Back to School

It's back to school week and everyone is flying around getting ready, buying school supplies and getting into clinic to heal up those lingering respiratory infections, gastrointestinal ills and scabies outbreaks! This week Kemmel and Manuel offered to help move several of the scholarship and  kids to Guatemala City as they get settled into "la U"  (the University of San Carlos).  They filled two trucks full of college kid stuff and five anxious-to-get-there college kids and headed off to the big city.  Thankfully, they are all staying in the same guest house, so it wasn't too crazy.  These kids will be part of a student body of approximately 200,000.  The stats from 2013 reported by Emisoras Unidas were 170,000 students enrolled at USAC,  and they expect to surpass the 200,000 mark for 2015.  The downside of attending this free government-run university is there are reports of budget shortages as always and the threat of strike days from faculty and student body, interrupting the school year.  On the bright side, it is still the university you want to go to if you are studying medicine, dentistry or nursing, as it has the most rigorous pre-admission testing.  So, we pray for the best for them and hope there are few interruptions in their school year as they begin training to be future healthcare providers with us.