Team Delk safely arrived in Guatemala on Friday! We have been busy preparing for the week ahead and apologize for the slight delay in getting the blog up and running. We have had to navigate some technological challenges, but we are now functioning and excited to share the week with you all! As in years past, this blog will primarily be authored by the UVA pharmacy residents. We will do our very best to share the stories of our team as well as the stories of the lovely people of Guatemala. Here’s an update from the weekend and then we’ll recap our first day of clinic in a separate post later this evening.
Friday: After early alarms and a long day of travel for many, we made it to Guatemala! Many of our team members connected in Atlanta and flew on the same flight to Guatemala City. We were able to reconnect with dear friends and forge relationships with new ones. In Guatemala City, we were met by the smiling faces of our Faith In Practice family who helped us safely make it to Antigua. After settling in at Hotel Las Farolas, we gathered together for Team Delk’s traditional team dinner at Queso y Vino in Antigua, Guatemala. We are grateful to have team members join us from all over the country again this year. We have more than a dozen team members joining us for the first time! We also have many returning volunteers who have served through our village team for many years.
Saturday: Our first morning devotion was led by Christopher Delk, who shared his story about serving through Faith In Practice and taking a leap of faith to become a team leader with his wife, Bethany. We visited Casa de Fe where Linda McCarty, Faith In Practice CEO, led our group orientation. We heard the touching story of Eddie, a young child excited to be at Casa de Fe this week because he will undergo a procedure with the surgical team. He was screened by a village team, similar to ours, and has gone through the steps to be evaluated for a surgical procedure this week! With over 100 beds, Casa de Fe houses patients who travel many hours to be served by our surgical teams. It is very similar to the Ronald McDonald houses in the United States. Our afternoon was then spent exploring the beautiful city of Antigua. Some of the team were to Caoba Farms to share a farm-to-table lunch and others went on a walking tour and shopping in the local markets. We look forward to packing our bags and heading to our first village site which is about 3 hours away from Antigua.
Sunday: Day 3 in Guatemala and it’s time to move from Antigua to our village site. Our team looks forward to our first day of clinic and spent the day setting up our clinic site. We are excited to be offering wheelchairs in the mobility clinic this year and have dedicated team members who will work to build wheelchairs throughout the week. We have many different subspecialties that will help to provide care and referrals to the hundreds of patients that we will see daily. We wrapped up the afternoon and had a meeting to discuss our game plan for the first clinic day.
Signing off for now!
Mary Lewis and Christa
