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On a mission

Pete and Betsy Liljeberg of Gloucester have embarked on a mission trip to bring their health care expertise to Maya people in Guatemala. They will serve as part of a team from across the U.S. that treats patients and builds woodstoves in economically depressed areas.

This represents the ninth year of mission trips by the couple and their seventh to Guatemala. They work in conjunction with the Boca Costa medical mission in the area.

The Liljebergs are both physicians and say the trips present an opportunity to “use [their] personal skill set” to help meet the “huge need for medical care” in the area.

The Maya people of Guatemala are descendants of the native population that lived in the region for thousands of years prior to the point of contact with Europeans.

There is a strong economic divide in the region along racial lines, as the native Maya often live in poor villages on the periphery of the cities or up in the hills. They do not have access to the same...

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