Your body is in a constant state of renewal. With every breath you take, the stem cells inside your body are renewing and regenerating themselves. These seemingly miraculous cells have the ability to transform themselves into brand new healthy cells to replace the sick or worn out cells in your muscles, organs, tissues, brain, glands, joints and bones—virtually any cell in your body. Many scientific studies now indicate that increasing the number of circulating adult stem cells in your body is probably the single most important thing you can do to maintain optimal health.

Adult stem cells are released from bone marrow into the bloodstream. Then they go searching for tissues and organs in distress. For example, if the heart sends out a cry for help, the traveling stem cells exit the bloodstream, migrate to the heart, multiply and become brand new healthy heart muscle cells to replace the sick or worn out cells.

Dr. Byron Sanchez, medical director of the Medi-Center Stem Cell Research Clinic in zone 10 of Guatemala City, is an oncologist and hematologist with 15 years of experience in stem cell research and transplantation. The highly skilled medical team at Medi-Center offers stem cell transplantation therapy to patients with the same degree of success as any other country in the world, from the United States to South Korea, but at a fraction of the price.

Dr. Sanchez explains the process: Stem cells are derived from the patient’s own bone marrow or umbilical cord. Blood, fat and skin are also excellent sources of stem cells. In adults, these cells are rare, isolated at a rate of about 1 in 1,000. Immunological reconstitution is done by isolating the patient’s natural killer cells, T cytotoxic cells. They are extracted, isolated, stimulated and processed in the laboratory. The new, multi-potent cells are restored to the patient intravenously, in a method much like chelation therapy or dialysis.

With just a few days of treatment and observation, our patients in Guatemala now have the opportunity to live better and longer without resorting to dangerous drugs or invasive surgical techniques.

As an anti-aging property, stem cell regenerative therapies are increasingly used in cosmetic formulations. They work to slow down the aging process of the skin and the supporting muscles to restore not only a youthful appearance, but the vitality and functionality of the organs as well.

In all cases, success rates depend on the patient’s age, lifestyle, genetic composition and metabolism.

The most exciting therapeutic possibility of stem cell transplantation is that it enhances the body’s own natural inclination to heal itself, effectively reversing the effects of disease and aging. We now have the opportunity to live longer, healthier, happier—feeling “good as new.”

written by Lori Shea, medical tourism facilitator

For more information, contact Guatemala Medical Travel at agents@GuatemalaMedicalTravel.com or call 7873-9826 or 5737-3023

Locals and visitors shape up at Antigua’s Gym

This leads to the discrepancy that can exist between how one sees him- or herself and how others see them. It has been said that if we could see ourselves as others see us, we would vanish on the spot. How very true—for to see ourselves as others see us can be a real eye-opening experience.

Often in close relationships the gaps are painfully exposed. “I’m flexible!” declares a woman—the man laughingly responds, “You gotta be joking—it’s my way or the highway with you!” Not all gaps have an “ouch” factor—sometimes they carry a “wow,” like when someone sees something special about us that we had not seen. It’s very easy for us to fall into a false sense of self—whether it’s an inflated or a deflated sense.

We all like to think of ourselves as being trustworthy, honorable, generous, kind, compassionate, loving human beings. And, of course, smart, witty and charming, too. However, if we look at ourselves through rose-colored mirrors how can we be sure that we are all that we think we are? A good start is the question, what do you believe people think about you? A good ending is to ask a trusted friend.

Life is a process of becoming. From the moment of birth the process begins through a combination of the stages we go through—infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood. In the early stages we move from one to another because there isn’t any choice. We can’t spend the rest of our lives in diapers or dragging around our security blanket!

Many times during the stage of adulthood, however, the process of becoming abruptly ends. Very often once people reach a particular state, they remain fixed in it.

Curtailing this process defies the law of physics that states the universe is a universe of true becoming. At a personal level it stops us from evolving into who we truly are. After all, isn’t that what the journey is about —the refinement of our soul through time? At a universal level, it’s about honoring the gift of life by accepting the privilege and responsibility to give back by becoming more.

Kick-start the process of becoming by making a fundamental life choice to become all that you are meant to be. Raise the bar on your inward and outward standards. Dedicate yourself to all the things you aspire to become and step away from the things that hold you back. Think of yourself akin to a caterpillar! As it grows it splits and sheds its skin four or five times before its metamorphosis into a butterfly.

It’s important to stay present with tapping into the essence of your true nature and not to get lost in the future by aspiring for more. Remember that devilish ego always grabs hold of “the more!”

Master the art of becoming by heeding the words of Nelson Mandela: “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be?”

This electric shock treatment is especially vital to the muscles that lie within the core human dimensions—the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. Even with regular exercise our body muscles need to be continuously surprised with new routines.
In the emotional realm, jolts are created by asking the tough questions like, “Where do I need to grow?” and “What am I still holding onto?” Or, through daring to feel more deeply by freeing up space in the heart.

The brain can go soft, too. New neural pathways can be created and old ones strengthened by working the brain muscle with intellectual challenges like learning a new language or subject matter. But remember Einstein’s warning, “We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.”

The mind is a bit different—it needs to be underworked and the “fasting” muscle is especially important. Regular “mind fasts”—catching negative thoughts or those that dwell in the past or future—for an entire day will certainly work different mental muscles!

Spiritual muscles also require work for there to be movement and growth. Even with dedicated meditation, it’s sometimes necessary to seek out different muscle groups. By contemplating questions like “How can I deepen my practice?” and “What can I do to get closer to the essence of who I am?” or going on a retreat can awaken muscle energy.

Finally, remember those muscles around the mouth and smile, smile, smile!

Life is often full of canto rodados (boulders) that stop us dead in our tracks. Those earthly problems threaten to absorb some or all emotional, physical and material resources. The meek play ostrich by sticking their head in the sand, thinking it will magically disappear; the mighty recoil in the shadow of the “procrastinator”—the Chief Constable of Manaña. A normal human reaction to being overwhelmed is to pretend it’s not happening or to delve in and tackle it in one go.

Regardless of the nature of the challenge, there’s a well-proven strategy for solving it. It’s called Poco a Poco and is based on the philosophy that moving glaciers is difficult, so move ice cubes instead! Basically, this means to “bite-size” a problem by breaking it into smaller pieces. These individual chunks are manageable and can be more easily examined for solutions on a “little-by-little” basis. This makes it possible to see a problem in different lights and to explore all different solutions. “Little by little does the trick,” declared Aesop, and he was absolutely right!

There is a caveat, however. Be sure you’re not left surrounded by lots of bits and pieces that don’t fit together! To avoid this remember to zoom out and look at the problem or situation from a broader view. This strategy moves us from our comfort level to a place where we normally don’t go. Those who like to fly high above a problem must parachute down, and those who dive instinctively into the details must take a helicopter up to 30,000 feet to see the bigger picture. Regardless of your inclination, remember the Peruvian proverb, “Little by little one walks far.”

