ROMP- Guatemala Journey

May - June 2015
A 33-day adventure by Josh Read more
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  • The first day

    May 19, 2015 in Guatemala ⋅ 🌙 21 °C

    Well my first full official day has come as passed here in Guatemala. Had a chance to officially meet the team and get better acquainted with everyone. They were even nice enough to let me join in on lunch! My hotel here is really small, but I actually quite like it. Extremely simple and only has the necessities. In terms of the trial, it looks like we could have 11 patients which is great! Almost nailed the numbers on the left Vs right debate. I also tried to speak purely Spanish today which was better than expected. Except when I ordered a coffee when trying to ask where a cafe was.... Oh well the Guatemalan coffee is amazing! I'll keep this updated as much as possible. Cheers!Read more

  • Day 4

    Almost the first full week

    May 23, 2015 in Guatemala ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    Well right now it is 1:15 in the morning and I am on the roof because somehow my room is way hotter than it is outside. I don't know what happened but the power is out in the whole city. I really want to go to bed, but like I said my room is on fire :p. Onto other things, work so far has gone well. Ran into a bit of a snag and was hoping to see some patients but it didn't work out. Good news is I got together Miguel's, Isabel's and Bernadine socket. I think they look pretty darn good. I am going to try and go to the grocery store tomorrow and load up on things like water and such. Haven't had a chance to do that yet. And just like that about an hour later, power is back on. Which is incredible nice because i literally have the most powerful fan in my room. In fact it sounds like a jet engine taking off when it passes by. Good thing I'm use to loud snoring so it doesn't effect me haha. Ok back to bed!Read more

  • Day 15

    Start of the trials

    June 3, 2015 in Guatemala ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    Well the trials have began! Very exciting, I don't have a translator for half of then, so it's also very interesting!! Haha. But you make do. Done three so far and they have gone pretty well I would so. No catastrophes. In shorter news I learned my aptitude to make a complete mess knows no limits, where my clean desk turned into a war zone after the one full day of doing trials. I don't even understand how it was able to get so messy. Also a joke was played on the poor Canadian who can't speak Spanish, the snake skin... I thought that was our lunch. It smells like death. Last week I also enjoyed being in a car for 22 hours over two days driving to see patients. Luis was a absolute champ.... Me on the other hand... I was just trying not to fall asleep. Heat, car and not being able to talk apperently is the perfect recipe for getting great sleeps. Lots more work, lots more information excitement! Oh and I have decided it to be mandatory that my Spanish friends watch one of my favorite movies.... iiinnn spanish! Night at the roxbury. Going to be great :). Also I bought then a table tennis set and we made a washers set!Read more

  • Day 23

    6 down two more to go!

    June 11, 2015 in Guatemala ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    Ok first, I had a read over my last post.... Wow that was ugly. I think i will actually spell check this one. Mind you it probably won't make it much better, but hey...... It can't be worse. I am almost done my fitting which is great. Overall they have gone fairly smoothly. My Spanish is getting better each day. Truth be told I don't really have a choice haha. I did have a great translator for a few days. She was really nice, her name was Pamela. We had a very interesting story from a patient I had in Febuary, Unfortunately she lost one of her family members which was really sad to hear. On a lightly side I bought a guitar and a ping pong set. Tomorrow I am going to try and have a tournament at lunch time in both games! Washers and table tennis! Come on! Plus on Sunday I asked if we could go harpoon fishing. Sooooooo excited. Although apperently I just found out that it's at night.... And we use flash lights..... Wow lol. Can't wait to see what happens.Read more

  • Day 32

    All finished the fittings!!

    June 20, 2015 in Guatemala ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    I finished the fittings last week. Took a little bit to get the last two, but that's OK. This week has been more about trying to find a footing here now. I have just under one month left, which is crazy to think I'm half way. I have the house visits I will be doing in about 10 days which should be really interesting. The rigjt after I'm taking so time to go to Antigua. I find a hike/surf expedition I hopefully will be able to do. Pamela might end up joining me which would be great! More the merrier! I'm stating to appriciate the city more and more. It's different but has its own unique charms. Although power outages seem to be a frequent one haha. I'm trying to spend some time training the stage as much as possible. I also found out I may have some physio therapy students for the last few weeks which would be great. Specially since they speak English haha! Although slowly but surely my Spanish is coming along. I can get through basic conversations now and voice what I need which is great really helps when you finally figure out what people have been saying to start with. Overall things are going well. Spend a little more time for myself and be able to relax for another week. Then back into the patient tasks. Oh and as a side note I took the liberty of cooking lunch one day. Brought a traditional Mac and cheese with hot dog Weiner's and made my moms famous pizza dogs! They didn't have an oven... So I melted the cheese Guatemala style with a blow torch and a heat gun haha.Read more