Today we held a clinic in San Pablo La Laguna but instead of packing all our daily clinic supplies into pickup trucks, we hauled it all down to a boat that took us across Lake Atitlan for the day.
It was a beautiful day and a wonderfully relaxing contrast to the thrill of travelling in the back of a pickup truck.
Once we arrived, we hauled all our supplies back up a hill and re-loaded them into pickup trucks.
You know it's hair-pin turn if you have to 3-point it! (And NO, that person in the passenger seat is NOT waving at us. He is desperately trying to stop the truck barreling down the hill!)
Our clinic for the day: time to move supplies . . . . . . again.
The view from the street in front of the clinic:
Patiently waiting. Notice the kids trying to crawl in through the windows.
Because of the local dialect we had had to work with two translators today. This slowed us down a bit, but by the end of the week, I was so "fluent" I could diagnose a lot of problems without my translator. (OK, so I learned a few key words like "dolor" and "picar" and got really good at charades!)
David shows off his skills in dentisty --- and as an artist.
I saw a 34 year-old mother of six with a nagging cough and a large, hard, irregular mass in her neck. Cancer until proven otherwise . . . . ."but no access to proof."
Even though I know the power of prayer, I still feel powerless.
A fun way to end the day: Trina and Sarah blow bubbles with the kids while we wait for our trucks.
Time to load the boat --- a small price to pay for the magnificent commute back to Panajachel.
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