Adios Guatemala!

As we leave the Land of Eternal Spring, I would like to spend a few moments reflecting on our journey these past 12 days. This trip has been an incredible learning experience for both our students and faculty members as we explored healthcare and culture in Central America. As recounted in the posts below, we learned a great deal about the differences in how hospitals operate in the United States and Guatemala, particularly the discrepancies in infrastructure and how patients pay for care. We also saw firsthand the diseases that are prevalent in a developing country and how those differ from conditions in a developed nation. At the Mission, we learned how Guatemalans are bettering their community through a number of grassroots projects, including equitable agriculture, reforestation, and construction of a women’s center. We are very happy to have contributed, even in such a small way as short term volunteers, to the great work being done by the Mission.

One of the goals of the trip was to go outside our normal comfort zones to engage the people of Guatemala and learn from their experiences. Our students really stepped up in this area through the completion of oral interviews in Spanish with hospital staff and patients, as well as keeping a running dialogue with the local people we encountered. I am particularly proud of the professionalism, positive attitude, and openness to learning that our students demonstrated while abroad.

So where do we go from here? In the near term, of course, we are all heading home to reconnect with our families and friends with whom we will share our experiences in Guatemala. Over the long term, I would have to guess that each of us has been changed in some way as a result of this trip. Seeing firsthand the unbridled joy of a Guatemalan child playing soccer in the street, a young man carrying hundreds of pounds of firewood on his back since he cannot afford a car, and farmers working on the side of a mountain because it is the only land available to them are just a few of the snapshots that are etched in my memory. As was mentioned in the previous post, the question is really about what we will do in our own professional and personal lives as a result of what we have seen.

I hope you have enjoyed reading about our Guatemalan adventure. While the trip itself is over, our work with our Guatemalan friends is really just beginning.

-M. Rust