Comasagua

Eleanor and I paid a visit to Comasagua today, where our February medical mission group will be working. It's going to be a fine location. Comasagua is up in the cafetelera - the coffee-growing mountain country - so the weather is a bit cooler than in San Salvador (still plenty warm and bright for Northwesterners). On the drive up, we passed scenic view upon scenic view, flowers and more flowers, coffee trees laden with red berries.

The town of Comasagua was almost destroyed in the devastating 2001 earthquakes, so much of the building stock is new or substantially repaired (much of the rebuilding, including the church, San Mateo, was done by the Venezuelan army). It's a neat and attractive town, looking well cared for. We talked to the parish priest, Padre Amaya, who has been working with villagers to develop businesses that will allow them to stay in Comasagua instead of taking the long and costly bus ride to the capitol for work.

We met with the Doctora who directs the local clinic. She has kindly opened the clinic to our mission group for the week of February 9-13, and the clinic is big, spacious and very clean. It will be a great place for our work, and an added benefit is that we'll be working side by side with the clinic staff throughout the week. The only thing lacking here is a photograph - because once more, I forgot the camera. But you can be sure to see plenty of photos of Comasagua in the weeks ahead.