Sue Patterson (center) & guests

With the theme “It All Begins With Family Planning …,” WINGS’ 10th anniversary launch party on March 17 brought 150 guests to Mesón Panza Verde in La Antigua, where they met WINGS board members and staff and watched WINGS’ new nine-minute film about family planning.

“One of my inspirations is trying to help the women of Guatemala. They do hold up half the world,” said retired U.S. Foreign Service Officer Sue Patterson, who founded WINGS over 10 years ago. “I have a passion for helping women get better control of their lives.”

The organization’s history dates to 1999 when Patterson, a 25-year diplomat who served in Chile, Iran, Guatemala and Italy, received a request from a friend to fund voluntary tubal ligations for seven women – each of whom had at least eight children.

Reaching out to friends, Patterson, who lives in Antigua, raised the needed $4,000 and put the wheels in motion for a permanent organization that would provide reproductive health and family planning services in Guatemala.

In 2001, WINGS achieved U.S. 501(c)(3) non-profit status, hired its first full-time staff member to provide reproductive health education and began providing Pap smears to detect cervical cancer.

After providing screenings to 200 women in the first year, WINGS today reaches more than 30,000 women, men and youth in Guatemala. Its budget has gone from the initial $4,000 to over $1 million.

“WINGS really started off doing one thing – family planning in the communities,” Janeen Simon, WINGS executive director, told guests. “We now have five programs to give people information to make informed choices so they can have healthier, happier families.

“Without Sue we wouldn’t be here today,” Simon continued. “She’s been an incredible inspiration to us.”

For more information or to donate, see www.wingsguate.org, e-mail info@wingsguate.org or call 7832-5130.

While hardware interrupts are hard to ignore, software ones are subtle and insidious. Appropriately, they’re also called “a trap.” Our busy doing-and-thinking self is interrupted and trapped a lot of the time, which is easy considering the 90,000 thoughts we reportedly have each day!

Is it a cosmic joke that the faulty wiring we have on the “ignore signal” response is being rapidly corroded by technology? We need not retreat in helpless surrender to “The Technology Entrapment” trend. So what if 2,500 Twitter followers expect a continuous stream of tweets and people know you have an iPhone and therefore can respond instantly to email or that Facebook friends would suffer if they didn’t know you just ate curry?

These interruptions trap us in a sense of belonging and relationship. The desires and fears surrounding these two dominant human needs are insatiable—hence the strong pull of the “technology drip.” Paradoxically, the power of the anytime-anywhere digital party line to connect human dots also has the power to disconnect our inner dots!

The core of our very being lies beyond our doing-thinking “little me.” Even without the seduction of technology we easily fall into forgetfulness and neglect our sacred coming-home place. Technology has teamed up with the relentless mind and tyrant ego to keep us from going places where they are not welcome.

The challenge we face is not to let the technologies of today and tomorrow rob us of the opportunities to be fully present and connect to our essence. A far greater challenge for us, however, is not to rob ourselves of this either!

It’s still early days—we haven’t yet grown digital legs and our minds haven’t found technology filters. In the meantime put down your iPad and just “be.” Be still and fully present in this moment!

Valentine’s Day is an occasion to celebrate love, gratitude and appreciation. It’s easy and fun to give heartfelt gifts to those we love in our inner circle. Gifts of gratitude and appreciation for those in our outer circle—teachers, maids, employees—require more thought.

All presents, regardless for whom or why, are gifts of love that come by way of the heart. Valentine’s Day is an opportunity to express what’s innate in our nature—to create and present manifestations of love to others. The power of the gifting side of love lies in stepping out of one’s self and giving to another human being without any expectation. Over time, this attribute has been contained through the socialization process, leading to store-bought gifts being wrapped with satin bows and presented on specific “giving” dates.

The real challenge lies in tapping into our true nature to include gifts of love to others outside of our familiar circles. This is where the creative side of love comes into play, for the greatest gifts are not found in gold boxes with bar codes, but in the heart. Leave anonymous gifts for someone to discover. For example, plant a poem, card, picture, book or flower in a public place like a bench or bus seat. These gifts are seeds for a refreshment of life and wishes for another’s happiness.

This strange enjoyment comes from the primal nature of fear. Probing the hidden part of us that lives in fear has always been an important human experience. As the author Lovecraft wrote, “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” Ghosts are the embodiment of this fear and since imagination is part of being scared, ghosts can be whatever we want them to be.

One definition of a ghost is someone who hasn’t quite made it. They died, but don’t know that yet, so they wander in a confused state. Regardless, whether they’re malevolent or benevolent, ghosts are the principle of life: the spirit of a departed person.

In Buddhism they’re called “Hungry Ghosts” and are portrayed with a large belly and a very skinny throat. They want to eat and feel full, but cannot. No matter what they eat or how much, they’re always hungry. They didn’t adequately provide themselves with what they needed to flourish in the afterlife.

The Zen Master, Thich Nhat Hanh uses the Hungry Ghost to describe a psychological condition that plagues many. When there’s a disconnection from our source of life, we begin to wither and become a hungry ghost, wandering and looking for something to revive us.

As much as we like to be scared, we also enjoy a good laugh. Ghost stories and jokes are similar—both lead up to the point where either you laugh or shiver!

The daughter’s mother wasn’t talking about quadratic or cubic equations; she was referring to the human equation. Nevertheless, all equations have basic principles pertaining to life as much as to math. For those of us without a mathematical bent we can head directly to the root of what concerns us.

Equations have four properties that relate to the human condition. First, they are statements asserting the equality of two things; second, identity lies at the core of this state; third, equations are essentially a scale on which questions and problems can be weighed; and fourth, they consist of constants and variables. In simple terms, for us this means balancing the endless variables in life so that the solution is always equivalent to who we truly are.

Solving this master equation is our principal purpose in life. Einstein claimed, “… an equation is forever.” Since we have our entire lifetime to wrestle with it, often it does feel like forever!

We begin life with one constant—our spirit. This essence of who we are is the vital part of our equation. Everything else is a complexity of variables—the wildcards of the unpredictable that are dealt with great regularity. The aim of the exercise isn’t to ward off the variables; instead, it’s to filter them through astutely wise questions. The mastery of our equation depends on the questions we dare to ask ourselves.

Don’t get caught up on the hard numbers. Remember to include imaginary ones in your equation so that you can calculate all kinds of things which cannot be imagined without!

Are you creating a masterpiece? Or are you painting by numbers, or connecting haphazard dots? Perhaps you’re like many people who sleepwalk right past their canvas. One day you may find it filled with graffiti or a Dorian Gray!

How have we lost sight of our gift? Despite the diversity of human circumstances the reasons are simple. It’s the search for happiness through others and things, which is driven by the ego’s ruthless fixation with fear and desire.

Combined with the belief that we are no more than our story, we’re led into the descent of deep forgetfulness. Here we cannot touch our divine gifts, nor connect with the essence of who we truly are—no wonder often the life we end up with is not the one we would have consciously chosen!

It’s never too late to pick up the brush! Although we cannot recreate the past and start a new beginning, we can start to create a new ending. Turn the canvas away from the world and face it inward.

