There's no place like Home: El Salvador--Day 5

Dr Steve, Lydia, Me, and Monica

This morning, we had eggs with vegetables, refried black beans, tamales, cafe and fresh fruit. We left for our next clinic at Oasis (Oh-ah-sees). They recently had a few young ladies paint new murals on the walls. The mural where we are standing says JESUS HEALS. It's next to the clinic exam room that they have there.

They had supplies for me to do some well woman exams. Several of the women hadn’t had one for many years. The table was a narrow gurney which had no brakes and no stirrups. They used a step stool to get on it, and there really wasn't access to good sanitation barriers-adequate to get the job done, but it wouldn't have passed the regulations in the US. The tools were archaic and took me a minute to figure out. I had a head lamp on to see (usually the lights are right in the tools we use to see). It was an experience to say the least, but the women were so grateful. One thanked me and gave me a big hug for taking care of her. I just hope that the pap slides that I made were useable later!

Sylvita was the interpreter that helped me the most. She's a petite little thing!! She is in her late 20's or early 30's and super sweet. She works full time for Christ For the City International. She teaches English to the kids as well as some other things.

We walked to the clinic today. It was only a few blocks. This lady lives next door to sister Magdalena. I happened to notice that she was drawing her water from a well. I didn't have the chance to ask anyone how routine that is, but I am going to guess pretty common!

Here is the set up at Sister Magdalena's. The shallow rectangular sink is also the "washing machine." We used it for hand washing. The procedure was to fill up one of those small blue pans with water from the circular vessel. Use the soap in the right hand corner of the rectangle sink, and then use the fresh water in the pan to rinse off. To the left of the rectangle was the eating area, and about 30 steps to the right of the circle was the kitchen.

Here is a picture of the kitchen. There is a deep freezer in the back right hand side of the room, and a refrigerator to the left that isn't visible in the picture. She also has a large flat cook top (think Blackstone without the brand name) next to the red chair on the left. The dishwashing sink is in the back left hand corner. The picture looks bright, but that one light bulb up there doesn't light up much. It seemed really dark in there all the time.

Here is a picture at the shower room. You can see that the tin roof fits only "loosely" onto the building. The shower is on the left and the toilet is behind the green curtain at the right. The girls bedroom was connected to the bathroom-to the left of the shower.

There was also a cement sink in the bathroom area.

This is the "lock" from inside the bathroom. The door was a wood framed piece of tin.

Now, back to the clinic. Again, people were already waiting on us when we arrived. This was a beautiful little place with a new, improved kitchen that they use to serve the community. They actually use it to supply meals to some of the most food-insecure people in this little community.

In the clinic room is a small air conditioner. It felt good for the half of the day that I got to do well woman exams. The rest of the time, Dr Miller and Dr Steve did lesion removals and benign tumor removals, and Lydia stitched them up.

Dr Morataya and I saw clinic patients upstairs in the open air patio. There was another big tin roof over the top of it to keep the sun from us. It was BEAUTIFUL!! There was a slight breeze that felt SO good in the hot, humid climate.

In the extra suitcase I brought, between the plastic shoeboxes filled with eye glasses, I had stuffed snap bracelets, punch balloons, sunglasses, story books, and as many stuffed animals as I could shove in the crevices and dead space. The kids LOVED the snap bracelets. They had actually never seen anything like them. I could tell by the way their eyes lit up when I demonstrated it on my arm first. They were always willing to put their arms out to receive one for themselves.

At the end of the day, Sylvita was looking through the suitcase of toys. She remarked at how cute the stuffed strawberry was. I told her she could have it if she wanted...She jumped at that right away. Edwin asked if he could also have a stuffed animal. He picked through them all and chose the little dog. He snuggled it up to his face in the sweetest way. When I asked if he had ever had a stuffed animal before he replied that he had never. My heart tugged at the thought of that. Most American kids have so many stuffed animals that they don't know what to do with them. And these young adults had never had the opportunity to love one! The little one on the right is Sister Magdalena's granddaughter. She also chose a little bear...and she carried it around for the next two days! If I ever go again, stuffed animals will for sure make the final cut for placement in the suitcases!

From the balcony clinic area, I caught a glance of a couple young boys. I had seen them the day before riding bicycles with these really long sticks. The sticks had a little enclosure on one end, we thought maybe to catch something out of the water.

It turns out, they gather mangos with them. They were grabbing mangos down out of the trees with ease and piling them in a bowl.

Here is our medical team--left to right

Edwin (translator), Francisco (dental assistant), Dr Morataya (medical director and doctor at the mission house) Raquel (pharmacist), Dr Steve from New York, Lydia, nurse practitioner from San Antonio, Sylvita (translator), Vanessa (dentist), Me, Monica (dental assistant, leader, Dr Miller's wife), Dr Miller (leader)

We walked back down the dirty roads to Sister Magdalena's. People were going by most of the day on bicycles or motorcycles. Sometimes there would be an old truck. Chickens were everywhere, being followed by millions of chicks. Someone counted, and a chicken we saw at the clinic that day had 28 baby chicks following her everywhere she went!!

We met this beautiful woman on our way home. She was happy to meet us. Teresa was her name. She was 78.

A cashew tree!! It was the darndest thing I have ever seen!! The fruit (above the cashew shaped nut) turns a bright red. Apparently they don't taste that good though.

Here is a cluster of cashews!!

A picture of Edwin and I. He and I had a fun, teasing relationship. He was also good to translate things for all of us throughout the day--to patients or to one another on our team.

Spanish was harder today. I can speak some basic things, but advancing it from there has been frustrating. Using the right word in the right sentence seems more difficult, and by the end of the day, I couldn’t even speak the things I know how to say. I was hoping that this experience would help my Spanish to improve, but I think it really only made me more confused. I am finding myself more motivated to get my Rosetta Stone system out when I get home and begin practicing. I hope tomorrow will be better as far as the language goes.

The people are grateful for the care. Several of them are taking medications. This is evidence that the sponsored doctors coming weekly is helping people to take better care of themselves. That is encouraging! I have had several kids over the last few days that are having pain in their feet, ankles, and knees that I am certain is related to the bad shoes that they wear. Another point of frustration for me. It doesn't matter how much medicine we have or don't have. If we can't fix the root of the problem (like decent shoes to wear), how can we effectively treat their problems for the long term. A lot of teaching went on about body mechanics and ways to stretch out their bodies to minimize the chronic pain that many of them experience. This will be something that I will have to sort through over the weeks to come...and a reminder to me, that, while I came to serve these people, the tension over helping in a few ways and not having the means to help in other ways is a real, real problem!

Francisco and I took a better picture earlier in the day with our medical garb on...but I was afraid I might never get it from his phone (mine was downstairs)..so we took another one before we left for the day

Dinner tonight was a hard-boiled egg salad with chunks of avocado, onion and radish slices. I hate radishes. But, not willing to pick things out, I ate them. They were pretty darn tasty. We also had fresh fruit, refried beans, and thick tortillas.

We have one more clinic tomorrow morning. Tonight was spent trying to rearrange my suitcase to get packed back up. After lunch, we will be heading back to the mainland to get COVID tests done to get back into the US..and to head for the Air BNB that we will spend the night in on the beach. It's hard to believe that our week is nearly finished!