First Clinic in Zona Reyna

Wow!!!  Since we arrived after dark last night, we had no idea what the view was!!  When we stepped out of our tents, it was unbelievable!! Unbelievable!!  Yes, I had to say it again.  We were above most of the clouds and it was so cool and fresh!  The sun had already come up but I will get up a little earlier one morning to watch it.

This was the view to the west.

The photos just do not do it justice.

We walked up to the house for breakfast. 

When we arrived, the ladies were preparing the food.

These ladies worked so hard.  They provided three meals a day for us in this kitchen.  They had a smokeless stove and it was vented.  The tortillas are cooking above the fire.

Deysi asked Sarah if she wanted to try her hand at making a tortilla.  Sara did a great job!

This is the stone that they used to grind the corn for the tortillas.  It can also be used for coffee and different herbs.

This is Leda grinding the corn.  I did not know it but Leda would later be my translator.    Here, the language is not K'iche' but Q'eqchi'.  Many of the words are similar since they are Mayan languages but we needed translators for the clinics.

 We had a wonderful breakfast of eggs, beans, cheese, tortillas, atole and coffee.

This is Deysi.  She gave all of our injections, kept people moving and is really good at organizing.

This is Sarah, Sally and Erv.  Sara is playing around with these glasses that Sally brought for the patients.  I think I eventually ended up with this glasses!    Thank you, Sally!!

They gave out 70 numbers to patients.  Each patient had 3-5 family members so it MULTIPLIED our number of actual patients.

Sally had an ultrasound machine so she took all of the pregnant ladies.

It was a long day but a great day!!

I had a man who was seen about six months ago and was told he had an abdominal mass.  It was huge!  Sally talked with him and his family members about being seen in Santa Cruz at the national hospital.  I will really be surprised if they are able to do surgery.

There was one lady who did not know she was pregnant.  She seemed a little excited about it but not too much.  One patient had a hernia.  Sally did an ultrasound on a lady who is having a lot of pain and found five cysts on one of her ovaries.  One lady was only 34 years old and has seven children.  Many children had worms.

We estimated, conservatively, that we saw 200 patients today.  

After we finished for the day, we returned to our room and chatted a little over the events of the day.  We took towelettes to bath with and it felt good after the day.  Later when Erv came in for the night, he said he had found a reservoir of water that we could use.  Yes!!  Clean hair makes clinics go better!

Tomorrow...........another full day and I am sure it will be great!!