A Day in the Rain

Monday, June 19th, 2023

The day broke crisp and fresh with a clear view of the mountain across from Alfredo's House greeting us as we all gathered together in front of the bus ready to take us to our first village, Planes de Italia. After meeting our interpreters for the week, we embarked upon roads filled with potholes, downed power lines, rocks, dogs, motorcycles, and people...roads winding up and up...up and up until we reached our village. We saw the line of mothers, fathers, grandparents, and children waiting to be seen, waiting for help.

Urinary tract infection. Heart murmur. Dehydration. Hypertension. These are just a few of the many diagnoses, and the many people behind the diagnoses that we saw today. Today was a challenging day for our team as we learned to work together and learned about each other's strengths and weaknesses. We also all learned how to use the electronic charting system today...this was a new challenge for many of us as it is a new way of seeing patients.

As we were just about to see the last of our patients, a storm rolled in. As lightning filled the sky and thunder rolled and rain poured on the roof above, the patients sat so calmly, so patiently. Our team was so worried about how slow we seemed to be going, yet all of the patients were just so happy to be there, so satisfied to be watching their children play on the floor around them, so thankful for a dry place in the rainstorm. I want to be more like that...satisfied in the small, in the innocent...happy for a day in the rain.