Guate Guate Guate!!!!

The shouts from chicken buses, the brightly coloured local dress, smells wafting from local eateries and street stalls, and music drifting from the Parque Central...you know you're alive in Antigua, Guatemala!

I was lucky enough to spend 2 months there during the festive season, taking part in the Burning of the Devil celebrations, being hauled in to a local Posada parade, and being invited to eat tamales and drink Christmas punch with local families. I lived with the warmest and loveliest of Guatemalan families, who generously shared their home and life with me and my fellow volunteers, including us in all of their celebrations.

I had signed up for the medical volunteer programme, not really knowing what to expect, but I was very impressed with the team at Maximo Nivel, who had everything organised in a country that seemingly doesn't run to any sort of schedule! I worked in a small but busy rural clinic, assessing patients before the doctor saw them, and on the days there was no doctor, performing the medical consultation with the help of the local nurses. I struggled with how sick some of these children became before their mothers would bring them in, but as I learned more of the daily life at home and the demands of 5 or 6 other children, I could see why this was so. I was impressed at the clinic's vaccination regime, and generally the mothers were pretty good at returning for the next appointment, even if it were just to weigh and measure their child, keeping an eye on nutrition and growth. The staff in the clinic were admirably very adaptive, coping with days of 40 or more patients, sometimes with no doctor, no running water, or a shortage of necessary medications - on the whole, they ran a good health service for a large and widespread population. The patients were to be admired also, for their ability to wait patiently for review or treatment, and for putting up with a white alien with imperfect spanish on the days when I was on my own!

I would recommend volunteering with Maximo Nivel to anyone who has an inkling to go somewhere completely out of your comfort zone, the motivation to learn spanish and to share your skills with others, and the humility to let those you work with teach you something about this world we live in.