Friday, January 31, 2020

Today is a bitter sweet day.  It is the last day we travel to local communities and the day before we leave for home.  As I am anxious to get back home to see family and friends, I will never forget the new friends I’ve met and the people I’ve helped.

Our journey took us to the community of Los Ovitos, San Antino  de Cortes.  My first thought as we were traveling, “how in the world do they find these communities?” 🤔  at June point I thought we arrived at our destination but I was wrong, still traveled a other 20 minutes on very bumpy roads until we found this community tucked in the mountains.  Thankfully we were at a slightly higher elevation today because the temperature back at the Mission House was around 91.  I think the temp today was 85ish with higher humidity.  This community did have electricity so we were able to run fans to keep the air circulating,

My heart sings every time I arrive at a different community seeing the people lined up waiting for us to arrive.  At this school, the desks were moved from the classroom to the yard beside the school.  It was a very small school with K-5th grace in one room and then second room with 6-8th grade.

Of course the first thing on the agenda after our drive is to find the banos. 😊.  It took me some time to get there as I was greeted by this young girls, maybe 7-8 years old, coming towards with arms opened giving me a hug.  Right behind her were two young boys wanting to give hugs.  Yes, I will stop for hugs anytime!!  

Today I worked in Vitals which means I will take blood pressures, oxygen levels and pulse on adults.  I worked with Sylvia and Danilo was our translator.  One question we had to ask all women is if they were pregnant.  There were three 15 year olds that were pregnant, another woman expecting her sixth child.  We saw 48 individuals at Vitals.

Marlene got to again work in pharmacy.  Being a nurse she was interested in this station and seeing what medications were being distributed.  A big challenge was reading the doctors handwritings. 😁.
She had 114 individuals come through pharmacy and prescriptions written.  Again, most had average 2-3 medications prescribed.

Bill again got to work in Deworming and Vitamin A station giving 95 people deworming medication and 27 young children Vitamin A.  This a challenging station as you will have many crying children since the Medici e does not taste good.  Bill was awesome with the kids giving them a  Burger King crown and paste on earrings (to the girls) when they took their medicine.

Sadly we identified 22 young children with malnutrition.  The mother’s were all informed of the opportunity to come to the nutrition center and help their child/ren  become healthy.  Rosa, Healthy Ninos nurse, will keep in contact with the families as to their wishes.

Vernon worked with reading glasses giving 33 individuals glasses.   Now they can read!!!

Donation station is a very popular station.  Here Linda and Glenda gave school supplies, hats, hand towels, work gloves, toy cars, hair bands, and more.  These supplies were all donated by Americans and were greatly appreciated.

Nancy, Dr. Dave, and Dr. Jim were all in medical and Pharmacy.  Nancy filling prescriptions and Dave and Jim doing assessments.

Complete  numbers for the week will be posted I need a separate blog.

As the trucks were being loaded and we were saying goodbye to the people, we were blowong bubble session with the kids, running around within them, tickling them and giving hugs.

Tonight we hosted the local volunteers for dinner.  It was fun having everyone at the same table.

Good bye for now.  Pictures to follow.