I meant to have a picture of me and Mike with the 4 enormous blue duffel bags (provided by CCCG) that we brought with us, but it was a bit hectic getting packed and making it on to the airplane.
Day 1:
After a quick flight to L.A., and then a red-eye, we arrived in Guatemala City around 530am. We were met by Samuel, and brought to the church, where we had breakfast with the school children, and then took naps upstairs (much needed naps!).
The church is in a dramatic and beautiful location, on the edge of a steep ravine (see photo); certainly a nice place to spend time.
Half- asleep still, it was then time to head to Antigua for our two meetings; we were joined by two others in our group, Shira and Tim.
The first meeting was in Antigua, with the group A.L.A.S., where we learned a lot about their family planning services and cervical cancer screening and treatment. This is a very impressive organization- very well thought-out, and makes efforts to be culturally appropriate. I learned a lot from this meeting. I'm happy to share any notes or contacts; what seemed helpful to me is that ALAS would be willing to train community promotores in the communities we are going to- it seems like a great connection to make.
The second meeting was with Mario at Familias de Esperanza, just outside of Antigua. This was a meeting to learn more about their stove-building projects, and see in-person how they are put together. Mario was very helpful and kind- there are several good stove designs out there; one of my goals for this trip is to get a sense of whether this type of project would be helpful and well-received in the aldeas we are visiting. It seems like we could have a simple stove design that the youths at the church could make in their metal-working shop.
It seemed like a productive day! I wished that some folks from the church could have come to the meetings (especially the stove-building one), but there will be more meetings and opportunities to further establish the connection.
Mike and I settled in at Hotel Barcelo- it has a great outside pool (heated) and hot tub- which felt great at the end of a long day.
Day 2
Many more people from the group arrived overnight or in the morning. We headed to the church after breakfast and spent the day meeting in groups, preparing for seeing patients, and sorting through all the stuff people brought. In Mike's case, he fixed a lot of things. I worked on organizing the pharmacy. We worked pretty hard all day, wrapping up with a late dinner as a group.
Oh dear, I almost forgot the most exciting part of the day when I burned my eyeball! I have this contact solution called Clear Care, and its main ingredient is hydrogen peroxide. It comes with a special case, and has a process where the solution neutralizes over the course of 6 hours (so, while you sleep), and it works really well in cleaning off the debris on the contact. Unfortunately, I forgot one of my bags at the church that had the case in it, so I put the contacts in regular cups- low and behold, overnight the liquid did not neutralize, and when I put in my right contact, I basically put hydrogen peroxide in my eye, and it burned and stung immediately, with my contact stuck to my eye! it was awful. FYI for you readers out there, hydrogen peroxide can cause an abrasion on the cornea; redness, irritaiton, and pain, but usually no lasting damage. You are supposed to just flush the eye with a lot of water. Needless to say, I will be wearing my glasses for much of this trip.
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