had some of the most foul material caked onto the souls of his feet to the point that I couldn’t even scrape it off, and the smell is one that I will never forget.  The last stop was definitely a memorable one…this is the stop by the street markets and the one that the gangster guy who always causes trouble inhabits.  When we got there we distributed the soup and tried to distribute some shoes but they were all to big to do any good.  While we were distributing the soup we assessed a few of the people.  Fio, Cri, and I helped a gentleman who had an abscessed tooth.  The abscess was so bad that it had perforated his cheek.  So we did the best we could to clean out and disinfect the wound and get it bandaged up, followed up with educating him on the importance of trying to see a dentist.  Then the highlight of the night was visiting with good ol Marco Toolio.  He was this hilarious older gentleman that came up to us.  He was a traditional shorter guy, missing his front teeth, and had an awesome wide-brimmed hat, with an infectious laugh.  He wanted us to look at a tooth of his that was aching, and he was determined that we were dentists.  We had some really good laughs with this jolly old fellar.

 

Guatemala Day 4

March 6, 2013 (Wednesday)

            Well today was an incredible day.  We followed pretty much the same morning routine as the other days.  Then we headed over to the Hope Haven wheelchair factory (we had Clay and Jonathon as our translators).  Our job for the day was to fit some children with new wheelchairs.  We had three kids to do so we broke into groups: Fio and Carissa worked with a boy named Lester who had severe cerebral palsy, Olivia and Rachel worked with a little gal named Maria-Celeste, then me and Alicia worked with a gal named Teresa and her mother Ethel.  Teresa, is fifteen years old and has never had a wheelchair in her whole life.  Her mother has taken a lot of care for her, and has always had to carry her wherever they would go, which has resulted in recent years her not being able to do much or get out much.  I did not pry into the home life, but it has just been Ethel and Teresa for awhile.  When we got there she had pretty much already been fitted for a wheelchair, there were just a couple of modifications that would help in her comfort and we got them taken care of quickly.  I spent about 15-20 minutes just talking to her and trying to let her get comfortable with me.  She had a stroke a couple years ago which has left her right side a little bit spastic so I worked on calming down that spasticity and loosening up her hand and wrist.  Our goal was to start teaching her how to move the wheels a little bit, and then help Ethel on any other care needs she had.  Teresa’s condition is bad enough that she will probably never be able to wheel herself around, but even the ability to maneuver the chair a little bit and look around can be a huge improvement for the kids.  We worked on that for about ten minutes, giving Ethel instructions on how to help Teresa develop the ability to perform the task.  From talking with Ethel she described that she has to lift Teresa to do everything and at times her back gets really sore, so consulting with Alicia we decided to help teach a stand-pivot transfer.  So we instructed/demonstrated to Ethel the proper set-up and body mechanics.  Following the preliminary instruction we showed Ethel how a proper transfer with Teresa.  That was a lot of hard work with all of the spasticity that she has, but finally we were successful.  We then gave Ethel the opportunity to perform the transfer and she now has a new technique that hopefully will help the two of them out going forward.  It was an incredible experience something as simple as a wheelchair and some basic techniques totally changed their lives.  Ethel was so incredibly grateful and broke down to tears a couple times when she thanked us, and Teresa was so happy.

            Probably the hardest part (yet most growing) of the whole trip occurred following working with Teresa and Ethel.  There was a lady that had been waiting all day to have a consultation with one of us, and since the other guys were still finishing up, it fell on my shoulders to visit with her.  Her name is Flora, seven years ago she was in a car accident which left her paralyzed, and she also has a left femoral amputation, she also does not have usage of her left arm.  She did physiotherapy for four years, and has not been able to regain any usage of her left arm; however she has done a good job keeping the ROM up and has not developed any contractures.  She wanted to know if therapy or some sort of surgery would be able to help restore function in that arm.  After the assessment it was evident that she likely had a peripheral nerve injury and that function was not going to be able to be restored.  So for the first time in my young PT career I had to deliver the devastating news that nothing more could be done.  This is a hard enough thing when you have command of the language, but I think was even more difficult where it had to go through a translator.  She broke down a bit and I just tried to encourage her to not give up hope.