Here you’ll find your muse. Invoke her with stillness, love and beauty. Observe the freedom and passion with which she unleashes the wings of your dreams. Watch her create a masterpiece with the heartbeat of your soul.

Henry Ward Beecher proclaimed, “Every artist dips his brush into his own soul and paints his own nature into his pictures.” Life is not a dress rehearsal, so heed Oscar Wilde’s words: “I put all my genius into my life; I put only my talent into my works.”

Everyone needs a code to live by. The question is which code?

There’s no shortage of codes from which to choose. For example, the 10 moral imperatives handed down from the mountain, the Golden Rule, the Five Precepts of Buddhism, the American Indian Code of Ethics and the Mayan Lak’ech. We can draw upon these codes to direct our moral thinking and behaviors. Together with cultural moral codes individual and social behaviors are guided and regulated. Whether religious, spiritual or secular, morality means the same—essentially it’s about what’s right and wrong as considered by others.

A different perspective is that a moral core is innate in each individual. Therefore, moral values and choices are directed from within. The Dalai Lama calls it “human business and not religious business.” A difference between the two is that external codes have morality cops who sit on shoulders whipping out fear and guilt. A big fear is that we will not be seen as a “good” person doing the “right” thing.

At the center of an internal moral code sits an angel, a Buddha or a God conducting an orchestra of thoughts, actions and deeds. They’re the guardians of our conscience. It’s simple, says the Dalai Lama: “There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple…”

Regardless of whether the code you live by is internal or external, consider the advice of Henry David Thoreau: “Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life. So aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something.”

Deeply ingrained in human nature is the intense yearning to be appreciated. As Mother Teresa said, “There is more hunger for love and appreciation in this world than for bread.”

To be appreciated feels like our birthright, which is probably why we have high expectations. Feeling unappreciated tops the list of universal human complaints. We’ve all heard others lament, “They just don’t appreciate me!” Perhaps we may have even joined in!

The longing for appreciation goes beyond receiving a thank you for a nice dinner or for doing someone a favor. What we really want is for another to recognize our quality, our worth and the contribution we make. It’s about being seen, valued and recognized.

Showing appreciation has become socialized. It’s common to show appreciation through giving material gifts and for it to be focused on an officially designated day. Why can’t every day be Mother’s Day? What happens the rest of the time? How often do we take the time to express the appreciation in our hearts for the unique qualities, special gifts and inner brilliance of others?

It’s due to more than forgetfulness, however. Basically, appreciation isn’t very easy. To truly express our deep appreciation for another opens us beyond our comfort zone and leaves us vulnerable. No wonder a gift is the preferred route!

Never underestimate the power of appreciation. Through acknowledging your gratitude for another, there’s an increase in the value to them and to yourself – appreciation appreciates! Voltaire encapsulated it. “Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.”

In the Namaste spirit bow to those in whom you recognize the divine spirit by the divine spirit in you and remember the words of Rumi, “to praise the sun is to praise your own eyes.”

When we cease to stumble all over ourselves, the path we trod in life becomes far less bumpy and boulders become pebbles!

When something or someone treads on our path we stumble all over ourselves to get between them and us. Like a peacock we puff up, fan out our feathers and prance about. Armed with ammunition the old faithful master, the ego, jumps in the way. Clutching fears, desires and thoughts from the tortuous mind, it chews on self-righteous bones.

There doesn’t always need to be a perceived threat for us to get in the way. The ego loves a good tousle and isn’t very discriminating with whom or with what it engages. In the absence of a victim it’ll perch on us. It has a vivid and sometimes vicious imagination. There are times especially when we trip all over ourselves. Have you ever sat down with a pen or brush in hand and willed your creative juices to flow? Is there often a chattering creature peering over your shoulder shaking its head and poking you with a finger? What happens when you walk into a room full of beautiful, smart and rich folks you’ve not met before? Does the comparative calculator automatically switch on? Do you become the peacock or the shrinking violet? The veil that drops when we’re in the way distorts the view of things as they really are.

“No self, no problem,” a Buddhist master once replied. This elegantly sums up what can happen when we get out of the way. Next time you feel resistance to what is in front of you and the ego sense of self begins to inflate, jump out of the way! Stand back and clap your hands and celebrate the opportunity to let things unfold without a meddling ego. What a wonderful training in accepting the challenges of life.

There’s a whole spectrum of mask behaviors. Some people stick to one specific mask, while others change according to the occasion. Some hint at what lies underneath by playing peek-a-boo from behind the mask they carry on a stick. Then there are those who wouldn’t consider lowering their mask until they have another one prepared beneath—they reveal themselves one mask at a time.
The need to wear a mask is strongly ingrained in us. Apart from having been a significant part of our early socialization process, wearing a mask provides a thick layer of protection. We can hide warts and all behind a mask of gold! Oscar Wilde claimed that, “Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.”

While others cannot see your true face, the dramatic irony is that you cannot either! The saying is absolutely true, “He who wears a mask cannot see within himself.” Look deeply at what lies beneath your mask and dare to step from behind it. Greet yourself and no longer be a stranger in a strange land.

Remember, we came into the world without a mask and we’ll depart it without one, too. Meanwhile, relegate your masks to next year’s masquerade ball!

The knack of successfully dealing with the past is to take it completely out of the hands of the tortuous mind. It’s important to sift through the past to pull out the gems that are buried in the rubble.

One gem is to forgive. This is often difficult because forgiveness is confused with doing it for someone, instead of it being for us. Another difficult gem is to let go and accept that “it was as it was.” A gem is to extract the lessons from the past. Otherwise, Einstein’s definition of insanity describes how we can feel, “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

In dwelling on the wrong turns we’ve made, often the right ones are overlooked. By bringing these into the present they contribute to the person we are today. Finally, there’s the powerful gem of memories. We have memories so that we can gather roses in December. Instead of visiting a memory in the past, bring it to you and experience it fully in the present moment.

Don’t let the past steal your present! Remember, today is a gift–that’s why it’s called the present!

If we consider how we treat the one heart we have, it’s just as well we weren’t given a second! The poor heart can be subjected to all kinds of abuse like clogged arteries, blackened with smoke and suffocated by a lack of fresh air and exercise. Or how quickly it’s handed over at the slightest promise of love—only to be broken and the cracks filled with heartache. The lure of being wanted and loved is a curse the heart must bear. If there’s a desire for more of this, we could join the earthworm family and have five hearts!

Sound reasoning underlies the one-heart decision. Apart from physiology, humans need only one heart; it fits into the grand scheme of things.

We’ve been given one precious heart with one seed—a kernel of love. Our sacred task is to find that seed at the bottom of the heart and to water it again and again so it grows to fill our entire being. A full heart emanates love to others and sprinkles their seeds. In this way we become what Kahlil Gibran described as “a fragment of Life’s heart.”

Instead of searching for that second heart to embrace the one you have, go forth and cultivate the seeds of love in others. Observe the mysterious ways in which love unfolds in life and reap the love you’ve sowed. Remember Mother Teresa’s words, “Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls. A joyful heart is the inevitable result of a heart burning with love.”

