No matter our religious affiliation or political creed, social status or age, all of us have much to be grateful for compared to many others in this world. But for many years when my children were young, I missed Thanksgiving at home because I travelled to Guatemala during this time of year to help those less fortunate than any of us. I took a team of other physicians (a general surgeon, a gynecologist, an ophthalmologist and a plastic surgery resident), nurses and a few lay people volunteers to a village in the northwest corner of the country, near the Mexican border, called Nuevo Progreso – an 8 hour bus ride (in a rickety, old yellow school bus) from Guatemala City, the last hour being over a narrow, winding dirt road! On one of those trips, in 1984, I brought Dr. Deborah Ekstrom, who was a resident at the time at U Massachusetts, along with me!
