Today we drove to San Marcos, but on the way we stopped to meet with Kali Erickson and her husband, Jaime at El Proyecto Familias de Esperanza (the project of families of hope, roughly translated.) Kali has a nutrition background and has worked extensively in Peru, Bolivia, Guatemala and Africa, mainly in maternal/child health. Jaime is a veterinarian and has a degree in animal husbandry. He’s been with the US State department and Kali’s been working in the US, and they decided they wanted to go back to Guatemala where they felt they could really make more of a difference. They have two young daughters and also wanted to have more time together as a family. Jane Cross, a local pediatrician who is very active in global health, especially in Peru, introduced me to Kali, and we’ve been emailing and planning to meet. I was nervous about the meeting because Luis is always shy of making new alliances or meeting people who might interfere with his vision. Luckily, there was an instant connection between Luis and both Jaime and Kali. Our planned brief stop turned into a two and a half hour breakfast where we heard about their work and discussed our project. They asked Luis about his background, and he actually told them his story. I’ve never seen him so animated. Eventually, he and Jaime went off to discuss their work, and Kali and Bette and I switched to English. It turns out that Kali knows Rachael, the USAID field worker who is coming to see the irrigation project on Thursday, and she said we couldn’t have a better person. Rachael is from the US, as been with USAID in Guatemala for eight months and is very committed to seeing that the programs actually aid the rural indigenous people as well as those in the cities. In all, it was a very encouraging visit, and I all three seemed eager to work together in the future.
Once at the hotel in San Marcos, Bette and I sorted the medications, dividing them into bags for the three sites where we will hold clinics, Sibinal Monday and Tuesday, Tacaná Wednesday and Thursday, and the clinic in San Marcos on Friday. We’ll leave at 6:00 am for the 2 ½ hour drive to Sibinal and spend that time putting together “school” bags with crayons, markers, coloring book pages, erasers, stickers, etc for the kids. We’ll pick up the general practitioner on the way. I hope Luis has told her something about how many patients to expect – heh. I haven’t posted photos today as the internet is very slow here. There’s no WIFI at the hotel for the next two nights unless we get a portable one so there may be a lull.
Once at the hotel in San Marcos, Bette and I sorted the medications, dividing them into bags for the three sites where we will hold clinics, Sibinal Monday and Tuesday, Tacaná Wednesday and Thursday, and the clinic in San Marcos on Friday. We’ll leave at 6:00 am for the 2 ½ hour drive to Sibinal and spend that time putting together “school” bags with crayons, markers, coloring book pages, erasers, stickers, etc for the kids. We’ll pick up the general practitioner on the way. I hope Luis has told her something about how many patients to expect – heh. I haven’t posted photos today as the internet is very slow here. There’s no WIFI at the hotel for the next two nights unless we get a portable one so there may be a lull.
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