Day 1

The loading and packing for today´s mission went surprisingly well this morning. It is also helpful that HUVSYAL now has a pick up truck for more of the awkward pieces of gear.

The village was so steep on the mountain that our van could not navigate the last mile, so we were shuttled in the HUVSYAL truck.

For our first day, I thought it went well. Alicia jumped right in an saw a ton of patients, probably about 55 of the 65 total. I did 23 female exams. It went fairly smooth, because the health promoters had prepared the community for our visit.

Language, as always, was a great barrier, but we were fortunate enough to have 2 young students, Colinda and Marcelle helping out and they are great interpreters.

Over dinner tonight, Jessica and Shannon commented about how they were actually able to communicate with some of the curious indigenous people. They used their basic spanish, drawing on paper and a lot of body language. This is a great experience for the students to narrow the cultural gaps.

My sister, Claire, worked as a strong link in the team, supervised by Sarah D. (VP of UMAINE´s club). In comparison to last years first day, we were so far ahead in terms of organization. SarahD. and Juan are really demonstrating their strong leadership skills.

It was pretty dark by the time we actually got onthe road back to Sierra Nevada. In part was the one car road up the hill was blocked by a truck stuck in the mud. While waiting for the van, we got to see a woman bringing her sheep in from the fields.

on a closing note, for last year´s MEDLIFErs. Thomasa had 2 babinos!