clinic day 2

"sing to the Lord, all the earth; proclaim his salvation day after day!" -1 Chronicles 16:23

tuesday, august 3rd: day 2 at the clinic

bright and early, tuesday morning, we were all ready for another GREAT day at the clinic! in fact, the eye glass translators were jumping for joy! :)

before i headed to eye glass that morning, i actually had the opportunity to join my dad and two of the translators i have known for the past couple years, ana moran and marcella jeanpierre, for a surgery. there was a man who had some sort of cyst on his right hand and it had been there for about 5 months. it was filled with fluid and was very painful, but he had continued to work (he does construction) for the entire five months! my dad removed the growth and stitched it up, along with his translators (who are also in med school). i was so intrigued by the intricate work that was being done and it was also great to watch the man's reaction throughout the procedure - he was incredibly thankful.



when i left the surgery area, i walked outside and saw that the children were listening to the story of Jesus. they were all watching so intently and it was great to see them learning about Christ!



this little girl was too cute. her dress was caught in her underwear - and i just had to.





meanwhile, back in the eye glass room, everyone was being super productive! haha

no but really. we were doing our best to find glasses for everyone! and in the end, it turned out to be a successful day.




here is my bff, diego garcia. miss you buddy!

here is cara bailey with her translator, fernando, using the refractor to test a man's eye prescription. thankfully, the refractor was working again and we were able to give out many prescription eyeglasses!

outside, the triage was working hard, as usual - seeing as many patients as physically possible! here is eric secrist:

jamie campbell with translator, sara moran

steve vaughn with translator, eu alferez

for lunch, we had PUPUSAS! these are very popular in el salvador - they are like what a cheeseburger or peanut butter and jelly sandwich is to us.


pupusas are like tortilla pancake things with beans and cheese inside them. they come with a dressing that sort of tastes like ketchup, but its more like the consistency of catalina dressing.

everyone in the clinic was enjoying pupusas on tuesday! i felt like a true el salvadoran while eating my lunch.

kara was also a huge fan of the pupusas - in fact, im pretty sure she consumed 4 that day.



after lunch, and also spending some time in the prayer room, i walked back down to the clinic area and saw that the local church was putting on a drama for the patients waiting to be seen. they acted out a story about a man who had many sins (represented by his chair) and temptations (the girl, the strong men, etc.), but he came to know Christ through prayer and the help of friends.





after the drama, there was a message given by pastor rene mejia

and music sung by roberto estupian.

something random that i found interesting today is that the el salvadorans drink and eat things out of bags, whereas we usually drink them out of bottles or cups. for example, they have bags of water or juice to drink and bags of ice cream for dessert. here is mi amigo, daniel cornego, holding a bag of water that he was about to drink.

kara wade and cody peck tried some ice cream in a bag today and they said they really liked it.

we finished up the clinic around 7:00pm. on the bus ride home, there were some pretty interesting things going on. diego garcia had some hair gel which he called "gorilla boogers" - yep, thats what the label said and im not kidding. the guys ended up passing it around and creating mohawks and spiked hair. it was pretty hilarious. first picture - YAN the MAN.

i assisted cody in created his perfect zac efron look.

heres jamie looking like a greaser.

annnnnd the final product. HOTT.

clinic day 1

"for we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." -Ephesians 2:10

monday, august 2nd: day 1 at the clinic

when we arrived at the clinic around 9:00am, there were already many people in line waiting to be seen by the doctors. we tried to set up everything as fast as possible and all of the translators were a huge help.

dad was working in clinica 3 in his most comfortable position: otorrinolaringologia (ear, nose, throat). yeah trying say that three times really fast!



here are the beautiful marce jeanpierre and ana moran taking a quick break for a photo op.

before the day started, all of the doctors got together to discuss the game plan.

i was in opthamology most of the day, working with eye glasses. although the refractor (the machine that reads the prescription of peoples eyes) wasn't working too well, we were able to give out many reading glasses and sunglasses. a successful day overall!







and none of that would have been possible without our AWESOME translators. miss you all so much!!

after awhile, i took a trip around the clinic to check out the action in other areas. in this picture, dr. larry causey is doing an extraction of a tooth. yuck! i didn't stay here too long...

