Moving into March with another UTMB Clinical Rotation in Guatemala

It’s 15 degrees and windy out as I sit here in my home office in upstate New York working on a presentation about using “cultural competence” in mental health assessments.  It’s a subject that more or less interests me, and it’s nice to have a cozy place to stay out of the weather.  But really.  I’d rather be in Guatemala with Elizabeth Knipp and Elizabeth Thompson, who just arrived to start a global health rotation as part of their training for the UTMB Physicans Assistant Program.

At this very moment, my understanding – garnered from an email I received a few minutes ago – is that while I’m trying to stay warm in absurdly cold weather, they’re taking it easy, relaxing in one of the terrazas or patios at the Posada Don Valentino in Antigua, Guatemala, where they are productively passing their time making a blog!  Great place to do it.  Antigua, a  beautiful old city, was the capital of Guatemala between the 1530s and 1776, when it was moved after yet another earthquake shook it down again.  Now, thanks to uncommonly good city management it has maintained a nice sense of its colonial charm, making it the Republic’s number one tourist destination for Guatemalans and international visitors.

It’s good that E&E are taking a break today, because if recent history (as in last month) repeats itself, they’re going to be working very hard for the next 15 workdays.  I’m referring here to the February rotation with Carly Goga and Caitlin Omoregie, who saw hundreds of patients (we don’t have a full report yet, but certainly more than 600) in at least seven different communities during the three weeks they were there.  Caitlin and Carly only arrived back home last week.

I had the extremely good fortune to spend one short week with C&C during their initial week in Chichicastenango, before they moved on to clinic sites on the outskirts of Quetzaltenango City.  This time, I have the bad luck of not being able to be in Guatemala at all for E&E.  But they have promised to send regular updates, and I’ll try to find the time to make some comments about what they’re doing.  Their blog – an outstanding idea they came up with – will certainly help in that regard.

Meanwhile, now that they’re back, Carly and Caitlin sent along some marvelous photographs of them, their work, and their play while in Guatemala.  I’ll also be adding those photos and some commentary about them in the near future.

Stay tuned!