No room to complain

We just discovered a new route to take the bus to the hospital! It cuts the amount of time walking between buses from 25 minutes, to about 5. It now takes us a little under an hour to get there. I´ve been looking into apartments in Minneapolis for when I get back, and I´ve been thinking that I don´t want to commute more than 30-40 minutes, which is hard to figure out since I don´t know where I´m going to work. However, after this trip, with a good hours worth of commuting each way in buses that are bursting at the seams, I feel like I can handle just about any commute at home. And Marta, our first teacher, commutes 2 hours each way every day! 2 hours each way! That´s like 20 hours per week spent in a public bus, for several years. I definitely have no room to complain.

Dr. Mack told us that RNs in Guatemala make about $400 per month, which is less than $5000 per year. The nurses we work with are actually like LPNs, so they make even less. I can´t imagine living with that little. I know I get stressed about money sometimes, but I will always have enough to get by and still have some to go shopping or buy coffee. I know that I will always be able to have a house, and one that is not 4 pieces of tin with a dirt floor, like many that I have seen. I definitely have no room to complain there.

There is a dump in Guatemala City, near the downtown. I heard that it is filling up and is only estimated to be able to be used for 2 more years. There are an estimated 4000 people who depend on the dump for food and to find things to sell. As if these people don´t already have it hard enough, who knows what will happen in 2 years. I definitely have no room to complain.