Mid Coast Today

For years, students, faculty, and staff from Saint Joseph's College have volunteered in small Mayan villages in Guatemala. They provide medical aid, help to build basic cinder-block homes, distribute hundreds of pounds of donated items, and spent time simply relaxing and interacting with local families. Generally, the week also includes excursions to the Mayan ruins, the colonial capital of Antigua, and to Panajachel, a scenic village nestled on the shore of beautiful Lake Atitlan. This December a group of SJC students and faculty will spend six days (12/16 - 12/22) in Guatemala. This group includes junior alpine skier Maeghan Perkins (Turner, Maine), who will share photos and daily blog posts so readers can learn more about the trip and the students' experiences! 

Day 01 Friday 12/16

Today was a travel day! We left campus at 1:30 am and drove down in one of the school vans to Boston for our first flight. After getting breakfast (Starbucks for some, pizza for others) and waiting in the airport at the gate, we boarded the plane and without any problems made it to Texas for our connection. We had to sprint what was probably a half mile from the gate we landed at to the gate where the next flight was out of, which was chaotic, but we made it. This flight took us to Guatemala City. The drive from Guatemala City to the hotel we are staying in was supposed to take 3 hours, but because if traffic it took almost 5. When we arrived, it had been almost 15 hours of traveling and for most of us we had been awake since Thursday morning, so after eating dinner we crashed hard.

Day 02 Saturday 12/17

Today was the first day in the clinic. We had breakfast this morning and then headed five minutes down the road to the village. We walked around the village in the morning. We were able to see the first house that Partners in Development (PID) built when they first came to the village, which was incredible. We also went down to the river that runs alongside the village - which was an adventure, only a couple of us fell in trying to cross it. When we returned to the clinic, we began prepping to see patients for the afternoon.

Patients arrived at the clinic around 1. Patients checked in at the front and then were brought to the first room, in which they were asked a series of questions about their home life and their health (with the assistance of fabulous translators). After this, the anemia testing was done. This was accomplished with a finger prick and using a device that measures hemoglobin levels in the blood. If patients were below the minimum threshold for their age range, they were asked to come back on Wednesday for the informational session we are holding. Following the clinic we returned to the hotel, went in the pool, and then had dinner and played cards.

Day 03 Sunday 12/18

Today the clinic was closed, so Maria Jose, the director of PID here, took us to the cacao farm where she sources her cacao beans from for her chocolate shop. The farm is located just up the road from the village where the clinic is. At the farm they also have sugarcane, rubber trees, and tilapia fish. The farm is a family business, Juan Pablo the current owner, he inherited it from his grandfather.  Today was the championship for the World Cup, so when we arrived, we watched some of the game with Juan Pablo, which was so fun. He took us on a tour of the area where he raises the tilapia and then he walked us through the process of harvesting the cacao pods from the cacao trees and the amount of hard work that goes into getting enough beans to produce the chocolate. It is mainly women who work harvesting and producing the cacao beans, which is not common throughout Guatemala. We got to try cacao beans fresh from the pod, which have a thin, super sweet coating on them. Juan Pablo also gave us bananas straight off the banana tree (these are quite possibly the best bananas I have ever had), and also chocolate that was made recently from the cacao beans he produces. Following the farm, we went to the clinic for lunch and then returned to the hotel to spend the afternoon and evening in the pool and preparing for the first full day in the clinic tomorrow!

Day 04 Monday 12/19

Today was the first full day in the clinic. We started early (around 8) seeing patients. This morning we saw roughly 50 patients from another village near the PID clinic. The majority of the patients that we saw were moms who brought in three to five children of varying ages. The patients came into the clinic by appointment and before we tested their hemoglobin levels, we went through a short questionnaire that helped us to better understand what their life at home was like and what they were eating. We also recorded height and weight of each patient before obtaining the blood sample for the hemoglobin test. The appointments were split into morning and afternoon sessions, so between the two we had lunch. During lunch, Adrian one of our translators, took us to an almond tree next door. The almonds grow in pods that are attached to the tree and when they are ripe, they fall and can be collected to be opened, and the almond is inside. Also at lunch, Maria Jose brought us sweet bread to try, which was absolutely incredible, I've never had anything like it. The second round of patients in the afternoon went through the same process as the patients in the morning. We saw roughly 35 patients this afternoon. After the clinic closed at 4 we came back to the hotel to regroup and rest, as a portion of us weren't feeling the greatest. Maria Jose joined us for dinner tonight, and then we prepared for seeing patients tomorrow! 

