Introduction

This blog will follow me through my travels and experiences working at a clinic in Quetzaltenango (Xela), Guatemala. The clinic sees primarily indigenous (Mayan) patients in a rural mountain community. More than half of the patients are children, and the clinic is expanding its population even more to include more adults. Much of my struggles actually come from the rather universal theme of being a new healthcare provider, in my case, a new nurse practitioner. I'll also try to post plenty of travel stories to keep people entertained, and share some more cheerful stories. I apologize if there's an overkill of clinic stories. Sometimes it helps to tell the stories, even if only for my own sake.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Mall

I am surprised to admit that I have only been here for 2 weeks, and I have already been to the mall. I have to say, it was quite the experience! The Pradera Mall is the largest mall in the area, and they happened to have what I needed--the headquarters style Claro store to resolve my internet issues. Fortunately, I got that resolved today. This multiple-story mall has the local version of Wal-Mart, ice cream and frozen yogurt places, upscale-ish clothing stores, Burger King, Taco Bell, etc., the Gap, Payless Shoes, and several other American stores, plus business places like phone companies and banks. It was quite a site to see so much wealth, and children screaming they wanted the giant cars they can ride in, after spending the day treating children at a rural school, just a few miles away. I wanted to take pictures of the (very few) indigenous women walking around in the super commercial mall, but thought it was inappropriate. You'll just have to imagine.

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