My final letter - to my Guatemalan family

For my final post, I thought I would just share my final letter to my Guatemalan family, mostly to my 54-year-old “Mom” and 80-year-old grandma, Francisca, who took care of me everyday in Quetzaltenango and invited me into their own family through food, invitations to family occasions, but most of all, through sharing their thoughts, perspectives, and feelings with me little by little each day. I will start with the Spanish I wrote and gave to them the morning before I left but I’ll put an English translation below…

Querida Antonietta y Francisca, y la familia Sum,

No puedo explicarles en palabras lo que esta experiencia ha significado para mí. Su amistad, compasión, optimismo y amor es una inspiración. Antes, nunca había tenido una experiencia sintiéndome como parte de una nueva familia. Desde el primer día, de mi viaje, ustedes se han relacionado conmigo con tanto amor. Ustedes son mis maestras no sólo de español sino también de su cultura tan especial y su estilo de vida que ustedes han desarrollado durante una vida llena de alegría y también, de desafíos. Cuando me han compartido sus pensamientos y perspectivas, me han dado una vista importante del mundo. Somos de lugares y orígenes diferentes pero podemos compartir nuestras perspectivas de la vida y esto es una cosa buenísima.

Especialmente, he disfrutado platicando con ustedes sobre nuestras diferentes religiones. Ustedes tienen una pasión linda por Dios y al final, una pasión para pasar su vida dando amor a otras personas. A través de sus bendiciones, oraciones, enseñanzas, y acciones generosas, sus amigos se pueden sentir más satisfechos con sus alrededores. Lo bonito es que podemos apoyarnos por medio de nuestras diferentes experiencias.

También, quisiera decirles que su cuidado diario para mí – la comida, las invitaciones a sus eventos y su atención tierna - ha hecho mi estancia acá muy agradable. A veces, es muy difícil para los estudiantes extranjeros acostumbrarse por el idioma y la cultura diferente en Guatemala. No obstante, yo tengo suerte de haber vivido en su casa. Gracias por siempre platicar conmigo durante las comidas y por frecuentemente preguntarme de mis preferencias. Son estas cosas pequeñas que han hecho mi experiencia acá tan especial. Yo puedo ver que ustedes tienen mucha experiencia cuidado tiernamente a estudiantes, y por eso, yo he tenido una estancia perfecta acá en Xela.

Voy a extrañarles toda mi vida y nunca voy a olvidarles. Ojalá que yo pudiera visitarles en junio o en julio que viene cuando tenga una vacación de la facultad. Por supuesto, voy a llamarles por teléfono cuando yo tenga planes. También, tenemos que mantener contacto. Yo quisiera escribirles cartas a menudo y ustedes siempre pueden llamarme por teléfono.

Además, siempre les espero a ustedes, a sus parientes, y a sus amigos en Houston. Cuando cualquiera de estas personas estén en la ciudad, ¡POR FAVOR de llámenme y yo puedo recoger a estas personas para ayudarlos en una cuidad extranjera. Me encantaría visitar y platicar con sus familiares en cualquier momento.

¡Qué les vaya bien y que vivan más años repletos de alegría, diversión, amor, platica, y por supuesto, un pocito de descanso!

Con mucho amor,
Sarah Beth Christine

~

Dear Antonietta and Francisca and the family Sum,

I cannot explain in worlds what this experience has meant to me. Your friendship, compassion, optimism and love are an inspiration. Before, I had not had an experience feeling like part of a new family. From the first day of my trip, you related with me with so much love. You are my teachers not just of Spanish but also of your very special culture and your way of life that you have developed during a life full of happiness and also, of challenges. When you shared your thoughts and perspectives, you gave me an important view of the world. We are from different places and different origins but we can share our perspectives of life and this is a very beautiful thing.

Especially, I have enjoyed talking with you about our different religions. You have a beautiful passion for God and all-in-all, a passion to live your life giving love to others. Through your prayers, services, teachings, and generous actions, your friends can feel more satisfied with their surroundings. What is beautiful is that we can support each other through our different experiences.

Also, I would like to tell you that your daily care of me – the food, the invitations to your events, and your tender care – has made my stay here so pleasant. At times, it is very difficult for foreign students to accustom themselves because of the different language and culture here in Guatemala. Nonetheless, I have had luck having lived en your house. Thank you for always talking with me during meals and for frequently asking me about my preferences. It is these small things that have made my experience here so special. I can see that you have a lot of experience taking good care of students, and for this, I have had a perfect stay here in Xela.