Last May, Emma, a 35-year-old mother of nine, passed away from cervical cancer, now considered a sexually-transmitted disease. Her premature death was a terrible and preventable tragedy. After hearing a radio announcement about a WINGS-sponsored screening in Chimaltenango, she came for her first such screening two years ago, but the test revealed Emma had advanced cancer.

Feeling helpless at first because she couldn’t afford any treatment, Emma found great support from WINGS’ staff members, who arranged for her to be seen by a doctor and to receive available treatment, including radiotherapy, from INCAN, the Guatemalan Cancer Institute. Unfortunately, Emma’s cancer was very advanced by the time it was discovered, and the treatment was unsuccessful.

During her lifetime Emma, like 60 percent of Guatemalan women, had never used any contraceptive method because she believed, as do so many people here, that contraceptives cause cancer. After attending the cervical cancer clinic, she learned that this widespread belief was actually a dangerous myth. Until her death, Emma continued to spread the word to other women in her community that all women are at risk for cervical cancer and that cancer is not caused by family planning methods. She encouraged all the women she knew to be screened, telling them that the test could save their lives.

Cervical cancer has a major impact on women’s lives worldwide, particularly in developing countries where it is the leading cause of cancer deaths among women. According to the latest global estimates, 493,000 new cases of cervical cancer occur each year, and 274,000 women die of the disease annually. Because the disease progresses over many years, an estimated 1.4 million women worldwide are living with cervical cancer, and two to five times more—up to 7 million worldwide— may have precancerous conditions that need to be identified and treated.

If it is not detected and treated early, cervical cancer is nearly always fatal. The disease, which affects the poorest and most vulnerable women, sends a ripple effect through families and communities that rely heavily on women’s roles as providers and caregivers. Four out of five new cases, and a similar proportion of deaths, occur in developing countries where screening programs are not well established or effective.

In Guatemala, cervical cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths among women of reproductive age, with 3.77 million Guatemalan women currently at risk for this potentially fatal cancer. Over 60 percent of female cancer cases attended by the National Cancer Institute in Guatemala are cervical cancer, which accounts for more than breast, skin, ovarian and stomach cancers combined.

Cervical cancer is a slow-growing cancer, easily prevented through regular screen ing and treatment of pre-cancerous lesions, which can reduce incidence and mortality by as much as 90 percent. Unfortunately, Guatemala, like most developing countries, has no effective national screening program, and hundreds of Guatemalan women continue to die unnecessarily each year from this preventable disease. Women in poor, rural areas are at especially high risk for cervical cancer due to factors such as unfaithful partners, early initiation of sexual activity, high fertility, poor nutrition and lack of access to health services. More than 75 percent of the women living in Guatemala’s rural areas and poor urban communities have never been screened for cervical cancer.

At least two organizations are working to address the widespread lack of cervical cancer screening services in Guatemala. The Women’s International Network for Guatemalan Solutions (WINGS), an NGO based in La Antigua Guatemala with a mission to create opportunities for Guatemalan families to improve their lives through family planning education and reproductive health care, operates a mobile cervical cancer detection and treatment program. Because many women are not aware of the risks of cervical cancer or methods for prevention, WINGS also conducts educational outreach to expand knowledge and increase demand for screenings. Women who attend WINGS’ talks or clinics are encouraged to share information about cervical cancer with their friends, relatives and neighbors. In 2008, WINGS screened more than 4,300 women at its mobile clinics.

Faith in Practice is an NGO that aims to improve the physical, spiritual and economic conditions of the poor in Guatemala through short-term surgical, medical and dental mission trips and health-related educational programs. Last year, Faith in Practice screened almost 3,000 women and provided training for Guatemalan doctors and nurses who went on to screen over 12,000 women at public health clinics.

Both WINGS and Faith in Practice utilize the low-cost VIA/Cryo method (visual inspection of the cervix with acetic acid and same-day treatment using cryotherapy), also called the “see and treat” method or la prueba rápida. This technique is especially appropriate for low-resource settings because results can be given the same day, and up to half of abnormalities detected can be treated immediately using cryotherapy, a simple procedure which involves freezing the surface of the cervix. VIA/Cryo greatly diminishes the need for return visits, which are often prohibitively difficult or expensive for women in isolated or low-income areas. In addition, when the result of a screening is negative, the test only needs to be repeated every three years, whereas Pap smears should be repeated annually because of the high prevalence of false negatives with the Pap smear test. VIA/Cryo can be performed by any trained healthcare provider, not necessarily a physician, and costs less than $6 per patient (including the cryotherapy needed by some 5 percent of the women). The cost per person of the WINGS program, including the follow-up treatment that WINGS pays for (colposcopies, biopsies, assistance at INCAN) comes to $14 a person.

The Guatemalan government has also shown that it may soon make fighting cervical cancer a higher priority. Although government health clinics have traditionally used Pap smears to screen for cervical cancer, some public health providers have recently undergone trainings in the VIA/Cryo method in order to expand the screening services available at government health clinics. Earlier this year, the Ministry of Health announced an extremely ambitious goal to screen 85 percent of reproductive-aged women by the year 2012 and has asked WINGS to advise it on a national screening strategy. This request provides hope that someday in the near future all Guatemalan women will have access to detection and treatment services and that the hundreds of deaths that occur annually from cervical cancer in Guatemala will be prevented.

About the Authors
Sue Patterson, the founder of WINGS, graduated from Duke University before serving in the Foreign Service for 25 years. She now lives permanently in Guatemala and donates her time to WINGS.
Laurel White, a graduate of the New York University School of Law, is the Development Director of WINGS and has been living in Guatemala since August 2008.

To learn more about WINGS’ work in Guatemala, please visit www.wingsguate.org or email info@wingsguate.org

This empty space—what is it? Space is to growth what air is to the breath. All living things need space in which to expand. Have you ever noticed that when an area around a plant has been cleared it begins to sprout new growth? This applies to us, too. Internal space is core to our development as human beings; however, it’s often overlooked. Physical obstructions are visible—we’ll eventually trip over them if we ignore them for long. Although inner obstructions can’t be seen, nevertheless, they can trip us up, too!

What crowds our space? It should be no surprise that the mind with 60,000 repetitive thoughts daily occupies far more than its fair share! The heart competes for the space it needs to accommodate the anger, pain and regrets it clings onto. Even in the body there is often little space—it can be full of unprocessed calories, toxins and emotional residue.

Take a journey to inner space. Clear away the clutter and gently ask the little self and the unwelcome guests to leave. Create a sacred space where you can find your true self again and again. Remind yourself daily that you are not the same as you were yesterday. Today you have more space in which to expand and to welcome others. With open space, so much more becomes possible. As a symbol of this, put a single rose in a large vase and witness the presence and beauty that radiates in the empty space that surrounds it!

The word “home” is strong, magical and filled with the power to invoke deep sensations. It’s an English word which is virtually impossible to translate into other tongues. No translation catches the associations, the mixture of memory and longing, the sense of security and the freedom from wariness that cling to the word.

