We started the week as 13 individuals headed to Guatemala from Houston and Huntsville, TX and Davenport, Iowa to build and distribute wheelchairs and serve the people we met. We ended as friends and teammates humbled by what we saw, who we met and the life stories we heard during the week. We came to serve and we left with our lives blessed by those we served.
Team 834 included 5 FIP veteran volunteers, 7 first time FIP volunteers and 1 Houston staff member. We added 6 Guatemalan staff members when we arrived, all of whom worked side by side with us during our week in country. During our 5 clinic days the team saw 150 patients, built and distributed 116 adult wheelchairs, 3 pediatric wheelchairs, distributed 20 walkers, 18 canes and 5 sets of crutches. Our physician, in addition to seeing most of the 150patients, made 16 healthcare referrals and 20 surgical evaluation referrals. We supplied medications and performed lab tests as needed. Each day was a busy one!
Our work location was Nuestros Ahijados (www.godschild.org) in Antigua, a perfect partner for a Faith in Practice mobility team! The facility is beautiful; it’s hard to believe that it was literally created from a dump site. Our patients came from many surrounding towns and several far-off locations from the states of Chimaltenango, Guatemala, Sacatepequez, Esquintla, Solola, and Baja Verapaz. Many wore the beautiful traditional Mayan dress and several spokeonly the Mayan language, Kaqchikel. Our patients were carried in by family members, or came in decrepit or borrowed wheelchairs or hobbled in using old walkers or canes. Patient agesranged from a set of 3 & 4 year old sisters through the elderly 90’s. We had patients who were amputees due to accidents or diabetes, those with cerebral palsy or spina bifida, and several who had suffered significant strokes or had severe arthritis. We also helped 25 residents from the Virgen del Socorro Home for those with disabilities by providing new wheelchairs. The needs we observed for all our patients during the week were heart rending and profound.
There were many opportunities throughout the week to practice our morning devotion discussions which centered around prayer and were led by the Rev. Cheryl Gans. The quiet centering time each morning prepared each of us for the work and people that we encountered, strengthening us for service and reminding each of us that we are not alone in this world… God, too, is at work for us, for our patients and for the world.
Each team member was touched by multiple patients during the week. Here are some examples:
“Cesar was a 22 year old man who came into clinic with his mom because his wheelchair was worn out. He has a birth defect and couldn’t remember the last time he was able to walk. He used his wheelchair every day to leave his house to travel on the road to church and to see nature. When I asked Cesar questions, his mom would speak for him. She was very protective of him and had taken excellent care of him. He needed encouragement to speak up and lacked confidence. I wanted to encourage independence for this young man and I asked him to use the wrench to adjust his leg rests. I could tell he had not done a lot of new tasks by himself and enjoyed learning how to use tools to take care of is wheelchair. As a physical therapist, I hope I built up this young man’s confidence in his ability to learn new tasks and reinforced to his mother that she had done a fabulous job supporting her boy.”
Isaiah was a nearly two year old child with fetal alcohol syndrome staying away from his family for several weeks at the nutrition center. On the first day’s tour he touched the heart of Laura, a PT assistant and Ferdinand, one of our physical therapists. Isaiah was staying in the nutrition center of Nuestros Ahijados for a second extended stay due to severe malnourishment and underdevelopment in order to regain weight and strength. Ferdinand had just the right skills to use play to work with him to strengthen his legs and hips to support movement and development. It was a joy to watch the therapy begin to work in just a short time. The opportunity to do that at the end of the day a couple of times during the week added depth of the relationship with Nuestros Ahijados and created a sense among our team that God had brought us to this place not just for Faith in Practice, but for so many reasons.
-Linda Johnson
