Our San Lucas mission team made it home to Kansas City last evening.
Thanks to the team for their amazing efforts on behalf of the people of Guatemala.
And thanks to the group in Kansas City who worked tirelessly to get them home despite many challenges.
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To the families and loved ones of our mission travelers, we have spoken to the group directly and they are all well.
Following is the current plan for our team's return to the US.
Monday May 31st
Early morning, buses will pick up team at the hotel in San Lucas. The will be driving to San Salvador, El Salvador, where they will spend the night.
Tuesday June 1st
Group will depart San Salvador early morning and arrive in Houston mid-morning.
They will then catch one of the following flights:
Group 1
Arrive in KANSAS CITY INTL (MCI) at 5:30 PM
OR
Group 2
Arrive in KANSAS CITY INTL (MCI) at 7:45 PM
Plans may be subject to change as weather dictates.
We will update information tomorrow afternoon.
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Good evening.
We have received confirmation from the transportation company that we are still on schedule for departure tomorrow morning.
The group is still scheduled for arrival in San Salvador tomorrow late afternoon.
We will keep you updated tomorrow of their progress and status.
Enjoy the rest of your holiday weekend.
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Another successful day here in San Lucas Toliman. Despite conflicting weather reports of approaching storms, so far the weather has not been too bad, just foggy.
Riley, Kirsty, Susan and Katelyn toured the neighborhood school next door to the clinic this morning. They learned that the Guatemalan government allocates 25 Quetzales per child per year for education (no more than 4 dollars) which is why most of the schools in the country are private. The school is a Spanish non-profit which does not charge its students tuition. The director was kind enough to give the foursome a personal tour and answer questions. He expressed his support of the MMF mission in San Lucas and offered his partnership for future missions. With such limited space at the clinic, it would be valuable to be able to work inside the school next year - we are excited about this opportunity.
The clinic team outdid themselves as they saw nearly 120 patients throughout the day. Talk about efficiency! One of our waiters from the hotel brought his father to be examined due to a lung infection. Our team is happy that we will be able to work him in tomorrow. Upstairs, our surgery team successfully removed a large goiter, or swollen thyroid, from a woman which will probably save her life.
We have three surgeries and a morning full of clinic patients scheduled for tomorrow before we start packing.
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We began our third day with a group photo at the hospital. We had an exceptional day in the O.R. Dr. Mike Waring commented on the fast pace of the surgeons, which allowed them to schedule patients who they had not originally planned on seeing. Dr. Tun had originally scheduled twelve surgeries, but ended up performing eighteen.
A woman came to the clinic on Tuesday with a lump on her breast, but unfortunately we were not able to fit her into our busy schedule. However, since things in the O.R. were moving quickly, Dr. Alley was able to fit her in today and remove the lump successfully. Similar to yesterday, we saw several hernias and gall bladders, ranging from a 45-minute operation to almost two hours. One man had a hernia so large that we had to make an incision on the front and the back of his body.
Members of the O.R. were delighted when Dr. Morales serenaded them during their operations. Dr. Morales, Carmen´s uncle, is notorious for his singing and guitar playing. This was an light-hearted experience during an eventful day.
It was another successful day in the clinic. We saw close to 100 patients. One outstanding story was a teacher, Angelica, who brought one of her students in to see our team of doctors. She mentioned that this boy was from an extremely poor family, and his parents did not have much time to pay attention to his physical needs. She left 30 of her students in the classroom to make sure his health was attended to. This story encompasses the compassion of the people within the community.
Last night several of us were humbly invited to the house of Dr. Will Boegel for dinner. Dr. Boegel and his wife Diana are the founders of the Opal House, where women and children who are at risk are taken in and offered a safe environment. Dr. Boegel lives about 20 minutes from San Lucas, and volunteers at the hospital as a podiatrist. When asked what he thought of our group arriving in San Lucas, Dr. Boegel expressed his gratitude and emphasized the impact we are having on the people of San Lucas.
