Elvis, you rock

Wednesday, March 13. Carolyn, one of the members of the medical team, woke up with the Jaguar Creek runs (just as the Roane Staters had earlier in the week). So she decided to stay in the cabin and finish a book about Belize, walk around, convalesce, and blog, so she wouldn't be declared a slacker. Hannah drove the medical team to the dilapidated but spacious medical clinic in the village of St. Margaret. She registered 43 patients, mostly adults; Dale saw 15 in the morning and 28 in the afternoon. Mary and Hannah handled getting the vitals--height, weight, temperature, pulse, respiratory, blood pressure and glucose measurements. Hannah also drove the table team to the elementary school in Armenia. At the clinic, "pharmacist" Teresa was pleased with her translator, Elvis, 16. She said, "Elvis, you rock," breaking down cultural barriers. The team learned that two female students from Texas Tech and Virginia Tech and three men had obtained permission from Miss Lillie, a community leader in St. Margaret, to install windows in and paint the clinic, which has four large rooms and a bathroom that needs a lot of work. (Apparently, they represented a group that wants to "adopt" the clinic.) They painted it on Tuesday and returned to apply paint today. Teresa, who had persuaded a representative of the Ministry of Health that our medical team was providing a good service, also negotiated with the college students to hold off their painting till Thursday morning, even though the FPC team will hold a half-day clinic there in the afternoon. Will the fresh paint be a problem for the medical team and patients? Stay tuned to the next blog. Speaking of painting, the team of Anne, Hannah, Caleb, Ashley, and Ellie spent today painting the nine tables they completed with help from Jaguar Creek staffer Abraham. They will apply a second coat, build and paint three more tables, and distribute the tables to the preschool and elementary school in Armenia on Thursday. We can't wait to see how much paint they get on their hands and old clothes. Some observations: March is one of the months of the dry season in Belize, but we have had heavy rain here on Monday night, Tuesday afternoon, and Wednesday morning. That's good for Belize villages because they need the Caves Branch River water for washing clothes. Belizeans drink bottled water but it is terribly expensive for these low-income, poverty-stricken people. That's why the FPC team is striving to build relationships here and install Living Waters for World systems to make collected rainwater safe to drink and inexpensive. In Belize a few control the wealth and many have little. However, like the country folks who have lived near the Smokies, the Belizeans we are seeing are poor but, with the jungle and Maya mountains, they live in a rich natural environment and have close relationships with each other.--Carolyn