Hospitalito Atitlán Blog

When a physician volunteers at the Hospitalito for seven months, it is an emotional goodbye for everyone. Neus Sunger will be returning to Barcelona this weekend.

Dra. Mary Ann Sorra, an obstetrician is returning to Maryland. She is with Mission Doctors. Her husband Jack arrived to spend a few weeks at the end of her month. We hope that they will return very soon.

For the goodbye dinner, Neus prepared a delicious Catalan bread with tomato sauce, tortilla española and fruit crepes. Tacos were also served.

Neus (in yellow) and Mary Ann (in pink) are standing behind Chenta.

¡Muchas Gracias Neus and Mary Ann!

The staff at Hospitalito Atitlán would like to wish you and your loved ones the very best for 2010. This staff recent foto is missing many HA employees who were on vacation and or working in the ER.  

The construction workers building the new Hospitalito Atitlán want to thank all the donors for a continuous year of employment! 

Brad Burket from Oregon and his son Quinn toured the new hospital construction site today. They also left two suitcases to be claimed by his brother Brent and his wife Jennifer when they arrive with their four chidren to work for THREE years. Brad is a family practice physician and also a dentist. 17 year-old Quinn has been serving as his father’s translator and has worked with Tono with inventory.

We hope to see Brad and Quinn again when they return with the whole family for a visit after Brent and Jennifer and all are settled… and the Hospitalito is settled in its permanent home.

What do very talented professionals do when they reach the pinnacle of their careers? They volunteer and teach what they love to young people who would otherwise never have this educational opportunity.

Jeff Speigner is a great example. Jeff has worked as a graphic designer for the Boeing Company for twenty-five years. He founded the Design4Kids program. Design4Kids brings together professionals who mentor students in graphic design. Volunteers from around the world bring their talents and their love of what they do to share with the students.

This week, Design4Kids arrived at Hosptialito Atitlán with Santiago Atitlán Fotokids to meet with Dra. Susana and Vicenta the social worker who shared ideas for an educational poster on prevention and control of diabetes. After the meeting the group of twelve students and their teachers went to work. This Design4Kids workshop will focus on photography as the educational tool, and professional photographers, Stu Estler from the DC area and Eric Lolkema from the Netherlands will guide the students. Since many people in the Santiago Atitlán area don’t read, visuals are the perfect method to visually educate in the community.

The group presented seven different posters for the Hospitalito’s use. Everyone was very impressed with the talent of these young graphic artists.

This is the third Design4Kids workshop with Fotokids in the Santiago Atitlán area. Fotokids was founded by photographer Nancy McGirr. They have had a Santiago Atitlán classroom for more than four years.

Yesterday, Dr. Chuc had the fun of walking thru a huge warehouse of medical supplies and filling a large cart (three actually) with medicines, supplies and equipment….  at NO COST!  It was Hospitalito Atitlán’s third trip to VINE’s warehouse in San José Pinula outside Guatemala City, and the first time to meet the new warehouse managers, Cindy and Dennis McCutcheon. VINE is a pipeline for quality medical supplies. Cindy and Dennis had received three containers from the US last week and notified Hospitalito to schedule a visit, and bring a van. VINE International’s headquarters are in Knoxville Tennessee.

Greetings Readers!
We interrupt this regularly-scheduled blog to invite you to take a moment to read our December Newsletter!

The newsletter contains updates from Dr. Chuc, our medical director, Construction Updates, stories of volunteers, and a beautiful story about a Hospitalito patient, Andrea. Andrea is a woman from Santiago Atitlán who, thanks to an affordable operation at Hospitalito Atitlán, is starting her Christmas season with a renewed sense of hope.

Read Andrea’s story, and other news from Hospitalito, here.

To receive future newsletters in your email, sign up here.

Dr. Zachary Self is in his second year at the Family Medicine Residency Program at the Ventura County Medical Center in Ventura California where he works with Dr. Mark Lepore and Dr. Jerry Noah, past Hospitalito Atitlán volunteers.

Zach first volunteered in Guatemala in 2002 in Santo Tomas Suchitepequez, in the south Pacific coastal region of Guatemala. It was in the Clinica Ezell that he met Josefina who was working as a dental assistant.  When he returned the following year, they were married.

Josefina and Zach will celebrate their daughter Marisol’s first birthday with family in Santo Tomas la Union in Suchitepequez on December 10^th.

When asked about his Hospitalito experience, Zach replied….   “I am very impressed by the scope of medical services provided to the people who otherwise would not have access.”

Sometimes a volunteer with a very special talent will contact Hospitalito Atitlán. When Lisa Simms inquired if there was a special needs group that would be interested in learning the art of paper maché, she was directed to ADISA (Amigos y Padres de Discapacitados de Santiago Atitlán) the vocational workshop for people with disabilities.

 Lisa has taught a similar workshops in Viet Nam with children victims of landmines. For two weeks she spent every morning in the ADISA workshop teaching technique but also sharing art books and inspiring the very creative group. They produced some wonderful sculptures and are looking forward to her return. Lisa is an artist, jewelry maker / sculptor and teacher in San Miguel de Allende in Mexico.

Dr. Frank Cobarrubia  a podiatrist from Bend Oregon is at the Hospitalito this week. He has been working with Dr. Lee Cohen (on the left) seeing patients. Dr. Lee has returned for another month. We hope he makes December at Hospitalito Atitlán part of his Christmas tradition.

Specialists are greatly needed in the Santiago Atitlán community, and Spanish is not necessary.

Thank you, Frank.