We’re Back!!!
The team left Los Angeles on the red eye flight to Guatemala City at midnight on June 4th. We arrived the next morning in Guatemala bright and early at sunrise. The team has travelled together on this mission as part of the safety bubble we’ve put in use for pandemic safety of patients, hospital staff, and Faith In Practice team members.
The 2021 Bullard Surgical team are the first one’s back at Hilario Galindo Hospital since the pandemic closed the borders for international travel in spring 2020.
After a sleepy twenty-one-member crew got off the flight we headed for a four-and-a-half-hour bus ride to Hilario Galindo Hospital in the town of San Felipe in the state of Retalhuleu, often just shortened to “Reu.”
The countryside between the airport & San Filipe is beautiful. Lush vegetation dots the landscape between sweeping fields of sugarcane and sweet corn. It takes but a few miles traveling here to see the profound level of poverty that shapes day to day life. Basic needs for sanitation, transportation, healthcare, and housing are visible struggles for everyone. The degree to which people make do with what they have available reflects both their poverty and ingenuity alike; motorcycles for three or more people at a time, reusing clothes, cars, stretching staple foods, handmade toys… The sugar cane fields are huge. I’m told by a local person here that the sugarcane is harvested by hand! And the typical full day’s work pays between 6-10 dollars (this writer’s home state is Minnesota corn country & the thought of harvesting fields of this size by hand is nothing short of jaw dropping amazing).
After a brief breakfast stop, we arrived at the hospital where we were enthusiastically greeted by hospital staff and local Faith in Practice team members. The hospital administrator gave introductions and offered a welcoming prayer. The day wrapped up with getting to the hotel and SLEEP.
