Monday

We had a great time painting the first coat on the inside of a church.

In the afternoon we went to a hot spring. It was really relaxing.

Church today

We went to another church this afternoon and sang the same songs and shared the same testimonies. It went really well. This church was really into taking pictures and so we took a bunch too. Here are a few of them!

Saturday June 28th

Saturday was a relaxing day and a cleaning day. We said goodbye to five of our team members and then we cleaned the guest house. We all had chores to complete and they were done swiftly and without complaining. That's always a good thing!

We had a lot of free time and many of us read and played cards. We also went to the market and the store. Around 3pm we went to a new village to visit a small Catholic cathedral. It was very interesting and definitely worth te visit. Following the church we went to a market and a leather shop where some of our team members bought some pretty cool machetes...we then went to a cool little coffee shop and watched the end of a World Cup game. Most people got lattes and some even got some cakes and pies for dessert. It was a posh little spot for sure.
We came home for dinner and then went to a church service. The church was about an hour away and when we arrived thy had already begun. But we quickly go immersed into the service as they were expecting us. We sang a couple of songs in English and then Peyton and Katrina shared testimonies, followed by a short message given by Jesse(the intern). We ended the service by going around and talking to all of the members of the congregation. It was a good time for sure. The students all seemed to really enjoy it.
Sunday morning we were allowed to sleep in and we had a huge brunch at 11am. We did more chores and now we are preparing to go to another church service.

Rob Bradford

Correction

We saw 100 patients today!

Pics from today

Grace, Sharon, and Kaylan helping a man remove his sweatshirt so they can take his blood pressure.

Dust

Today was another day of a long clinic. But this time we went up to 11,000 feet to a community called Arenal. This community was very different from the community in Agua Dulce. Today we held our clinic inside of the community church, which was rather small. We had to make a few changes, but we were still able to see over 50 patients with a wide variety of illnesses. Many of the illnesses were curable with rest and common medicine. But of course there were many ailments that we were unable to treat. This reality never gets any easier to deal with.

The students were wonderful again as they continued to assist the medical professionals as well as play with the area kids. There were still a lot of medical glove balloons and a lot of soccer.

Rob Bradford

More clinics...

Whoa!
Today was exhausting, exhilarating, busy, intense, fun, and so much more. We started with a 7:30am breakfast and opened the medical clinic at 8:30. Today we saw 71 patients and we were open from 8:30-3:30 with a short break for lunch. Many of the patients came in with the same conditions as yesterday and again it was hard to not be able to help everyone as much as we would like. There were a couple of hernias that were treated with braces, medication, and education. We also saw a few pregnant women as well as young children. There were countless guys with headaches and backaches as well.
The clinic ended with a women with a complicated cyst that Sally and Laura decided needed to be removed. Laura was prepared and performed the minor surgery with assistance from Sally, Grace, Sharon, and Hannah. The cyst was causing the woman a lot of pain and the hope is that this removal will help her a great deal.
Everyone was amazing today and all of the students filled amazing roles throughout the run of the clinic:
Peyton - pharmacy
Ginny - runner
Cammy - kids
Kaylan - blood pressure
Katrina - in take
Hannah - translator, blood pressure
Jessegrace - blood pressure, asst. to Laura

This has definitely been a great experience for everyone, even though it has been emotionally and physically draining.