It is no secret that Children of the Americas volunteers are a tightly knit group. The return rate of 80% of applicants to our Guatemalan teams speaks volumes about the overall experience and quality of our medical team members. Working in a challenging environment with each other creates a familiarity and kinship that carries us through the year until we see each other again.
Rarely do we return from our week in Guatemala unchanged. Rosemary will carry home her thoughts on how the team functioned; our pediatric nurses bring a certain few children home in their hearts; COTA doctors think back on the challenging and life-changing cases that they were meant to be in Guatemala for. Our patients usually are the source of our inspiration. But there is one particular group of volunteers who are our teachers. Bernice Kita falls into that category. As part of the Maryknoll order, a Catholic non-profit mission movement working in overseas mission work, Bernice and fellow sister Jude Noone have been dedicated COTA volunteers for many years.
Beginning in 1977, Maryknoll Sister Bernice lived and worked among the indigenous Mayans of remote Guatemala mountains. Sharing meals, stories, heart aches and joyful moments, Bernice documented her experiences in letters written home to her family. The publication of her book, What Prize Awaits Us, is a physical entity of lives that were not meant to be diminished by fading into obscurity.
Our faithful Children of the Americas volunteers who have worked with Bernice would be surprised to hear that their dutiful interpreter is a published author. Bernice spends her week on a COTA team sitting quietly with our pediatric nursing staff and their patients, using her language skills to soothe the nerves of parents and children alike. The post-operative process is made kinder and more culturally sensitive thanks to her willingness to share her time with our organization. By association with her we have learned to respect the holistic needs of the Mayan patients who trust us with their health.
Our Children of the Americas patients come into our clinics in Guatemala with a poor understanding of health care issues.
They are scared, confused and and overwhelmed. Assisting our physician and nursing volunteers in crossing the long bridge of cultural divide that exists between ourselves and our patients is a ministry within itself. We are looking forward to seeing Bernice and Jude work their magic once again in January during Team 2017.
Rarely do we return from our week in Guatemala unchanged. Rosemary will carry home her thoughts on how the team functioned; our pediatric nurses bring a certain few children home in their hearts; COTA doctors think back on the challenging and life-changing cases that they were meant to be in Guatemala for. Our patients usually are the source of our inspiration. But there is one particular group of volunteers who are our teachers. Bernice Kita falls into that category. As part of the Maryknoll order, a Catholic non-profit mission movement working in overseas mission work, Bernice and fellow sister Jude Noone have been dedicated COTA volunteers for many years. Beginning in 1977, Maryknoll Sister Bernice lived and worked among the indigenous Mayans of remote Guatemala mountains. Sharing meals, stories, heart aches and joyful moments, Bernice documented her experiences in letters written home to her family. The publication of her book, What Prize Awaits Us, is a physical entity of lives that were not meant to be diminished by fading into obscurity.
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| Mother of cleft patient |
They are scared, confused and and overwhelmed. Assisting our physician and nursing volunteers in crossing the long bridge of cultural divide that exists between ourselves and our patients is a ministry within itself. We are looking forward to seeing Bernice and Jude work their magic once again in January during Team 2017.