I am going to miss you all my life and I will never forget you. Hopefully I can visit in June or July of next year when I have a vacation. Of course, I will call you when I have plans. Also, we must keep in touch. I would like to write you cards often, and you can always call me.

Furthermore, I always welcome you, your relatives, and your friends in Houston. When any of these people are in the city, PLEASE call me and I can pick them up to help them in a foreign city! I would love to visit and talk with your friends in any moment.

I hope all goes well and that you live more years full of happiness, fun, love, talk, and of course, a bit of rest!

With much love,
Sarah Beth Christine

My final project - research about the access to laboratories in Guatemala and the relationship of that access to treatment of common infections

Academically, we wrapped up the trip when everyone in the group wrote a research project on a topic related to health in Latin America. There were such interesting topics, including the economic effects of Latin American immigrants in the U.S., homosexuality in Quetzaltenango, the importance of HPV screening/education in Guatemala, the advantages of legalizing abortion, remittances, cardiovascular disease and nutrition, a traveler’s guide to Xela, the present health issues of contaminated water, and the issues with processed food and agriculture in the country. When we presented these projects to each other the second-to-last day of the program, I definitely learned a lot!

I got the idea for my paper from working in the social clinic I.C.A. A lot of children and adults come in with infections every day – food poisoning in their intestines, bacterial infections in their lungs and throat, and lots of improperly treated viral colds. They do not have a lot of access to medication (the only place to get free medication is in the hospital) and the same lack of access applies to laboratory tests (for instance to test their feces or sputum for bacteria/virus/parasites). I actually got a bacterial infection from street food back in February, and the first thing I did was get a lab test to make sure it was in fact bacterial (rather than just viral or from parasites) to make sure that taking an antibiotic was the right thing. Most people in Xela do not have that luxury.

Therefore my thesis statement consisted of the following – “The improper treatment of throat, lung, and intestinal infections and the resistance to antibiotics are serious problems in Latin America and Guatemala, and we need to improve this as soon as possible. An important way to do this is increase access to laboratories for the general Guatemalan population.”

Or in Spanish –
“El tratamiento equivocado de las infecciones de la garganta, de los pulmones, y de los intestinos y la resistencia a los antibióticos son problemas serios en América Latina y Guatemala, y necesitamos mejorarlo lo antes que podamos. Un medio importante para hacerlo es aumentar el acceso a los laboratorios.”

My report had a lot of background information related to the incidence of infection in Latin America, the history or antibiotic resistance in Latin American countries, and a few interviews with doctors in the United Status (thank you to everyone who took time to help me out!) about the prevalence of antibiotic resistance and the relative importance of the clinical history and laboratory tests in diagnosing the causes of common infections. We need a lot of things in Guatemala the improve the treatment of infections – more doctors, more facilities, education, and of course more laboratory tests, but I also looked at the financial tangibility of the government (or maybe international donors) providing more services – one of my points is that giving free lab tests to people who need them is cheaper than hiring a doctor to give free consults.

Thanks again to everyone who helped me with this paper (if you want to read it I can e-mail it to you, just be aware it’s in Spanish right now). I really enjoyed writing it, and actually I still want to make a lot of modifications and submit it for a possible research grant to go back to Guatemala and possibly visit Honduras/Nicaragua next summer. We’ll see what happens :)

Multiple Goodbyes

Because of a few of the groupies leaving Guatemala for personal events and work, we actually had our goodbye dinner the first week in June at “Sabor de la India,” a surprisingly great Indian restaurant in Xela! Dinners with the group are never dull, complete with a homemade music video, a slide show, superlatives, and of course, awesome speeches.


The starts of our “Boyz 2 Men in Guatemala” video…




And some speeches,





"Somos Hermanos" Diplomas!



And the Tuesday morning of our last week (the morning before Raquel left for TFA!), Judy prepared us all a delicious banana-pancake breakfast and we had our official graduation from Spanish class at the school!

Making pancakes!




And Maya gave out the beautiful friendship bracelets she made for everyone :)




The graduation in the backyard of the school with the group, our teachers, and my Guatemalan family even came!
Maya and Raquel sang a song for entertainment in true SH tradition...

One of the teacher's Johanna making some nice comments about one of her favorite students, Ricardo,

Receiving my diploma from my teacher from the last week, Claudia,

Antonietta (aka my Guatemalan "mom") came,

We made speeches too :)...

