Adventures WorldRace SethBarnes Sponsorship Giving

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Today we went to a Guatemalan hospital in Solola. As I jumped on the bus this morning I had no idea what to expect so I just tried to keep an open mind and killed time by people watching since we were stuffed in the bus like a can of sardines. When we got off the bus I was confused, I thought we were going to a hospital and I didn’t see one. Turns out we were standing across the street from it. 

 1.    2.
1: sign to the town we went to. 2: People waiting outside the hospital gates.
    

As the gates opened I knew right away I wanted to go by the kids, as soon as I walked in I kept thinking of how different this hospital was from any I had ever seen in the states. There was no check in desk although I did see a small vacant information area. When I got to the children’s wing I was very overwhelmed, every child was swarmed by loved ones. And I felt that I really wasn’t needed there so I went to the women’s wing.  The first room I went in had six beds in it. Nobody had any privacy and I didn’t see any Doctors talking to the families giving them updates on their loved ones. In fact I only saw one nurse during the entire visiting hour. No one asked why we were there and nothing seemed to be off limits. HIPA laws were nowhere to be found.

 
  this is the emergency entrance
 
After praying with a few ladies I saw seven women standing around one bed. There was a lot of crying and chanting and one woman was wearing a vale. I have an inquiring mind so I wanted to know what was going on. I thought to myself, this is it. That’s the one I want to pray for, so I boldly crawled over an empty bed while all seven ladies were looking at me like I was crazy. With all eyes on me I mimed out if I could pray for their mom. To my surprise they all said yes with a smile accompanied by tears and made room for me. I then found out that she had some sort of head trauma and I don’t think she was in good condition so I introduced myself to Dominga and laid my hands on her head and started to pray.  I think I spent the longest amount of time with that family, praying for the husband and sobbing daughters. When I finished they started talking to me and continuously saying thank you. It didn’t seem to matter that I didn’t understand 95% of what they were saying; to them it was just nice to know that someone cared and wanted to help.

On my way out I wanted to wash my hands so I went into the bathroom closest to the entrance. When I walked in my jaw dropped, I saw three metal bed pans and one toilet seat on the floor. I really didn’t know what to make of it so I just walked to the sink and was even more taken back that there wasn’t any soap in a hospital bathroom. I thought, oh well it could be worse and met up with my team to hop back on the bus.

I had a seat to myself for part of the way back to Panajachel. I kept thinking how difficult it would be to have a loved one in a hospital where you could only visit them an hour a day and questioned the quality of care and sanitation. I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to love on people who seemed like they really needed it. I pray that I made a lasting impact on many of the patients and their families.