Wow! What a great couple of days, the trip just keeps getting better and better! The doctors have seen almost 200 patients over the last two days, over 30 children have gotten their teeth cleaned and around 60 children have gotten physicals at the school. That means that almost 300 people have received health support in some shape or form. I think by the end of the week, we will see a much higher number and a lot more people will benefit from the service.
We asked the team to share some of their personal stories today and give us some feedback about their experiences in the community. Patti was working with some of the children at the clinic who were waiting for their mothers/fathers doing some basic art and exercises. All of a sudden as we were wrapping up for the day, a mother came over and gave her a picture. She thought the child had drawn it, but it was actually a picture the mother had drawn with the words of a simple blessing to thank her for taking time with the children and doing some art with them. Diane (who has been working with the children all week at the clinic) reflected how the children get so excited about something so simple as a page and some colors. For most, they have never had their own. Diane has asked the children to draw their houses and write what they want to bee when they grow up, most say a doctor, a footballer, a nurse or a teacher. It is great to see all their dreams and ideas and we can only hope that true Together in Hope we can make them come through!
Today (Wednesday) to give the team a break from work, we surprised them and brought them to the Salvadorean Symphony. Many of the volunteers struggled with the idea of us working in such a marginalized community and afterwords going to the symphony! Dr Recinos told us the story of the symphony. During the civil war much of the Salvadorean culture was suppressed, buildings were destroyed, people couldn't play music, it was war time therefore a lot of the culture was lost. The people of El Salvador have been trying to bring back their culture and little by little, they are doing it. The symphony is just one example: World famous conductor German Caceres has worked all over the world but has returned to El Salvador to bring back his native culture. The group of musicians come together to form the symphony and non receive any salary or any compensation, they play for peoples enjoyment and to regain their culture. Afterwords, a group of us met one of the musicians and thanked him for such a wonderful performance. His eyes filled up and he said 'no thank you, I cannot believe a group from the United States came to see us preform, it means so much to us'
Being in El Salvador always humbles us, we take so much for granted and don't focus enough on the simple things in life- people always think we come and help the community, but we actually learn a lot from them.
No comments:
Post a Comment