El Salvador 2013: Day Five, So Rewarding

As I write this we are driving home from December the 1st, an area previously known as Somalia. If you've read my posts from previous years, you have heard about this place before. We hold a clinic here every year. It's a slum, right in the heart of San Salvador. It was a challenging day because not only are the people the most needy, but we start to run out of medicines. And yet, we are able to brig smiles and love to a community who so desperately needs it. We were able to help 1,019 people in medical today. Those same people, and more, got food, clothing and other items as well. 

Above is a typical home, up together with whatever they can find. They struggle with malnutrition and parasites and lots of others. 

What really gets me each year is just how thankful they are when we come. The community leaders had a couple of plaques made for us and when they gave them to us and thanked us with hugs, there were lots of tears. It's hard not to feel their emotion and appreciation when you see it smiling out of their eyes. It makes you feel equally grateful to be a part of this mission. 

Thank you, too, my readers, for following me on these experiences each year. Thank you for your prayers and encouragement and constant support. I really do feel it. And thank you for putting up with my departure from crafting. We'll be back to it in the next post. :)

Thank you again!

El Salvador: Day Four, Another Record Broken!

I say it every day, but wow, it was quite a day!  We were in a community called Zaragoza. We set up in the mayor's office again, after having to move out of a very tiny space in the library. Once we got it all worked out, everything went smoothly. We saw a record breaking 1,049 patients in medical and dental did 210, although a lot of their cases were pretty complicated. 

As the doctors started to see patients, they noticed a lot of stress and trouble sleeping. Turns out the gangs run this community. They have enforced a curfew of 7pm and anyone caught outside after that time could get shot!  I can't imagine living with that kind of fear.  

One of the prescription sheets I received tugged at my heart and made me tear right up. 

It may be hard to see, but this woman's husband was killed on the job just two months ago. He fell out of a tree. She is now a widow, with a disabled adult child to look after as well as her three-year-old grand daughter. There is no workman's comp. or any kind of widow's benefits here. She has no way to make money for her family. These kinds of stories break my heart. I am so grateful we could be here to help her know that someone cares and that Jesus hurts for her as well. We could make her feel better by giving her medication and vitamins. I don't want to forget her. She is why I am here. 

El Salvador 2013: Day Three, Record Breaking!

Wednesday was a crazy day, and that's putting it lightly. We were back in Tepecoyo again. We visited this community last year so it was nice to be back. Pharmacy had a nice big room, with lots of space. 

We worked hard, VERY hard, seeing a record of 1,014 patients in medical and 234 in dental!  There has only been one other day, in all our trips, where we broke 1,000. The best part of this clinic day was that we saw every person who wanted to be seen. Not one was turned away, and that, no matter what the numbers, makes us feel even better. 

Here are a few shots I took at the end of the day. The first are of the school we were in. 

The mayor presented our group with a plaque. 

And when we got home we skyped with our kids. 

Loved seeing their faces ... even if they were being a little silly. 

We had a day off today and are looking forward to two more clinic days before flying home. Our team is healthy, which is so great!  Please continue to pray for health, strength and energy. And thank you again for your support and encouragement. 

El Salvador 2013: Day Two

It's 6:30 in the morning as I write this. I am ready to head down to breakfast. We need to leave a half hour earlier today because traffic is causing us to arrive late at our clinic sites. To be honest, I'm tired, really tired; and I can't wait for our day of tomorrow. Yesterday was a hard day for me. We had some definite perks, though. Our clinic was held in a place called San Jose Villaneuve. I think I got that right. We were in the mayor's office instead of a school and Pharmacy lucked out. We got air conditioning!!  It wasn't as cool as you would have at home, but only because our door was open all day. This was such a treat since we were closer to the shore where it is hotter. No such treats today, as we head to another hot location. It made working so much easier an since I had a spell of not feeling well in the morning, I was incredibly grateful for it. 

We saw 823 patients in medical, a record-breaking 220 in dental, 111 pairs of reading glasses were handed out and there was more food given out after the medics stopped seeing patients!

We also had the opportunity to help a very sick 2-month-old who had a super high fever. Here's a photo of Chris getting a dose of acetaminophen ready. 

She was so adorable and so sick. She ended up getting an injection of antibiotic and we hope to be able to follow up with her. We're going to try to get the mayor to find out how she is. 

