Travel and Lake Days
It has been a long, exciting weekend and the team has settled well into San Lucas Toliman. Our travel day yesterday started at an excruciatingly early 3:00 AM for me, and for those traveling from southern Minnesota alarms went off an hour earlier or more. Our flights went smoothly with a connection through Houston and eight of our ten team members arrived into Guatemala City around noon. We met up with Adrian, the driver sent by the mission, and then waited in the arrivals area for Carmen and Rod, who were coming from Miami. After their arrival, we spent a bumpy three hours riding from Guatemala City to San Lucas, arriving shortly before dinner where we met the LTV team. Our group was absolutely exhausted from travel - most of us nodded off during the car ride despite the bumps, and sudden stops and starts. We managed to not fall asleep in our food but dropped off to sleep shortly after returning to the hotel - I don’t think any member of the team was up past 9:30 PM last night.
Today the team was given the opportunity to explore other villages on Lake Atitlan. We took a lancha (a small boat) first to Santiago. The team climbed the hill to the church and were able to view the monument to Blessed Fr. Stanley Rother as well as the interior of the beautifully decorated church. We shopped our way down the hill back down to the boat. We then traveled to Casa del Mundo, a hotel perched on the cliffs of the lake outside Panajachel, where we ate a leisurely lunch gazing out at the volcanoes. After lunch, we explored San Antonio which has greatly grown and changed since the last time I had visited.
The team organized the suitcases prior to dinner and consolidated our supplies. We are excited, ready to begin clinic tomorrow morning, and have had a EMR orientation. Our first clinic will be in San Juan Mirador and while the first clinic is always slightly chaotic I am confident it will be rewarding as well.
It is an incredible joy to see so many of my Guatemalan friends after a nearly 4 year absence. While I am able to keep up with their lives intermittently over social media, it cannot compare to a hug and a rush of conversation. Beatriz, the accountant for the mission, has a son who is is twice as tall as the last time I saw him. She joked that by the time I will be certified return as a pediatrician he would not be able to visit me as a patient since he’s growing so quickly. Being able to conclude conversations with a “see you soon!” rather than an “I miss you” brings my heart contentment.
Below are some photos from our day on the lake as well as the view from our hotel.
