I could sense the
initial fear from her eyes as she sat down, hesitating to look directly at my
colleagues or me. Instead, she looked down at the floor as if she was ashamed
for doing something bad in front of her parents. After the translator had
finished explaining to her who we were and what we were going to do, I smiled,
looked directly at her, and began asking questions to complete her intake form.
In the aftermath, upon receiving medication for her diagnosis, she got up and
walked over to each of us, giving us all a hug and saying, “Thank you.”
Considering how she was the very first patient I encountered on my trip in
Guatemala, it is easy to see how much the people there appreciated what we were
doing for them.
I took part of
this trip not because it’s something cool to put on my résumé or as a vacation,
but because I wanted to learn more about the medical field and gain a first
hand experience on diagnosing and treating patients, all while immersing myself
within Guatemalan culture. The difference between this trip and my trip to
Ghana was that here in Guatemala; I was actually doing something relevant. In
Ghana, I had originally wanted to volunteer at a hospital but that never
happened and as a result, I became enamored with simply being there and traveling
around, reveling in the experience of being in a country completely different
from the U.S. In Guatemala, I had the perfect balance of work and play, with 6
8-hour clinic days to treat as many patients as we could (while taking enough
time to accurately diagnose each patient instead of rushing over them) and
other days to travel around, shop, eat and learn more about the history of each
city we were in.
The program I
travelled with is called VIDA (http://www.vidavolunteer.org/)
and I learned about them through my school. VIDA has 3 programs (medical,
dental, veterinary) and they lead students who sign up for the programs onto
trips in Guatemala, Nicaragua or Costa Rica, where they get to provide basic
medical services to the people and animals in communities who need it. There’s
a VIDA club on campus that was planning a trip to Nicaragua in September and I
wanted to go, however, I was also applying to be an HIV Peer Counselor at the
time and the training dates conflicted with the program dates. So I looked into
other programs and picked this open trip to Guatemala, in case I did get the
Peer Counselor position (I didn’t).
To be blunt,
Guatemala, in general, is a country filled with short people. Within moments of
stepping outside the airport and looking at the giant crowd of people waiting
for their loved ones, I noticed the majority of them were at my chest level. I
wasn’t towering over these people, but it’s different when people who are in
their 20’s look like they haven’t hit their growth spurt yet. The majority of
them practice Catholicism, but some retain their traditional Mayan heritage and
blend both religions together.
Regardless, the
people usually kept to themselves, never staring for too long at foreigners or
trying to initiate conversations with them. I think it’s because of the
language barrier, as they probably assume most of us don’t understand Spanish
or any of the indigenous Mayan languages. In Ghana, people would come up to me
and strike a conversation all the time, because they all knew English (and
maybe because they thought I was Jesus with my beard), so that was a little
different. The areas we travelled through were mainly through very green
mountains with scattered volcanoes here and there. It was nice though because
the weather would always be perfect, a nice mixture of sun, wind and clouds.
Being a vegetarian
in Guatemala was easy, although a lot of my meals were literally raw or cooked
vegetables. Like, just vegetables. No soups or rice, only veggies. But I can’t
complain that much, since it was the best they can do, and it’s not a big deal.
At least I was healthy! But the main staples are corn and tortillas, with
beans, eggs or some sort of meat. The food can be spicy and flavorful at times
but I really liked how colorful all the vegetables would look on my plate. They
also have this tea called Rosa de Jamaica (hibiscus tea), which seemed like a
commonplace thing to have anywhere we went, but it was really, really good.
I started off the
trip by being the first person from my group to arrive and things became a
little complicated when a flight carrying 4 other group members from Atlanta
got delayed, but eventually we were all together in the evening, having our
introductory dinner and getting to know one another. We had an 8 hour
orientation where we split into our respective groups (medical or dental) and
learned about how to ask questions, fill out the intake form and check vital
signs like temperature, blood pressure, heart and respiration rate, height and
weight. Soon after, we headed to Parramos, where we got to stay with a host
family for 3 nights. Thankfully and surprisingly, my Spanish was good enough to
hold actual conversations with the family, and I, along with another girl in
our group who spoke Spanish, soon became the group representatives whenever we
would go out to eat or shop.
