{"id":61416,"date":"2019-01-30T05:55:23","date_gmt":"2019-01-30T10:55:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/huntsville.dopperonline.ca\/?p=61416"},"modified":"2019-01-31T09:52:19","modified_gmt":"2019-01-31T14:52:19","slug":"local-men-return-from-life-changing-hospital-building-trip-in-guatemala","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/local-men-return-from-life-changing-hospital-building-trip-in-guatemala\/","title":{"rendered":"Local men return from ‘life-changing’ hospital-building trip in Guatemala"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A group of 25 men from the community have just returned from a life-changing trip to Guatemala to help with the build of a hospital.<\/p>\n

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For decades, aid teams from Huntsville have been travelling to the small community of Nebaj, a small Indigenous town in the El Quich\u00e9 department in the western highlands of Guatemala, where there is a significant amount of poverty and alcohol abuse.<\/p>\n

The most recent group, calling itself Gen 2, comprised mainly father and sons pairs who wanted to do the trip together.<\/p>\n

“Since I don\u2019t get to see my son Cody as much as I used to, it was really fun to spend the week together working towards a common goal,” said team member Dave Hiscox. “I\u2019m still processing how the trip affected me to be honest. We definitely left a piece of our hearts there in Guatemala. It was very moving but it\u2019s amazing to see the success that these trips have brought their people.”<\/p>\n

The trip was lead by Dr. Greg Stewart, a former missionary in Guatemala, who has led or been part of bringing over 40 different teams to the area, many of them physicians providing medical aid. This particular group was solely construction-based.<\/p>\n

The project they participated in is the ongoing build of an extension to the community hospital. When complete, the building will be two stories high and provide all the medical care that the town needs including rooms to perform surgeries.<\/p>\n

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Some of the members of Gen 2 (from left) Luke Alexander, Ryan Rea, Dr. Greg Stewart, Justin Dellandrea, Liam Donevan, Aaron Chapman, Brandon Rea, and Cody Hiscox (supplied)<\/p><\/div>\n

Each day, the team took a five-minute walk from where they were staying to the build site to begin brick-laying. Without a mixing machine in the community, all mortar had to be mixed by hand by volunteers.<\/p>\n

The Guatemalan nationals who were also working on the site predicted that the Gen 2 team would lay around 1,500 cement blocks over the duration of their stay, but more needed to be ordered as the men ended up laying over 3,500 blocks.<\/p>\n

“No one there was trying to one up each other or has any selfish ambitions. We were all there just to help and we worked as a team,” said Hiscox.<\/p>\n\n\t\t