I Guate Get Outta Here!!

¡Hola a todos!

Well, this Friday (9/18) I’ll be traveling to Patzún, Guatemala to spend the next nine months working for Asociación Vida (AV). Just two days prior to my departure, I am learning that no packing list is comprehensive enough for the unexpected. I have been in contact with the clinic’s director these last couple of months, but some of the more nitty-gritty details—such as where I am going to live and whether or not there will be someone at the airport to pick me up this Friday—have yet to be resolved. I suppose we’ll call those my first prayer requests.

AV is a medical, dental, and public health clinic sponsored by an organization called the Luke Society. Though the Luke Society is a global organization headquartered out of Sioux Falls, SD, their clinics are all run by nationals. I have traveled quite a bit throughout Latin America before; but this time, for the first time, I will not be insulated by a group of Americans. In fact, to my knowledge, I’ll be the only American working at AV. I don’t know exactly what my role will be there, but I do feel that this opportunity is one that the Lord has been preparing me for the past few years. At Wheaton, I blended together a biology major with cultural studies to learn about health beliefs and healthcare delivery in different parts of the world. In large part, I decided to pursue this opportunity hoping these next nine months will breathe life into things I have spent so much just reading about.

 I do know that Patzún is a highland community about an hour and a half west of Guatemala City by car. Many residents in the region would identify themselves as “Cakchiquel” (a Mayan ethnicity), and in fact this population forms a considerable chunk of the patient base AV serves. Wheaton’s Human Needs and Global Resources (HNGR) program has sent several interns to this site before, so they are fairly familiar with “Wheaties.” Assuming my internship will follow roughly the same structure as previous internships, I will spend the first 2-4 weeks learning about the focus of the AV, familiarizing myself with Patzún, and comparing my skill set with the needs of the clinic. From there, I will sit down with the clinic director, Dr. Axel Suquen, and we will select an area to begin designing a project.

I hope to be updating this blog on somewhat of a regular basis, but that too remains to be determined. Also, I would love to hear from all of you! I’m told I will have consistent access to email, so keep me up to speed on all the happenings in your neck of the woods. More than any of that however, check up on this blog for my prayer requests. For starters, my prayer as I prepare for this year is that the Lord would teach me more about how I can spend my life serving the Gospel and my fellow man. And with that, we’ll continue this conversation once I get “down south.”

GRACE and PEACE,

Erik