Our mission group of 25 came in on Continental Airlines last night, and it took a lot of serious and lengthy discussion to get them and their 44 tubs of medication through customs. We had the bad luck to start with a Customs agent who was very bureaucratic, and for a while they threatened to lock up the medications until some unspecified time (after the end of our mission?). Then they said they'd have to look into all the tubs. They did, but the sheer overwhelming number of tubs and people meant that this was a very quick look. Finally we were on the road to San Salvador.
This morning, the group went up the winding and scenic road to Comasagua in Hernan's lovely red van (Hernan has been our driver for many mission trips). Those who wanted to joined the Comasagua community for Mass, and a special surprise: a wedding had been incorporated into the Mass. We got there early and had time to stand around and talk and compare footwear (as Melissa Doherty, Olga Orievsky and Kathy Garcia are doing in this photo) before the bride came down the aisle.
Then we went to the Unidad de Salud, the health clinic where we will be working all week, and worked and worked and worked to unpack and sort the tubs, arrange all the clinics, arrange the glasses, organize the pharmacy and bag up vitamins (a month's supply goes to everyone who comes to our clinics). We hear that water is going to be turned off - we don't know why - for the next four days, so we are working with bottled water and great barrels of cistern water for toilets. Feels like we're ready to go - and I'm ready to go to sleep.
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