June 25-28 Loma Larga

My RON mission was at Loma Larga at a school. To get to there, you either have to take an hour and a half boat ride or 10 minute helicopter ride to the landing zone. Then you load up on a bus and travel for about 45 minutes through beautiful mountain scenery. As you can see from my last posting, I was able to get a helo ride.

On the way to the school , there were several interesting things of note. One of my favorite things was the cow crossing signs. These signs are created just like our dear crossing signs except they have a picture of a cow on them, and truly, cows are everywhere. You will see them just walking down the road finding their own spot to graze for the day. I think that in this country the cows have free range. In fact, most of the time when there are traffic issues causing the bus to slow its steady pace, it is due to the cows in the road.

Another interesting thing that I saw was a woman waiting at the bus stop at the corner of Loma Larga. She had her arms crossed at her waist seemingly carrying a small bag in her arms while waiting for the bus. As the bus drew nearer, I was amazed that the bag was alive. The woman had a live chicken neatly folded against her stomach, patiently waiting on the bus to arrive. I thought it was so interesting that the chicken seemed very content tucked into her arms. It obviously didn’t know that it was going to be dinner that night. That was definitely something that I was not expecting to see.

Once we arrived a Loma Largo, I was amazed at just how big an operation this mission was. There were already several lines of hundreds of people formed outside of the school. Each line was labeled as to what type of medical care those in line would receive. We have general medicine, OB/GYN, optometry, pediatric medicine, dentistry and many more. I had expected to see one school building with a few doctors and nurses set up, but our operation took up several buildings. There were even tents set up where kids could color and play while parents were seen. This was a massive undertaking.

The pharmacy was already set up when I arrived. Several of the pharmacy staff who had been on a RON mission in San Alejo had transferred the meds from their site and set up the pharmacy for us to take over. In the pharmacy, we have several Cardinal totes that are labeled with the contents on the outside. All the medications inside are already counted, bagged and labeled, so the process of filling the prescriptions can go smoothly. All we have to do is grab the bag, place a name on it, and fill in the blanks. For example, the amoxicillin label states, “Tome___mls cada___horas por ___dias.” Using this method 3-4 people can fill anywhere from 1,000 to 3,000 scripts in one day.

To help make our process run more smoothly, El Salvador has provided us with translators from a university. They were a lot of fun as well as a good source of information about local customs and cultures. Jennifer was a student who was studying to be an English Teacher. Castillo, who always made me smile, suffers from scoliosis which could have been fixed had he grown up in the States. Claudia was full of energy and laughter all day long. All the translators were so helpful, and they helped make the slow moments entertaining.

One of the El Salvadorian translators from the Latter Day Saints group made a special trip over to the pharmacy at the end of the week to tell me that I had beautiful eyes. I thought he was talking about my blue eyes since that is unusual for this country so I told him that everyone in my family has the same color eyes. Then he corrected me and told me that the form, shape, eyelashes, todo… was very pretty. I was quite flattered and really didn’t know what to say at that point, so I told him thank you and then went back to work. That was another highlight to my week.

For those of you who don’t know me too well, I am a people watcher. I love sitting and watching people go by. One thing that I have learned is that every country has its own unique customs and clothing. El Salvador is no different. They have the “apron.” All of the older women have big fancy aprons that they tie around their waist. They remind me of the aprons that you would see hot dog venders using at a baseball game only way “girlier.” Each apron is unique in that it is covered with embroidery, ribbons, and lace. Some of them are really beautiful while others are so busy with colors and ribbons that you wonder what the creator was thinking. After asking one of the translators about the aprons, she told me that all of the women have them and that they are really handy to use. She said that you will see all of the vendors at a market with them because they are a great place to keep change when people make purchases.

The people of El Salvador are a proud people. When they came to clinic, the first thing I noticed was how well everyone was dressed. All the little girls were dressed in their finest “Easter” dresses and all they boys had on clean clothes. The adults too would have on nice clothes as well. For them, the Comfort visiting their country was a big event and they wanted to look their best.

You could also tell that the people were proud of their country because they wanted everything to be nice for our visit. One day, during clinic, the site director noticed that there was some trash in an alley near the school. By the time he had gotten up a work detail to clean up the trash, it had already been cleaned by the people of the village. In addition, the country had transported in Port-a-Johns to the site for the clinic staff as well as the people waiting to be seen. They kept several potties just for the workers and every day they had someone come and clean them out. It was a really nice jesture for the host country to make sure that we were taken care of for us.

The thing that I loved the most about my visit to the school was the people. One of the very first people to make an impression on me was a little old lady. After giving a try at a Spanish counseling session, the woman I counseled said that she understood what I had said. I went to leave and she grabbed my arm, then gave me a big fat hug and kiss on the neck. Then she gave me several blessing in Spanish and told me how grateful that I was there. I was a very humbling and rewarding experience.

Another experience that moved me was a little girl who was given a pair of glasses by the optometry site. She came over to the pharmacy with a worried face and asked one of the translators if she needed to pay for the glasses. When they told her that she didn’t need to pay for the glasses and that they were hers to keep her face broke out into the most beautiful smile I had ever seen. The people here can really touch your heart. That is why we are here. They are the whole reason we are here.