Meeting with Susana

Right away I knew I would like Susana because we shared the same name…just kidding. But actually, I was very much looking forward to not just working with Susana, but hearing everything that she had to offer. I knew it would be an emotional and educational landmark in my life. I felt it in my gut. I may be being a bit dramatic right now, but she honestly shared so much with us. Just thinking back on our morning and afternoon with her in Las Cruces, I get excited to continue to set forth about things in antipciation of living and working in Latin America.

Susana was so impressive. She graduated from USC in California with a major in biology and moved to Guatemala with her husband thirty years ago. Her spouse is actually in Chi Chi Castenango doing medical volunteer work as well. After moving about for a few years, even jumping from community to community in the forests during the Guatemalan war, she eventually established a clinic in a rural area called Las Cruces. The clinic was open several days a week in the morning to early afternoon to serve patients from near and far as they presented. It was not unusual to see trauma, deliveries, dramatic parasitic infections, and so on. While Christine, Dr. Novak, and I were in clinic that morning, one patient in particular stood out to me. A mother brought in her 2-year-old child who had Erb’s Palsey, some kind of hypersensitivity to bug bites, malaria, and was malnourished. This was the first patient that I saw while in the clinic, and I honestly didn’t feel like I needed to see anyone else to understand the degree to which Susana was helping the indiviauls in the area. Clearly, there was need and clearly, Susana was doing what she could do (and had been doing for the last thirty years) to aid the sick and suffering.

So, perhaps it is interesting to consider that I was struck by Susana’s character, strength, and temperament more than the by the medicine being provided. Sure, I may have been more moved by the patients if we had been in the clinic longer or I had the language ability to grasp personal expression rather than the simple medical interview, but wow, Susana’s presence was unusual. What was it about her that I have such a reaction to? I think she embodies and is the person whom I have read about. She is the Paul Farmer who opened a clinic in the middle of Haiti to provide whatever health care she could. She is the Amartya Sen who encourages and actually trains health promoters to exponentially increase medical care availability and sustainability. She is the Rigoberta Menchu would jumped from indiginious community to community during the Guatemalan war to offer her medical skills in the midst of an incredibly dangerous and physically and emotionally trying state. She is the Archbishop Romero who speaks on behalf of the Catholic Church to those who ask about the state of the impoverished and what the government is doing (or not doing) to help ease the suffering. What more, she is American! Needless to say, it was an incredible experience to meet such a mild-paced and strong individual.