There’s no universal definition for home because it’s more of a concept or a state of mind that reflects belonging, safety and comfort than a place. How we define home is highly personal, however, it’s usually a blend of time and place, smells and weather. The crispness of winter, rustling autumn leaves, the aroma of freshly baked cookies can awaken the memories imbedded in our cells. T.S. Eliot said, “Home is where one starts from.”

Lyrics, poetry, quotes and proverbs are replete with themes of home and the longing to return. The term nostalgia—meaning originally the pain of longing for home—came from the ancient Greek algos, pain; and nostos, the voyage home. A shelter from storms—a place where it feels right to walk around without shoes—the safe place to go and not be questioned, is how home has been described. The mourning for a lost home and efforts both real and symbolic to return, are universal in the human experience. Aptly put by Bill Cosby, “Human beings are the only creatures on Earth that allow their children to come back home.”

A holistic perspective embraces the home that lies within and the search for the home of the soul. Awareness and presence become our dwelling place. And the breath is the anchor that will always bring us back home. The home of the soul is filled with beauty that leads the heart, and in the words of Kahlil Gibran, it holds “remembrances, the glimmering arches that span the summits of the mind.”

Most of us would take great offense if someone were to suggest that we’re not the master of our life. Reality can be harsh. If we look it squarely in the face, we’d probably see that we’re far from being the master! Who is the master then?

It should come as no surprise that it’s Master Ego who holds the reins. Together with its powerful collaborator the Mind, they take complete charge of organizing all of our experiences and determine how we react to the outside world. They jerk us back and forth between the landscape of the past and the future where only sadness, regrets or fears lie. Master Ego fuels the Mind with fears and desires, self-righteousness and indignation. Furthermore, they drag us over the coals of other peoples’ business where we constantly struggle against current reality. We’ve slipped into becoming a slave to the inner turbulence they create in our lives. This is definitely not a path to freedom! As Epictetus summed up, “No man is free who is not a master of himself.”

Grab back the reins, cut the puppet strings and take the three steps towards masterhood.
Master your mind! Tame the endless stream of thoughts—90 percent of them are repetitive and useless!

Take heed of what the Buddha said, “The mind is everything. What you think you become.”
Master your time! Focus your energy on the present. Right action is inspired by the power of being fully present. Weak minds lead to weak actions.

Master your communications! Weed out negative words from your vocabulary. Practice speaking truthfully, with words that inspire self-confidence, joy and hope. Use words to create harmony, instead of discord.

Once mind, time and communications are mastered, you’re on the road to being a true maestro of life! The road is paved with abundant rewards!

Movement is intrinsic to the cosmos. Every point in the entire universe is in motion.

The Earth and planets continually revolve around each other, and the galaxy’s stars are constantly circling its center. We can see the rhythm of movement everywhere. Seasons pass into each other, seedlings sprout through soil, days turn into nights and beginnings flow into endings. Nothing stands still.

We, however, like to believe we’re an exception! We only move through time (dragging our heels) because there isn’t a choice. Concepts like change, impermanence and not knowing create havoc with the ego! It clings to security and digs a trench around a comfort zone. Whether we like it or not, we are part of the stream of Tao. A moving door hinge never corrodes. Flowing water never grows stagnant. Our journey in life consists of taking steps forward along a path. If instead we stand still, we can easily find ourselves stuck in Timbuktu!

Every now and then stop to consider whether you’re moving forward or have been lulled into a comfortable stagnation. What is holding you back? Be still and listen to the calling of your spirit. Feel the nudges it gives you to move on. It will point the way. It could be a relationship, a job, unresolved issues or a life situation you’ve created.

Moving on is never easy and without a cost. It always entails leaving something or someone behind. As a wise person once said, “How would anything have value if you could always leave it with no cost to yourself?”
Dismantle the chains of your reclining chair and remember that baby steps can be just as significant as quantum leaps. Take to heart Einstein’s words, “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.”

By the end of the 17th century, six hospitals had been founded in Guatemala. But, lacking scientific information and methods, hospitals provided little more than refuge or asylum. Sickness and cultural attitudes toward it were a social problem. In addition, the times were characterized by conflict between the king’s people and the municipality and constant struggles between those of conscience and those who enriched themselves with land acquisition, slavery and fraud. All of this kept the clamps on progress.

Before his death in 1563, Bishop Francisco Marroquín, a Franciscan, had made provisions in his will to found a school for sons of Spanish commoners and, in fact, a year earlier had laid the first stone, on property of the Santo Domingo monastery. He included the income from an 883-pig farm in Jocotenango to sustain the school. Marroquín’s admirable bequest would wait 58 years for fulfillment. The school, Colegio de Santo Tomás, was founded in 1620 and lasted less than 10 years due to trouble with funds. But in 1676 when Spanish King Charles II finally agreed to found a university in Guatemala, including a medical school, the selected site was of the then abandoned Colegio Santo Tomás. Marroquín would have been pleased; he had also left funds to found a university.

At the inauguration of the University of San Carlos in February 1681, according to Durán, “Pomp reigned in the streets and plazas.” But for all the ceremony, teachers for the medical school, promised from Mexico, never showed up. It came as no surprise. Several times during the history of Santiago de los Caballeros, Mexican doctors had been expected, even paid in advance, but didn’t come. “So scarce were doctors that it was impossible to find teachers for the new university medical school.”

Finally in October a degreed doctor arrived from Spain to head the department. But how discouraging it must have been for him to find empty classrooms! Given the history of doctors, the profession was not respected by the noble class and not preferred even by other social classes. “…nothing attracted as much attention from parents as priestly studies,” wrote Pardo, Castellanos and Muñoz.

A plague in 1686 wreaked havoc, and “doctors fled from the hospitals,” wrote Durán. A second doctor, Miguel Fernández, arrived from Spain and, having no students for 10 years, addressed himself to social and legal aspects of medicine. He insisted that good government requires healthy people, thus the right to demand compliance with laws. Administrators of hospitals were ordered to “not meddle in medical matters.” The brothers of the Order of San Juan de Dios, who notoriously wrote faulty prescriptions and to whose care had been entrusted administration of the hospitals, ignored the order. Fernández pled that those who offered cures without knowledge needed to be prevented if the people were ever to trust doctors. Without that, he added, there was little hope of attracting doctors to teach at the university. But the practice of medicine by those who had no right to do so continued, bringing a public declaration in 1703 that “prohibited the practice of medicine under pain of six years of exile.”

The first medical student graduated in 1703. Only one of the seven who graduated by 1725 took up the struggle for an honorable medical profession. Others “transformed their noble and useful profession into sterile arguments and hateful rivalries.” Their personal behavior didn’t help. Durán refers to the “sect of drunken doctors.” Even the brothers of the Order of San Juan de Dios “ate well and drank numerous cups of chocolate while the sick suffered hunger.”

There were no medical graduates in the next 25 years. The university building tumbled in the earthquake of 1751, and the university moved to new construction south of the cathedral in 1763. By 1773 there had been only five more medical graduates.

