Mission 3: Day 1

The WUGI team has officially embarked on our third trip to Guatemala. This summer we have 5 WUSTL engineers traveling: Me (Carolyn Arden), Ananya Benegal (who traveled with us last summer as well), Mark McMillin, Imani Paul, and Caroline Trier. We have worked hard this year on a number of projects. We have worked to create an iPhone application that will function as a makeshift database to store information about medical equipment and supplies in the hospital, we fundraised to buy medical equipment and supplies for Roosevelt, we trained with BJC clinical engineer, Margarita Escobar-Kampwerth, to repair and troubleshoot medical equipment, and we made plans to travel to Guatemala from May 10^th-24^th to work at Roosevelt.

Todays travel to Guatemala did not exactly go as planned. The five us all planned to fly to Dallas Fort Worth and board the same plane to Guatemala. Unfortunately, due to extreme weather in Dallas, that didn’t happen. We all had to deal with delayed or cancelled flights and, as will be necessary while working in Guatemala, we were forced to be flexible, solve problems and work as team. Mark and I were the only ones who made it to Guatemala. I made my third flight of the day only after sprinting through Miami airport while hearing “Final Call for Guatemala” ringing over the loud speaker. Caroline was stuck in New Mexico and had to take a bus to Dallas and will arrive tomorrow with Ananya and Imani. Thankfully everyone has a place to stay tonight and we will all be together tomorrow evening.

Mark and I arrived to Guatemala around 7:30PM and were greeted by Jose, the chief resident of Roosevelt, and Carlos Tapia, our good friend from last summer. After dropping our bags at Uxlabil Hotel we headed to Mono Loco for dinner and a Gallo to celebrate the beginning of WUGI: Mission 3.  Much has changed since last summer, in Roosevelt and in Guatemala. The ICU we previously had worked in was fixed and is now functioning as the current ICU. It has 15 beds currently. Many of the residents we befriended from last year have also moved on to different hospitals. Carlos is in a town about 40 minutes outside the city and Maynor Palma, a name you may recognize from last year, is working in Mexico. The government of Guatemala has also recently undergone some changes. The first female vice president, Roxana Baldetti, resigned on May 9^th amid a customs corruption scandal in which officials defrauded the state of millions of dollars by taking bribes to lower customs duties. Protestors and business leaders rallied in the city for days after learning of the scandal. Today the country is without a vice president and at least 50 private citizens (including the tax chiefs) are suspects in the scandal. Read more here.

Coming to Guatemala always provides me with a wake-up call and with a new way to consider the political state of both Guatemala and the US. After a long day I am headed to bed ready to have a full day tomorrow. Happy Mothers Day everyone, to my Mom I only saw briefly before leaving this morning, and of course to my two St. Louis mothers and mentors Melanie and Basia as well!