Day Five
Wayne led morning devotional with a message about laughter, the power of laughter, and how the Lord can provide moments of laughter amongst sad times. We ate breakfast quickly and were on the bus in no time. Everyone was motivated for the last day of clinics at El Durazno. Twyla handed out candy forms the fashionista awards to Linda and Cassandra. The morning was super misty, and the bus drive was delayed due to bigger trucks in the mountains.
I started my normal routine; boiling water in the kitchen with Hector, filling up the bleach bottles for the lab, and then making Twyla her morning “cuppa joe.” She has coffee with a little cream, and no sugar. With the lab set up and patients starting to be triaged, I assisted Dr. Kim with repairing a laceration on an elderly lady who was on her way to the wheelchair clinic. My job was providing light, but my mind got the better of me and I had to step away from the procedure. Char then jumped in to the rescue to assist Dr. Kim while I held down the lab. After recovering, I set everything up for an ear lavage. Determined to do better, I attempted the lavage myself. It took a while, and several iterations of adding drops and washing, I eventually cleaned out the lady’s ears. When I got the blockage out and she exclaimed “te escucho!” I knew it was a success. Another success was being able to provide the fire department with some spare, large wheelchairs which will allow them to evacuate people during emergencies.
Around 2pm we were an hour behind in seeing patients, but somehow the team pulled through and worked together to catch up. Our goal was to begin packing around 3pm and we started around 3:30pm. The tear down process was a lot faster than the build up process. Everything was packed just after 4pm. Then we all stood in a big circle while Tagni, Armando, and Dr. Johnson gave thanks to the various teams. After, we all stood outside the church and got a big group photo.
Later that evening, we held an awards ceremony to highlight how the Guatemalan team went above and beyond in their efforts. We thanked Byron for his tenacity and determination in building the wheelchairs; Claudia in her efforts with the wheelchair clinic and always having a smile; Jackie for being “the best PT that [Julie] has ever worked with!” William and Eduardo for being exceptional bus drivers and then working the whole day, each day, in the pharmacy; the volunteers from Casa de Fey for being able to come out and assist in any way needed; Hector for being an excellent cook and errand runner; His wife Julissa for having all the answers about our program; Falsto and team for security; And lastly everyone thanked Tagni for leading a successful week!
