Hasta Luego Guatemala

Dear Guatemala,

Thanks for a great 4 weeks! As I reflect back on our time together, I can't help but think about the next time we meet and I. CAN'T. WAIT.

Why you might ask? It's obvious::

1) Guatamalans are some of the most sincerely friendly people I have met.
2) Your country is beautiful.
3) I have grown to love "chicken buses."
4) Hiking volcanos is a BLAST!

That being said I am glad to be making my way back to the states.  I can't wait to sleep in my bed. To take a shower with perfectly hot water. To be able to throw my toilet paper down the toilet. And salad - JESUS, how I've missed salad.

As I reflect on my time away, as always I am so very greatful to have the opportunity to travel abroad to experience another culture and to meet new people and practice medicine on a new health system.  I know I'm a privileged white male that grew up with a loving family, in a safe neighborhood, with clean drinking water, never worrying whether or not I had access to healthcare and never going to bed hungry.  This is definitely not the case for most Guatemalans and often times not the case for many of my patients in the USA.

I hope that everyone reading this realizes how lucky we are to live in the US. To have clean drinking water, minimal to no corruption in our government or out law enforcement officers, great roads, access to healthcare, access to public school past 6th grade, I could go on and on.

I urge you all to consider traveling to a less developed country to experience this first hand. If you can't that's cool, but next time you are getting upset about how the Barista at Starbucks screwed up your order, or your primary care doctor is running 30 minutes late or your internet is slow, it could be worse. Much worse.

Please consider supporting Pop Wuj and all of the amazing work that they do!

Here's the link again:  http://www.pop-wuj.org/volunteer/partners.html

Thanks for following me on my trip! Can't wait until my next adventure!

Take care,

Bradley