Some of the longer-time readers may remember Dr. William “Skip” Johnstone, who first joined me on a trip back in February 2016. He was an attending physician at ECU (which is where we met) for a bit and is now in Wilmington teaching the residents there and fighting the good fight to keep the art of vaginal surgery alive. He is an amazingly talented and experienced surgeon, and I love both learning from and working with him. In 2016 on the trip, it was his first experience with anything outside of the United States that wasn’t a resort location. I had the amazing and rare privilege of watching his life change before my very eyes on that trip, as they were opened to a whole, bigger world than he had simply ever known before. Since then, he has LED two surgical mission trips to the Dominican Republic in addition to re-joining me on this trip! And all of this God has done in a man who hates to fly, folks. Just imagine what he could do with you…
One of the third-year residents in the Wilmington, NC, program, Kimberly Hildner, is also along on this trip. I’ve been so blessed by a constant flow of residents from this program since back in 2015 when I initially reached out for help with the trips. All of the residents have been awesome to work with, and I’m sure Kim will be no exception (no pressure, Kim!) She is originally from Florida and hopes to move to Denver, CO, after graduation next year to practice a full scope of obstetrics and gynecology. I look forward to getting to know her better during the week, but am already excited about her heart for Guatemala—she has spent some time here as a fourth year medical student, where she is excited to go back and visit after we finish up our surgeries later in the week! It’s so cool to hear other people’s experiences here in “my second home”, and it’s nice to have someone else along that can function as a tour guide of sorts.
While spending six weeks here as a fourth year medical student, she was able to travel quite a bit while she was here—but the one place on her list they never made it to? Chichicastenango, of course! What a great opportunity (that’s where we are now).
Our morning got off to an early 4 am start at the RDU airport, followed by two flights with a layover in Miami. Then the drive from Guatemala City to Chichicastenango, where we will lay our heads for the week and work. Our little hospital, The Good Samaritan Hospital, is ready and waiting for us to start up clinic tomorrow morning, so it will be the first of several long days.
Skip has requested to write the rest of the blog tonight, so I’m nervously handing off to him now…
Heidi speaks the truth and is very passionate about her role in helping the women of the region who need surgical care. As she so eloquently stated, my life changed when I made my first medical mission trip with her in 2016. I always ASSUMED, and probably correctly, that if I took a week from my practice back in NC and operated on women in need of surgical care but who had no way to pay that I’d be extremely busy. However, my first trip with Heidi opened my eyes to the fact that NC poor and third world poor cannot compare. The profound living conditions of the indigenous population in third world countries is almost unimaginable, yet when you offer to help them, their gratitude and appreciation is all I need! The patients are cared for by their families and they go home after major surgery on Tylenol and ibuprofen and are thankful and smile a lot. Selfishly, I get more out of what we do here than the patients I think. I am looking forward to a great week with my colleagues doing what we do best for a population in dire straights. Thank you Heidi and Agape in Action for allowing me to be a part of a great mission!
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