- Get link
- X
- Other Apps
The dynamic team below is hosting us -- transporting us, feeding & housing us, teaching us and protecting us -- while we're in El Salitre, a poor community on the shore of Lake Amatitlan, approx 80 km from Guatemala City. We stay in dorm rooms above the church "La Santa Cruz", actually a converted lakeside home donated by a well-to-do family when the lake became polluted and less than desirable for water sports & tourism.
Lis provides delicious, safe meals for us with help from a few church women. Elry is a M.D. and Lutheran pastor who gave up a successful career teaching medicine at the university in G.C. in order to begin a mission outreach in this poor community. Five days a week Elry and Lis have organized activities for the youth. Saturday is "Kids' Club" from 2 - 7; Sunday afternoon is worship, followed by catechism. Three other days, children come for tutoring, catechism, and to learn to play the recorder (flute). The days always end with pick-up futbol (soccer) in the back yard. Unless there is a team visiting, Elry & Lis commute from G.C., where Dr. Elry still sees his patients.
Our team has taken to this couple and their 27 yr old son, Samy, like ducks to water. The team is learning from Dr. Elry daily as we do clinical work in the government health post up the mountain in Llano de Animas. We see and treat patients daily, take immunization and treatment supplies to other poor communities, and work until there are no more patients. This is all done with the blessing and support of the 2 Ministry of Health nurses who staff the health post, and whose energy and resourcefulness are an inspiration to us all.
Speaking of inspiration, it is a privilege and a blessing to be able to work under the tutelage of this couple. Our team describes Dr. Elry as "caring, self-sacrificing, diligent, community leader, exuberant, puts loving others first, a servant of God, and passionate." Our description of Lis includes these characterizations: "amazing, treats us like family, generous, amiable, shows the love of Christ, open & warm, genuine, loving." We are in good hands!! - Cindy
Dona Lis, concocting our delicious meals
Dr. Elry, ready for a long day treating patients and mentoring the team
Our view at sunset: Volcan "Agua" is in the background at left.
Our team has taken to this couple and their 27 yr old son, Samy, like ducks to water. The team is learning from Dr. Elry daily as we do clinical work in the government health post up the mountain in Llano de Animas. We see and treat patients daily, take immunization and treatment supplies to other poor communities, and work until there are no more patients. This is all done with the blessing and support of the 2 Ministry of Health nurses who staff the health post, and whose energy and resourcefulness are an inspiration to us all.
Speaking of inspiration, it is a privilege and a blessing to be able to work under the tutelage of this couple. Our team describes Dr. Elry as "caring, self-sacrificing, diligent, community leader, exuberant, puts loving others first, a servant of God, and passionate." Our description of Lis includes these characterizations: "amazing, treats us like family, generous, amiable, shows the love of Christ, open & warm, genuine, loving." We are in good hands!! - Cindy
Dona Lis, concocting our delicious meals
Dr. Elry, ready for a long day treating patients and mentoring the team
Our view at sunset: Volcan "Agua" is in the background at left.
- Get link
- X
- Other Apps
Popular Posts
Renewing our minds
Shortly after sipping on the best coffee in the world (i.e. Guatemalan coffee), we read a devotional about allowing God to renew our minds. And so it was. On this first day of clinical practicum, our minds were exposed to multiple and unique learning opportunities in a place least expected. We worked alongside the healthcare staff at a public health clinic in a village up the mountain from Lake Amatitlan. The seven nursing students were placed in different areas of this small clinic: the consultation room (which was staffed by a pediatrician), the immunization & family planning area and the medication dispensary area. It was amazing to see the level of organization of the clinic staff members given the few resources that they had. We struggled the most with learning how to read a mercury thermometer – turned it left and right, up and down until we saw that silver lining. We also learned that blood pressure would only be checked for patients 14-years of age and older as the clinic...
Making the best of the worst
Visting the Guatemalan hospital By definition, a "hospital" is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized medical and nursing staff and medical equipment. When thinking about a hospital, I sort of pictured a set off of the show Gray's Anatomy. The white linen, white walls, blue scrubs, monitors beeping every which way with gloves and antiseptic gel everywhere you look. Here in Guatemala, I assumed that it would look similar but be outdated compared to what I was used to. The problem with assuming anything, is that you never know the real truth. The 150 year old Guatemalan hospital was nothing that as nursing students in the United States, we would probably ever imagine. Walking in, the entrance was gated and locked to the outside community. After entry, patients were sitting outside the room to be seen, waiting their turn again. Within the hospital there were various rooms based on the specialty that was needed to be seen. It ranged from me...
Clinic Days
Clinic Days An overview of our busy week and the nursing activity done Being in my senior year of nursing school at Concordia, I have experienced most of my clinicals in a hospital setting. Being able to experience the clinical setting here in Guatemala is simply amazing. The clinic, named Puesto de Salud Llano de Animas, allowed us to see and examine many different medical problems that we probably would not experience in the United States. We had the chance to go out into the community and administer vaccines to children and women who could not make it to the clinic. While there, we got the chance to see a child who was affected by the Zika virus as a baby. She was diagosed with Zika at birth, which means the mother transmitted the virus to her while she was a fetus. The child now suffers from severe mental and physical disabilities due to the complications of the virus. She gave a cry, the sound of which I will never forget. Also in the community, we had the chance to see C...
Comments
Post a Comment