Author Archives: Kristen Rinaldi

Happy New Year at Susanna Wesley School

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by Janet Chichester, Director, Susanna Wesley School

P1030304The Susanna Wesley School began it’s 6th year of operation on Thursday, January 16th with 55 students, more than we have ever had before! We passed out backpacks and celebrated with a team from Eudora Kansas at an activity before classes began. Songs were sung and games played. The children and adults were all excited and eager to begin a new year. All of our superb staff returned from the previous year, and we have added 18 new students. We are also challenging ourselves with a student who is deaf this year. Stay tuned to see how we do with this challenge. Thank you for being a part of this wonderful school.

We had 100% attendance at our first parent meeting of the year, A record! And then we had extra volunteers from parents to serve on the PTA committee. Looks like it will be a good year working with the parents in Camanchaj.

Founder’s Corner January 2014

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by Phil Plunk, Founder
barb and aubrey jan 2014When I started Project Salud y Paz in 2001, my goal was to run a small medical and dental clinic for the Mayan people of Guatemala. I envisioned a small staff of one nurse, one office registrar, one general physician, and I would do the dental work.

Over the years the project has grown into something beyond what I could even think to imagine. Sounds biblical doesn’t it? It is biblical; and God has opened many, many doors for the people of Guatemala. I have been changed. Many others have been changed. Literally tens of thousands of people have received medical and dental care. Thousands of volunteers have come to help from the United States, Canada, and Europe.

Over and over the volunteers tell how giving of themselves has changed their lives, their reason for living. Tucked into my Bible I recently found a note from a volunteer from several years ago. I wanted to share it with you.

My very own special mission, Salud y Paz

My name is Barbara Travis from New Smyrna Beach, FL. I feel very honored to be chosen to spend my time with very special people in Guatemala. I am very passionate about Salud y Paz and their mission. I receive far more from the time I spend with my special friends than I ever give with my material gifts. I am already looking forward to our next trip. I work hard getting donations, etc., but I truly believe when you give, you always receive back more. Salud y Paz, thanks a million times over for the work you are doing in Guatemala. I am honored to be a part of your team.

Barbara Travis

As I write this, Barbara is with us in Camanchaj on her seventh trip. If you, too, have been touched, we would love to hear how Salud y Paz has affected your life. Please share your stories with us. Send us an email and a picture or two.

The Decision to Move

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by Katie Slagle, Community Health and Surgery Coordinator

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My first trip to Guatemala was three years ago when I decided to spend a week volunteering to get a feel for what medical care looked like in a developing nation. Throughout the week, I not only learned a lot about medical care, but I also learned a great deal about Guatemala. I fell in love with the Mayan culture and the simple, yet joyful lives of the Mayan people. The image that stuck with me and kept me coming back was the beauty of this country contrasted with the terrible poverty.

A year after my first visit to Guatemala, I returned with my church, the Florida State University Wesley Foundation. Several of us spent the week in a village called Chontala, which happens to be about 5 miles from the Salud y Paz clinic in Camanchaj. On my second trip, the things that I had fallen in love with a year earlier were only reaffirmed. When I left Chontala I did not see myself returning to Guatemala in the near future because I had graduated and was now in the “real world”. I needed to get a job and start paying the bills. So I did. I got a job at a dialysis clinic and began “real life”.

But then everything changed.

IMG_6042Last February, four of my friends from FSU decided to move to Chontala for the summer to teach English and computer literacy. From the moment I found out they were going to Guatemala, I became restless. On my first trip, I learned about the lack of healthcare and what was being done to try and fulfill this need. On my second, I saw firsthand the need for medical care out in the rural village and became friends with those people who needed it. As a nurse, I knew this was a problem I could help solve. I made the hard decision to quit my job and move to Guatemala.

My first week in the country I met Heather Nielsen, the previous Community Health and Surgery Coordinator. We got to talking, and it turned out she worked for Salud y Paz. Heather invited me to volunteer with the Las Amigas women’s health education program. After a few months, my role expanded and Heather trained me as the new Community Health and Surgery Coordinator. Soon after, Heather returned to the States to pursue her Doctor of Nursing Practice. And now here I am, having already lived in Guatemala for eight months. I have enjoyed my experience so far and am very excited to see what is in store for the future.

Mi Amiga, Maria

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by Kelly Cragg, Team Coordinator

Maria at home

Every time I host a team in Cunén I visit my friend Maria. She lives alone in the little house across the street from the hotel where all of our teams stay. I first met Maria last February when I was working with the Ft. Smith Medical and Dental team. Each morning when we loaded up our Chicken Bus to go out to the rural communities, she would be sitting at her front door smiling and watching us closely. Then each afternoon when the team returned, there she was still sitting at her door, smiling and waiting for our return. After a couple of days, I went over to meet her, and she told me that she had been living in her house alone ever since her husband passed away several years ago. She explained that other than a cousin who lives in Chichicastenango, she has no family or people to take care of her. When I asked how long it had been since she had seen a doctor or dentist, she couldn’t even remember. We paid for a tuk tuk to bring her to our clinic in Cunén the following day. When she arrived, I could tell she was scared, so after triage I sat down next to her while she was waiting to see the doctor. After a few moments, she reached over and held my hand and whispered to me that she hadn’t felt another human’s touch in years. We sat there silently holding hands for a good 10 minutes until she went in to see the doctor. When she was done she got her necessary medications then came up to me and gave me a beautiful hug. I knew from that first visit that she was special and would become a friend I would visit each time I go to Cunén.

Sept. 2013The last time I saw my friend was in September with the New England Conference Medical and Construction team. When we pulled up to the hotel, I was delighted to see Maria sitting by her front door waiting for us with her beautiful smile. As soon as I got off the bus, I ran across the street to give her a hug, and she welcomed me back. She came to the clinic again that week, and I noticed that she was wearing the same sweater as always and was carrying the little cloth purse that the team last February had given her. This time when she came to the clinic, she didn’t seem to have the same fear that I had seen in her eyes the first couple of times she was there. Thankfully, she now has a comfort level with our teams. After she went through triage, I watched as she went to sit on the bench to wait for the doctor. She sat down then looked back at me and held out her hand and smiled. By now we both know the drill. But now when we sit there together holding hands, we spend that time talking and laughing.

Maria has a special place in my heart, and I now find myself wanting to host all of our Cunén teams so that I have the chance to visit my friend. Now that I have been with Salud y Paz for over two years, when I go out into the rural communities with our teams, I not only recognize the faces we see, but I can honestly say I have formed friendships. Each time when I say goodbye to Maria, she thanks me for my time in Guatemala and tells me how our teams have changed her life. I struggle to come up with the proper words to explain to her that she has blessed my life and the lives of our team members much more than she could ever imagine. With almost every team that I work with, at the beginning of the week, I hear them talking about how they hope that they are changing lives through their service. Then by the end of the trip they always say that it was their lives that were the ones changed through meeting the beautiful Guatemalans. When I first decided to move to Guatemala I told myself that it would be worth it if I could change just one life. I now know that during my time down here one life has been changed forever. Thanks to my friend Maria and many more beautiful smiles like hers my life has forever been changed by experiencing the true love shown by the Guatemalans that we are here to serve.