Just as the history of Santiago de los Caballeros, now La Antigua Guatemala, was born of catastrophe, so ended the colonial city and the first period of university medicine with the earthquakes of 1773. Plus, in the months that followed, an epidemic, believed to be typhoid, hit the town killing 4,000, “doing much more damage than the earthquake,” wrote Durán. Victims were buried by the hundreds. Church and civil authorities talked and talked to find a solution and formed the first public health board in Guatemala. But it was the archbishop, not doctors, who figured out the source of the disease. The workers had fled to the highlands after the earthquake and returned carrying the disease. It then spread rapidly in the hospitals, where patients slept together and ate from the same plate. In the end, the head of the medical school concluded that the epidemic was due to influence of the stars that unleashed sulfates in the water which, freed in the air, poisoned and coagulated the blood.

Provisional care was provided, funded by a tax on shopkeepers, for the sick who would remain in Santiago while churches and hospitals moved to the new capital to begin again. To the sadness of silence as people left Santiago was added the silence of death due to the epidemic.

History and legend are full of stories. As bumpy as the health care road was, progress came—slowly, but it came. It would be 16 years before another medical student graduated. Meanwhile the study of medicine was flourishing in Spain, with thousands of students. Nonetheless, in Guatemala, “Teaching of medicine was defective originally, lacking teachers and students, but the errors of ideas and methods were the same as those anywhere,” according to Durán. “At the end of the 18th century the University of Guatemala was parallel to modern teaching of that century in Europe.

“The University of San Carlos was outstanding, producing books, doing dissections and experiments, founding an anatomy museum…and doing blood transfusions 80 years before London.”

References:

• Durán, Las Ciencias Médicas en Guatemala
• Álvarez, Hospital de los Hermanos de San Juan de Dios
• Álvarez, Historia General de Guatemala, Vol. II
• Pardo, Castellanos, Muñoz, Guía de Antigua Guatemala
• López, Proyecciones Socioculturales en la América Hispano

The author thanks Dr. Johnny Long for assistance with this series.

photos: Jack Houston

This isn’t about having a stiff upper lip, putting on a brave face or positive thinking. It’s one of those universal laws that manifests in exact yet mysterious ways. What’s lost is always replaced with something that takes us farther along our journey and is greater than we could have ever imagined. Have you ever noticed that when things didn’t work out as you wished—that dream job, that perfect relationship, the loss of something or someone—what happened as a result was in some way far better?
Unfortunately, this insight is usually only gained in retrospect. At the time of loss the “what if’s” make it difficult to imagine what could lie beyond. The pearl is embedded in the protective membrane of the mollusk—along with the powerful message that the pearl only exists because a foreign substance slipped into the oyster and irritated it!

The next time life slams a door in your face remember the Zen saying, “Barn’s burnt down, I can now see the moon.” Turn your face to the moon and full of wonder ask, “What now?”

The latest medical advances in Spain were slow to reach Guatemala which saw its first autopsy in 1622. Hospitals were simple asylums for the sick, consoled by religion.

photos: Jack Houston

By 1600 Hospital Real de Santiago and Hospital de San Alejo had been up and running for almost 50 years. Still, in Santiago de los Caballeros, the capital of the Spanish Kingdom in Guatemala, now La Antigua Guatemala, “the scientific poverty of the 17th century” enslaved doctors in circles of useless theories, wrote Carlos Martínez Durán in Las Ciencias Médicas en Guatemala. “Hospitals were simple asylums for the sick, consoled by religion.”

Medical advances in Spain were a long way from Guatemala. A surgeon, Juan de los Reyes, arrived and became the first medical administrator of Hospital Real in 1595. He also took up the challenge of demanding that all persons who presented themselves as doctors show their credentials. This, of course, was something most could not do. But word of the flourishing new capital lured the ambitious, some good, serving years without pay, and some not-so-good but with hopes of a comfortable livelihood. In 1612 the municipality supported a demand to crack down on all who practiced medicine without credentials “as required by the laws of the kingdom, which practice results in much harm to the town,” records Durán.

Persistent efforts of the municipality brought to Santiago a degreed doctor from Mexico. In 1622 he accomplished what is believed to be the first autopsy in Central America, after an apparent suicide by poisoning at the town jail.

Civil authorities further demonstrated their concern for healthcare in 1636, recognizing the need to isolate the number of lepers who roamed the streets. Records show that the disease had been carried to New Spain by African slaves. The townsfolk feared the lepers, believing the deforming skin disease to be contagious. To isolate the disease, the Captain General, per King Philip IV, ordered construction of a hospital outside the west end of town near the Guacalate River. There a mill for grinding wheat could add income to the stipend granted by the king to support the hospital. In 1640 the Order of San Juan de Dios, which had been administering Hospital Real for three years, accepted administration of the third hospital in Santiago, Hospital San Lázaro.

Earthquake damage in 1717 vacated the hospital. By the time it was reconstructed in 1734, some patients had found refuge in town with the Bethlemite Order; others apparently were left on the streets. According to Verle Annis, an edict directed that all lepers in other hospitals or free should be placed in the rebuilt hospital. Abandoned after the 1773 quake, the property became the municipal cemetery in 1834 and remains so today.

Backing up to 1636, at the same time the Captain General was concerned about the lepers, Bishop Bartolomé González Soltero was anxious to build a hospital for clergy, complying with the Council of Trent. A bronze plaque on the side of the church of San Pedro Apóstol credits Bishop Marroquín with the work, but in fact Marroquín had had his hands full before he died a century before. Eventually Bishop Soltero bought a house with cathedral funds to be used for the project. But the scarce funds allotted for support were instead distributed where they were more needed. Although “they were very numerous the religious that existed at that time in the city of Santiago de Guatemala,” not many were sick or aged, writes Dr. Fidel Aguirre Medrano.

The first stone was finally laid in 1646, but the epidemic of 1647 delayed construction again. More than 1,000 died in a few months, and the doctors couldn’t help. In fact, according to Durán, “they had the custom of fleeing the city when the plagues entered.”

Then, during a series of earthquakes in 1651, wild animals came into the town, including a fierce lion that roared through, ripping papers from the wall of the Town Hall. “What next?” the people must have groaned. “Will we ever have peace and health?” But according to Domingo Juarros, reports of disasters and epidemics of that time often make no mention of hospitals or care, only prayers to religious figures. It was believed that the bishop placated divine justice and health returned when he went barefoot in processions. Alas, work was delayed again when the bishop died.

Hospital San Pedro Apóstol was finally ready for clergy patients in 1663, administered by the Order of San Juan de Dios. A doorway flanked by twisted columns and topped with a niche with similar columns, on 3a avenida behind the present church on 6a calle, may have been the entrance to a chapel of the hospital before the church was built.

After the earthquake of 1773 Hospital San Pedro Apóstol served not only clergy but the community as well. Although purpose and administration changed over the centuries, the hospital, now called Obras Sociales del Santo Hermano Pedro, is the only colonial hospital that has continued until the present time in La Antigua Guatemala.

