Feb. 2nd, 2011: Guatemala in My Blood

I just finished reading a fabulous book called, Guatemala In My Blood: How Nursing in Remote Jungle Villages Revolutionized my Life. The book was given to me by a nurse who comes to visit Mike & I weekly to give us, as first time parents, education on prenatal care and will meet with us weekly until Sofia is three years old, continuing our education on raising a child. It's an amazing program for both Mike & I because we have a lot of questions and it's wonderful to have the extra medical support, free of charge. Anyone can enroll in this program, regardless of socio-economic status and regardless of having or not having health insurance. http://www.stjosephnm.org/ I would recommend this program to any first time parents in the Albuquerque area! Our nurse, Sarah, is also an amazing person. She volunteered through the Peace Corps in Morocco, North Africa, where she did community health education (what my mom did in my hometown). And prior to that experience, Sarah, graduated from a Jesuit school in Washington. Anyway, Mike & I feel a connection to Sarah due to her international scope on life. She gave me the book, Guatemala in my Blood, because she knows about my fascination and love of Guatemalan people, we well as Mike's and my desire to, someday, do international missionary work.

The book is set in rural Guatemala in the late 1970s. Liz, a nurse, left her home in Washington, to volunteer with the Maryknoll Missionaries in 1977. She spent most of her time in a small town called Poptun. Liz was actually one of the first lay missionaries to join Maryknoll Missionaries. Prior to this time the only Maryknoll Missionaries were religious sisters, priests, or brothers. Therefore, due to this change in the Maryknoll system of missionary work Liz experienced a lot of challenges as a pioneer in Maryknoll's lay missionary program. Some of the problems she faced were in community life. She lived with several people, mainly priests, in a rectory. In their time as priests these men had not lived with a woman. This created inherit challenges. Another thing that Liz struggled with was the notion that people in the town of Poptun, and surrounding areas, at first would not give her as much clout/authority as a priest. Sadly, in my opinion, this perception of lay ministry is still very prominent across the world. It takes a strong lay person, especially a woman, to work within the Catholic Church, where there is a lot of "putting priests on pedestals", clericalism, and the lack of catechetical education of all practicing Catholics that we are all called to be prophet, priest, and king.

The book seems to give a "real" experience, and not a glorified one, of life in a third world country. It talks about community life, its challenges and its graces. The main focus of Liz's work in Guatemala was with helping establish a health care education program where she and a cohort trained people in Guatemala to be educators of health themselves. These people would train more people to be health care educators. It was created with the idea for it to both be self sustaining and educational for the people of Guatemala on things such as cleanliness, using a latrine, wearing shoes so that parasites could cease to spread, etc. Successfully, through all of the challenges, this program was created and is still flourishing. Guatemala in My Blood, educates the reader on how the program started and continues to live. Lastly, the most profound thing for me, was how Liz feel in love with the Guatemalen culture and people so much to the point that it still is ingrained in her heart. Guatemala and her people are in Liz's heart and are carried out in her actions now in the United States. Now in the United States, she continues to support the people of Poptun in different ways, such as praying for them and sending medical supplies to them. Most profoundly she adopted a young girl, whom now is a young woman, Maria, from Guatemala, whom she loves dearly. Overall, for those interested in Guatemala, missionary work, or a easy good read, I would recommend Guatemala in My Blood as a must read.