Wednesday - Tacachico
Wednesday was a little rough.
We deliberately woke up early because Tacachico is over an hour away from Sacacoyo. We were all ready to go, but the truck to carry our luggage broke down or something and was very late. Over an hour late, I think. It was nice to hang out on the retreat center grounds, but we were all antsy to get going.
The girls, spending some time relaxing.
We finally got on our way, but when we got close to our destination, we got a little lost, adding another 30 - 40 minutes to our drive. I probably have my specific times wrong, but the net result was that we had intended on arriving around 9:00 am, but didn't get there until around 10:30 instead.
Upon our arrival, we found that the power was out to the entire town! The sisters have this great backup generator, but unfortunately, it ran for about 10 minutes before giving up the ghost. Ken, Rick and I fiddled with it for a long time trying to get it working, but it was an industrial computer-controlled diesel generator, and none of us could figure it out.
At least I was able to determine that the problem had nothing to do with the dead scorpion in one of the subpanels.
So there we were, almost two hours late, with no electricity, and over 300 patients waiting to see us.
As usual, even though we were late, we received a warm welcome. We got going as quickly as we could. The generator was repaired an hour or two later, and thankfully, full power was restored at some point later in the afternoon.
Here are a few action shots from the day's work.
The morning water filter trip had to be delayed until later, but the afternoon group did make it out, riding in the back of sister's truck.
Even though it was a very busy day, the eyeglasses guys managed to fit in a siesta somehow.
Here are some other faces from the day.
Despite the adversity and the late start, we managed to power through it and around 240 patients were seen!
Unfortunately, the challenges didn't end at closing time.
We left later than we wanted to and got caught in some really heavy traffic on the way home. It should have been around an hour and ten minute drive from Tacachico to Sacacoyo, but it took closer to two and a half hours instead. Both buses ended up taking "shortcuts" to bypass the bumper to bumper traffic on the main highway. And of course, as we all know, short cuts make long delays.
We arrived home tired, carsick, and extremely late for dinner. It was a rough day, but this story illustrates exactly the kind of perseverance it takes to deliver healthcare to these parts of the country. I'm really proud of how our team handled it!
We deliberately woke up early because Tacachico is over an hour away from Sacacoyo. We were all ready to go, but the truck to carry our luggage broke down or something and was very late. Over an hour late, I think. It was nice to hang out on the retreat center grounds, but we were all antsy to get going.
The girls, spending some time relaxing.
We finally got on our way, but when we got close to our destination, we got a little lost, adding another 30 - 40 minutes to our drive. I probably have my specific times wrong, but the net result was that we had intended on arriving around 9:00 am, but didn't get there until around 10:30 instead.
Upon our arrival, we found that the power was out to the entire town! The sisters have this great backup generator, but unfortunately, it ran for about 10 minutes before giving up the ghost. Ken, Rick and I fiddled with it for a long time trying to get it working, but it was an industrial computer-controlled diesel generator, and none of us could figure it out.
At least I was able to determine that the problem had nothing to do with the dead scorpion in one of the subpanels.
So there we were, almost two hours late, with no electricity, and over 300 patients waiting to see us.
As usual, even though we were late, we received a warm welcome. We got going as quickly as we could. The generator was repaired an hour or two later, and thankfully, full power was restored at some point later in the afternoon.
Here are a few action shots from the day's work.
The morning water filter trip had to be delayed until later, but the afternoon group did make it out, riding in the back of sister's truck.
Even though it was a very busy day, the eyeglasses guys managed to fit in a siesta somehow.
Here are some other faces from the day.
Unfortunately, the challenges didn't end at closing time.
We left later than we wanted to and got caught in some really heavy traffic on the way home. It should have been around an hour and ten minute drive from Tacachico to Sacacoyo, but it took closer to two and a half hours instead. Both buses ended up taking "shortcuts" to bypass the bumper to bumper traffic on the main highway. And of course, as we all know, short cuts make long delays.
We arrived home tired, carsick, and extremely late for dinner. It was a rough day, but this story illustrates exactly the kind of perseverance it takes to deliver healthcare to these parts of the country. I'm really proud of how our team handled it!
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