here is chris linscome, hard at work in the triage.

i made a stop in the pharmacy - they were always working like crazy in there!

then i went to visit my daddy.

yan sim was also in triage - so many patients came through in just the first day! yan the man!

for lunch, i headed upstairs where they served the food. rene gonzalez was clearly really excited! all i remember about the food from that day was the dessert: some sort of cupcake thing. mmmm



after lunch, the children were enjoying a pinata. taylor moser helped to take care of the children the first few days and she did an awesome job!







these kids LOVED the pinata. i mean, who wouldnt love hitting a giant animal with a stick and then getting candy dumped on the floor. as soon as the pinata broke, the kids were all over that stuff.

here are a few pictures i captured of the el salvadoran children throughout the day.





they were so thankful for the flip flops they received.

i also took a huge step that day. even though i was in el salvador for this mission trip for the third time, i had never had this experience before. the bathrooms in san miguel could only be flushed by pouring a bucket of water down the toilet. thus, if i ever had to use the bathroom, i had to fill an entire bucket of water and flush the toilet manually. if any of you know me, this was big for me. all i can say is - it was a wet mess and i only used the bathroom once the entire day, but we all survived and are better people for it. :)

at the end of the day, the eye glass clinic finished a little early and so we were able to hang out with the translators for awhile. here is fernando, jobci, and rodrigo serenading us with their music.

kara took some time to brush up on her spanish-speaking skills.

this is jonathan, me, oswaldo, and carlos. te extrano mucho!

trip to el salvador

He said to them, "go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. and these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 1they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well." -Mark 16:15-18

last saturday, july 31, my dad and i were on our way to el salvador. this week i will be adding daily blog posts for each day of the week that we were there (today i will be including the first two days, as saturday was mostly just a bunch of airports).

that first day began with a lot of waiting, security checks, and airplanes, but also meeting an entire new GHO (global health outreach) team. we were headed on a medical mission trip in another country and had no idea that we were also about to have the time of our lives!

for breakfast, dad bought his favorite - dunkin donuts. such a healthy first meal



in between flights, more people arrived and we all got to know each other while waiting for the plane to san salvador, el salvador. we played cards (including those with fun facts... those were awesome, right eric and cara?) and many were passed out on the floor taking naps.

when we finally arrived in san salvador, the sun was setting. el salvador is 2 hours behind NC, but my body had no idea what time it was.

in the airport, we had to go through customs and they had to check all of our luggage to make sure that we didn't bring any extra medications or anything illegal. we made it through - praise the Lord! and thank you Christine Birnie for all your hard work!

we took some small vans to the comfort inn of salvador and when we got there, my roomie (KJ wade) and i went up to our rooms.

on our beds were little boxes of candy from the local church!

we enjoyed a quick dinner, some logistical information, and then headed off to bed for the night.

the next morning the whole team met for breakfast.

then we all got onto the bus and went to the local church. happy sunday!

here is rene gonzalez - he is a wonderful singer and speaker!

here are the amazing musicians/other singers!

after the service, we were all able to catch up with many familiar faces. here is ana and sara moran - they are very dear to both my dad and i.



here is the view from the church window - how beautiful!

after church, we all went to lunch at a local restaurant, gardenias. the food was delicious and it was nice to be able to hang out and get to know the team even better. one of my favorite parts about the meal: watermelon drink. mmmm



after lunch, we all piled in the bus for about a 3 hour trip to san miguel. after about 5 minutes of driving, however, they ended up stopping our school bus, letting us off, and putting us on a much nicer bus with AC and a dvd movie to watch! good stuff. what a blessing!

when we finally arrived in san miguel, we went straight to the clinic site. we were a little behind on our time schedule, so we did not have any time to pack pills/prepare medicine and vitamins for tomorrow, but we did get to meet many of our translators and were welcomed by the local church with music and fellowship.

after about an hour at the site, we hopped back on the bus and headed to our new hotel - another lovely comfort inn. we had dinner (dessert was ice cream - YUM), got a few announcements and were then dispersed to do our own thing. many team members got together and worked on packing pills and vitamins, while others prepared music for team worship, or toys for the children. later, a few of us tried out the hotel's pool - it was nice and warm, but still a lot of fun to hang out and continue to get to know each other.