Carrie and Anthony Petruso’s Guatemala Adventure

Hello from Santa Cruz del Quiche!

post by Carrie

Hi everyone! We made it safely to Santa Cruz del Quiche on Monday after spending the last week backpacking around Guatemala. We had a great time exploring Guatemala City, Antigua, and Lake Atitlan but are now ready to get to work in the medical clinics in the region.

We arrived in town via “chicken bus”, which is the main form of cheap transportation in Guatemala. Basically, these are old U.S. school buses which have been transported to Guatemala, outfitted with more seats and sound systems,  painted bright garish colors, and often dubbed names such as “Esmerelda”which have been airbrushed on the windshield.It was a bumpy and cheap ride which reminded us both of being in middle school! I accidentally left my camera connection at home, but here’s a sample image of a chicken bus:

We’re staying in a housing complex dubbed the “casa de Americanos” in the compound of Hospital Nacional Santa Elena, one the largest hospitals in the region. Right now, there are only 3 other people staying here (Dr. Pope, his wife Areli, and Ron from Texas) although various medical and religious teams from across the States will be staying here for various lengths of time in the next month. We will spend most of our time here helping with the rural medical clinics in the region.Tomorrow we will go to our first clinic at a school approximately 30 minutes outside of the city. Anthony is currently reading up on his medical spanish in preparation. I really have no idea what to expect tomorrow, but am very excited and hopeful that we will be able to help the amazing people of this war torn country.