Perspectives on a COTA Team from Dr. George Quill

Suicide showers are...

• Somewhat slippery.
• Either freezing or scalding.
• Big enough to wash a Volkswagen as well as yourself, but only a trickle of water will flow down upon the both of you.
• Those that have windows that open onto the street below.
• Those that have exposed wiring around the spigot leading to the contraption that heats the water to either scalding temperature or reminds you of a dip in lake Michigan with the January Polar Bear Club.
• Those whose exposed wiring has been known to catch on fire the hair of a young lady who stands more than six feet tall (true story!).
• Those which I am slowly figuring out how to modulate the variable flow rates to get a somewhat tolerable temperature.
• Preferable to walking around all day and night so sweaty and greasy that, when you move, your clothes don't always travel in the same direction! 

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                        "If you can walk into my OR you can keep your boots on."

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 I've only seen this once since 1987!
X-rays of a 19-month old Guatemalan girl with wide-set eyes, slightly blue sclerae, open cranial sutures and severe bowing of all her long bones.
In addition to a diaper full of caca, these films are consistent with Ricketts due to vitamin D deficiency.  We prescribed Tums and recommended that mom take her baby out in the sunlight every day.  Hopefully, we can check this child again on our mission trip next year.
  The pictures are a little difficult to make out because there are no functioning X-ray view
        Boxes down here and I had to hold up the film to the window to take the picture. 

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 So, today, Wednesday, was a usual day except the power to the whole city was turned off for a while.  The. Hospital generator would work the anesthesia machine and tourniquet box, but not the A/C.  At one point the a/c came back on, but not the lights.  Finished the case by flashlight and soaking in my own sweat.  I'm always hot and always thirsty down here!

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Puzzled

When our friends and family hear that COTA team members are planning our annual medical/surgical/dental/orthotics trip to Guatemala, we typically get one of two reactions. 

" Oh, I would love to do that someday."

Or

" How do you stand to go there and see all of the poverty and despair? "

Most of us have family responsibilities or limited financial resources, and we realize that willingness alone is not enough to make it the best time to board a plane and head to Central America to do good work. The second response however, leaves us puzzled. 
Children of the Americas volunteers typically have a long-term relationship with our organization. We travel to Guatemala regularly and for some of us, it is our international destination of choice. The lack of infrastructure in this tiny country makes travel difficult;

The hotels don't come with a four-star rating. Food is interesting, water needs to be regarded with caution, and the weather, especially in the rainy season, can be interesting.
It is expensive to go back repeatedly on our own financial resources, and we come back tired, sometimes even sick. Stateside matters of work and family take a back seat to all matters Guatemalan before and during the team. 

Why then do we return, time after time?
Here are the reasons:

For the Amazing Natural Beauty

Beautiful Old World Architecture

For the Children that Need Our Medical Specialists

And for the Mothers who need to stay healthy to raise them