            We finished at Hope Haven around 1300, and headed for lunch.  Following lunch we had been tasked with going to purchase more shoes.  We had about $800 from donations and such that we had brought down, so we headed to the street market.  With Jonathon and Clay translating we were able to do some wheeling and dealing and ended up getting around eighty pair of shoes that would be distributed up at Santa Maria de Jesus.

            Tonight we had an awesome dinner.  We all went out to eat at a restaurant called La Pena.  It was an awesome dinner, I had the mixed plate which had carne assada, grilled chicken, sausage, refried beans, guacamole, and some sauces.  I also had a strawberry smoothie drink…which was the only non-alcoholic beverage on the table.  We had a really good time and just relaxed and enjoyed hanging out with each other.  Clay and Omar accompanied us to dinner.  It was also Alicia’s birthday today, and Chris’ and Jonathon’s birthday so we celebrated with them.  There was this really cool traditional band playing.

Guatemala Day 3

March 6, 2013 (Tuesday)

            Today was day two of the Guatemala excursion.  It was definitely a different day for my group.  We had our regular morning routine, breakfast at 0700, meet and load up at 0745, and on the road around 0800.  Today we went to the Hope Haven wheelchair factory and did a quick tour of the facility; tomorrow we will be going for a whole day and fitting people for chairs.  We spent the majority of our day at the hospital with the children with developmental disorders.  We worked on fixing up some of the broken down wheelchairs and helping to fit other wheel chairs a little bit better.  I was working on one with Alicia for the better part of the day.  She is very good at assessing the needs of patients for their wheelchairs, and had me on quite the project.  It was a very interesting experience there.  We worked until about 1230 then headed out for lunch.  We walked up to central park for the lunch.  It was a beautiful day, weather was super pleasant prob in the low 70’s and sunny.  It is was awesome, while we were sitting there eating our lunch, I was just kinda chilling with my boots kicked up and one of the shoe shiners roaming the park picked right up on them.  He came strolling over and was like “your price” to which I replied “no gracia,” to which he replied “they are very dirty,” to which I heartely agreed.  So I decided to support the local economy and had the fellow shine my boots, and he sure put a nice shine on them!  We then finished up lunch and proceeded back to the hospital to finish out the rest of the day.  We left around 1515 and headed back, I was able to get a nice shower in before everyone else got back.  Following my shower I took all of my dirty laundry (which there is quite a bit due to how dirty the conditions are) to a little Laundromat across the street.  As I was heading across the street the other group was just pulling up from their day.  They went to a village called Santa Maria de Jesus (where I will be going on Thursday).  They had a very busy day and saw around 100 patients! And gave out as many pairs of shoes.  We then proceeded to have our dinner at 1800.  Following dinner the majority of us headed out to meet to locals (Mark and Dale-and yes she is a she) they are an awesome couple who moved down here from Minnesota a few years ago.  Two nights a week they go out and take soup to the homeless people around town.  As part of what we are doing we also took some shoes and did some feet checks.  We saw a lot of issues with sores and infections in peoples feet, some of the sores were quite severe.  There was also a gentleman with a broken foot, one that had a very high fever, and one that had a broken hand that we were able to splint up.  It was a pretty crazy experience (I actually commented at one point to a couple of my classmates), we were in the middle of a third world country, in the middle of the night hanging out with and caring for a bunch of the most humblest of folk…definitely brought thoughts and feelings of gratitude for all that I have been blessed with for my whole life.  We finished up around 2230 and headed on back to the hotel.  When I got back I had a good chat with Gary for a little while…and therefore it is now quite late (2350).  He asked how the night went, and that lead into caring for the needy, to welfare and how crappy it is in the US, to politics and the crappy state the country is in, presidential elections, to the what its gonna take for the country to get back in shape and how that is probably not gonna happen too easily…needless to say an interesting conversation to have with one of your professors…I know this is a huge run-on sentence…what an interesting yet good experience it has been to share a room with a professor.
            Just a few thoughts, today was pretty hard.  I was trying to have a good attitude but was probably not very successful.  Working at the hospital with the wheelchairs and the kids was difficult for me: A. because I have always had a hard time with that patient population and B. I just felt that I was not being that useful; I mean I probably knew more about and was a good resource for putting the chairs together, but I just feel that I have been developing a special set of skills and knowledge that could help and bless peoples lives a bit more effectively.  I just had to keep reminding myself that this trip is not for me, but for the people that we are here to work with.  Well it is getting late, I am very tired, and we’ve got another long day tomorrow.

