by Kelly Cragg, Team Coordinator

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.

The 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.