The young Pedro de San José Betancourt, now Santo Hermano Pedro, arrived in Guatemala in 1651 with a passion to serve his fellow man, echoing the efforts of Fray Matías de Paz and Bishop Francisco Marroquín a hundred years earlier (see Part I in June Revue). In a simple, donated thatch-roof house on the Pensativo River, south of the San Francisco monastery, Hermano Pedro ministered to the sick and the poor he had brought from the street, his first patient being an African slave. Support came from donations and from 30 community families who each provided food one day a month for the dozen-or-so receiving care.

Pedro solicited funds and land for the growing number of convalescents in the hospital he started to build. Although he would not live to see it finished, those who followed not only finished construction of the hospital, which functioned officially in 1667, but formed the Bethlemite Congregation, which went on to found hospitals in South America. Hospital Belén was the first convalescent hospital in New Spain, for recuperating rest and comfort, and the fifth and final hospital founded in Santiago de los Caballeros. Some lepers found refuge there after the 1717 quake. In 1740 there were 20 beds for men, 8 for women. After the 1773 earthquake the work moved to the new capital, now Guatemala City. And Hermano Pedro became the first saint from Central America in 2002.

By the end of the 18th century there were many complaints against the Order of San Juan de Dios. The brothers had come from Portugal with the sole purpose of founding and administering hospitals. Despite the lofty mission, members of the order had fallen to padding their own pockets. The prior himself was caught by surprise one night, ready to run off to Mexico with trunks packed with hospital supplies. Durán writes, “It’s incredible that a prior of the brothers of San Juan de Dios had lasted more than 15 years administering the hospital, with grave detriment to the health of the sick and integrity of the funds.”

The colonial hospitals circuited a complicated maze of founding, ownership and sponsorship. It was common for a bishop or church or monastery to acquire land, sometimes purchased, sometimes through gifts or inheritance, and assign income from crops or animals for particular works. This surely led to tricky politics.

But probably no more so than the vying for European thrones during the same period or clever taxation schemes in the American colonies. In 1710 England taxed soap as a frivolous luxury. On the bright side, in 1714 champagne was invented in France, and the first typewriter was patented in England.

References:

• Durán, Las Ciencias Médicas en Guatemala
• Annis, The Architecture of Antigua Guatemala 1543-1773
• Medrano, Historia de los Hospitales Coloniales de Hispanoamérica
• Juarros, Compendio de la Historia del Reino de Guatemala 1500-1800

The author thanks Dr. Johnny Long for assistance with this series.
Next month: A medical school is founded in Guatemala.

Age is a taboo like religion, sex and money. Next time you’re at a fiesta try asking people, “Do you believe in God? Do you have good sex? How much money do you earn? And, by the way, how old are you?” Unless you ask someone under 10 years old, you’ll probably find yourself alone at the punch bowl!

It’s the dreaded state of aging that we shun. The binary perception of age means that we’re young or old. Moreover, we’re either on the right side or the wrong side of a digit!

The sense of loss and sadness that can accompany dwindling youth is normal, as are the doses of fear. However, it becomes distorted and exaggerated through social and cultural attitudes toward aging. The “slice, dice and erase” culture chases an illusion of eternal youth. This breeds anxiety and discontent around a natural and inevitable process. How insane, considering that the period of youth consists of less than a third of our lives! Aging is not a high-speed train that must be derailed. It’s part of the journey that’ll eventually lead us all to the same final destination.

Consider the question, “How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?”

This challenges the view that we’re one-dimensional, chronological beings. Real age is based on other dimensions, for example, emotional and spiritual. It’s easy to spot emotional infants and to feel the presence of “old” souls. As we move through the junctures on our journey, it’s the integration and harmonization of these dimensions that bring us to our true age.

Embrace age with passion, purpose and wisdom. Be like a rose! It doesn’t lament as it opens from a bud, blossoms into full glory and when its petals drop to the ground.

Drown the ego attachment to age with a Buddhist chant, “It’s in my nature to grow old, it’s in my nature to die … .” After all, it’s been said, “Age is something that doesn’t matter, unless you are a cheese.”

Ruin of inside wall of Hospital Real de Santiago, now within a private garden

written by Joy Houston photos: Jack Houston

Part I: 16th Century

What medical options were available centuries ago in Guatemala for wounds from enemy arrows, burns, natural disasters or epidemics?

Mixing medicine with magic was routine in colonial days. “Medical science was slave to theory and superstition,” writes Carlos Martínez Durán in Las Ciencias Médicas en Guatemala.

What was done in 16th Century Guatemala for wounds from enemy arrows and clubs? Or repeated and prolonged epidemics? Or burns from fires that raged through farms? How was one treated in case of a lion attack? Domingo Juarros records an offer of substantial reward of gold or corn to the one who would kill a lion of ‘extraordinary size’ that kept descending Volcano Agua, terrorizing Almolonga, the second site of the seat of the Spanish Kingdom in Guatemala.

It was not an easy place to live. The Spanish brought diseases to which the indigenous people were vulnerable, and the new land presented tropical diseases unknown to the Spanish. As if all that wasn’t enough, natural disasters wreaked their havoc again and again. And again and again the people turned to religion for all they could expect: a little comfort to ease the pain and, they believed, appease the powers that had caused it.

Then came September 11, 1541. Saturated slopes of Volcano Agua released earth and trees and rocks and boulders to rush through Almolonga and kill half the population. It was not the only time the people would believe the end of the world had come. Bishop Francisco Marroquín gathered his remaining flock together and post haste identified a place for relocation, not far away where now is called La Antigua Guatemala. The move was affected in December.

They were a tired, broken people indeed, both physically and psychologically, virtually all of them grief stricken, some orphaned children or grandparents whose families had perished as well as their homes. All of them had experienced trauma as never before. It seems fair to guess that many had fractures, wounds or infections from the muddy waters that mercilessly knocked everything and everybody out of their path.

There had been a hospital in Almolonga, Hospital de la Misericordia, the first to be built in Guatemala. It was basically a place for the poor and a shelter for pilgrims. Durán calls it “a simple thatch hut to shelter orphans and invalids.” In Almolonga medicine almost did not exist. No records list those cared for with disease or injury; no doctors appear on population lists.

Hospital de la Misericordia had been ordered with royal priority and prominent location. In that time of Spanish conquest King Charles V issued a decree for the founding of hospitals for all people under Spanish jurisdiction. Years before, Dominican Fray Bartolomé de las Casas had begun the struggle for hospital attention for the indigenous people. After the move, some Franciscan clergy remained to care for those who would stay in Almolonga.

But hospitals then were not as we know them today. Medical care, such as it was, was given in church atriums and arcaded corridors of convents. This created a fertile field for fast-talkers and opportunists who presented themselves as doctors, including barbers who did the bleeding. Chronist Francisco Ximénez writes of one who “took pulses of the sick as often as he took them to the cemetery.” Antonio de Remesal tells of one in Almolonga who put the people in greater danger than anything else, burying “more Spanish in one year than had died in 10 wars of the New Spain.” The man was prohibited from seeing patients, a prohibition lifted due to lack of doctors in the great need after 9/11/1541. No wonder the people feared doctors.