Del Fuego still steaming from the eruption

The Aggie Bull all the way in Guatemala

How they leave your laundry after they have washed it....





 

Guatemala Day 2

Monday 4, 2012 (Monday)

            Well today was our first official treatment day.  We were up and breakfast by 0700, then rolled out at 0800.  We split all of us into two groups.  I was in a group with Gary Austin, Alicia Spiro, Jen Crane (resident), Steve Fiorenza, Olivia Durning, Carissa Brailsford, and Rachel Tarini.  For translators we had Sabina (petite little mayan gal), Omar (Guatemalan with glasses), Isai, Addison (17 year old gal from the states that her family moved down here), and Suzy (a gal down here from Germany).  I worked a little bit with Isai and Suzy as translator, but mostly Addison.  She was really quite amazing.  Her parents moved down here two years ago, they have a large family and she’s the oldest down here.  They are all home schooled and she helps with the missionary work.  She has a great control of the language and was very helpful to work with…I am really just amazed cuz I know at seventeen (even though I wasn’t a real hooligan) I would definitely not have that same poise and ability.  The clinic we set up was in the village of Pastores.  It is about thirty minutes north and west of Antigua.  The clinic we set up was in a large open building with a stage…similar to an LDS cultural hall.  We had an in-take table then four treatment tables.  We were kind of paired up early on, I was with Jen to start out with then I kind of ended up on my own with just a translator and the patient.  That was actually quite intimidating and I really realized how far I still have to go in becoming a good clinician.  Throughout the day I can’t remember exactly how many patients that I saw but I think it was about six or seven.  We saw a lot of patients who had diabetes and so we had to do a good sensory screening of their distal extremities, especially their feet.  All of the patients that I saw were in their 60’s or older, and all women except one older gentleman who was about to turn 90.  They are a very strong and labored population.  Many of them are of Mayan descent and small in stature.  I was amazed at just how incredibly strong they were as I would examine them.  There was a lot of overall muscular pain, some osteoarthritis, diabetes, neck and shoulder pain, back pain, etc. 

I think one of the crazier things that I experienced today was a lady that had ALL the red flags for active cancer (previous history, had lost 20 pounds in one month, pain at night keeping her up, point tenderness in vertebrae and ribs, etc).  She also had a lot of musculoskeletal pain as well; she told me that she has to do all of the work around the home while her husband is at work (chop and haul wood, clean, cook, repair, etc).  With her it was very hard to send her on her way because I don’t know that she will get an opportunity to go see a physician and get things checked out.

As part of our work here we are providing some quality footwear to the people.  We did a shoe drive and brought down like fifteen suitcases (not sure how many but I would say between 100-200 pairs of shoes).  We also brought a bunch of socks and shoe laces.  These people walk everywhere and quality footwear is not always very available.  As part of fitting them with shoes and socks we also washed their feet; not to be degrading but their feet are not in the best and cleanest condition.  It was an incredible blessing to be able to serve them in such an intimate way, I can say this, performing that symbolic act definitely makes the experience that much more poignant.  I truly hope that in some small way I was able to give back what I have been so abundantly blessed with, especially to give back and follow the Master healer.

Following our day we packed up and headed back around 1645, we got back to the hotel and helped unload all the gear at the church.  We had about thirty minutes to settle in then had dinner at 1800.  Following dinner we came back to the little courtyard and had a debriefing between the two groups.  The other group went to a local hospital for children with developmental problems and also to the wheelchair manufacturing plant.  That is what I will be doing tomorrow.

