Last Day!!!

Today was great way to end the trip. We traveled back to Teosinte this morning for clinic. Things were per usual as far as the number of patients goes but there were some good learning cases.  We stopped by some more Mayan ruins on the way back to San Sal. They were not as impressive as Tazumal but were great to see none the less.  We arrived back in San Sal around 4:00, Dr. Pena completed our evals so we can get credit for being here and we have spent the rest of the evening packing and cleaning up with a short break to eat dinner at our favorite restaurant.   

Hopefully I haven't forgotten anything tonight because I am pretty sure I am going to be out of it in the morning.  We are getting up around 3:30 AM so we can be ready to head to the airport by 4:15.  Our apartment is about 30-45 mins from the airport and we want to be sure we have plenty of time to get checked in and find the gate tomorrow. 

I apologize for not posting pictures today. I packed the cord for my camera already and to be perfectly honest am just too lazy to dig it out.  Hopefully anyone who is interested in seeing pictures will be able to see them once I get home.  I hope everyone is well and I am very much looking forward to my feet being on US soil tomorrow around noon eastern time. 

48 Hours Until I will be on North Carolina Ground

Today was one of my favorite clinic days of the entire trip.  It was a bit slow in the morning just because of the logistics of the remote area where we went but it turned out great and I am very excited to go back there again tomorrow.  The name of the town is Teosinte and it is located in the same region of the country as Al Pital (the small town where we had clinic in bedroom of someone's house).  Even though it is in the same region the terrain is very different.  The climate is much more arid, the temperature warmer and the mountains are very barren compared to the lush trees and farms of Al Pital.  None the less it was very beautiful in its own right.  During some down time this morning Don Hernan told us about the area being a hot spot for the El Salvadorian Civil War that took place in the 1980's-90's.  He said the entire area has recently been rebuilt due to the devastation that was left behind mostly from bombing by the El Salvadorian Air Force which was targeting the guerrillas who used the mountains to hide.  In the town of Teosinte there is a mural on the front of the church that shows Monsignor Romero, a catholic priest who was the voice of the poor in El Salvador unit his assassination which marked the beginning of the war.  I really enjoyed learning about the history of the country in the place it happened from a person who actually lived through the war and was a part of the fighting.  Clinic there was also good.  The people are very needy and a Salvadorian physician only comes to them once a month so we were a welcome surprise. I think we will see a good number tomorrow.

After clinic tomorrow we are having dinner with the Doctors so they can fill out our evaluations then we will head back to our apartment in San Sal to pack and clean.  Hopefully we will get a bit of rest before we have to leave for the airport at 4:00 AM on Friday morning.  I hope everyone is well! I hope tomorrow goes by quick! Looking forward to being home more than ever!

Ruins Make for a Good Day.

Today was honestly one of my favorite days of the entire trip. After clinic this morning at the Orphanage for special needs children we went to Chalchuapa to see the Tazumal Mayan ruins.  It was absolutely amazing to FINALLY get to see first hand what I have been reading about for so many years. This particular site is not completely excavated yet.  Although they were not actively working today it was pretty cool to be on the site of an active archaeological dig. After spending a few hours at the ruins we went back to San Sal to  have clinic at the orphanage for children with HIV.  It was awesome to see them again and they all flocked to us as soon as we walked in the door. Luckily none of them had any medical complaints and we got to just play soccer with them for a bit. It was honestly a blast and I think all of us wish we could have stayed there longer.  Before heading home for the evening we went to the national artisan market to buy souvenirs.  That was honestly the last thing I truly HAD to do before I left the country so now it is just waiting until Friday morning.

I apologize for such a short post. I am absolutely killed tonight.  I have been working on translating that Children's book for our driver Don Hernan and finally finished but I still need to write the translation in the book and we have to be awake to head to Chalatenango, the mountain village, very early in the morning.  As of right now we have been told we will be making the long drive to Chalatenango both tomorrow and Thursday but I expect those plans will change.  I hope everyone is well and I look forward to being home in just a few short days.

 

Panoramic shot of the ruins. Pictures truly don't do it justice.

An area where they are actively excavating. 

 

Typical El Salvadorian grave yard adjacent to the ruins.  I know it is random but I think it is crazy how they use so much concrete.

 

It is difficult to make out but there is a Mayan man etched into this rock that was excavated from Tazumal.

Last Monday in El Sal

This morning we headed to the ruins at Joya de Ceren pretty early.  Just outside of San Sal we hit some heavy traffic that we sat in for quite sometime. After about an hour and a half of crawling we got to some police cones and the road narrowed from two lanes to one.  In the closed lane there were some random flowers and a small amount of fruits and vegetables but nothing that really caught my eye at first glance. After a second look I noticed the body that had been hit and was just covered with a blanket as the police looked on and hundreds if not thousands of people passed by.  Definitely one of the saddest things I have seen since being here.  What's even worse is after driving  20 minutes up the road to discover that the ruins were closed for the last day of the holiday and driving 20 minutes back to where the body was in the road it was still there.  It really puts into perspective how differently accidents are handled here and makes me thankful to live in a country where we have folks who take care of accidents in a much more timely fashion.

