Tramites update

I am delighted to say that Kathy Garcia and all our doctors pulled things together very quickly after the Junta Vigilancia de la Profesión Médica told us they wouldn't authorize our medical mission unless all the doctors' documents had an Apostille from their state. Licenses and Curriculum Vitae were re-notarized and sent to Kathy; Kathy took the Oregon documents to Salem for their apostille, and Andrea Nenzel drove the Washington documents from Bellevue to Olympia. Both sets were sent via Federal Express to our friends at CIS (Centro de Intercambio y Solidaridad) on Friday - because FedEx doesn't deliver to Suchitoto. I'll be lurking at the CIS offices Monday to get the precious apostilles and take them over to the . And at last, we should be properly approved!

Meanwhile work toward the February mission moves into high gear this coming week. There's a mountain of shopping to be done, meetings with our volunteers, complicated transportation issues to work out...a lot, but it all seems do-able and delightful. In two weeks we will have the clinics set up and organized, ready for Monday, Feb. 15th, when we open our doors to the people of San Juan Opico.

Mi familia

Yesterday, very early in the morning, I put my sister, Kathy Roben, and cousin, Margaret Rooker, on the plane headed for Seattle, where they've arrived safely. What a grand time we had together! The first photo shows the two of them at our cabin along the Ruta de las Flores, feet up and enjoying the cool mountain breezes; the second was taken in downtown San Salvador as they visited with Estela Garcia, a long-time friend of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, and Estela's father, mother, and young nephew Luis Alfredo.

Introducing the family I've loved all my life to some of the places and people I've come to love in El Salvador was a great joy. It's good to know that Kathy and Margaret will now have vivid images in their mind's eye when they call or write to me - and that many of my friends here have now experienced these tall, gentle, friendly women.

Tramites

The rhythms of a delightful week of family and sightseeing and visiting were interrupted by word from the Junta Vigilancia de la Profesión Médica. I had given the Junta - the group charged with approving all doctors in the country, whether visitors or residents - notarized licenses and curriculum vitae for all our doctors in mid-December. Now in mid-January, they announced that all the documents lacked an apostille, and that without this they would not approve our medical mission.

For those of you who've never had to get one, an apostille is an official document of the state - in this case Washington or Oregon - which certifies that the notary who notarized the licences and CVs is indeed a legitimate notary. It can be obtained quickly, while you wait, but the offices are in the state capitals, Olympia and Salem, and the licences and CVs would have to be gathered again and notarized again. The requirement for an apostille has been on the Junta's list of requirements for some time, but it's never been enforced before. But here we were with new leadership of the Junta Vigilanicia, and they intend to enforce every requirement. And it wasn't at all clear that we would have time to get the apostilles before our group arrived.

In a fairly frantic day in San Salvador, Dina Duvon and I pled our case at length to the Doctora in charge of our application. We had brought mission groups down here for nine years without ever getting an apostille, we said, and there had been no problem. The people of San Juan Opico were waiting for their chance to get a free consulta, we said. The apostille wouldn't give them any additional guarantees, we said, since the licenses are already instruments of the state and the notary has affirmed that they were presented by the person named in the license. But it didn't do any good. We would have to get apostilles. In phone calls back and forth to Kathy Garcia and other PeaceHealth staff, we figured we might be able to get it done, barely, if everyone hustled their documents over to a notary again and hustled them to Kathy again, and she drove them to the state office and sent them to me by rapid express. Dina and I wrote a letter to the Junta, asking that they allow the mission to go forward even if the apostilled documents can't be presented to the Junta - which meets once a week - first. And we asked the Archbishop of San Salvador to write a letter of support, which he most kindly did.

And that's where it stands. Kathy is hustling and I'm continuing with the organizing here, and we're pretty sure we will have everything together before our mission group arrives, but we'd ask for the good wishes and prayers of anyone reading this. As I've thought this over, I understand that the Junta Vigilancia wants to make sure that any group of doctors that comes here is really legitimate, that they fear, and reasonably so, that the people of El Salvador will get a raw deal from unlicensed doctors or out-of-date medicines. I wish they had been more open to compromise, and perhaps after the new leaders have been in office a little longer they will not be so intransigent.

But most of all, I desire the outcome that will be good for everyone: our group approved and providing health care to people in San Juan Opico who have little access to care. If it takes an apostille, we'll provide an apostille.

The gang's all here

The Dewitt gang, that is - Margaret Dewitt Rooker (my cousin), Kathy Dewitt Roben (my sister) and I are enjoying El Salvador thoroughly. What fun to have family visit! Especially when you've been graced with such a delightful and agreeable family.

Today we're off for an overnight along the Ruta de las Flores, with beautiful villages and many shops to visit. Meanwhile here we are in the patio, with Margaret in the middle.

Comings and Goings

Very, very early this morning Kathy and Amalia and Randy got into a van headed for the airport, with all the materials for a video about cataract surgery in Randy's camera. I'm looking forward to the finished product, which will have its debut during our February general medical mission in San Juan Opico.

Now I'm about to get into the car to head for the airport, where my sister, Kathy Roben, and cousin, Margaret Rooker, will soon be arriving. The sheets are washed and on the beds, the rooms are clean, and I am very delighted to be welcoming my family to my adopted country.

Haiti

Tonight, with great sadness, we watched coverage of the devastation in Port-au-Prince and joined our prayers with those all over the world for the people of Haiti, who have suffered so much already and now are in such terrible chaos and need. May the help that's being sent with so much good will arrive in time to save those who can be saved.

A Quilting Party

Kathy Garcia came to El Salvador with some wonderful gifts in her baggage: a big stack of children's books, in Spanish or bilingual Spanish and English, and a big stack of beautiful quilts, made by Sharon Serena and Joanne Clemmer, two sisters of Cindy Hellerstedt, a long time volunteer with PazSalud.

We delivered two of these gorgeous quilts to Comasagua on a very cold day (for El Salvador), where Nubia and her mother Maria Esther were delighted to receive them (the second quilt is for Nubia's sister Veronica: the photo also shows Nubia's friend and ours, Doctora de Larios). Two are set aside for Rosita's daughters, and my godson Alejandrito will be wrapped up in one. We've donated the rest, 25 quilts of various sizes, to the parteras (midwives) of Suchitoto, a long-organized group of women who deliver babies in rural areas. The second photo shows Higinia Hernandez receiving the quilts on behalf of the parteras . Thanks, Sharon and Joanne, for these beautiful and practical gifts to the children of El Salvador.