Today, we started our day with breakfast and lots of coffee. After yesterday’s early morning, getting up at 5:30am felt like sleeping in! We took our bus to El Eden, an elementary school we used to set up our clinic for the village people. Each time we set up a clinic in the village we have to pack our bus with several wooden boards that have posters on them that we use to teach the people, several suitcases full of supplies and medications, jugs of water because the tap water here is not safe to drink, coolers with packed lunches, and any other supplies we may need. Today, we divided into groups: pediatrics, adults, and women’s health. By the time we arrived, people were already lined up to see us. Today, pedes was probably the busiest with kids everywhere. They loved the toys we brought!! I was in women’s health most of the day and learned a lot! We all had different experiences and saw quite a variety of patients. We gave out a lot of glasses, shoes, toiletries, and medicine! We are all learning to adapt to helping these people in ways they can benefit most rather than doing things exactly how we would for patients in the states. Here, we have to work with just what we have, but also, think about what they will have to continue treatment when we go home. A few of our students are fluent in Spanish, and we have Lauren, our interpreter, but for the rest of us, we do our best to communicate with the Spanish we do know. Our Spanish is improving a lot, and the villagers are very tolerating of our attempts to communicate. 

It is very hard to stay hydrated, but we are doing our best!! Today it was 107 degrees “which was cool,” according to Jeff and Lucia. 

We went back to the Overholt‘s to unload our supplies and restock our supplies for tomorrow. Then we came back to our hotel, refreshed with fresh fruit smoothies and vanilla frosty’s, and enjoyed a little sunshine and time at the pool. My favorite is mango—the fruit is so fresh! We ate our last home-cooked dinner at the Overholt’s (spaghetti and garlic bread), which was amazing as usual. After dinner, we all shared about our day and then headed back to the hotel to play cards, read, or sleep early. Tomorrow, another early and busy day awaits!