Back on the ranch

By Laura Sumner Coon

There is nothing like a hammock and cold beer after a very long day of travel. So, after staying awake for more than 24 hours for some of the Guatemala Medical Resources Partnership Advance Team, Nery’s watering hole was the long-awaited “bienvenidos” to Oliveros Monday night.

Advanced team members set out separately from a variety of places to meet in Guatemala City. Mary Van Hout, Rotary District Governor for the area that includes Madison, and Jeannine Desautels, past president of Madison’s Rotary West, arrived earlier in the week to visit an orphanage that the club had supported. Organizer of the 2016 mission Brittany Storhoff and Rotarian Brian Monroe traveled to Guatemala City on Saturday to buy supplies. Betty Becker set off from Two Rivers late Sunday night to rendezvous with Becca Boppre and Brian Kendzor in Milwaukee. They met up with Rotarians Laura Sumner Coon and Dean Ryerson at O’Hare at 3 a.m. Then, the real travel began! A couple hours to Alanta, three and a half to Guatemala City, then another three hours on dusty, bumpy roads in a van to the Oliveros ranch of Enrique Gandara, a Madison Rotarian, Guatemalan and gracious host of the mission. Before leaving the city, the team packed a truck full of produce, meat, drinks and other supplies needed at the ranch for the weeklong mission.

En route, the team stopped by roadside stands to pick up more produce, pineapples and oranges. They were greeted with big smiles.

Finally at the ranch, the unpacking was followed by an incredible chorus of sighs, as the team sipped their first Gallos, Guatemalan beer, and got reacquainted with their Oliveros friends.