We then had our
first 2 clinic days in a small community called Zaragoza, near the bigger city
Chimaltenango. 3 of the students were part of the dental group and 6 of us were
part of the medical group. The 6 of us were divided into 2 groups of 3, where
we worked with a translator who would act as a communicator between the patient
and us. A typical clinic day involves unloading all the equipment from the bus,
setting it up, and getting chairs to form circles for the patients and us. Once
we were ready, the translators would go over and bring a patient(s), who were
usually women with their children. Each one of us in the group of 3 would be in
charge of asking questions, writing responses down on intake forms or checking
vital signs, and we would alternate jobs with each patient that came in. During the 3rd and 4th clinic days, we sometimes got patients who could only speak one of the Mayan languages, so we had to get a Mayan to Spanish translator, which made each round much longer than normal. Patience was the key during these days. After
we were done asking questions and the vital signs were checked, we would call
over the doctor, where we reviewed the case with him and gave him our
diagnosis. He would then make sure that our diagnosis was sound before
proceeding to describe the treatment plan with us. We would then go over the
diagnosis and treatment plan to the patient with the help of the translator.
Sometimes, the doctor would also talk to the patient to answer their questions
or give further instructions or recommendations. Once the patient left, the
doctor would ask us questions related to what we saw before leaving us to see the
next patient. On the second leg of clinic days, we would have case discussions
where each group had the opportunity present a noteworthy case and ask further
in-depth questions. We would get a snack break at around 10 and an hour lunch
break at 12 before continuing seeing patients until 4 or 5, depending on how
many were left. Afterwards, we would leave our equipment if we would be
returning tomorrow, or packing everything up if we were leaving to a new town,
return to our homestay/hotels, freshen up, and go out for dinner before
lounging about and going to bed.
From Parramos, we
travelled to Panajachel, a city on Lake Atitlán where we had 2 more clinic days
in Sololá. We also got to explore around the lake and do the most of our
shopping from the vendors lined up outside our hotel. And finally, from Pana,
we went to the former colonial town of Antigua, where we took part in a city
tour, had an evening intro to Latin dance class, and finished up our last 2
clinic days in Sacatepéquez, before congregating back to Guatemala City for our
final farewell dinner.
All in all, one
thing I can say from this trip is that I’m more strongly leaning towards going
to med school now. It’s always been my mentality since entering college to go
to med school, but I was never really confident with that mindset. However,
trip pushed the needle in the med school direction more. It was eye opening to
see how many patients listened to people who were not doctors and as a result,
took medication that was irrelevant to their conditions or they didn’t even
believe they had certain complications. For example, one patient was told from
someone not a doctor that rubbing coffee and dirt into a wound would help make
it better. But the important thing in all this is education: making sure patients
knew that they had to go see actual doctors and take their medication even if
symptoms weren’t explicitly showing, while encouraging better lifestyle habits.
It’s a good feeling knowing that I made a difference in these communities,
regardless of how big or small it was. And patients clearly showed their
appreciation for what we were doing, in the form of shaking hands, hugs, kisses
on the cheeks and simple thank yous.
I would definitely
recommend this trip to anyone interested in medical, dental or veterinary
fields and I’d be happy to answer further questions if you want. And lastly,
I’m not sure if any of you will make it this far to read this part, but thank
you to the coordinators, translators and doctor for all the work and help
you’ve put in making this trip seamless. And also, thank you to my fellow
volunteers for making this trip memorable to me. I had so much fun interacting
with all of you and you’ve all taught me so many new things apart from sciencey mumbo-jumbo. I hope you don’t forget me in my little corner out west!