Anyway, time is short and if better get moving. Thank you for your prayers. We need energy and strength today!

El Salvador 2013: Day One is Done

Wow, what a day we had yesterday!  We visited El Congo, a community that has never had an NGO visit to help them. There were speeches by the mayor and they sang our national anthem!  The drive was gorgeous, winding along mountain top road, with a valley on one side and a stunning lake on the other. 

We saw 805 people in medical, 181 in dental and handed out 171 pairs of reading glasses. 

It was a great day with so many people needing our medical attention. I got to meet a 104-year-old man, whose only issue was eye pain. He was so sweet. 

It is so rewarding to know that these people finally know that there are other people out there who care about them. 

Here are a few photos I took at the end of the day. 

El Salvador 2013: Ready to Start

We are almost ready to start our first clinic day. As I write this, I am about 20 minutes from boarding the bus. 

Yesterday we packed our medicine bins and bagged some drugs and vitamins in record time. 

We have already had some challenges on this trip, which happens every year. Our truck, carrying items we had stored in Guatemala, was denied entry at the border. So, a pile of dental equipment and medical tools will not be here. Our team here was busy purchasing new items like a generator for the dental team and other dental units (at a cost of $5000 each) had to be brought down with us on the plane. Medical equipment had to be purchased as well. As for pharmacy, our bins had to be replaced and it was challenging to work with new ones that are different and much bigger. Hopefully we will still have room for them on the desks that serve us as tables at our sites. 

On another note, it's been exciting to see our team work together so well!  The people on our trip are workhorses!  They 105,000 vitamins yesterday and we were done before 4pm!!  That doesn't include the parasitic and other meds they also packaged up. It's all done. What a wonderful feeling!

As we go into today, pray for strength, health, and energy. Pray also that I have a better sleep tonight!  Thank you for your support and encouragement. 

If you want to read another blog about our trip, go to Speroway.com and click on blog. 

El Slavador 2013: We're On Our Way ... Almost

It's time again for another trip with Speroway to El Salvador. I'll be posting as often as I can so you can share in our experience and see how your support is helping us. 

Right now we're killing time at a Wendy's near the airport. Our flight times are flipped compared to our last trips, which is bitter sweet. It means we can spend time with our kids before we leave and they'll be awake when we get home. But it also means that we won't be arriving at our hotel until after 10, and we just discovered that our flight is delayed. Sigh. Oh, the joys of air travel. 

I just thought I would share some photos of how we are passing the time. :)

I'm going to miss these two. 

Next post from sunny, warm, and precious El Salvador. 

El Salvador: Day One and Two

** I just realized that this post never went up on the blog! That's Central American internet for you. Sorry about that!**

It's been a very busy two days. It's pretty late here so I'm going to keep it short. I'm exhausted!

On Monday we went to a community about an hours drive from San Salvador. It was pretty much what we are used to, although less children than we expected. We left the hotel a lot later than we expected as well. There was a mix up with the buses and they arrived an hour and a half late, which meant we got a late start. Because we don't have as big a truck this year, all the pharmacy meds arrive the same time we do which means we have a lot more set up to do before we can get going. Despite all that, as well as working out the logistics that come with our first day, we still saw 759 people in medical and dental helped about 140. God is good!
It was very hot in our room and there were a number of times that I was really lacking energy. The thought actually crossed my mind, Can I make it this week? I would so appreciate your thoughts and prayers for stamina and lots of energy.
Today was different. We headed out to the same area, but turned up a road and climbed a mountain for a bit. That brought a much needed reprieve from the heat. We had some communities from farther away bussed in. We saw 876 in medical and 150 or so in dental, which brought us over 1000 people today!
While here, we are partnering with an organization called Operation Blessing. They are supported by the 700 Club. People who work with them have been helping us all week. Tonight they treated us to dinner. But not just any dinner, we drove for an hour, straight up the volcano we can see from our hotel! It was cold. But it was gorgeous. We could see the sprawling city of San Salvador laid out in front of us. What a treat!
Now, I'm ready to curl up and fall fast asleep. Tomorrow we are heading down to the beach area, to an orphanage called Remar. It's going to be a LOT hotter!

Thank you for your support, thoughts and prayers. Following are photos of our two "farmacia" rooms and the view from tonight's supper.

