“Be diligent in serving the poor. Love the poor, honor them, my children, as you would honor Christ Himself.”
St. Louise de Marillac
A Guatemala Journal – S. Montiel Rosenthal
Part Four
Saturday, February 7, 2026
Although I left for Guatemala today to serve as faculty for a team of medical students and Family Medicine residents, the planning and anticipation began earlier. In late January, members of the team gathered to pack medicines, medical supplies and donated items, each of us allotting space in our checked luggage to carry them south. Any personal items, we would have to carry onboard with us in the flight cabin. Fortunately, this time my flight connections, and making it through Customs, were quite easy.
We are a team from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. Dr. David Strawhun, one of my former residents, is volunteering this year as a physician in Guatemala. He is working with Wuqu’ Kawoq, the Mayan Health Alliance, a nongovernmental organization founded by a Cincinnati native, Anne Kramer Diaz. This is the organization I have partnered with for the last 14 years or so.
Our group includes three young physicians from the West Chester Family Medicine Residency Program, along with six fourth-year medical students from UC. The students have all taken the Medical Spanish Elective at UC, and bring varying degrees of fluency. Part of their elective is a service requirement, assisting with Spanish-English medical translation. As good as they are, all of us will be challenged with working in dual translation (English-Spanish-Kaqchikel) up in the highlands where many of the patients we will see are Mayan. Guatemala has 32 official languages, most of which are not linguistically similar. Wuqu’ Kawoq is committed to working with folks in their own language.
The traffic from Guatemala City to Antigua was crazy when it moved at all – motorcyclists whizzed between lanes of cars, chicken buses overflowed with people and street sellers’ wares, trucks rumbled past packed with onions and live cattle, and roadside vendors hawked snacks, bottles of water and souvenirs.
I will spend the night in Antigua before we head west tomorrow. Antigua means “ancient or old” in Spanish. Founded three times in the 16th century, it was originally called the City of Saint James of the Knights of Guatemala, in the Kingdom of Guatemala. Cobblestone streets and irregular slabs of stone for sidewalks mark the paths through the old city. Ruins of churches, convents, casas, and governmental buildings give Antigua its unique architectural flair.
The rest of the team, who came to Guatemala a week earlier, hiked up the volcano, Pacaya, today. We had dinner together as a team, and all of us will sleep well after a strenuous day.
Supplies
In January, the team gathered to pack medical supplies for the trip to Guatemala.
Mixco
Motorcycles and riders weave at high speed between lanes of traffic in Mixco, where S. Sarah Mulligan ministered for more than 20 years.
Church
San Jose Cathedral in Antigua, illuminated at night.
dinner.jpg
Our team at dinner before heading west to Panajachel.
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