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t m c » p u l s e | m a r c h 2 0 1 5 7 J ust over a week into the new year, a time when most are in a post-hol- iday recovery daze, a medical mission group of 55 team members arrived in Pueblo Nuevo, Guatemala. Led by Philip Johnson, M.D., division director, professor and vice chair of general medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) Medical School, the group was preparing to spend a week pro- viding free health care to Guatemalan citizens who desperately need it. Guatemala is a strikingly beautiful country, but the towering mountains and lush green landscape also harbor extreme poverty. Three decades of civil war ending in the 1990s took a toll on many Guatemalan citizens. More than 50 percent of Guatemala's population live in poverty, according to The World Bank, and that number increases greatly among the indigenous Mayan population living in remote, mountain- ous areas. For the past decade, Johnson and his wife, Linda, have led a team to rural villages to offer what may be the only health care villagers will see for the entire year—or even longer. Johnson's love for serving the people of Guatemala dates back to high school, when he first traveled to the country with Houston-based nonprofit Amigos de las Americas. He continued to travel to Guatemala through college and completed a two-month long elective in the country during medical school. Medicine on a Mission Fresh off a trip to rural Guatemala, UTHealth faculty and students share their experiences treating patients who have little to no access to health care B y S h e a C o n n e l l y There is no way I could see the number of patients here in the United States like what we try to see and accomplish in rural Guatemala. There are just so many people that are in des- perate need of basic general health care that we in the U.S. take for granted. — ROBIN HARDWICKE, PH.D. Associate Professor of General Medicine and Obstetrics and Gynecology at UTHealth ABOVE: Patients wait in line in San Marcos, Guatemala (Credit: Josie Johnson)