El Salvador: Wrap Up

It's Sunday morning and we're relaxing at the hotel before we need to get on the bus one last time. Our work is done for the week. I'm sorry for not posting more. Hopefully I can help you understand a bit of what the rest if the week was like.

After our trip up the mountain a bit we went down to the ocean. It was a HOT day, but made more special by the fact that we were back at Remar Orphanage, for the fourth time. We worked steadily and were able to treat all the orphans as well as any one from the community. We didn't need to turn anyone away, which is something I really love! We saw a little girl, Hazel, whom we treated a year and a half ago. At that time she was so sick we had to rush her to the hospital. If we hadn't been there she would have died. She is a happy, healthy little sweetheart today! What a blessing to get to reconnect with her and her young mom. We even had time to hang around at the end of the day. The first photos at the end of my post are taken at Remar. I had a couple boys quite interested in my phone which I was using for photos. They ended up discovering the games I have for my kids. Soon, as you can imagine, I had a little crowd sitting on my lap, hanging on my shoulders, gathered around. They all took a turn with Cupcake Maker. So fun!

Thursday was our day off and we spent it at a private resort area. It was mostly just our group by the pool and on the beach. It was beautiful, relaxing, rejuvenating, and exactly what we needed after three days of hard work.

Friday we were back in the same region as on Monday, but this time we set up Ina municipal building. It actually turned out to be our most challenging space, a space with two entrances an people walking through. It was somewhat isolated from the rest if the team. It was a hard day for me. If you follow me on Facebook, you know that I was feeling run down and tired. I ended up sitting for the entire afternoon, just counting lots if Albendazole (parasite medicine) and adult vitamins. We get them in bigger bottles and in order to make them last, we count them into bags of 30. I've included a photo of our pharmacy area.

And then Saturday arrived. Our last day. At a site near and dear to our hearts, Somalia. The worst slum in the country. We've done a clinic here every time we come to El Salvador. We set up our farmacia in their little church. A tiny space with a cross painted on the tin wall. It was a great day. We were able to start early and saw 1004 patients in medical! The last few photos are from Somalia. This community has really banded together and tried to make things better. They are building a new church. (That's the cross you see.) They amaze me with their resilience to do the best they can with what they have. It's an honour to enter their place and serve them.

Thank you for your continued support and encouragement over the years. It means more to me than you know. As we get ready to head home, please pray for our continued safety.

I hope I won't forget the feeling of gratefulness I have right now. I have been blessed beyond comprehension, just by being born in Canada. I am truly honoured to be able to serve. God is so good!

Now, I'd better pack! Blessings!

El Salvador: We Are Ready, I Think ...

It's 5:50 am in El Salvador as I write this. There's an hour difference and my body has definitely not adjusted yet. It's one of those times that I know I need as much sleep as possible; it's going to be a very busy day. Oh we'll, that gives me a chance to write an update before we head out to our first clinic day.
I want to warn you that I'm writing these posts on my phone so I'm not sure how the photos will look.
We have already experienced our share of frustrations , even before we left. In preparation, Speroway sent a shipping container here by boat which contained a pile of meds and all our children's vitamins, almost all our distribution items, almost all the instruction sheets for the medication and a lot of other things it was held up in customs for a month! They finally released it on Friday at about 2pm. The truck, our friend, Julio from Guatemala drove here, was held at the border for two days. It held left over drugs from our last trip, all the dental equipment and probably more. It cleared late Friday.
So when we arrived, we still had to go to the warehouse to get all our stuff, then sort it and get it all ready for five clinic days. We worked very hard yesterday! But, we are ready.
Please pray for us. Pray for protection from the plans Satan may have to thwart us, for our families back home, for the people we will see today.
Thank you so much for your support and encouragement. It's going to be a great week, with God working in mighty ways. Check out www.speroway.com/blog for more updates and photos all week long.
Blessings until my next post.

Star Smiles in Guatemala

I'm actually taking some time to post something other than a blog hop!  It seems like I haven't spent much time with you here and I'm not happy about it.  Life is busy.  I really shouldn't be doing it right now either, but I wanted to share a project and give you some exciting news!

