On May 14th eight senior nursing students and two faculty members, Kim Ziegler and Kathleen Walker left Rochester International Airport to fly to Guatemala City. This day was the culmination of on-campus classes, an evening at InterVol to work and pick up donated supplies, several days of Spanish classes, a few team building activities and months of collecting vitamins, toothbrushes and other medications from unsuspecting family, friends, and church members. Other than the seven hour lay over in Dallas and late take off from there, the flight was uneventful, as was customs and immigration – Praise the Lord!

Monday morning we met our three translators and Joe Walenchiak from John Brown University in Arkansas who helped set up the experience, loaded the top of the van with 24 bags and suitcases (12 of them containing medications and supplies) and set off for Santa Cruz, a small mountain village about a four hour drive from Guatemala City. We again praised the Lord for a safe trip up narrow winding mountain roads, no car sickness episodes and beautiful scenery. That afternoon we set up the clinic in a small two room building, using the porch as our intake station, one room for pharmacy and hanging a sheet to divide the larger room to make two examination rooms. From Tuesday morning until Thursday afternoon at 3:30 we saw, treated and provided medication, toothbrushes and toothpaste to 436 men women and children, 121 of these were seen during a four hour stretch Thursday morning! It was quite a clinic.

Friday we drove back to the city and that evening went to The Lord’s Kitchen, a soup kitchen that provided a meal for 536 people that evening. We served food, prayed for the people and treated close to 150 of them for medical problems ranging from headaches to broken bones and a probable pneumothorax. We could not give them medication to take out with them so it was a one time shot. (Just how much Amoxil is a safe and effective one time dose for a 15 month old who most likely has pneumonia (at least it sounded like that might be the problem when we listened to his chest)? And don’t forget, you must estimate his weight by lifting him, since there were no scales. Students washed and treated feet that had not seen soap and water for months – or so the odors proclaimed. And they did it with a smile that radiated with Christ’s love. It was a tremendous trip!