The art team enjoyed an eventful day making spring bonnets and teaching the kids how to play kickball. Approximately 60 children from the local school joined us in our festivities.
When talking to the doctors about their day, all of them commented on the overflowing gratitude of the patients. Although several patients wait hour after hour, they do not complain and are extremely grateful that they are able to receive this type of care. This is a whole new experience for the people of San Lucas and we are happy to be a part of it.
-Riley Uecker and Kirsty McGhie
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NOTE: Our Mission Volunteers on the ground in Guatemala would love to hear your feedback and encouragement. Please, consider posting a comment at the bottom of this post.
Our second day at Hospital Parroquia San Lucas was as eventful as it was successful! We saw close to 100 patients in the clinic (on Monday we saw close to 60, sorry for the misinformation!) and performed 18 successful surgeries. Most of these cases were hernia or gall bladder removals. A few surgeries stand out in particular. The first was a rhinoplasty, or nasal reconstructive surgery. The patient is a 19 year-old boy who had broken his nose by falling in a river and landing on a rock when he was only 12. Our team was able to reconstruct his severely collapsed nose. This surgery enabled him to breathe through his nose once again and dramatically improved its cosmetic appearance.
Doctors also performed two ear tube surgeries for orphans from the Fundacion Futuro de los Niños (Foundation for the Children´s Future) which is located in Queztaltenango - about 2 ½ hours away. This orphanage does great work and we are thankful for the chance to partner with them. Heidi, a 3 year-old girl, and Nelson, a 6 year-old boy were both removed from their homes due to their parents alcohol abuse. These ear tube surgeries accomplish two things. They improve patients´ hearing and cure chronic infection. This type of surgery is very common in the United States, but here in Guatemala they do not have the personnel or supplies to perform them as needed.
In the clinics we have been seeing mostly amoeba and parasite infections. We also discovered a breast lump in a woman who will be having surgery for its removal later this week. In other news a member of FUNCAFE came to visit the hospital today. FUNCAFE is the coffee growers association here in Guatemala. They helped us get our shipping container (on which we sent most of our medical supplies for the trip and the hospital via sea) into the country and to the town of San Lucas Toliman. The Foundation has established 20 health clinics across the country for the coffee pickers who work in rural areas, most of which are Mayans. MMF is donating exam tables and many medical supplies to these clinics.
Today we also received a visit from Prensa Libre, the national newspaper. A reporter spoke to Carmen Gramajo at length and will be running a story on our trip either Friday or Saturday.
The health clinic we are working in has come a long way. It began as a small facility with only 10 beds 45 years ago on site at the parish. Ten years ago the clinic was moved to the current, larger site, with 33 beds. The hospital has recently seen renovations. They added a ramp from the first floor, which functions as a clinic and in-patient rooms to the second floor which has a dental clinic and operating rooms. The operating rooms have recently been tiled, sealed, equipped with power, air conditioning, emergency power and operating lights. Our team has donated operating tables, gurneys, I.V. poles, a surgical microscope and other medical supplies to the hospital. We are happy to say now local surgeons as well as other visiting specialty teams will be able to perform many more successful surgeries at this clinic.
A little about our hosts: The Catholic parish that is hosting us is La Parroquia San Lucas. The parish is very involved in the community here. In addition to the work they do in the church and the hospital, the parish also has a local land redistribution program, a community coffee farm, an education program and a housing program. Their work helps meet every family´s needs to the best of the community´s ability. They have brought us lunch at the hospital everyday and have been so helpful during our stay here.
Dr. Rafael Tun is the doctor at Hospital La Parroquia San Lucas and has been working closely with us. Dr. Benjamin Maldonado is a general surgeon who lives and practices in Guatemala City, but was born and raised in San Lucas Toliman. For this reason he is another great local addition to our team on the ground here. Pablo Benedicto Santiz Molina has been helping us with all of the logistics in the hospital during our stay. Pablo is another San Lucas native and works closely with the parish. He has been working in the health clinic for 17 years!