First, the news.  Some of you probably already know that my husband and I are heading to El Salvador, tomorrow morning actually!  (That's why I shouldn't be sitting at my computer.  I've got LOTS to do yet!)  It's time again for us to participate in another Speroway Medical Mission and we're so happy to be going back to El Salvador.  This will be the fourth time Speroway has worked there and we'll be going back to at least one site we visit every time.  Interested in learning more about Speroway?  Just click here to go to their website and here to go to the blog, where there will be lots of updates while we're gone.  Stay tuned to my blog as well.  I'll try to post photos and stories here, too.

Now, my project.

I made this layout initially for an album contest, but I didn't get further than this layout!  I tried very hard to stretch myself a bit in the techniques I used.  I was really excited about creating this layout, for a number of reasons.  These are photos I took while we were in Guatemala last year and the year before.  During this last trip, though, something really struck me.  I was there to serve these people, to help them, to give them medicine to make their lives better, but they already had so much resilience!  They endure so many things and if you read my posts during our trip in February, you know about some of them.  This week, this beautiful country was hit with an earthquake.  Thankfully, it wasn't anywhere near where we have worked or where our dear friends live, but it has affected them none-the-less.  My heart goes out to this wonderful people.  People with an amazing work ethic, infinite patience and gratitude for every little thing.  And on top of all the hardship they face, they still smile.  The kids still play, like our kids do.  They are stars in my book and that's why I made this layout.  To honour them and to remind myself that I am privileged to be able to serve them.  

Here are some more photos and the details.

 I really wanted a "dirty" sort of look so I peeled off the top layer of all the chipboard pieces and then inked them with different colours.  I pulled the colours out of the photos.  In the above photo you can see the layered Kraft borders.  I used the white side, the side that you should normally peel off.  Instead, I inked it up.

In the above photos you can see the lighter stars right on the paper.  I cut a stencil on my Cricut, from the Art Philosophy cartridge, and used it to sponge stars all over the place. The following photo shows my fun hidden photos.  you pull the tab and the journaling piece disappears while showing off two more photos.

Please keep us in your prayers as we see similar faces in El Salvador.  Pray for our families whom we leave behind.  My little guy seems to be more upset about us leaving this time.  :(  And pray for the people we will see next week, but also these sweet faces pictured here.

Thank you for your support and encouragement!  See you from El Salvador.

Happy Creating!

El Salvador: Day Five

Hola, mi amigos!  What an amazing day we've had.  It's a little hard to believe that we have come to the end of our time here, in El Salvador.  We finished with a bang in Somalia, a slum right in San Salvador.  It took some time to set up so we were grateful for a short drive to the site.  It was a little interesting getting our buses in there.  This is the third time we have done a clinic in Somalia and each time the community takes more charge of preparations and that is so great to see.  They wanted to take care of getting tarps to put over our heads, tables to put our things on, including all the pharmacy boxes, and chairs for us to rest our weary legs as well as for all the medics and patients.  They did a great job and each time we asked for another table, one appeared.  They had a community person at the "door" of the pharmacy to take "recettas"(not sure on the spelling of that one!), patient forms, keeping families straight for us.  We had a fabulous, big table to counsel over, no one was going to be pushing that one in today!  Everything went so smoothly.  I did hear of one little girl being sent to the hospital, a growth was removed and someone was having angina attacks.  We also saw more than 800 people, which is much higher than any of our other days.
There is something I should say about Somalia.  You won't understand it, not having been there.  These people's homes are made with tin, sticks, some wood, plastic signs for roofs, sometimes fabric, and the lucky ones have all tin.  In fact, last year they actually took apart a house so we would have a place to set up.  I don't think that happened this time.  They have outhouses that are put together in such a way that they look like they'll fall over in a big wind, and for some people, their house looks like that, too.  The people of Somalia live on less than $2 a day and are considered outcasts in San Salvador.  In fact, they probably wouldn't even venture out if we held a clinic just outside the limits of their community.  This is why we go right into the centre.
Here are a few photos I took today:

The community even made their own signs!

Police presence was so important today.  We love having them around, especially when they whisk us home with sirens and lights.

I'd better sign off.  It's getting very close to dinner time.  We're having a banquet with all the people who worked with us this week, including our translators.  Then we head home tomorrow morning.  Thank you so much for your prayers, everyone.  We found out today that our next trip is most likely back to Guatemala in February of 2012.  Yup, we're already looking forward to the next one.  ;)

Adios!

