AMSA Mission trip Guatemala 2013
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Recap: Day 4
We reached the community and Doctor Gomez opened up with a little message and prayer time. Then we started working and it actually was a busy day. More people came, including more kids! Apparently the word passed around that we were in town and many people showed up.
During lunch time everybody started preparing sandwichs as the previous day, but then a surprised arrived: the local people brought us some delicious noodles and chicken. After lunch we played a little bit outside enjoying a very nice weather.
The afternoon was pretty busy as well. Lots of kids came after school and you know kids, after playing for 3 hours non-stop, the still wanted to play. Both the medial teams and the ones playing with kids had a tiring day. We went back to the hotel and we had pizza for dinner.
After dinner everybody went to refresh at their rooms and later the madness began. Everything was smooth and calm, people playing cards, checking facebook, playing table games, but after a while we discover something that will change the course of the following nights: Mafia.
If you don't know this game, please check it out
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mafia_%28party_game%29
The first rounds were interesting. We started to know the character of people when playing and a curious fact happened, 3 out of the 4 times that we played, Ana was Mafia, that is an incredible probability of 3.85%. After a couple of 'be quiet' warnings, we went to sleep waiting for another work and Mafia day to come.
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Recap: Day 3
It was our first morning in the mountains, breakfast was on time at 7 in the morning and we experienced the joys of hot water. Then we jumped into the bus for our second day of journey. It was exciting as this was the first time everybody was switching positions in the stations.
We got there and the local physician opened the activities for the day with a message and a prayer time. The morning ran smoothly and around 1 PM we did a break for lunch. We ate at the place and had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, chips, crackers, cheese and goose liver spread.
After lunch we had a little time to relax and play some soccer and Frisbee.
In the afternoon we continued with the clinics and finished around 7 PM again. Then head back to the hotel and have dinner. We had Chinese food for dinner and everybody loved it. After dinner we had some debriefing time to know everybody's experiences and feeling about the day. It was nice to exchange impressions about the different tasks that the team did during the day, as well as talking about the reaction of locals toward the team.
Then the group split and some were checking social networks, others updating friends and family via emails and chatting, and some others were playing board games at the lobby. It was a very productive day.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Recap: Day 2
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Recap: Day 1
Friday, March 15, 2013
Thursday
Yesterday and today have been pretty busy days at the clinics. Wednesday we had over 65 people and today over 50. The team was splitting between taking blood pressure and temperature, being with the doctors, working at the pharmacy and playing with children.
People are really friendly, and children love all the games that we do. Some of the activities are playing soccer, singing songs, face painting, telling stories, and the famous 'pato pato ganso' (duck duck goose).
After that we go back to the hotel around 7:30pm to have dinner and have a little discussion about the day.
Monday, March 11, 2013
Bus trip and first day of work
We left Guatemala city at 8am and hit the road for San Cristobal Totonicapan. The ride was great, we took a bus just for us and went to a pretty nice scenery. The road was surrounded with lots of crops and mountains, which makes it a really pleasant ride.
Although, it was a 3 hour trip, so many suffered the few hours of sleep of the past days. We took a small stop and then got to our hotel. It is a very nice place with hot water and internet!
After having lunch we went to Chivarreto, the community where we are dong the medical aid. It is a small community with really friendly locals. Today was mainly setting up the pharmacy, and the clinics and then playing games and soccer with local kids.
Sunday, March 10, 2013
A long trip but finally there
We left DFW at 3:24 CST. We had a nice 3 hour flight until we got to San Salvador, then at 7:05CT we took off for Guatemala. After 30min we landed at La Aurora International airport in Guatemala city.
Right now we are enjoying delicious pizza for dinner and then going to our hotel in tyhe capital city for then go to Totonicapan tomorrow morning.