Happy New Year Friends of Hospitalito Atitlán

We hope that 2010 brings a year of happiness and success… and that you continue to remember the Hospitalito and the people that we serve.

Physician Assistant Narda Sherman and her family are here for the month of January. Friends with their families have joined her to volunteer at HA. Surgeon Jane Williams from Humboldt County CA worked with Dr. Leiva and also the following week with the help of anesthesiologist Hamish Rickett from Portland, OR. Both are frequent international medical volunteers… Dra. Jane has worked in SE Asia and Hamish has been volunteering at hospital Hermano Pedro for many years.

Narda has been very busy updating the medical volunteer orientation manual and the housing list, as well as attending meetings in San Marcos la Laguna with Bonnie O’Neill president of Amigos Hospitalito Atitlán. GOOD NEWS! Amigos Hospitalito Atitlán received 501(c)3 status on January 20th!

We are happy to welcome Obstetrician John Nelson again, who seems able to fill in those blank spots in our OB calendar. His wife Rita is working alongside Cristobal in the lab. Good to see Bill Soares again. Bill volunteered for six months in 2008 as a Harvard medical student investigating medical volunteer satisfaction. The UTZ Update is a product of his research.

The returning volunteers are amazed when they visit the new hospital construction site… at the progress made in one year and that indeed the new Hospitalito Atitlán is becoming a reality. THIS YEAR will be the grand opening!

Ski buffs near Utah’s Snowbasin resort may want to participate in a Hospitalito Atitlán fundraising event on February 15th. The Snowbasin Nordic Challenge is being organized by Dr. Jack Lyons from the Ogden Clinic.

Please keep up with the Hospitalito news on the blog… www.hospitalitoatitlan.org And when you come to volunteer… please write about your experience for the blog.

Thank you all for past and future volunteer time. Hope to see you again soon!

The Hospitalito staff and Board of Directors