Brett goes to Guatemala

Brett has the wonderful opportunity to go to Guatemala with his school during Spring Break this year. They went to provide Physical Therapy (PT) services to people in remote villages that are surrounding the city of Antigua. There was a group of 15 people, 10 students, 3 Professors, and 2 Residents (all PT) that went down. It was a great experience for Brett and he was able to help those people who are unable to receive the medical attention that they need due to health conditions of the country beyond their control.

To really help you understand his experience, and more for us to remember his experience, I have attached his journal entries that were written while he was down there. Sorry for the length but I hope that as you read you will be able to feel the blessings that were brought to these people in just a short amount of time.

March 3, 2013 (Sunday)

I am currently sitting in my hotel room in Antigua Guatemala.  We left yesterday morning from Sacred Heart at 0530.  We flew from JFK to the San Salvador, El Salvador airport, then caught a plane to Guatemala City.  The San Salvador airport was incredible, we started making the descent and when we broke out of the cloud cover we were in a mountainous/volcanous region with some beautiful lakes.  As we descended we came to a flattened plain then all of the sudden we were flying right over the Pacific ocean and some incredible white sand beaches.  We made a loop over the ocean and came and landed pretty much right on the beach…it was pretty awesome.  After a short 45 minute flight we made it to Guatemala city where we were met by some of the people from the mission Iglesia del Camino (Clay and Isiel?).  We loaded all the bags onto a truck, hopped in a van and took an hours drive to Antigua.  On the way there, I don’t remember the city but I did see and LDS chapel right off the road.  We arrived in Antigua about 1630.  We got unloaded, checked into our hotel then went and had dinner at the church.  The hotel we are staying at is a pretty nice little place, very nice woodwork and well kempt.  I am in a room with Gary Austin one of my professors.

            This morning we woke up about 0630 and myself, Gary, Phil, Chris, and Fio went for a little walk around our neighborhood…mainly for them to go get some coffee, but it was a nice way to start out the morning.  We came back had some breakfast then went to the church services for the Iglesia Del Camino.  They are a non-denom Christian church, so we had a little music to accompany the service.  Following the service we had a walking tour of parts of the town.   We went to the central park, then over to the markets.  Following the guided tour we came back to the church and did a clinic for some of the parishioners.  We worked on them for about three hours.  Following the clinic we went and watched a procession to celebrate lent and symbolize Christ carrying the cross.  It was pretty crazy with a lot of people crowding the streets, and these huge raft-like platforms that were being carried by the townspeople.  Following the procession we had a dinner and hung out for awhile.  Then we started sorting through all the shoes and socks that we brought down to get them in order for tomorrow.  In the middle of sorting, one of the church ladies told us that the volcano (Del Fuego) was erupting and you could see it well with it being dark.  So we all dropped the shoes and headed over to our hotel where on the roof there is a patio that you can see well from.  We sat and watched it for about half an hour.  It is a long ways away, but that was a truly awesome sight.  They were saying it hasn’t erupted like that for about a year now, so we were very lucky.  We went back and finished sorting the shoes and now we are back at the hotel finishing up for the day….and I am concurrently facebook messaging Chels, whereas it is about our only means of communication right now.

            Just some personal thoughts on everything.  What a truly amazing experience this has been to this point.  It is a very different world down here, but one that I really like.  It is very laid back, yet the people are incredibly hard working people…kinda reminds me of home.  I have felt very loved and appreciated up to this point.  With all of the hustle and bustle of everything going on right now with school and everything I have not been taking the time to just clear my mind and ponder.  It was really nice today to do just that and realize all of the incredible blessings I have received up to this point.  It was really cool to get to work with and treat a few people today.  I was able to co-treat an older lady and a younger lady with some low back problems.  Then also helped a gentleman with neck pain, and another gentleman with some shoulder impairments.  It was a bit of a whirlwind, and I think I pretty much forgot everything that I have learned to this point…but I guess I just hope it may have helped even just a little bit.  I am very excited for tomorrow…I really just hope that I have some strength and inspiration from the Lord to help me in blessing these good people’s lives.