Day 05 Tuesday 12/20

Today we were up and out early again to get to the clinic for 8. We saw patients in the morning (from around 9-12) for anemia testing. I believe we saw 30ish patients during this session. During lunch we went to Maria Jose's  chocolate shop, Chocolate Yurrita, which was right up the street from the PID clinic. This shop was started by her father, and she has since continued it and is teaching her children to run it as well. The way she makes her chocolate is very specific and it is made with so much care and love. It is called bean to bar, and it means that Maria Jose is very involved in every step of the process - from the selection of the beans from the cacao trees at the farm we went to on Sunday, to the actual creation of the bar of chocolate. This chocolate is purely cacao and sugar of varying ratios, nothing else is added to it so it is extremely pure, and the taste is unlike anything else I've had for chocolate. We all purchased several bags to bring home to our families and friends to try. After lunch we compiled the data we had gathered over the last several days and planned the education sessions and cooking demonstrations for Wednesday, and then we went back to the hotel (to the pool!) and had dinner before another intense game of cards.

Day 06 Wednesday 12/21

Today we were seeing the patients who had been positive for anemia over the last four testing sessions. We had divided each of those four sessions into four time blocks for them to come to the clinic - 9am, 10:30am, 1:00pm, & 2:30pm. During each of these sessions each of us met with individual families and discussed with them what anemia is, how it is developed, and what steps can be taken to reverse / prevent anemia. We also provided each of the families who were positive for anemia with a Lucky Iron Fish. The Lucky Iron Fish is a fish-shaped cast iron ingots used to provide dietary supplementation of iron to individuals affected by iron-deficiency anemia. The Lucky Iron Fish are placed in a pot of boiling water to leach elemental iron into the water and food. For each of the four groups of patients we asked to come back, we also gave them several recipes with iron rich foods to incorporate into their diet and cooked one of them in a demo for them to try. After the last session was over, so many of the kids from around the clinic were hanging out in the backyard and we were dancing with them and making paper airplanes and having so much fun. They were teaching us Spanish, and we were teaching them some English and it was such a heartwarming afternoon. We were all sad to leave  the clinic and the village because we have made such strong connections with everyone there in such a short time. We came back to the hotel, went in the pool (as one does), had dinner and then we got frozen chocolate bananas which were amazing. Tomorrow, we leave early to start our travel back to the States.

General Q&A: 

How many students are on the trip? How many faculty/staff?

• There are 10 students: Maeghan Perkins, Carly Jordan, Sophia Viger, Emily Dion, Connor Bogdanski, Samuel Jalbert, Jessica Turcotte, Faith Brown, Noah Newman, & Aalyiah WilsonFalcone
• There are 2 staff/faculty: Camilla Bridge & Dr. Patricia Waters

Why did you decide to go? Have you ever traveled outside the US before?

• I decided to come on this trip because I have always had a passion for service and doing what I can to help those around me, and when I took the Public Health in a Developing Country course last year with Dr. Difiore and Mrs. Bridge, I immediately knew that this was something I wanted to get involved with. The work that PID does is so incredibly important to the communities that they are in. Having the opportunity to be a part of something that is so much bigger than myself is a unique experience that I will never forget. 
• I have traveled to Greece and Turkey when I was a junior in high school, but that was not a service trip. I went on the trip with my Latin class and we saw a lot of historical monuments and ancient ruins that related to what we were discussing in the class.

Tell us more about the food, the weather, different wildlife/plants etc you see: 

• The food here is absolutely incredible, it is so flavorful. We have been eating eggs - either scrambled or in a burrito or an omelette so far - and some form of fruit each day for breakfast. For lunch we have had tortillas, refried beans, vegetables, chicken, beef, and potatoes, all in different varieties. The tortillas are unlike any tortilla that I've ever had in the US. They are corn tortillas, made fresh by hand every day and they are the best part of every meal. Dinners have been chicken, steak, potatoes, beans, rice, and some type of vegetable. We have had a different dessert every night - rice pudding, ice cream, tres leches cake (SO SO GOOD), and jello. Also at every meal we have had a different type of juice - pineapple, orange, blackberry, papaya, and tamarind. These are fresh squeezed before each meal and they are so delicious.

Describe the hotel & accomodations:

• The hotel is more than we could ask for here. The staff cook us a sit down breakfast and dinner each day that is absolutely delightful, and Julio the owner checks in with each of us to make sure we have everything we need. There are two of us in each room, which has its own private bathroom with a shower. The hotel is quaint. It has a restaurant at the front, an outdoor seating area just behind that, and a pool (with water slides!) in the space behind that. Our rooms are cabin style in the area behind the pool and they are more than comfortable for us. The areas around the cabins are full of lush greenery and plants, and the views of the mountains are incredible. 

Original source can be found here