Libertad

Today our group split into two and went to two separate villages to do two simultaneous clinics. I was assigned to a village called Libertad, while the other group went to San José. I did miss meeting a little three month old monkey in San José, but I really enjoyed Libertad. The village was really clean and well kept, which was really nice. They even had a green soccer field with spectator seating! I later asked our chef why and she said that the town has trash receptacles roughly every ten meters and people actually use them there, and they then bury the trash beneath the soil. Not super for the environment, but so much better than in some of the other places we've seen where trash is simply thrown about and people are living in their own filth. Anyways, the clinic room was a great set up and the people in the village were super nice. Caitlin and I were paired together on our own today, but I think we did rather well, and I hope our patients were happy. The day was much slower than other days, but we still saw a decent number of patients. They definitely tricked in more than in other places where there were tons of people waiting in line. We saw a mix of the same again scattered with some different things like more chronic conditions, angina, cataracts, etc. 

Clinic in Libertad

Libertad

Libertad and their soccer field

When clinic was over we helped set up for lunch and the other group took their boat to Libertad to eat. We had fish that was delicious with beans, rice, salad, yucca, and  a fruit sauce for the fish. Oh and for breakfast we had pancakes, spam (I didn't have any), mango and papaya, and these amazing cheese filled fried rolls. So good. Anyways, lunch was delicious as usual too. After eating we sorted the patient sheets from the day for stats, and then the village women set up their artisenia for traded and buying goods. I traded for about seven bracelets, three necklaces, a little dragonfly (appropriate cause there were a ton around at that moment actually), and an amazing little basket that mad made by one of the more complicated patients I saw today who was super nice. 

After trading we headed back to the lodge where I showered and then hung out in the main area cabin. We have been playing a lot of card and other games here and tonight I played hearts, spoons (though we technically played Cliff bars), mafia, and Heads Up. It was all a lot of fun. Mixed in there we completed the stats for the day as well. Dinner was fried rice with tostones style plaintains, mashed peas, and salad. It's kind of weird to think I haven't eaten dessert in a while. We will have cake on the 16th the celebrate two birthdays though. After dinner we had two presentations and then played the Heads Up game I previously mentioned, which was a really good time, and then went to bed. 

Upon arrival at our cabin we found two enormous banana spiders and a centipede to welcome us back. One retreated into the wall and the other spider was removed by our dear Nixon. We are all fairly paranoid tonight. Now I'm sitting under my mosquito net (which I can't get to tuck near the headboard) and I'm ready for some shut eye.