Hello all! This year you have two bloggers for the Team Stempel trip – my name is Marian Janes, and I am a lifelong family friend of the youngest Stempel. Joining me is Parker Anderson our other blogger. He’s the son of one of our anesthesiologists, and we’re so excited to have him on for his first trip. This will be my second year joining the team.
This year Team Stempel is embarking on a new version of a trip together. Instead of Las Obras in Antigua, we’ll be operating at a hospital, Hilario Galindo in San Felipe, with new staff and supplies. We have a more minor team of 25 team members – in the past, there have been 40+. And we’re traveling later in the year to a new location – expecting rain, thunderstorms, and humidity.
For our FIP veterans with 10+ trips under their belts, the first timers, and everyone in between, this will feel like a new experience. So it only feels fitting that Dr. Stempel chose trust as this year’s theme because in many ways, the newness of it all will be exciting yet challenging. We’ll be in it together, and it’s going to be great.
An inevitable leap of faith comes with going on this trip, especially this year. For our team to travel out of the country and for the country to accept us in. I think that’s what stuck with me most today. True commitment comes through our actions, and we’re trusting in each other by simply being here.
As we all came together for our first travel day, it reminded me too that everyone is coming from a different place – different cities, workplaces, living situations – but coming together to embark on a familiar but unfamiliar experience together.
It’s been two long days of travel. Exciting but exhausting. After arriving in the country late last night, we took a 5-hour bus ride from Guatemala City to San Felipe. It was pretty special driving on one bus together — moving physically and mentally as one from the city into a rural community of Guatemala. We got a tour and orientation of our setup at Hilario Galindo. The team is feeling settled and ready to meet our patients tomorrow!
– Marian
