Guatemala: Days Two and Three

Wow, what an amazing two days we've had!  I was so tired when we got back after dinner, I went right to bed almost.  No time for posting.  Now, since we'll be having a day off tomorrow, I have some time to write again.

Yesterday we went into another slum area.  Our big bus wouldn't fit down all the streets to get to the school, so we had to carry almost everything down a very steep hill.  The entire community was built right into the side of a hill, it seemed.  Even the school.  Street level was the top, and we had to just keep going down steps to get to other rooms.  If I have time to post photos, I'll show you the view outside the windows in our pharmacy space. If you've been following me on my facebook profile, you've already seen it.  This was another area run by drug pushers and gangs.  Chris even walked up to the truck and discovered some people being arrested.  That was a little exciting.  There is a very good reason that we have police with big guns along with us each day.  Rest assured that we are never in any real danger while we do these clinics.  The communities we visit are so happy to have us come, they would do anything for us and we don't feel any fear.  But, we do need to get out of there before dark.  There was something really neat in this community.  A group from Quebec had started a way for the gangs to negotiate.  There is a special room, just for that purpose and as a result the crime has gone way down here.  Awesome!  We saw over 700 people yesterday.

It was a successful day, and I spent a lot of it on my feet.  By the end of the day, my feet and legs were incredibly sore and I mentioned it to one of the medics.  She diagnosed me with shin splints.  Yes, the kind of thing athletes sometimes get.  It's very painful and so, I've had to adjust what I do.  I'm staying drugged up on Ibuprofen, and my legs were wrapped in tensors all day.  It was very hot today and the tensors made me even hotter.  As I type this, I'm sitting on our bed, with ice on my shins.  Tomorrow is a day off, so I'll be sitting with my legs up and will hopefully be feeling much better for Friday's clinic.

Today we saw over 800 patients again.  It was very busy and I spent a lot of the day sitting and bagging up drugs so those filling prescriptions could do so easier and quicker.  We had something happen that we didn't expect.  Someone started copying registration sheets and selling them!  We had such a crowd waiting for us when we arrived and once they figured out we weren't going to be able to see everyone, they took matters into their own hands.  It's always hard when we have to deal with things like that, and then turn people away.  We were an hour and a half drive away from the hotel, so we couldn't stay to treat everyone.  I firmly believe that we saw the people we were supposed to.  There were so many sweet faces today, and they were full of smiles, especially the kids.  Such a pleasure to serve them.

It's getting late and I really need to get to sleep, so I will try to post some photos tomorrow, either in the morning or after dinner.
Thank you for your prayers and support.  I would love to hear your comments and thoughts, so please post.

Until next time.