The Clinic in Kuskawas

After we arrived, we were shown to our schoolroom where we would be sleeping!  Most of the time everything is set up in the villages' elementary school - all of us would be sleeping and eating at this school but the actual clinic was going to be set up in a church down the hill, about 1/4 mile away.

The room we set up in wasn't very large and it was soon filled with small tents and mattresses!  Believe me, it was wall to wall sleeping places along with all of our suitcases!  It was extremely hot in there and because our building had buildings in front and back, there was no breeze to be had!  We did have 2 fans but they didn't do a lot of good - but the redeeming factor in all of this is that there was a flush toilet right off the sleeping room!  HOORAY!  That was a blessing to not have to find an outhouse in the middle of the night!

We quickly set up our tents and then headed down to set up the pharmacy - yes, it was downhill to the church where we would set up and the downhill part was fine - it was the coming back up that was tough!

Setting up the pharmacy takes a while but we had lots of hands to help!

Unfortunately, the windows were high enough that it was hard to get a breeze through so most of the time it was like an oven in there - any down time we had, we stood in front of the fan!!

There were 5 of us that would get the prescriptions from the people and we would walk around the pharmacy and pick up the different medications.  Jaime and the Nicaraguan pharmacist would check the order and then 2 other people would hand the medications out through the window to the people.  It all worked out great - we were super busy and on our feet most of the day!

Right across from the pharmacy is where the dr's and nurses saw the people.

Our crew!

This year Rayna worked in the next building over which housed the dentists and the family packs (beans, rice, clothes and toys were handed out).  Rayna was a helper for the dentists and cleaned the instruments and would hold the flashlight!

She definitely knows she does NOT want to be a dentist!

Here is the hill we walked down each day (and also back up to eat and use the bathroom as there were no facilities down at the church!)  It also rained every day - sometimes it was a downpour and the streets would flood!  Of course we had no idea what the temperature was but Jaime and I think it was 100 degrees with 100% humidity!!!!!  It was tough on us mountain people who aren't used to the humidity!!

Each night we collapsed in our tents - weary from the day but happy that we had served and helped so many people!

They do bring in portable showers so you could shower if you wanted to - the COLD water felt good after a while - especially after all the heat and humidity during the day!