Year after Year

Susan Whitten has been one of the primary driving forces behind these medical missions. She has a tenacity and passion that is infectious to those around her. She is not a clinician, yet to see her work in the clinics every day you would never know it as she takes on many hats every day and runs around with so much energy that the rest of us feel tired by just watching her. In addition to her overall project perspective and work ethic, Susan is truly a person of compassion and no small child passes under her watchful eye without receiving excellent care. The following is Susan’s reflection of this mission, those that have already passed and what is to come.
 
The pediatrics team at the centro de salud clinic: Nicole Evans, Susan Whitten, Bea Martinez and Frank Baudino, M.D. in the back.

"Why would someone continue to do something year after year when the results seem so small and the problem so large? That is the question I have asked myself each year in the spring as we begin to plan for the upcoming fall Medical Mission to Guatemala. For three years a team of 26 dedicated volunteers has gone to Esquipulas Guatemala to serve some of the poorest of the poor. They leave families, careers and comforts behind to spend 8 days providing medical care to people they may never see again. They see people with medical needs that cannot be addressed in one visit and struggle to ensure some kind of referral for each need so that a “cure” or at least temporary management of the medical need can be found.

"So do they succeed? Have any one of these visits made even a dent in the overwhelming problems the poor have in their struggle to access basic healthcare needs? The answer lies in what you consider a success. For the members of this team or at least for myself the “success” comes in such small pieces. It cannot be measured against the bigger goals of finding a way to prevent the diseases and provide for all the medical needs we see. That “success” we may never be able to fully address. So the “success” comes in the day to day of our mission in the eyes of the poor. Their ability to smile back when they do not understand what we are saying, their ability to say gracias, give a hug, and even their ability to “fight,” and they do, for what they know they need and in their own small way try to address the injustices they have to endure each and every day.

"They come with hope that we will be able to cure and sometimes leave with the ache that they know in their heart because we cannot cure. But still they come. They walk for miles to get to us and this year we asked them to come to us by car, truck and on foot rather than us going out to them, yet they still came. We now have seen some faces we recognize and unfortunately their needs are the same. So we give the same pills, the same creams, the same diagnosis and try to ensure a referral so someone in their own country can look out for them the other 51 weeks when we are not there.

"We know that until we address the causes of their ailments, clean water, smoke free cooking, tiled floors, the parasites will continue to win the battle for good health. And we are trying. This year we did make some huge (in my mind) steps forward. We will leave knowing that referrals to in-country doctors, hospitals and therapists have been made and someone will have their medical history and work to help them when they are sick. We will leave with a site for a clean water project that we hope to get completed this year where we capture and purify rain water, or condensation from their tin roofs so that the parasites won’t be there next year. We continue to work with the health promoters and we have engaged these folks in our day-to-day work. They will be there to help in the days yet to come. We have advanced our education of these health promoters so that they can do more for their own people. We have engaged with young and rising “stars” to recognize that they have much responsibility and much of themselves to give to those who have less than they have.

"So why do you continue to do what some would call a mission one can never fully realize? Because step by step, with dedication and perseverance, a team of 26 people can and does make small gains and can envision a better health for these people of Guatemala that we come to serve. It is a humbling experience and one that will continue to drive people who know success sometimes comes slowly and imperfectly but nevertheless will someday come. And so we will come year after year and take the baby steps we believe in our hearts will help us to make a real and lasting difference to the people we come to serve."