Cascade Medical Team
A Note from Donna:
February 08:This year I participated in my second Medical Mission to Guatemala. It started with a week of language school in Antigua-class four hours a day (turning my brain to mush with Spanish grammar), walking and eating our way through a charming and interesting city. I highly recommend it. We then joined the team and got to the more serious (sometimes) work of providing health care for hundreds of rural Guatemalans. I did mostly post op pediatric care on the evening shift. We work hard but the friends we make on the team and the people we help make it a truly worth every minute-even the terribly long travel days. I am determined to take Alex along next year. The teenagers on the team are just great and exposure to another reality is a good thing. I am hoping that some of you will take an interest in our work and make a small donation to support the team. You may donate specifically for medical supplies, or to sponsor an individual. Donations are, of course, tax deductible. If you have questions be sure to ask me. I’d love to tell you more about it. You can also get more information by going to www.cmt-oregon.org.
March, 09: Alex and I returned from Guatemala last week and he is already nagging his dad about going next year. Alex worked on the kitchen crew helping serve 3 squares to the team daily, spent one day on a stove team installing stoves in a nearby village, and was able to observe several surgeries. I worked in the post op ward. This year one of the most touching cases in post op was a 14 year old girl named Lidia. Lidia has untreated epilepsy and as a poor rural indigenous person she has essentially no health care options. She fell into the house fire (open fires on dirt floors being the most common cooking arrangement) during a seizure and severely burning the right side of her face. She came to us for surgical treatment for her mouth and eye but the best thing we did for her is find her a year’s worth of seizure medication. Hopefully she can have additional surgery on her face next year. She was an amazing young lady and truly touched everyone who had the honor and pleasure of caring for her.
We worked very hard-the last three days without running water due to the pump in our well breaking, had very few mishaps and illnesses considering we were 100+ people in a third world country and ended with a couple of great days in Antigua. If you ever have the opportunity it is a wonderful little city. I brought back great textiles to sell for 3 Guatemalan families so if you get the chance to come take a look, come on by.
The following is from an email sent to the team by leaders, Robert and Tamra:
As spring has come to the Pacific Northwest, I have reflected on the emerging life all around me, thus being reminded of the transformed lives witnessed in Guatemala through our medical missions and community development projects.
My wife, Tamra and I have been involved with the HELPS International/Cascade Medical Team for the past seven years. I recall the very day that my wife, a nurse, came home so excited about an opportunity to go on a medical mission, a vision of hers for quite some time. Fortunately for her, I responded with mutual enthusiasm and the willingness to do any task in order to participate. Within several months, we were embarking on our journey to the remote town of Barrillas in the highlands of Guatemala, our first of many similar missions. She worked with the patients in the recovery room of our makeshift hospital and I worked in the make-do kitchen, becoming proficient in brewing enough coffee for our 100+ member team. Funny, I don’t even drink coffee-such is the life of a volunteer…you’ll do whatever needs to be done! Currently we travel to Solola, an easy three hour bus ride compared to that first trip which entailed two full days of travel to the end of the read-literally!
The University dell Valle de Guatemala (UVG) site is a pleasant and spacious campus with breathtaking vies of Lake Atitlan. The team is committed to making this site a place of healing and recovery because its history is somewhat tainted with dark and miserable personal testimonies. During the civil war that lasted almost 30 years (ending in 1996) it was a military base. Many of the indigenous Mayan population have vivid memories of the bloodshed and atrocities that occurred during that horrible period in their not-so-distant past.
My sincerest hope is to continue to return there every year in order to capture the hearts and trust of the Mayans who still fear that site; transforming it into a haven for healing. We have made much progress over the last five years because our presence and medical/community relief has benefited the lives of so many.
In retrospect as I tap away on the keys of this laptop, I realize that I am not the same person who made coffee that first year in Barillas. It goes beyond simply brewing coffee, performing a life-changing surgery, prescribing beneficial medications, installing an efficient wood-burning stove. It’s become a calling, a dedication to metamorphosing lives, and a belief that there is still so much more to accomplish.
Please join us on this adventure of a lifetime.
Robert and Tamra Orland, Cascade Medical Team Leaders
- Solola 2008
- TriageTeam: 1510 patients
- Medical Clinic: 733 adults, 342 children
- Surgical Team: 96 patients
- Outreach Teams: 435 patients
- Construction Team: 20 stoves, 20 cement floors
Solola 2009
- Medical Clinic and Outreach: 1686 persons
- Dental Team: 286 patients
- Eye Team 201 eye exams, 28 surgeries
- OR/Surgery: 72 cases, including cleft lip/palate and other reconstruction, general and gyn surgeries
- Construction: 71 outside stoves, 70 indoor stoves, 80 water filters, one institutional stove for a school