Last 4 Weeks in Xela and a "Christmas" Party!

When I got back to Xela after dropping off my UPenn girls back at the airport, I was sadly faced with my final four weeks in Guatemala, studying, conferencing, and writing my thesis. But all these things are such great projects, and I got to face it all hanging out with my all of the awesome “Somos Hermanos crew!” y tenemos que aprovechar (we have to seize the day)! And after these four weeks, I definitely think we did take advantage of our rapidly passing 6 months.

For the last four weeks, we no longer have volunteer projects, but instead focus on our Spanish back in private tutoring Monday-Friday for 4 hours every morning. The program is definitely designed well, giving us time to solidify the Spanish we’ve learned and tie up all the culture things we’ve been exposed to in our theses.

But despite the hard work, our group definitely found the time to have a lot of fun.

Example = “Navidad en Junio (Christmas in June)" party hosted by Judy and Raquel
Note – the awesome costumes and decorations :)
The hosts…

Doña Santa Claus and her awesome cookies (Jess, master baker)




Scrooge and the little drummer girl (Brooke and Rekha)


THE SOMOS HERMANOS GUATEMALAN CHRISTMAS CREW!
Note – 5/11 of us are Jewish :)

Roles include (from bottom to top, left to right)
Jesus = Ricky
A present = Sharon
~
Doña (Mrs.) Santa Claus = Jess
The happy hosts = Judy and Raquel
Christmas caroler = Maya
~
Excited Christmas kid = Miguel
“Christmas Nice…” = me
Scrooge = Brooke
Drummer girl = Rekha
Storm = Hang

Jammin’ to the Christmas tunes

Jen, Jackie, and Ainsley Visit!!

Thanks to a great Expedia deal, a few of my UPenn roommates came to visit me right after my trip to El Salvador! They were good sports, because adjusting to the discomforts of Guatemala is a bit of a challenge, but with only 5 days off from work (over the weekend for Memorial Day), I think we saw some great sites of Guatemala and had some fun times.


I loved showing my girls the beautiful parts of Guatemala that I’ve already seen, and it was wonderful catching up after months of being apart. From the airport on Friday, we went straight to San Pedro, a fun village on the beautiful “Lake Atitlan.” We went kayaking, where Jen and Ains unfortunately got horrible sun burns, but it was good exercise and the view was beautiful. San Pedro is also known for its shopping, awesome food (Israeli and French food included!), and interesting back packing crowd.

Lunch at a cafe on the lake…

Dinner at “Zoola” – our hotel and taste of Israeli food in Guatemala


Sunday I got to take them to Chichistenango (my first time too!) – the biggest artisan market in Guatemala (with two big days each week, conveniently for us on Tuesday and Sunday)




With our awesome buys :)



We finished the trip back in Antigua, the old colonial capital close to Guatemala City. We took it easy taking in the beauty of the city and checking out some churches and museums on the way.

In Central Park,

And around more of Antigua...

Catching up - a Tour of El Salvador

One of the main parts of the Somos Hermanos program is a 10-day political/social/cultural tour of El Salvador, where we learned about the history of the country, visited rural communities, and conferenced/discussed the current political situation. The trip was a life changing experience, especially sleeping in the one-room houses in two of the rural communities. Like Guatemala, the tiny country of El Salvador was overwhelmed by a 12-year (started in 1980) civil war. But even worse than Guatemala (mostly because of the small size of the country), the entire indigenous population was wiped out (or lost their culture). In El Salvador today, you do not see any traditional clothing or indigenous cultural traditions.

During our tour, we were based at a guest house in San Salvador, the capital. Our trip was organized by a great non-profit organization there, called “Centro de Intercambio y Solaridad (Center of Exchange and Solidarity)” and we had a guide named Christie (www.cis-elsalvador.org). She was born in El Salvador and so nice and intelligent. She spoke great English but of course spoke none of that to us so we could practice our Spanish :) San Salvador is a very busy, crowded city (a lot like Guatemala City in some ways), but there was a lot to learn too. In 1980, when the army started massacring many of the indigenous populations to take their land (and also out of pure racism as well), the Catholic archbishop, Óscar Romero, stood up in protest against the army. Before and after his assassination by the army, he was a huge inspiration to the poor population – you see paintings and statues dedicated to him everywhere. Much of the history we learned focused around him. You can see a statue dedicated to him in one of the main churches in San Salvador…


