Well actually.. I can translate.. and I DID translate!
This past week was by far my most fulfilling and remarkable week in Guatemala so far. This week the a team of medical students, a doctor, and a physical therapist visited the clinic to do a series of medical jornadas (essentially traveling clinics). Liza is placed at the clinic, but they asked me to translate for them as well and I was very excited for the opportunity. It wound up being one of the most incredible things I have done in my entire life.
As a team, we visited 3 small "aldeas" or outlying municipalities of our town San Juan. We also went to San Pablo and were in our own clinic on Friday. Mary, the 25 year old clinic administrator from Colorado, was awesome at organizing everything. (She moved down here after graduation planning on staying for one year and she is on her 3rd year here. She pretty much runs the clinic and is such a cool person. Everyone here knows Mary, and her puppy, Lukie. She is like the local celebrity, and rightfully so. She works so hard and everyone here appreciates her.)
All of the indigenous Mayan people living around the lake speak 1 or more of the 23 mayan languages. I believe 3 of them are spoken around the lake. Some, especially the older people, do not speak Spanish, so for each doctor there are two translators. One who translates English/Spanish (like me!) and one who translates Spanish/Tz'utujil or Spanish/Quiche, depending on the aldea. It was incredible as a translator to be able to send information to a patient and receive information back! It was like a huge game of telephone at times. Sometimes we did not need the Mayan translator if the patient was comfortable speaking Spanish with me.
Overall the experience this week was so inspiring. These people really need medical attention and would not have gotten it if we were not there to help them. Everyone was so grateful to us for coming, but I was so thankful that I was able to have the experience of translating for them. It was truly life-changing.