Interestingly, in Europe at that time Spain was flourishing and, with a long history, had become the leader in medical facilities. Laurentino Díaz López records hospitals and a school of medicine since the 10th Century. Spain had “six mental hospitals when England, France and Germany had none.” In the colonies, hospitals had been built in Santo Domingo and Mexico. But Spanish days of glory were fading by the time its medicine came to Guatemala in the 18th Century.

Meanwhile, time passed and life returned to Santiago de los Caballeros, as the new capital was then called. The beauty of the flowers and kindness of climate helped to heal the horror. Optimism rose along with the walls of beautiful churches and monasteries. The people were willing to forgive the powers that had rained terror on them.

But it didn’t take long for the compassionate Dominican Brother Matías de Paz to notice the indigenous poor dying on the streets due to cold, bad food and lack of hygiene as they worked digging foundations for noble housing. He bought a site near the plaza of the church of Candelaria, off the northeast end of town, and built a thatch roof house to shelter the sick he “carried on his shoulders when they could not walk,” says Dr. Fidel Aguirre Medrano. He went through the streets collecting funds to feed those in what would become Hospital de los Indios, or Hospital de San Alejo, the second to be founded in Guatemala.

With increasing numbers in his care, de Paz realized he needed help and moved the work to across the street north of the Santo Domingo monastery. Even then, records Dr. Ramiro Rivera Álvarez, support became so difficult that a man and his wife were named to go to the butchers and solicit a pound of meat for each patient.

In 1559 the king agreed to sponsor the hospital that had been built for Spanish and mulattos in 1553 on a site Bishop Marroquín had purchased within city limits, on Calle de la Concepción, now 4a calle, at 2a avenida. According to Ximénez, the site was to include the hermitage and Hospital de Nuestra Señora de los Remedios, to whom it would be dedicated and which name it originally carried, as did Hospital de la Misericordia in Almolonga. Research does not explain why that hermitage was not built there but years later on the south edge of town. Once under royal sponsorship the name changed to Hospital Real de Santiago (Royal Hospital).

Marroquín recommended the efficiency of joining Hospital de San Alejo and Hospital Real de Santiago. The hospital would have four rooms, separating the indígena and the Spanish. It sounded like a good plan, but neither Marroquín nor the king expected the strong resistance of the indigenous people to sharing a facility with the Spanish. The joint hospital was tried, separated, tried again but separated again in 1578. The indigenous …continued on page 44

patients reoccupied Hospital de San Alejo, with a stipend from the king and administration by the Dominicans. The king had added a public pharmacy, a service the Franciscans also would offer at their monastery. Meanwhile, Bishop Marroquín died in 1563, leaving a remarkable legacy of service.

A medical administrator first came to the Hospital Real in 1595, then the order San Hipólito, then another doctor and finally in 1667 the Order of San Juan de Dios, the sole purpose of which was overseeing care of the sick. Hospital de San Alejo was delivered to the Order in 1669, a decision not accepted easily by the Dominicans, who had been in charge for almost a century. Authorities had not given up on joining the two hospitals and gave the order once and for all in 1685. The new facility, not taking the name of either, became Hospital de San Juan de Dios, under which it functioned until 1776.

In 1669 Hospital of San Alejo had just 12 beds; in 1686 Hospital de San Juan de Dios had 24. The town council later bought adjacent houses for expansion and for building the Church of San Juan de Dios. Eventually the spacious facility occupied an entire square block.

The peace that had returned to the town after its establishment in 1541 was not to last. Various plagues and diseases, including perhaps typhoid, recurred for 20 years, with, according to Durán, “…the doctors so necessary in those times conspicuous for their absence, and only saints and virgins could heal and comfort.” Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions continued, not to mention that the beloved Bishop Marroquín’s successor was his opposite. Little was recorded of medical care in the last years of the 16th century; obtaining funds was always a struggle. But Marroquín had left terms in his will by which he would again years later care for the people.

Meanwhile Martin Luther died disconsolate in Germany in 1546. In mid-16th Century the Bubonic Plague assaulted London, and the worse earthquake in history hit China, killing 830,000.

The author thanks Dr. Johnny Long for assistance with this article.

Next month: Three more hospitals serve Guatemala in the 17th and 18th Centuries.

References:
Durán, Las Ciencias Médicas en Guatemala
Juarros, Compendio de la Historia del Reino de Guatemala 1500-1800
López, Proyecciones Socioculturales en la América Hispaña
Medrano, Historia de los Hospitales Coloniales Hispanoamérica
Álvarez, El Hospital de Los Hermanos de San Juan de Dios

Typical of human nature, we’ve created a devil out of time. We fear or worship it and run from or race toward it. The root of the problem isn’t with clock time, however, but with the psychological time in which we’ve become stuck. Trapped in the mind, we dwell on the problems created by our thoughts. Psychological time is rooted in past and future. It’s the platform for our dreams: “When I meet my soul mate, when I have my dream house, when I … .” Reality becomes distorted when psychological time is the lens through which we perceive our lives. Our reality is never current; it’s suspended in some other time!

If Australian Aboriginies are asked what time it is, they will answer “now.” They know that the present moment is the only place where there is no time. The now is the point between past and future—it’s a rapid exit out of clock and psychological time! Everything happens in the present moment, and everything that ever happened and will ever happen can only happen in the present moment.

Weave this truth into your time. Remain present when you use clock time. When the sound of the ticking becomes deafening, remember the words of Lao Tzu, “Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” When we awaken to the illusion of time we can see that there’s absolutely nothing to fear and nothing to wait for. There is no meantime—only now time!

Spring your life forward by applying the principles of spring gardening—a powerful metaphor to live by! First, fertilize the soil. Healthy soil allows room for things to move through it with ease. Secondly, prune and cut away. Removing decay encourages new growth and flowering. Remember, the things you’ve cut away from your life provide rich compost in which to plant new seeds.

Thirdly, design your dream garden— the landscape of your life. Contemplate the desired outcome of the seeds you sow, for like the old Spanish proverb, “More grows in the garden than the gardener sows.” Decide which creatures you’d like to visit —butterflies, hummingbirds, frogs, ladybugs, long-lost family members or potential partners—then plant their favorite things. Mix flashes of colors that’ll make an appearance only once with those that always return. For inspiration, complete your design with a white lotus pond as a reminder that like the lotus, we too grow exquisitely from muddy waters!

Now it’s time to peel off the dirty gloves and turn your attention to the spring renewal of the gardener!

Begin the renewal of your life by stepping out of the box of routine. For example, fill the mind with new ideas and viewpoints; travel somewhere you’ve never been before; celebrate your birthday in a way you’ve never dared to, and take a chance on a new friend. Remember also to renew your fundamental choices as well as your dreams.

As always, nature shows us the way home, so take a deep breath of fresh spring air and let it push out the old and renew what remains!