Home with the Wilkinson's : Guatemala Part 4: MEDRETE

For those of you who didn't know,

I LOVE MY JOB in the military!!!!

I am a 68 Sierra Preventive Medicine Specialist

AKA Environmental Health

It is the most rewarding job in the medical field (if you ask me).

How I see it is, if humanity will listen and abide by what PM has to say,

They will have no need for further medical intervention.

(within reason)

If we can teach the world to purify water from the best water source available...cook, hold, and prepare their food in the safest way...know where the dangerous insects/arachnids/reptiles hide, know how they think, and move so as to best avoid them...encourage well rounded and healthy eating habits from what they have available to them...proper exercise expectations for your body...appropriate waste disposal...

how to best hold and move their bodies in extreme cold or heat...

personal hygiene...infant care...

The world would see SIGNIFICANTLY less death by dehydration, malnutrition via parasites, reptile & arachnid poisonings, malaria, dengue fever, diabetes, heart failure, obesity, heat stroke, frostbite, flu, TB, E. Coli .....THE LIST GOES ON

My recent trip to Guatemala lead me to realizing the importance of my job even more.

You may google 'MEDRETE' (or just click on the link) and read all about the United State's (in conjunction with other countries) efforts, in Central America, to educate the people concerning Preventive Medicine and to provide basic health care needs to the citizens.

I've been extremely privileged to have been a part of four or five of these missions

throughout my career thus far.

This specific mission was my second attending in Guatemala.

My first being on my Honduras mission in 2012/2013.

It was so fun to return and once again find myself minutes from where I had served the year prior.

The following are photos of our station and some of the materials

we were teaching with and handing out.

Sorry about the awful glare...

I'm an adventurer, not a photographer. haha

Hand Washing!

Food preparation & some water sanitation

Everyone got multi vitamins,

a tooth brush,

and the children received a fluoride treatment!

What is available to handout and provide varies

drastically per mission and regional needs.

This is where the locals would file in from the line up at the gate and take a seat about 30-40 at a time. Here, they would learn about preventive medicine.

If needed, they would then move on to see nurses, doctors, OB's, dentists...

for antibiotics, tooth extraction, exam referrals, lice treatments, diabetes medication,

antiparasitics, or treatment for whatever was ailing them to the best of our abilities.

These cups of water were our water source on the site.

HOW FUN ARE THEY?!

Lunch break with some buddies.

The back glare was pretty awful.

Most of the kids LOVE having us around and just hang out

like we are having a fiesta!

Wishing I could have scooped a few up like Angelina Jolie.

Maybe some day.

I made a few of these for the scared babies.

They were really hit & miss

as to weather they would scare them more....or make them smile.

The Region's Public Health Team!

They were so great and I hope to get to work with them again soon!!

AND YOU WON'T BELIEVE THIS!!!

This is my good friend Leon. I worked with him for a week in 2013. The chances of us running into each other again at any time in our lives were so slim it was crazy!

Here we are in 2013

Big guy to my left.