Hospitalito Atitlán Blog

K’aslimaal president Francisco Sojuel talks to Carlos the electrician in the hallway of the clinic area.

Dr. Eric just completed his residency at the Ventura County Medical Center. He returned last week to California after a month of volunteering at Hospitalito Atitlán. Next month he starts work in Oregon. Thank you so much Dr. Eric.

A huge tractor trailer load of sheetrock, sheetrock mud, durock, and false ceiling arrived at the construction site this morning.

Michael Doane of Corpus Christi Texas is visiting friends in Santiago Atitlán, Obstetrician Dra. Kiran Sigmon and her husband Mark Siler and their family. Before leaving he printed the wish list and left it at the pharmacy where he works. When he checked back… they had filled two suitcases of donations for him to bring to Hospitalito Atitlán. Looks like Mark and Michael are enjoying giving as much as the Hospitalito and Chuc enjoy receiving!

Guillermo de Torres, and psychologist Miguel are volunteering with their friends the three female physicians. Miguel has been busy with patients in clinics and both have been accompanying the doctoras for sex education classes in the churches. Guillermo is a graphic designer who has created new brochures and with Miguel’s assistance is translating and creating the website in Spanish. He has also spent a week training Board secretary and journailist Karin Bergstresser in the use of In Design. It has been a very productive month and we are sorry to see them all leave. Good luck on your travels.

 The rains this year have wrought havoc all over Guatemala and the lake has risen to flood the recently constructed park at the public docks. We wish someone would start swimming lessons.

 Rebeca was happy to see friends return again today…  with donations of medicines and supplies. This group from a Methodist Church in California (looking for more info..) also brought suitcases full of supplies for the Hospitalito last summer.  Thank you very much!

This May, Smile Network International chose Hospitalito Atitlán as their site to perform cleft lip and palate surgeries.  This remarkable organization sends a team of expert surgeons and other professionals to locations all over the world to perform up to 50 of these surgeries in one week.  Their commitment is for five years, to perform more surgeries and follow-up.  They will start with their first surgeries at Hospitalito in May 2011.  This week, Tessa de Goede and Joanne Wessels visited from Antigua to begin the planning for May.  They work together to find patients from all over Guatemala and match them up with surgical missions from around the world.  Their organization, Stichting T.E.S.S Unlimited, works with families before teams come down.  They provide adequate nutrition and medications before surgery to ensure the candidates are healthy enough for surgery.  They also pay for transportation, lab work, and miscellaneous expenses to ensure that these families can participate in these medical missions.  We were thrilled to meet and welcome Tessa and Joanne in person and hear about their plans for helping to find families with the greatest need to benefit from Smile International´s upcoming mission.

Today at the construction site the new dental chair arrived, and Board secretary Karin Bergstresser smiles with approval. Thanks to a Rotary International grant facilitated by the East Salem Rotary with Club Rotario Guatemala Oeste, the dental chair and X-ray will provide much needed care to the people of Atitlán. Coincidentally, dentist and physician Dr. Brad Burket (brother of Dr. Brent) is pulling teeth at the Hospitalito today. He has extended his dental jornada for a third day, due to demand.