| February 3, 2005 |
Another beautiful day. We’re starting to run low on some medicines so the doctors are checking in at pharmacy for an update.
Barb and Lori have rejoined the brigade but Lesley is ill today and Dan is starting to feel sick too. Maia is still a little under the weather but is at the clinic and will help if she feels better.
Some of the brigade volunteers have not seen the process of registration so they’ve been taking turns going outside and walking around. Some joined me on what has become my morning routine; I head out of the gates and take photos of everyone on line, and I am greeted and thanked over and over again. People shake my hand, children tag along beside me. This morning, a mother, her daughter and granddaughter approach Cheryl and I, laughing and chatting. Neither of us speaks much Spanish but we’re all enjoying it anyway. I pose Cheryl for a picture with the family; when I shout “sonreas” (smile), the daughter shouts back “whiskey!” That makes us all laugh even harder. After the photo, the mother takes each of our hands, kisses and hugs us both, and takes our faces in her hands and says something that sounds like ‘belinda’ over and over again. We come back into the clinic and ask Jonathan and Kathy L. what it means. Kathy L. smiles, and tells us it means beautiful. Cheryl and I are pretty choked up.
 An ox-cart carries sugar cane to the processing plant.
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I haven’t had a chance to describe how beautiful El Salvador is. Our drive every morning to the clinic takes us past fields of sugar cane and rugged mountains; cows cross the road, children in uniform are heading off to school, women walk by swaying under the weight of baskets balanced atop their heads, and dogs and roving chickens somehow manage not to get run over. The sugar cane processing plant is busy in the morning and just as busy at night. Last night on the way back to our hotel we passed a burning sugar cane field; after harvesting, the fields are burned. It was spectacular, the flames shot up into the black sky. |
| We again started our day with the La Posada view of mountains and reservoir, the morning
sky pink and soft. It’s as pretty a place for breakfast as I’ve ever seen.
Jonathan has brought music today so we are listening to ‘Music of the
Revolution! ’Mid morning: there have been a number of serious cases in pediatrics this morning. Lauren
met Jacobo Ardon Garcia, age 13, who has clubfeet and spina bifida. Before Jacobo, Lauren
saw a young man with a congestive heart lesion; local doctors have diagnosed him and
surgery was recommended, but his mother doesn’t trust the procedure and told Lauren “he
is in the hands of God now.” |
 Sister Eleanor is arranging surgery for Jacobo, after he was seen by Dr. Lauren Herbert. |
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Over lunch a funny story helps lift our moods after seeing some of these very sad cases.
Patty has been helping the optometrists, using the machine that tests for glaucoma. After
carefully placing the patients foreheads against the machine, she has been saying ‘no
nuevos,’ ‘don’t move,’ in Spanish (forgive me, I don’t speak Spanish so this translation
is probably wrong). But late yesterday afternoon, the phrase escaped her and she began
telling patients ‘no muerto,’ or ‘don’t die!’ You can imagine what they were thinking
about that harmless procedure after that!
It’s a hot afternoon. But the clinic is well organized now so although the lines are still long, everyone is genial. Lauren sees another family with a heavy burden to bear; two boys, each with serious heart problems. Today’s group comes from a more rural area; there is more illiteracy and more injuries from working in the fields. It’s 6:30 pm; tonight it’s general medicine that is crowded so the pediatricians are helping them. We end another long day and head back for dinner at our hotel. |