Letter to my dad

hi pai!

just got back into town from a town called solola. we were on the
campus of the universidad del valle. the town is on lake atitlan, a
massive lake surrounded by huge, 12000 foot volcanoes. beautiful
place. also very poor. minimal infrastructure. block houses. arid
cornfields. trash and dust.

the people are very friendly but, weary of strangers. the people
bombed out a police station a few months ago after police shot and
killed a bus driver.

we had a good trip. this team was from cascade, oregon and a little
spoiled in terms of location. solola is three hours from gautemala
city, nice campus, hot water, wireless internet, computer lab! i mean,
they were spoiled. usually, the locations we go to you are lucky to
have water, much less hot and the bathroom is falling apart. tiles
torn off the walls, mold, unknown sticky stuff on the walls in your
bedroom. but oh well. went great.

didnt spend much time in the hospital as other teams, namely because i
didnt know many docs. [redacted] i mean, i felt like
during lunch i was walking through weaver street, ahaha.

one little girl with burns on her face and hands came to get her
fingers separated surgically as they healed and stuck together after
she got burned. she was 11 and when she was four her house caught fire
in the city and she wasnt old enough to get out. someone had
intentionally set their house on fire. it was one of the first times i
truly felt empathetic toward a patient and it really got to me. she
was only 11 and it was sad. but she was so upbeat and smiled all the
time and we became good friends over the week. her name was raquel.

the trip was over before we new it. we took the team down to the lake
town called Panajachel. super hippy. [redacted] but it was great, im trying to upload the pics, will do
it when i get home.

right now im pretty tired but blaire arrives friday for our tejutla
trip! thatll be great. hope all is well with you, lets hear an update
from you! abrazos.