Beautiful Chaos

Guatemala here we are!! We have been preparing for this trip for nine months and we are finally here. It feels unreal. The travel was long and exhausting but the second we all got in our bus headed for Coban everyone eagerly looked out the window attempting to take everything in as if it would slip through our finger tips. We settled into Coban and had our first dinner together with the entire team where we were all awaiting the first day clinics with excitement and nerves. 

Our first day of clinic was beautiful chaos. It began with meeting new people, unpacking all the supplies we brought and learning to communicate without a common language. My first clinic day was spent in the pharmacy in the morning then with our adult doctor, Dr. Felipe, in the evening. A highlight from today was occurred after setting up the pharmacy, when we began receiving prescriptions from our doctors. With the amazing help of Dr. Eric (the farmacéutico) MinhThy and I put the medications together and a Guatemalan nursing student, Eduardo, recorded the prescriptions. After completing one prescription, Eduardo asked me the quantity of a particular prescription and recalling the previous prescription I filled I showed “1..2..0” on my hands, with which he wrote “21?” on his hand and I repeated to sign 120 to him. We continued to look at each other confused when he finally picked up the pill bottle and pointed to the pills showing me that there were clearly not 120 pills. I looked back at the original prescription paper and found it was indeed 21 pills. I showed him the paper and we both giggled at my mistake. 

It feels like a silly moment to share but it was one of the best moment I look back at today because one of my biggest fears for this trip was the language barrier and showing that I care despite that. However in this silly moment I realized both Eduardo and I are feeling the same way about the work that is done at Cuidad de la Esperanza. The feeling of belonging that I have felt from my very first meeting with the team has only been amplified upon arriving in this community and it is only the first day!

I am beyond excited for what lies ahead in our time here at Cuidad de la Esperanza.

Mila Trombley