Day 3: Wednesday

Hola amigos! Wednesday was the second day of surgery and it went well, even more efficiently than the first day, with processes tweaked a bit. There was a minor power outage and luckily it was short lived and occurred between cases, just as a surgery was about to start, rather than in the middle of one. Overall the surgeons, Mark N's ultrasounds, and all processes in the clinic went quite well. This was the first day that the group split. A small group of us took a trip to Las Nubes, one of the Fara fincas, to see it and to understand if we may be able to partner with that community at some point. We were guided by Emilio, a cousin of Maria and Marcela. Emilio has an amazing wealth of knowledge about everything going on in the finca and, as the rest of the family, a heart as big as the world. He reinforced how important it is for the family to run their fincas in a "green" ecological, sustainable manner. He also cares very much about the health and well being of the workers on their finca and of the people who live there more permanently in the little community of Las Nubes #3. After visiting the main office, we drove to where the school is, which is where about 25 families live,  scattered throughout the hillsides, surounding the school and along the road. We were able to meet with both teachers, one who teaches grades 1-3 and the other, 4-6. We were also able to talk to the children directly to hear from them their hopes and dreams. The travel itself was similar to our trips to Santa Celia in terms of the "road" conditions once we left the main highway. Always interesting. We returned to the clinic to check on things there, then some stayed and a couple of us returned to San Thomas to prepare for our guest in the evening. Peter Schaller, an amazing man who has lived and worked in Nicaragua for many years came to visit us at the hotel and hear about our project and share with us some of his knowledge, experience and ideas about best practice when working here. Another awesome day! Peace. Irene