Medical Placement

I had an amazing time Guatemala. The staff was amazing and my host family was great! My typical day started around 7 with breakfast with my family and other volunteers. I would then meet other volunteers working at my placement at Maximo Nivel and we would walk to the bus station. The bus ride was about 30 minutes and would drop us off really close to the clinic. I always enjoyed the bus rides because we got to see some of the countryside and you got to really see how the local people lived.
I worked in a one room clinic with an amazing doctor. I was really intimidated at first but he was so patient with me. The number of patients we saw depended on the day; we saw anywhere from one to almost ten patients varying in ages from newborns to grandparents. When the clinic wasn't busy, the doctor would teach me different diagnosis and what medicine would cure certain symptoms. Additionally, he taught me how to give shots and draw blood. He was always very patient with my Spanish and I felt comfortable speaking around him. We didn't just speak about medicine though. He was interested in my life and what I did back home. Often times he would ride the bus back with me and talk to me about the different customs of Guatemala and especially Antigua. I got especially lucky because he took me to see the head of internal medicine at the national hospital outside of Antigua. I would always look forward to my time in the clinic because I really enjoyed working with the patients and talking with the doctor.
After leaving the clinic somewhere between noon and one, I would return home and eat dinner with my host mom because everybody else in my house had left for their volunteering or had already eaten. In the afternoons, I toured the city and visited many coffee shops. I really enjoyed just taking a Spanish newspaper with me to a coffee shop and trying to read it while enjoying the Guatemalan coffee. I did hike to the cross a couple of times when it was nice outside and that had a beautiful view of the city. For the first week that I was there, I took the Spanish lessons offered through Maximo Nivel. I ended up taking the hour private lessons instead of the group lessons. I found these lessons to be extremely helpful. Since I was on my own, I got to choose what I wanted to focus on. I chose to focus mainly on speaking and medical terms which really helped build my confidence when I first got there.
Dinner was always a whole family affair and I was never disappointed with the food. After dinner and helping clean up a little, the other volunteers and I would often go out and meet other travelers or even locals at the bars around the town. Everybody was always very friendly and we always had a good time.
I only took one trip while I was there; some of my friends and I went to Lake Atitlan. Although the lake and surrounding area was beautiful and we had fun, I felt like it was very overpriced and not really worth the money I spent. I really wish I had had time to go to Pacaya. Overall, I had an amazing time volunteering with Maximo Nivel. The staff was so nice and welcoming that I felt at home from the minute I walked into the office for orientation on the first day!