Days 2-3, February 10-11, 2018

Days 2 & 3, February 10-11, 2018

Gathering on the courtyard
(By the coffee pot)

Our second day in Guatemala begins a little later than what we’re told would be normal. We gather at 7:15 AM for devotions followed by breakfast as the hotel. Afterwards, we all walk a few blocks to the Casa de Fe, a “Roland McDonald” type setting where those waiting or recovering from surgery may stay with their families. 

On the way to Casa de Fe, a group of us stop at a coffee shop where an artisan creates some wonderful designs in our cafe con leche. 

Many of those having surgery come from throughout the country and before this building was constructed, patients and families often slept in the town square.  We are given a tour of the facilities. It’s spacious and comfortable.  In addition to sleeping and bath areas, there is a large kitchen, a laundry, a chapel, and a courtyard. While there we are provided with a detailed orientation on the health care in Guatemala (the system is broken).  With a 59% poverty rate, the country has the 4th highest chronic malnutrition rate in the world.  While the country as a whole is impoverished, the Mayan population is even more so with three in four Mayans living below the poverty line. There is no medical care available for the poor and in the rural areas there isn’t even doctors. The work of aid and mission workers are critical in serving such needs. 

Roof top of Casa de Fe

Faith in Practice exists to attempt to address the need of medical care for the vulnerable people of Guatemala.  The organization provides basic medical exams but also surgeries, hearing aids, wheel chairs and dental care. In addition, they train mid-wives and provide for cervical cancer screenings.  Cervical cancer is the number one killer of women in the country and for every death from the cancer in the United States, there are eight deaths in Guatemala. The mission is to provide a continuing of care which includes follow-through after surgeries and other procedures. In addition to facilities in Antigua, they have a second medical facility, Hospital Hilario Galindo, which was renovated with the help of Rotary International.  Following the pattern of success with Casa de Fe, they have also constructed Casa de Milagros (House of Miracles) nearby to serve the patients and families who are having procedures done at Hilario Galindo. 

After covering the need and how Faith in Practice ministers to “the least of these,” we are told more about how to keep ourselves safe in the country.  Everything from never traveling alone or drinking (or even brushing teeth) in tap water and eating street food, to not using ATMs is covered.  We have all been provided with a Faith in Practice name tags which included a phone number where someone would be available 24/7 to help us.  

Virgin del Socorro

Following the orientation and tour of Casa de Fe, those of us who are first timers are invited to tour Virgin del Socorro, a new facility on the edge of town where those severely handicapped live.  The facilities have been built by the Franciscans. It’s a beautiful campus set set on a ridge looking over the city. Different floors housed those of different ages, from young children to elderly.  The facility is clean and it is apparent the patients are well cared for.  Many of these patients have been abandoned by their families. Some smiled and engaged with us while others maintained a distant stare. While with the children, I smiled and greet them, but afterwards I couldn’t help but to shed a tears. “I have never seen so many people with cerebral palsy in one place,” Dr. Cam, a pediatrician, commented afterwards.

We are on our own for lunch and I join with a group of volunteers who decide to stay close by and eat at the restaurant next to the hotel, the Fonda de Calle Real. On the walls are photos of President Clinton who ate at this restaurant in 1999.  My roasted vegetables (potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, egg plant, carrots, etc) are wonderful.  

Elizabeth Bell explains the floats
used during the Lenten Processional 

We have the afternoon off and a group of 13 of us sign up for a walking tour of Antigua led by Elizabeth Bell.  She first came to Guatemala in as a young teenager in 1969, when her parents moved to the country.  With the excerpt of graduate school, she has continued to live in the country and runs a tourist business and has written books on the history and customs of Antigua.  She begins the tour in the main square, telling us about the Mayan Culture. The Mayans had a dominate civilization that existed as one language group that covered an area from Honduras and El Salvador to Southern Mexico. The civilization collapsed around 950 AD.  She made it clear that the collapse had nothing to do with the arrival of the Europeans (that’d  be another five centuries later). Instead, much of the problem was ecological.  They they had cut the forest and their cities became over populated and could no longer for provide for themselves.  Compounding their problems was the rise of the Aztecs who began demanding tributes of cocoa and jade.  As their connected civilization broke apart, they loss the common language. Other skills (such as the mining and working of Jade) was also lost. In the 16th Centuries, the Spaniards moved down into this area and often enslaved the Mayan people.  

Ruins  of the Old Cathedral 

The original name of the city was Santiago de Guatemala. It was built further up the slope of Fuego, the volcano.  After being destroyed several times, the city was relocated to its current site in the valley.  Even here, it was constantly experiencing damaging earthquakes.  In the 18th Century, after a terrible earthquake, the capital of Guatemala was moved to the other side of the volcano (present day Guatemala City).  At this time, the name of the city was changed to Antigua. Building of city on volcano slope, move to current site, becoming Antigua as government is relocated on other side of the volcanoes...  We tour the old cathedral and are shown the various government office buildings.  Later, we tour a jade factory and meet the woman who, with her husband, found the lost jade deposits along the fault between the North American and Caribbean plates.  Our last stop was at a hotel and museum complex built upon the ruins of Santo Domingo, which was considered the most elaborate church in the colonial times. 

After returning back to our hotel, I head out with a dozen of our group to Mamma’s, a Mediterranean restaurant where I enjoy beef kababs with couscous.  Other team members head to additional restaurants.  Afterwards, we all gather back in the courtyard for cake in celebration one of our team members, JJ’s, birthday. 

The church in Aquacate

We begin early on the Lord’s Day, with devotions at 6:15 AM, followed by breakfast. By 7:30 AM, we are loaded on the buses and heading east, back around the mountain and through Guatemala City and on through Jalapa, to the village of Aguacate (meaning avocado).  It is a five hour drive with one stop!  In Aquacate, with the help of students, we unload a large panel truck with a large number of trunks, boxes, tables, chairs, fans, and six-some wheel chairs. 

Felipe, Village Clinic Director

After lunch, which consist of sandwiches, chips and fruit, we load up for the drive back to Jalapa.  On a long steep hill, our driver misses a gear (the bus has a manual transmission).  Unable to get the bus moving forward, he backs the bus down (in traffic) maybe a quarter mile to where the terrain is more level. He then gets a running start and he heads up the hill in first gear. The bus is working so hard that by the time he’s at the top, the engine is overheating and we have to stop.  He adds water to the radiator and for the rest of the trip we do without air conditioning when heading up hill.  Back in Jalapa, we checked in to the Hotel Puente Viejo.  From the outside, the hotel doesn’t look promising, but on the inside the facilities are beautiful with lots of courtyards and fountains. The building is designed to breezes throughout, making it a very pleasant setting.  We gather to review tomorrow’s plans, which will involve our first clinic, then enjoy dinner. Most of us then head to bed as the day will start very early.