2012 Sage Mission Day One

SAGE HELPS Team 2012

We arrived Sunday afternoon in San Cristobal.  Our first miracle actually happened on Saturday evening at the airport in Guatemala City; all our bags arrived on the flight with us.  This was the first time that has happened in the nine year history of this team.   

San Cristobal is a new location for this team.  It is a small community near the city of Coban which is located about 4 hours from Guatemala City.  This makes it a much shorter driving time than our usual  10 hour trip to Uspantan.  We head out of Guatemala City to the south and drive through a dryer part of the country then head back northeast into the mountains.  This is the rainy season and we were rained on as soon as we arrived.  Actually it was the people that were standing in line that were rained on.  We were told that some people have been standing in line for a couple of days awaiting our arrival.   

We started to set up about 2:00pm which was nearly 3 hours earlier than usual.  We often work late into the evening especially in the Pharmacy, Kitchen and Surgery areas.  The only thing that slowed us down is that the state of repairs in this hospital is worse than the hospital in Uspantan.  The MacGyver’s had to do more than we normally would to get things like lights working well enough.

This year we again sent an advance team that arrived on Thursday and began to get things organized.  Karen Evers, Scott Young, John Brougher and Jane Shaffer volunteered to spend two more nights on cots and without hot water to get this Jornada off to a smooth start.  Jornada is the local term for this Medical Mission trip.   That’s right the pump to the boiler is not working so we do not have hot water.  There is some talk of bringing in shower heads known as widow makers.  These shower heads have electricity coming to the head to heat the water as it comes through the head.  At 110 volts it will take the chill off the water and 220 volts will make it hot.  The widow part comes when the wiring is done incorrectly.  There is nothing like making your shower a shocking experience.

People seeking medical attention come from surrounding communities as well as San Cristobal to receive the care of our doctors, dentist and vision team.  They start arriving early in the morning and wait patiently in line to be screened by our triage team that then sends them to the appropriate area.

Our team is smaller this year totaling about 65 people, normally 75 or more, from the U.S. with about 25 people from Guatemala offering support in various areas.  One area is the group of translators that comes from exclusive schools in Guatemala City.  These young people have often traveled the world but have not spent any time in the mountains of their own country.   They often find this a life changing experience.  Several have gone on to medical school vowing to help their fellow citizens after spending a week with this team.  Two of our translators were with us in previous years and jumped at the chance to come back again this year.