Local students visit Guatemala to help build medical clinic

Hauling rocks and cutting tropical foliage with a machete in 80-degree heat was all part of a day’s work for two local students who recently helped build a medical clinic in Guatemala.Ryan Schrater of Marblehead and Serena Foley of Swampscott, who are both students at Saint Joseph’s College in Maine, recently spent a week in the tiny Guatemalan village of Concepion, with 15 other students and four staff members.The students helped construct a medical clinic, cleared land for a community park and volunteered in a local school.The trip was sponsored by Saint Joseph’s College in cooperation with Ipswich-based Partners in Development Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to assisting communities in Haiti and Guatemala.Foley, who is a nursing student, said she fell in love with the country and the people.”Guatemala was amazing,” she said. “It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. It was very different there so there was a little culture shock, but I loved it and really want to go back again.”Schrater, a business major, said he planned on visiting Haiti but when that trip was canceled, he signed up for the Guatemala trip.”When I arrived I thought maybe I made a mistake,” he said. “I knew it was going to be really hard work, no cold water to drink and I wasn’t sure I could do it.”Schrater and Foley both spent a grueling day helping lay the foundation for what will be a medical clinic.”We would get up at 6 a.m. and hop a bus to the construction site,” Schrater said. “There was no automation so everything that had to be done we did by hand and foot.”Foley said toiling in the heat was tough, but she’d do it again given the chance.”I was helping cart rocks,” she said. “We had to dig a 5- foot hole for a septic tank in 80-degree weather. All we had to keep ourselves hydrated was warm bottled water.”Schrater agreed the children were an inspiration.”What pushed me through were the kids,” he said. “The kids were a huge motivator. They would come over to play with us while we were working and help us out a bit.”Foley said the time she spent working in the Bible School camp was the highlight of her trip.”The kids were so amazing,” she said. “I helped teach them English and we sang songs. I’ve taken seven years of Spanish so I could communicate well with them. The kids were so loving. They have so little but one boy kept bringing us flowers. I got so attached to the kids that I cried when I left.”Schrater spent four days working in the sports program at the Bible School.”They had a net and soccer balls,” he said. “But that was it. They didn’t have shin pads, socks or shoes. But they were some of the most enthusiastic kids I’ve ever met.”