Another highlight of this trip was definitely the food. At guest house in San Salvador, a lady named Carmencita made all our meals – complete with thick and fresh corn tortillas, fresh veggies and fruit, and of course, black beans! El Salvador is also famous for “pupusas” – thick, hand-made corn biscuit-like flat bread (made using masa de maíz, a maize flour dough used in a lot of Latin America) that is stuffed with one or more of the following beans, meat, or beans and cheese that actually are not a tradition of indigenous communities but rather just developed into something popular in recent years. Below you can see the ladies grilling tons of pupusas outside a great “pupusería” we visited for dinner.

Pupusas!

Hanging out after dinner at the guest house…


As I said before, one of the most emotionally charged parts of the trip was the visits (two of which were overnight) to the rural communities. We brought lots of piñatas for the kids and were lucky enough to sit and listen to their stories of economic and emotional hardship throughout the civil war and recent years. In a community called San Antonio, the community is fortunately semi-self-sustaining with a new bakery and a small association of people who give prescriptions to people who are sick, but they do not have the capacity to change their status much more. The family we stayed with for the night had 6 people (2 young children included) living in one room filled with their four beds and a small kitchen attached. Raquel and I sat with the family for a couple hours that night in their house (everyone stayed with different families in pairs), and the father told us about how the community has the capacity to grow food and sell it, but in El Salvador today, there are not any buyers. Most of the rest of the rural population is similarly struggling to self-sustain their own communities and are not going to buy goods from the others.

A couple pictures of one of the houses in a rural community (called “Cinquera”) where we stayed for the night –

…In this room, there are 3 beds are on the other side of the room and you can see one of their babies sleeping on the floor.


And unfortunately, there is not much government relief for these communities but rather more challenges. In the first community we visited the community leaders told us about their recent struggles just to keep their land. The government wants to charge them inordinate amounts of taxes (basically to take their land away). What is even more unjust is that the taxes that they might charge to big international companies is much lower – there is a lot of government corruption related to business and personal interests mixed. But despite all these depressing issues, I was very touched by the optimism, compassion, and wonderful personality these people had. We had so much fun breaking piñatas, eating traditional lunches, exploring the country side, playing games, and just talking casually to all these people.

A short hike in one of the first communities we visited –



And afterward chilling by a waterfall



¡PIÑATA FUN!



…he has his candy in his shirt, :)


The people of “La Loma” put on a show for us…

Then we played “duck-duck-goose” or “pato-pato-ganso…”



At one of the communities where they sustain themselves by dying and designing clothes with indigo dye, we got to learn how they make the designs – they sew the white cloth before dying it to produce some beautiful patterns.


The original sewing…

And the final product


All-in-all, my experience in El Salvador was a very special one. We finished off the trip by meeting with the leftist political party, FMLN that gratefully, just got the presidency a few weeks ago! It was so interesting to hear from the FMLN advisors about their possible plans to extend health care and education. Hopefully, little by little, this is a step in the right direction to helping stop corruption in government and redistribute the resources to the poorer populations.

On the very last day of the trip, we had a conference at a Jesuit private university, “Universidad Centroamericana” in San Salvador with Dean Brackley, a professor originally from the United States who has been working in El Salvador for many years. He has a really great perspective of the history and current problems facing the majority of the population in El Salvador. If you want to read one of his famous articles, it’s called “Ruined for Life.” We talked to him about the trials with the Catholic church during the war, immigration (In Central America, El Salvador has the HIGHEST percentage of its population living in the United States, sending remittances back to the country), and we had the opportunity to reflect on having saw such depressing poverty. It was tough seeing all these kids living in such tough conditions. It depresses you about the state of the world, but at the same time, it motivates you to do more in your life. I have definitely changed my feelings about what specialty I may choose in medical school – I’m thinking of choosing a specialty more related to the third world. I never thought about it much before, but some specialties are not as applicable in the third world – countries like this do not really need advanced cancer therapy research, but rather, they just need basic surgery and primary care of their daily colds and infections. Anyway, we’ll see what happens in the future. It all depends on how I decide to focus my career.

Anyway, Dean Brackley helped us tie up our thoughts and impressions of the trip up well. Reflecting on the experience of facing poverty he told us one of his famous quotes, “It’s the great gift of the poor to break your heart and make you fall in love and return you ruined for life.”