This week we also have had Dr. Andrea Cifuentes and Dr. Christian Rodriguez who both practice in Quetzaltenango. Dr. Will Boegel who is an American, but now lives here in San Lucas, has also been helping the team. His organization, Opal House, operates in this community as a Montessori bible school as well as a domestic violence shelter for women and children. We also have translator volunteers from Rice University in Texas with us for the week.
It is obvious that this mission would not be as successful or as well received without all of the hard work from our community partners on the ground here in Guatemala. From our hearts to yours, thank you.
A little more about the area: San Lucas Toliman is on the southeast side of Lake Atitlan, which is in the Western Highlands of Guatemala. The altitude is roughly 5,000 feet above sea level and in between 15,000 and 30,000 people live in town, with an additional 10,000 people living in the äldeas¨, or small surrounding areas.
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Our first day with patients was a major success! The team began arriving at the hospital just after 7 a.m. to start the first surgery cases. You can see Dr. Girod in this photo performing an ultrasound on a young patient with a mass in his neck. Thankfully, it turned out to be benign and his parents were greatly relieved. The most interesting case of the day was Dr. Tally´s removal of an Ascaris worm (a roundworm parasite common to tropical climates) from a woman´s common bile duct which is unheard of in the United States! All in all we saw 16 patients in clinic and performed 11 successful surgeries.
The hospital is located next to a school so there were plenty of kids to keep the art team busy. A soccer showdown of boys versus girls, MMF volunteers included, was a nice end to the work day.Lots of rain today. San Lucas seems to have quieted down some as the townspeople are back to work after their celebratory weekend.
Thank you to all of our team mates from the parish and the hospital who made our first day a fabulous one!
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After a good night´s sleep, the team joined students from Rice University in Texas at our host parish for a pancake breakfast to kick off the week. We gathered our medical suitcases from the hotel and hauled them to the hospital where we spent the rest of the day unpacking and organizing.
Many hands were needed in various areas of the hospital. We sent Carmen, Dr. Girod, Kate and Dr. Kraemer to a nearby orphanage to screen patients for surgery. Josh, Kevin, Guerin, Jenni, Dr. Alley, Dr. Waring, Mike, Teresa, Katie, Michelle and Paula unpacked and organized the
operating room (before and after photos to come!) while Cindy, Claire, Di and Carol prepared the pre-operating area. Ashley, Brad, Hannah and Pat set up the pharmacy while Susan, Katelyn, Riley and Kirsty organized art supplies for the packed waiting rooms.
Unpacked and organized we feel ready for our first day with patients.
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Posts by Kat Girod, Riley Uecker and Kirsty McGhie
Our journey begins at 2:30 a.m. to the buzz of our alarm clocks. Come 3:15 we are trickling into Kansas City International Airport, handing our passports over so we can check in as a group - very reassuring. We board the plane without problem and it is smooth sailing... until we hit Guatemala City - ¨la capital¨.
Anticipating our luggage at the carousel, we realize we are missing 10 bags, some personal - some medical. Luckily for us, we are delayed us just long enough (three hours) to get our missing luggage from the next arriving flight. As customs officers sort our medication into two piles, those that needed prescriptions and those given over the counter, Pat vouches for a bottle of vitamins by popping one in her mouth. Laughing, she gives one to the officer who gladly accepted.
Because of challenges clearing customs, and with our bags still at the airport, we board our buses and start our three-hour journey down bumpy roads to San Lucas Toliman. Although the trip is arduous, we realize as soon as we arrive to our beautiful hotel that is worth it. At the base of lush green mountains and on the shores on Lake Atitlan, the people of the town are celebrating Pentecost and the town is in full-festive mode. After a delicious dinner and a quick team meeting we wander to our beds.
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