whew-back again-driving to and from xochis two days in a row makes for a long day so we are glad that it is on a thursday and friday that we go there!!
many people are wondering with what organization we are serving. mike and i are going through the presbyterian church USA, specifically through the Medical Benevolence Foundation. i think that you can find out more about them if you google the foundation, that's what i did. melissa, one of the girls we are here with, served with PCUSA for a year in Kenya. i'll give a little bio of the other three girls later after mike leaves.
today wasn't any different really, we saw upwards of 35 patients and mike did a great job. sometimes is very very difficult to work with no medicine, no glasses, and still figure out creative ways to help people. we are still getting better at patient physicals and have seen about everything you can put in an ear, there is a lot of people here complaining of hearing loss and we look in their ears and its just jammed pack with wax (and one case of a fungus), yummy . . . the local remedy is boil chammomile (is that spelled right?) tea with salt, pour it into the ear, let it sit for 10 minutes, dump it out, repeat. so that's what we explained to the patients. it's still difficult to not have another person here to speak amuzgo, dr. carmello is very busy translating the old testament, but we have to use him a lot to translate to amuzgo. hardly any women speak spanish and most start working in either a bar or store at the age of 10 or 11. it would be absolutely impossible for a group to come down if they didn't speak spanish. most of my friends here to and mike speaks it well so we have that advantage.
today was absolutely wonderful-usually we have lunch around 130 or 200 with dr.carmello and then go back by taxi after lunch. well, he had other plans. we first went to see some of the local crafts. the women here weave all of their clothes by hand on an interesting machine, i have photos too!! they are brightly colored dresses with a loose weave to allow air flow. barbara wood told us its the coolest thing she owns! we saw his house, a humble cement house. there were almost no walls or windows, his wife owns a pastry shop and that is in the front of their house. she is a friendly lady and we also got to meet his two boys and one daughter, who has downs syndrome. then we went up he mountian in his backyard to reach the radio station. this radio is the only form of communication and you can hear it blaring everywhere through the towns. this is how he notified the people that mike is coming to check eyes!!! so he asked me to speak on it-i was so surprised and nervous. i spoke about who i was and what our group was doing here. it was kind of exciting because thousands of people heard. he asked me say a little in english too so i taught good morning, good afternoon, and good night. so fun!! we also hiked to the highest point in xochis and had a beautiful view!
we relaxed with dinner back in ometepec and finished it off with helados-ice cream!!
Dios le bendiga!
Friday, June 30, 2006
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