(We are now back to my section-by-section Common Hope manuel, as it is verry slow around here this week.)
Healthcare.
For starters, if we thought healthcare was bad in the states, just try Guatemala. For example. (and this isn´t even necessarily healthcare, just plain madness,) --nobody pulls over for ambulances. This is sad, but true. I do not know why; perhaps noone ever was taught that rule during drivers ed. (Or, perhaps its cause a large population of said drivers didn´t ATTEND drivers ed)
Regardless. It´s rare that people pull over for ambulances.
Also. The said ambulance drivers are actually volunteer firefighters.
The public hospitals have poor quality healthcare and have LOOONG waits.
The private hospitals have better quality, but cost un monton. (Mucho $$$$).
Affording to get to the doctor or dentist is something that almost never happens to many families in the rural poor communities in Guatemala.
This is one huge incentive for the affiliated families of Common Hope. As long as their children stay in school, the family as a whole remains affiliated and therefore gets access to healthcare at a free or reduced rate. But. If they decided to pull their children out of school to work and contribute to the family income? They no longer have access to our clinic and health programs. It seems like a pretty good incentive, to me.
At CH, we have a clinic with 3 Guatemalan doctors, 1 nurse, physical therapist, nutritionist, lab technician, community health specialist, and receptionist. We also have a pharmacy, a dental clinic, and a number of health and parenting programs. (for example, programs for people with diabetes and hyper-tension, two VERY common diseases down here).
The clinic and pharmacy are very accessible to families. The affiliated children (and pregnant women) always get free clinic access, but because we believe in putting a value on our services, and not giving them away for free, the rest of the family pays a very reduced rate. We are talking VERY reduced. The most a family member would possibly pay for a clinic visit is Q.5--or less than $1 USD. They also get medications from the pharmacy for an extremely reduced rate--medications that normally cost Q.90, for example, they can purchase for Q. 2.
The clinic is a primary care clinic, so emergencies are sent to a hospital in Antigua with which we partner. As a primary care clinic, the most common things the doctors see are 1) malnutrition 2) Upper-respiratory disease and 3) Diarrhea/gastrointestinal issues.
1) Malnutrition is sadly common in Guatemala. 50% of Guatemala´s children are chronicly malnourished--in some areas, its even as high as 75%--among some of the highest rates in the world. One reason, of course, is poverty. However, more so than that, its poverty combined with a lack of knowledge and ability to change the diet. If you look at the staple of the Guatemalan diet, (corn tortillas and beans) some of the cheapest foods you can buy, they are not at all nutritious. The children get full off of tortillas and beans--so they´re not neccesarily always hungry, persay, because tortillas are very heavy and filling, but severely malnourished. Tortillas have almost NO nutritional value. Children are lacking fruits, vegetables, and colorful nutrients that corn tortillas and beans do not provide.
This is another reason why much of the country is short. They aren´t just cute little Mayan people; their development as a child was severely limited due to malnutrition.
2) Another common disesase--upper respiratory. When mothers have children, they spend the first year + of their life strapped to their mothers backs, doing everything their mother does. This is wonderful bonding time, but when the mother is cooking over an open fire all day long, the smoke severely damages not only her, but her baby´s lungs. Upper respiratory is common--to help combat this, CH also has a stove program (families can work for just 10-14 hours to earn a stove) which come with chimmneys--to tunnel the smoke up and away from the room.
3) Gastrointestinal. That is pretty self-explanatory. Many poor families can´t afford to buy pure water, so they drink the water from the faucets. This, of course, is not healthy, and leads to diarrhea and other related illnesses in both children and adults.
I could go on and on about ailments in Guatemala--(Cervical cancer, the number one cause of death in Guatemalan women, is also tres interesante....how much teeth-pulling the dentists have to do because turns out drinking Big Cola--the off-brand of COke--is cheaper than purified water....etc. etc. etc. There are so many interesting facts. But I will leave this food for thought for now; if anybody has any further questions I would love to answer them.
Love from Guatemala--and count your blessings that you can afford to buy vegetables.
It´s not EXACTly the same as Grandma´s, because I have to make my own dressing (out of lime juice, olive oil and spices) (they don´t sell Italian dressing in Antigua) 
To the left is the ¨living room¨area of our Antigua site, where Vision Teams stay. Since the libary was being painted yesterday, we did the activity upstairs in the living room. 
