Mmhmm, what a dinner! Tonight we went out with the Cornelia team for dinner at "Las Praderas/The Prairies." Morgan ordered a bbq chicken, and they literally came out with the whole chicken. I ate a steak that was still sizzling on the plank when it came out. So good! I even helped Morgan finish some of hers. The team topped it off with huevos de toro. Haha! Of course, I took a bite to be apart of the group.
This morning, we went with the group to Emerald Mountain, a coffee plantation close to La Perla and La Escalera. When we arrived, there was no one there, so we expected to see a lot less patients. Eventually though, after we set up the doctors and the pharmacy, people began arriving. We knew it was going to be a busy day, when before lunch we'd already seen close to 80 people! Morgan once again rocked out the pharmacy today, while I helped in triage. I helped to take the weight, blood pressure, pulse, and temperature of every patient that came in. So much fun, because when the doctors would find something interesting or neat, they would call us over to check it out. Dr. Rhett called us over once to help a lady complaining of ear ache. He got out a probe, and began going to town in her ear. After some digging, he pulled out a mass of ear wax, that was at least the size of a quarter. He said it was the perfect consistency though, because it was hard enough to be pulled out at once, yet soft enough to grab a hold of. Graphic, I know. Mom, we need to invest in one of those probes for the honey combs in Nanny's ear! A blind man also came through with his wife. It was so cool though, because when the doctor asked him to open his eyes, you could clearly see the cataracts that were causing all of the trouble. He had a very advanced form of cataracts, that in the states could be easily fixed with surgery. It was so sad, because his wife was also developing cataracts, but her eyes were not nearly as progressed. There was also a lady with an ulcer on her foot that was able to receive antibiotics. The last guy to come through, worked on the plantation, and complained of blurry vision with very red eyes. Dr. Rhett showed me how his eyes had essentially been sunburned because of all of the work he does picking coffee. We gave him drops and sunglasses that we ordered him to wear, so hopefully that will work out! Those were the 4 coolest stories.
So overall it was an incredible day. If you can't tell from the blog, I am completely fascinated with eyes, especially in 3rd world countries. Cataract surgery is just a day procedure and has over an 85 percent success rate in receiving back vision. I just think that is a huge place where the Father could possibly use me some day. :)
Tomorrow we are taking the Cornelia group to Managua, but not without going ziplining first over an inactive volcano. Intense, I know.
Nos vemos,
Spence
p.s. Babs, Morgan and I are craving puppy chow, if you catch our drift. You know the powdered sugar, chocolate stuff :)