We went shopping for the last time this morning and hopefully will have enough food to last for the rest of the trip. We were honestly running pretty low over the weekend after not getting to grocery shop on Friday morning.  Tenke and I spent a good chunk of the afternoon at the pool and came upstairs to work on a few things once the sun went down.  I have spent the bigger part of my evening working on translating a children's book for our driver Don Hernan's grandchildren.  It is amazing to me just how much I have forgotten since undergrad. I would have been able to knock a book like this out in no time then and I have worked about three hours on 8 pages.  It is a good thing he doesn't want it tomorrow or this guy wouldn't be sleeping. As much as my spanish has improved on this trip I truly hope I can find a way to put it to good use once I get home. I have spent far too much of my parent's money (thanks Mom and Dad) and my time learning it to not use it for years at a time and keep forgetting more and more. 

I hope everyone is well.  The countdown has officially begun.  I think we are all looking forward to getting to the airport on Friday morning.  Hopefully clinic will be busy for the next few days and the time will pass quickly.  Looking forward to seeing everyone soon. 

Happy Easter!

Today was filled with pool time and relaxing much like the past few days. As much as I miss home already it was especially hard knowing I was missing Easter with my family. I guess I should just consider myself fortunate that I have a family that enjoys the company of each other and is worth missing.  I hope you all got to enjoy great church services and some quality time with your families. 

Tomorrow is the last day of Holy Week and we are heading to some of the Mayan ruins in the morning. Of all the things there are to see in this country I think the ruins are what I want to see the most so I am really looking forward to it. I will be sure to take plenty of pictures to post. Hopefully we will get back pretty quick tomorrow afternoon so we can all start packing since we are going out to rural villages on Wednesday and Thursday and Tenke and I definitely may be crunched for time since our plane leaves at 6:45 AM on Friday morning. 

I hope we can do some good for a few folks in this last week and continue to stay safe, but I am very much looking forward to heading back to the States on Friday morning.  I hope everyone is well and I look forward to seeing everyone soon!

Less Than a Week Left

It is hard to believe how fast time has passed, Monday will be 3 weeks in El Sal.  Holy Week is definitely in full force and San Sal is much quieter than it has been in previous days.  It is kind of neat to see such a big city by Central American standards come to a screeching halt for a religious holiday.  That isn't to say that people aren't using this time to enjoy the beaches and lakes but most all of the event here are in some way focused on Easter and its meaning.

The past few days have been filled with relaxing and sight seeing.  On Thursday we went to El Tunco for the day.  It is an amazing beach and is one of the surfing capitals of Central America.  It was absolutely packed with Salvadorians on vacation and Americans surfing but we had a great time.  Aside from the surfing it is famous for a large rock in the water not too far from the beach and in general the beach is as much rock as it is sand.  We had a great time and have some great stories, photos and even a few scars from the day to show off when we get home.

The rest of the weekend will more than likely be spent at the apartment or at the places within our "safe zone" here in La Zona Rosa so our preceptors and drivers can enjoy the holiday with their families. It will be kind of different tomorrow not getting up for a sunrise service and not being home for church in general.  It will actually only be the second time in my life I haven't been in NC for Easter.  I hope everyone is able to have a wonderful day, can spend some much needed time with family and will truly appreciate what this Holiday is all about!

El Tunco Rock. Just for a size reference on the right side of the rock there is a surfer.

Holy Week Begins!

I apologize for not posting the past few days.  I will be honest I forgot a couple of nights and just plain fell asleep as soon as we got home and ate dinner on Monday.  Things have been going well over the past few days. The pace certainly has not picked up since Semana Santa (Holy Week) is in full swing.  This country is basically at a stand still now and apparently will stay that way until Monday morning.

Monday we went back to Chalatenango and had clinic there.  On the way back to San Sal we stopped by an awesome little town called Suchitoto.  It was absolutely beautiful. All the streets were cobblestone, there was a traditional town square with a 200+ year old Catholic Church on one side and the entire town overlooked Lake Suchitlan. Everyone was starting to arrive for the traditional Holy Week celebration they have there so there were a ton of street vendors and fun things to do.

Yesterday we went back to the orphanage we went to on the first day in Sonsonate.  We had a blast seeing several of the kids and a few of the nuns there and got to check up on the 2 year old that had been dropped into the storm drain by his mother I mentioned in an earlier post.  He is actually doing much better, still quite listless, which I have a feeling will be the norm for him, but his lungs sounded clear and he has definitely grown in 2 weeks.

I truly mean this sincerely, but it is horrible that this trip has turned into so much of a vacation.  It is all out of our control as students as far as the timing of the trip and where VCOM will allow us to go but I definitely feel like we have been underutilized.  I guess I need to change my mindset and be thankful for the good we have done for the people we have gotten to see and not focus on the wealth of missed opportunities I feel like we have had.  We aren't sure what our plans will be for the rest of the week except we know there will be no clinic because of Holy Week. There are definitely several things we want to do but we want to be sure to respect the vacation time and religious desires of our driver and preceptors.

I hope everyone is doing well.  I can't deny that I am having a great time but I am very much looking forward to getting back to North Carolina.

 View of San Sal from Volcano on Sunday.  The haziness in the picture is actually the smog over the city.

We were able to pick out our apartment building from the Volcano.  There are three dark brick buildings in the bottom right corner.  Our apartment is the beige building at the 11 o'clock position of those buildings (the leftmost of the three buildings almost touches ours in the photo).

Panoramic view from the side of the volcano that faces away from the city on Sunday.

Our Group in Chalatenango on Monday. From L to R The local health promoter, Ryan, Tenke, Me and our driver Don Hernan. The little boy in the center is one of the patients we saw.

View on the drive up to Chalatenango.  It would be even more amazing to see this after the rainy season starts in a month or so and everything gets green. 

Catholic Church on the town square in Suchitoto.