El Salvador: Day Three (and Four)

Buenos Dias, mi amigos!  I'm writing after our break day at the beach.  I had a wonderful time just sitting in the shade, reading, enjoying the view of waves crashing on the beach and then dipping in the pool, which had a fair-sized crab along the wall.  He was rescued and brought back to the ocean.  And yes, Mom, I got a little sunburned.  We all really need the time off, to recuperate and rest before our final push for the last two clinic days.  Tomorrow we are going to Remar, the orphanage.  I think it's going to be a tough day for me, emotionally.   Those sweet orphans are tugging at my heart strings right now.  We'll see...

Yesterday, though, was quite the day in El Sunza!  We set up in a school and things were pretty steady all day.  We like those kinds of days in pharmacy.  We don't want to wait for patients.  We like to just go, go, go all day.  (Hence the need for a rest day!)  There wasn't a huge line until closer to the end of the day.  Then things got a little harried.  People started pushing into the room a bit and it made me a little nervous.  They actually slowly pushed the table we were counselling over, further into the room.  So, I put on my teacher hat and raised my voice, asking them to "Sientese, por favor!" (Sit down, please!)  That didn't work for too long, so I simply pushed the table back.  Yup, little me.  We miss Dashina on these days, because she would get her mother hat on and yell at them all to just move back and wait patiently.  She's from Guatemala and has always been with us in the pharmacy, until this trip.  Things settled down soon enough, but it was definitely tense for a bit.

I took some time at lunch to walk around and take some photos.  Here are some of my favourites:

Checking out the glasses a family member would receive.

Had to take a photo of this girl.  Her name is Ariana, 6 1/2.  My daughter will get a kick out of seeing someone with her name.  I showed her and her mom a photo of my daughter and they thought that was pretty fun.

Dental area, working hard.  They loved the open-air.  Much cooler than a stuffy room!

Some kids hanging out.  I'm not sure if they'd seen the doctor yet.

Such a sweetie!  I couldn't resist a photo.

This 81-yr-old woman was waiting to see the doctor.  Her name is Adonica and she had never had a pair of shoes!!!  We gave her a pair of running shoes at Distribution.

With all the blessings we passed along to her.

Two sweet boys playing in the courtyard.  They were actually banging those bricks down on the edge in front of them!  Boys will be boys, no matter what country you're in.

It seems the weather may not be so great for the rest of our stay.  We still have two clinic days, one of which is in a slum, no walls or roofs to protect us from rain.  Please pray for clear weather for us!  I'd better get to sleep now.  It's going to be busy, regardless of the weather.

By the way, for more photos and stories, you can check out the Speroway blog here.

Buenos Noches.