Earning Our Wings

Martin

Our journey finally began this morning at 10 am with the packing of the vehicles and the trip to the airport. There was only a minor complication with a dead car battery, but after some readjusting of the luggage, we all fit into the vehicles and safely made it to the airport. After playing Euchre and Heads Up in the airport we boarded the first plane to Atlanta. The flight went well until the passenger next to Dakota got sick, but Dakota and the passenger handled the situation very gracefully and it turned out pretty well. Dakota’s teddy bear even earned wings from the pilot for being so brave during the incident. While on the flight we were given a very nice acknowledgment of the team members and the purpose for our trip which caused the airplane to break out in a round of applause.

View of Guatemala City from the Plane

After a short layover in Atlanta we boarded the completely full plane to Guatemala City. I had the privilege of sitting behind a very nice family with whom Adam S., Farwa and I were able to have a nice conversation. We were able to practice our Spanish with their two year old son, Martin, with the help of his parents. Martin kept Adam, Farwa and I entertained for the majority of the flight by talking with us and playing peek-a-boo over the seats.

If Martin and his family didn’t make the flight special enough, I was also entertained by the 15 week old Australian Shepard that was in the row behind us. He was a pretty good traveler, only barking a few times with his high whistle bark, but he was adorable so it was hard to be annoyed by him. Three and a half hours later we landed in Guatemala City where we met up with Dr. Richard and headed to the hotel. We all learned very quickly that we are going to be in close quarters with everyone on the team so we better become comfortable with it.

Once all of our luggage was placed into our hotel rooms, we walked to a very lovely restaurant for dinner. The food was wonderful and the place was gorgeous. The nice weather made the outdoor dinner very comfortable. The team is now ready to get some sleep so we can be full of energy for tomorrow as we will be traveling to our new hotel and setting up the clinic!

Cathy Wirrig