All news

Guatamala - November 10, 2011

11/11/2011 3:42:08 PM

Our Journey begins

Today we got out of our beds at 4 am to meet at the airport. Cal looked after renting a trailer, he and some volunteers loaded the 48 hockey bags (each weighting 50 lb!) into the trailer. The scene at the airport is a bit hectic as each bag is reweighed, repacked and everyone stuffs their 17 lb of personal stuff into a bag. We had some challenges packing this trip- we needed both warm and cold clothes as we will be in the mountains and it gets very cold at night.

Finally we were ready to roll and got settled for the trip to El Salvador where we had a connector flight to Guatemala City. The flight was good…but we started to get concerned when we left Toronto late and had a tight connector. One big fear is that we get separated from our bags which have all our meds and supplies. The crew reassured us – and they were right- the bags and the team all made it.  

Once we landed and got collected we had a new worry. Customs. We have heard from our contacts that the customs agents can be unpredictable- sometimes they wave you through – other times they go through everything and some teams have had their bags taken and never returned. We decided to go through individually and not as a group but it is hard to even convince anyone we are anything but a medical team with a group our size, our age and with all these packed hockey bags. Our contact told us to tick “tourist” on the form which we all did. The agent was friendly and asked if I had donations and I said yes- glasses for the villages in the mountains. He smiled and said “thank you from the people of Guatemala” – we made it through. Only three members of our team were inspected- one was Grace who had dental equipment, and the other was John and Catherine from Mississauga. When they opened John’s bag there were boxes of condoms and Tylenol. They asked John what all the condoms were for and he said “to provide relief” and they looked at him puzzled but let him go. We had fun teasing him about that one….

It was a great relief to see John King (our Canadian contact) with his Canadian shirt on and a sign welcoming us. We loaded our bags onto the school bus and drove through the busy city and out into the mountains. After about an hour we made it to the seminary- unloaded our bags and got our rooms which were clean, safe and had bunks all made up for us. Laurie and her group had a Guatemalan meal (rice, salad) ready for us and we tried a white rice drink which is different – but good. We have a shared bathroom/shower situation so the team has gotten a lot closer…but we have wonderful hot water…so no one is complaining.

It was a long day and everyone packed it in early….Tomorrow- first day of clinics.

- Linda

CNS Charity