Packing for a Trip to Guatemala and some General Rules to Live By While There.

Guatemala has areas that are cold and others that are hot. You can be in both areas within a matter of hours. Guatemala is called the "Land of Eternal Spring", and for sure most of the time you will be there, it will be very nice weather. The rainy season is from early May until mid October. The rest of the year is dry season. April can be very dry and dusty.

The best way to pack is to have something warm to sleep in...the office in San Lucas is at almost 7,000 feet and can be cool at times. Always take a lightweight jacket or sweater for use at night. Long sleeve shirts and pants are appropriate just about anywhere. You may want to make sure that you have those if you are traveling in the Peten Jungle or coastal areas, because the mosquitoes there are always bad. Swim suit, jeans, shorts, tee shirts, etc. for the time you are not working in clinic are fine. If we are in a tropical area, you can use shorts and tee shirts while we are working so long as they are clean and not indecent. Please remember to dress modestly. No short shorts, for example. You will need a hat which can be brought from home or bought there. Bring with you sunglasses, sunscreen, and high percentage deet bug spray in case we travel to coastal or jungle areas. Take your prescription medications with you. Leave us a copy of your medications at the office also. Make sure that you leave a copy of your passport at home, and that we have a copy in our office prior to your traveling. Take cash with you when possible, and be very protective with it. Remember that you can not use any US dollars in Guatemala that have even the slightest tear or marking on them...they will not be accepted anywhere. Ask your bank for new $20 bills which are the easiest to use in Guatemala. You can cash traveler's checks, however it takes a lot of time waiting to get to a teller at the bank, and we just do not usually have the time to do that. We will have someone who can take $ and change them for Q's (Quetzales-the official money for Guatemala) for you when you arrive. If you get a chance, change some money at the airport when you arrive. Just remember to keep a strong hold on everything once you are in the airport, and especially when you exit.

Have a working flashlight with you at all times. Electricity outages are common. You can use appliances, such as hair dryers, etc. with the local electrical outlets. You might want to bring a surge protector before you hook in anything expensive. We do have a television and dvd player at the office. Bring extra movies if you like. We are happy to receive any copies that you want to donate to us also.

Bring a book to read when we are having "down time" which does happen. Keep it with you. Take whatever snacks you like, or you can buy them there. Do not take water. We will provide that at the office, and it is easily bought while we are traveling if you need more. Bring games or cards if you like. We do have some at the office also. We do have some books at the office also. Please just leave them when you leave.

Do not bring a lot of clothes. We can usually get them washed if we are outside of the city, or washed at the office when we are there. The less you travel with, the better. We always ask everyone to let us use one of your two fifty-pound suitcase allowances to send supplies with you to Guatemala. Please let us know if that is possible. You will also be able to use a carry-on that you take on the plane. Your extra suitcase will be available to you (whether it is ours or yours) so that you have plenty of space to take home souvenirs. Do take one nice outfit so that you have it if we go to church, out to a nice restaurant, or are invited somewhere that you would need to be suitably dressed while we are there.

You will need tennis shoes and a good pair of walking shoes for getting around. If you have hiking boots, they are great for the jungle areas.

We do have some towels at the office in San Lucas, and they are available for your use. If you have an old bath towel that you could bring to add to the collection, please do so. We have hot water most of the time, but we do have to use it sparingly. You may stay some places where there is no hot water. Bring your own shampoo, and other personal care items. We will make a run to the supermarket the first night when you arrive. We can buy just about anything there that you can get at a large store in the states. You can buy shampoo, conditioner, all other personal care items once you get there if needed. You can also get candies, cookies, ice cream, chips, and so forth. We will NOT be making this trip every night, so go when you have the opportunity.

Security: You must be responsible for your own personal items. Do NOT leave them out in the open, even at the office. We have never been able to get complete control of what happens to things when we are not there. We will have a place where you can lock up some items and have them more secure. Never put anything down in a clinic or at the hospital that you want to see again. It will disappear, even if it has no value.

Safety: Guatemala is a third world country. It has all the dangers that go with that type of setting. People who are hungry, will steal for food. Drug addicts will steal to support their habits. There are bad people everywhere in the world, in all countries. Do NOT go off walking unless you clear it with the office staff first and we know where you are going. Make sure that you have been given an all clear to go to the area you want to go into. Do not ever go alone anywhere. For the most part, it is a beautiful country and the people are great. We just do not want someone on this team to be the first to be attacked or hurt. Remain observant at all times.

Take a notebook and keep a journal while you are there. We would love to have some feedback from you upon your return and copies of any notes you want to send us. Take your camera, and if it uses film, take plenty of it. Remember to take it out going through x-ray security at airline entrances. You can buy more film in Guatemala, and you can have your memory card for digital cameras cleaned out if needed. We just can not do those things everyday, so please let us know with time when you will need to go to one of those stores. Film will cost more in Guatemala than in the states.

Food Safety: You can eat anything that we give you at the hospital, clinic, or at the office in San Lucas. There are also some restaurants that we go to where there have been no problems. The most common complaint from food is related to some type of enterobacteria which can cause cramping, chills and diarrhea. Please remember to always be careful what and where you eat. Do not eat anything off the street or in some person's home that we did not send you to. The is a really sick feeling and can go on for a couple of days. We usually have to start an IV and give medications to anyone who has it. It is certainly preferable that we do not have to deal with sick team members while we are there, but we are prepared to do so. Take plenty of Imodium with you. While you are there, at the first sign that you think that you might have picked up a food borne illness, please let us know so that we can treat you quickly. Always wipe off the tops of soft drink bottles and cans or water bottles that you are using. Wash your hands regularly. The best thing is to take the small packaged hand wipes with you and keep them on you at all times. We will have plenty of waterless hand wash with us. Use it all the time. It just takes a moment to pick up something by touching somewhere a sick patient just touched. Take small packages of tissue with you also. These are great when you need toilet paper on the trip, and there is none available where we stop.

At the house in San Lucas: We have regular beds, air mattresses, and couches to sleep on. It is really a first come first served basis. We also have sheets and blankets. There are four bathrooms available in the house, and so we have plenty of capacity to handle all the showers. We ask that you be very sparing of the hot water, and that you get wet, turn off the water, soap up, turn on the water and finish. We also have to save water wherever we can. Usually, we are buying water from the municipality to fill the cistern before we leave. If we have a problem with water, we may ask you to bathe every other day to help us conserve. This is worse at the end of the dry season. The other big thing is that you can NOT put any paper or other items in the toilets. This is guaranteed to make everyone miserable because the plumbing is not made to carry it. Please wrap all used toilet paper and put it in the basket in the bathroom. I will put a sign up in each bathroom. I am asking you to PLEASE try to remember this, so that we do not have any problems. Eventually, we will redo all the plumbing, but that is going to require tearing up all the ceramic tile floors (they are ugly enough that they need to come up) but we do not have the financial means to do it at this time.

Vaccines: We recommend that everyone be up to date on diptheria and tetanus vaccines, and on polio and tetanus. If you are going to spend a lot of time in tropical areas where there are mosquitos, you may want to consider taking antimalarial medications. You can call the office for a recommendation on this or talk to your physician. Note that you need to start this medication two weeks prior to travel for the best results. Guatemala has both malaria and dengue which is spread by infected mosquitoes.

I will update and revise this as time goes by. If you have been on a team before, and want to add anything to this, please send an email to the office and we will see that it goes in. If you have questions about policy while you are on the team, please contact us asap.

Judy Freeman