Three Months in Tucurú

The Tucurú Health Center, funded by the Jack and Marie Eiting Foundation and Mercy Corps, provides services to hundreds of impoverished families in an isolated part of Guatemala. Photo: Nathan Golon for Mercy Corps

In September 2003, I unexpectedly found myself in Guatemala on vacation for one brief week. What I saw in that week and learned about the country made me fall in love with the people and seek an opportunity to return there to continue working. Here are some of my thoughts as I returned to this beautiful country to do an internship with the Mercy Corps Tucurú Health Care Citizenship Project from January through April 2004. This project is working to promote maternal and child health in the Alta Verapaz region of Guatemala.

Before going to Tucurú

Here I am, back in Guatemala where my dreams began just a few months ago - exactly four months ago, in fact. Being a tourist has been fun, but it just does not feel right. I see so many needs here. Men with flipper feet begging, a beautiful boy’s bright smile, the woman on the bus with a malnourished baby boy in her arms, a beautiful little girl of two or three years at her side and pregnant once again, entire towns with no health care, a 15 or 16 year old girl who has never gone to school, little boys working to shine shoes on the street as a living, the blind, the beggars on every corner… and what is my reaction to them? Do I see them as who they truly are or do I ignore them and move on?

I have been in this country for a week and a day. I've already had a few adventures, but many more await me. Most of all, I want this work that I am to do to be something effective and worthwhile. I want to be sensitive to the communities' needs, to speak Spanish clearly and correctly, to build strong relationships with the people with whom I am working, and, most of all, to really learn and decide if this is the sort of career path that I want to pursue.

After one week in Tucurú

This week as has been a whirlwind of experiences, of not knowing what to think, of feeling so inferior in my comprehension of what is going on, of not knowing a word of Q’eqchi, of visiting rural mountainous villages, of seeing so many needs, and of looking to see the impact of this Mercy Corps project.

If last week was a whirlwind, then this week was even more so. In one week I have learned an incredible amount – more than I can simply comprehend. What can I absorb, what can I learn from here? What paths do I want to take with my life? It was such a positive experience this week to meet the project donors - to meet people who give so generously with both their hearts and their money. It was great to have the opportunity to meet them and learn from them.

After a month and a half in Tucurú

I honestly do not know what my thoughts and feelings towards Tucurú are. Some moments I love it, many moments I feel utterly confused, other moments I feel incredibly inadequate, in some moments I love the culture and the people, in some moments I see so much potential and how things could change for the positive here, and in other moments I question the possibilities of lasting positive change in the community. I see so clearly many of the needs in the community. I see the women who have 15-20 children, who marry as soon as their reach puberty, and who are afraid of their own shadow due to lack of education and poor self-esteem. I see children dying from preventable causes and I see the majority of people in the community walking around a head shorter from malnutrition. Why is this so? It does not have to be.

One baby, Carolina, is in the health center suffering from severe malnutrition. What is to be said about her? What can be said? What sort of life will she ever have? Yes, we are helping to make her better, but I worry about long-term changes and growth in not only her but also other children in the community suffering from malnutrition.

Today is a day that pulled at my hearts strings and helped me to realize the pivotal importance of the work being done here. A day in Cucanja, a local health post near Tucurú where a nurse from the health center and I conduct a “Growth Monitoring and Nutritional Advice” seminar for community health volunteers.

I can see changes being made as I work with Don Lorenzo and Don Ricardo to correctly and accurately chart the growth of a little girl. We realize that she is malnourished and is not gaining weight – I explain to them what is to be done, and they think of the best way to explain the problem to the mother, and then explain to the other two community health volunteers what they all need to change to give better advice. Small changes make a sustainable difference.

Laughing in the back of a pick-up with 10 other people later that afternoon as my co-workers in health care and I hide under a tarp to escape from the rain. These are the experiences that I love.

Four days away from Tucurú and I missed it! The car ride here – so glad to see the beautiful mountains again and to feel that I am coming back to where I belong and to work that I love. There is so much work to be done here in so many areas – maternal health, reproductive health, nutritional programs, micro-finance projects, health care equity, leadership and team building skills. Mercy Corps' work in Tucurú is changing people’s lives one small piece at a time.