Transitions in our COTA Family

Bobby Edwards recently stepped down from our Children of the Americas board. 
Leaving the board is not the equivalent of leaving the organization. Bobby and his wife Lisa will continue to do what they do best: making sure our small but significant medical nonprofit delivers humanitarian medical assistance to women and children in Guatemala. They will work tirelessly, communicate quietly but with intention and will demand more of themselves than from others. Because this unassuming couple prefers to remain in the background, I wanted to tell you more about Bobby, and why he, Lisa and our COTA volunteers feel like family. 

The photo (below) was taken in 2001 as I was preparing to board this small Guatemalan government-owned cargo plane. Our destination was to be my first team site: the remote Guatemalan city of Flores. My hands were shaking so hard that Bobby is a bit out of focus! Our COTA team consisted of 36 volunteers, many of whom had traveled with COTA in past years. A few of us were new to the group, to Guatemala and to the fear that ate away at our gut. 

Women have a gift called intuition. Everything in me at that moment told me that I should listen to this inner voice and not board this "air coffin." Not only were the hinges of the plane held on with tape, but as you can see, the tape, for what it was worth, wasn't adhering well. In the end, I left my intuition on the tarmac and followed Bobby into the belly of the plane. Leaving the Edwards behind was more terrifying than the thought of strapping myself into a jump seat of a cargo plane piloted by Guatemalan army members who seemed a bit unnerved themselves.

Having only met this lovely couple the night before, this sudden 'Velcro' attachment was out of the ordinary for me. I was struggling with separation anxiety (I left three young children at home in the states). The allure of going to Guatemala, which previously sounded mysteriously amazing, now felt like an impetuous decision, and my inept Spanish was crippling my ability to see to the most basic of my needs. In my mind, Bobby and Lisa were my thin but tenable lifeline. I would have followed them anywhere. And for many years I did. 

In a few weeks the Edwards and I will be departing for our 19th COTA team together. 

Bobby and Jody, 2018

I have left the board Vice-Presidency in very capable hands. The three of us have shed our board labels but not our hearts for COTA and all our organization represents.
 Through our association with Children of the Americas we have had more adventures of the heart and body than anyone has a right to claim.  
Fostering COTA stateside patients, attending to in-country patient care needs and forming solid friendships with COTA volunteers has molded us into the people we were meant to be. 

None of this was on our minds when Bobby, Lisa and I stepped onto that plane 18 years ago. We were simply following our hearts, along with Joanne Curreton, Jeanne Shepherd and Warren Brandwine; team members who continue to travel with us to this day. 

Jeanne, 2001

People often ask us how we found Guatemala, and thereafter decided to make this particular country our heart space. My answer is that Guatemala found me. As the saying goes: Your heart is where your home is. And home is where family resides. Friends are the family you create for yourself. 

Our COTA "family" was forged the same way a birth family is. Sharing the joy of restoring health to a child; grieving with a Mayan mother while she accepts the inevitable death of her child; watching a team member struggle with a long-term illness....those events have shaped us into a group that feels as connected by birth as we do by happenstance. We know each other's strengths, weaknesses and breakdown points. Our new volunteers can join us knowing that we will be there to support them as they acclimate to a new way of providing healthcare in a culturally complex country.

Nineteen years later, Jeanne has still not convinced me that black beans should be considered a food product. I still don't know more than two words of Spanish and tummy trouble precedes every team trip. But for one week in January, Bobby, Lisa and I will be with 100+ Children of the Americas volunteers who will work out the complex and difficult issues of running a medical team for thousands of patients in Guatemala. It is what we do. Together. As a "family" of like-minded volunteers.

(The upcoming COTA medical/surgical team will be in Salama, Guatemala from January 19-25th. Donations toward our efforts can be made using the donation button on this page.)