At work, at play

Two days into our eye surgery mission and we are at work and at play - with such a fine team it's sometimes blessedly hard to tell the difference. As is often the case, we lament the patients who were too afraid to show up, and rejoice in giving new sight to those who come to the hospital at 6 AM in the parish bus, driven by Padre Mario. Eye surgery is the focus of this mission, but we also found time to give vision checks (and reading glasses for those who need them) to staff at Hospital San Raphael. This afternoon nurses and janitors and cooks and x-ray techs lined up until we had to cut the line at 35 people. Those 35 waited with Salvadoran patience, laughing and joking and approving the new glasses of each one who emerged from the consulting room. It was a little fiesta. And we came back from the hospital to talk and laugh and play cards and share stories and eat mangoes and have our own fiesta here at the Centro Loyola. And now it's time to head for bed, to sleep until the little green parrots come flying and calling in the morning sky - and then back to work.