El Salvador: Clinic Day Four (our Fifth Day)

Hola.  I learned a new sentence in Spanish today, Como se llama?  What is your name?  I used to ask the name of a sweet little girl who grabbed my hand this afternoon.  I wish I had known it at the beginning of today, because another adorable little girl, probably 2 or 3, was passed to me and I held her and talked to her.  She squirmed down and led me into the area where our clinic was being held.  She didn't say a word to me, but I loved every minute.  :)

Steve Russell, one of the doctors with us, led us in a morning devotion on the bus.  This is something we do every morning on the way to our clinics.  He told us two stories.  I want to share them here, as well as another one that happened today.  He spoke about a woman who had had a heart attack probably a couple days ago.  She had no idea.  We weren't able to see everyone on Wednesday, so two of our paramedics went out to the line and essentially decided who would still get in.  Leo found this woman.  She was still having chest pain and had water on her lungs.  We arranged for her to get to the hospital free of charge and will now get the care she needs.

The other story was one that almost had me in tears all the way to the orphanage.  It's the story of a little boy named Juan.  I don't know how old he is.  His parents split up, something not unheard of.  His siblings went with either their mom or dad.  Juan got left behind, yes, left behind, all on his own, with no one to look after him, no place to live, no one to hug him or feed him or clean his clothes.  The neighbour saw that he didn't seem to have anyone and took him in.  We made sure Juan got the meds he needed, but also extra clothing, food, shoes, etc.  We also made sure the neighbour would have some support as well.  Despite his situation, he was smiling when Steve saw him.  It still makes me want to rush in there and just scoop him out of there.

This last story was something that happened at the very end of the day today.  We were cleaning up and one last patient came in.  (We didn't have to turn anyone away today!!!)  It was a young mom, very young at 14, who lived at the orphanage with her daughter of 18 months.  This little girl, named Hazel, was so sick she was having seizures because of a fever.  The doctors put an IV in her with antibiotics immediately.  Tony (the doc in charge) and Ross (a paramedic) rode her and her mom to the hospital.  The police that play the role of our security, raced her there, sirens blaring and lights flashing.  We just found out tonight at dinner that she's going to be okay.

I don't know what would have happened to these three people if we hadn't been in their communities on the days we were.  God knew we needed to be in those places as those exact times to be of help to those people.  It blows my mind sometimes when I think about how He is so involved in our lives, in every little thing.  He brought us here for some very specific purposes.  The community around Remar Orphanage isn't as needy as some of the other ones we've been to in the past, but serving them was still worth it, even if we were only there for Hazel.  It reminds me that God has a purpose and a plan for my life, for our family.  He knows the deepest desires of my heart because He put them there.  He knows how they will be fulfilled.  And afterwards we will look back and see His hand through it all, as we are beginning to see it already.  What an amazing God we serve, I serve!  A God who loves us so perfectly and knows exactly what we need.  This God, this wonderful God.

I apologize.  I'm rambling now, but I can't help but write about it all.  It's been a bit of an emotional day for me.  I'll quit now and share some photos.  I walked around a bit again, this time in the morning before the pharmacy really got hopping.

Chris, Olgui (the teacher of all our translators), Flor, and Susan filling prescriptions in the Pharmacy.

Dr. Bert examining and patient.  Bert is the Deputy Coroner of Ontario and he wanted to join us on this mission.

Joan showing a family how to use an aero chamber for puffers.

This sweetie was waiting for her mom to be finished with a medic.

Patients discussing things with a Christine, a medic.

Grandmas and grand-babies waiting in line.  They were asking for a photo and no wonder, these two are adorable!

Our two local team members registering new patients.

Marlene, and Dennis, handing out reading glasses.

Two of the children who attend the school we were at, which is attached to the orphanage.

A local dentist, Dr. Alba, working on a little boy.

Canadian team members, Mark Cross, and Odalmus.

The piles of clothing in distribution.

I know this has been a long post and I hope I haven't bored you.  We have one more clinic day, in a squatters slum right in San Salvador, called Somalia.  The weather has held out for us, although today was incredibly hot.  It should be a little cooler tomorrow, especially since we'll be setting up outside, under tarps.  

Now I'd better get to sleep because we give it our all tomorrow.  I may not have time for another post before we get home on Sunday night.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers.  We had one team member stay at the hotel today because she was so sick, a few others are feeling a little under the weather.  Gracias!  One more day...

Buenos Noches.