I'm Off to Guatemala for a Medical Mission Trip

Tomorrow, I head off to the Central Highlands of Guatemala to participate on the Midwestern University team at our annual medical mission. I will spend two days of sightseeing and one day at the clinic. My plan is to find an Internet cafe in town and write blog entries about my experiences and insights from the MWU student and faculty participants.

For the 11th year in a row, MWU volunteers will spend two weeks away from their comfort of their homes to give back to those who need it most. Some members of the group left February 16 and will stay until March 1. A few sobering statistics: 56.2% of the Guatemalan population lives in poverty; 15.7% live in extreme poverty. People die daily due to minimal funding of health care. Slights cold turn into pneumonia, which is the leading cause of death in Guatemalan children.

The team of 45 MWU alumni, faculty, and students will be led by John Burdick, Ph.D., Dean of Basic Sciences and Vice President for Clinic Operations; Larry Jensen, D.A., Chair of Microbiology/Immunology; and Alan Schalscha, D.O., AZCOM alumnus and Clinical Assistant Professor. The trip is sponsored by DOCARE International, a nonprofit medical outreach organization, which works to bring needed free health care services to people in Latin America (www.docareintl.org). Special thanks also goes to the Glendale Rotary Foundation, Continental Airlines, and the Catholic Medical Mission Board for their support of the mission.

I'm looking forward to this trip and the opportunity to help others in need and write about my experiences. I'm traveling with two of my favorite people: Jim Cole, D.O., inaugural Dean of the Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine and now a Senior Consultant to MWU for University Relations, and his wife Beth. We're taking some tours of Antigua City, shopping in local markets, and working at the clinic. If you get a chance, check out my blog this weekend and next week and find out how the trip went.