Guatemala 2011 Mission Trip
from Tamara Garvey

6:34 am
Bob the spider is muerte. (Sadness!) Stephen is triste that his ninja reflexes kicked in when Bob jumped out of his shoe….thus ending Bob’s time in Guatemala.

8:03am
Breakfast of eggs, fried bananas, toast and most importantly COFFEE! Israel teaches the team a VBS song in Spanish then we return the favor with a rousing round of “Tootie-ta” ;). Nathan, inspired by the musical start to our morning continued to channel his inner Rock Star on the drive to Palencia.

9:47am
Our team was introduced to the Major of Palencia. Actually he is the Mayor however, our Guatemalan colleagues pronounce the “y” as a “j” sound and so you can imagine the confusion as we tried to sort out his role in the town. Palencia is a municipality consisting of 23 villages and 96 communities. Its population is 59, 159. The Department of Social Services team in Palencia gave an inspiring presentation to us regarding the various clinics they have opened in the last few years. Their clinics exist to serve the under-served in their region and provide free access to medical care for those who could not otherwise afford it.
We learned about the medical, dental, and nutrition clinics as well as the physical therapy program. What struck us the most was the passion and level of commitment each of the clinic team members had about reaching people in the most rural communities and bringing to them the hope of quality care from loving professionals. Since the inception of the clinic outreach program, this multidisciplinary team has provided medical services to approximately 20, 000 rural patients.
What is truly amazing about this project is how each team member is able to accomplish significant outcomes with extremely limited resources. For example, most of their medicines come from donations and the physical therapy clinic is an 8 x 10’ room equipped with a single table and a coffee maker used as a hydroculator for heating hot packs.

1:23pm
Our team toured the “hospital” in Palencia. The hospital is open 24 hours a day and is staffed primarily by nurses and a psychologist. Four months of the year the physical therapy clinic at this hospital is opened and run by students from Mariano Galvez University. Included below is a picture of the emergency department.

5:13pm
The team returned to the Nazarene center for some fellowship time. Our esteemed music / occupational therapist Gloria led us in an uplifting devotional. The team is looking forward to playing and shopping in Antigua tomorrow!