3/30/09-4/5/09 End of Project MANI, back to brigades

3/30/09 Today was a triumphant one, only because we reached our goal of 300 kids and even surpassed that by a little. It was a great feeling to know we had all the participants we needed. It felt like the battle of three hundred sometimes the way the whole month went, it is good to be done. Could not have been a more hot day either. We were practically stuck in the sun with no air movement, the moms and babies were sweating like crazy let alone ourselves. I am not sure what it will be like to have a normal life again but I am really looking forward to getting back to normalcy. 3/31/09-4/1/09 These days I started working around the clinic again. We had brigade bins to get ready for the upcoming brigade for Semana Santa and also Nelson bought a bunch of TP dispensers, hand soap dispensers, and alcohol hand rub dispensers and so I installed all those as well. I also spent some time in the lab troubleshooting issues with the lab equipment. I also am trying to see if we can get parts to replace in our hemogram machine so we don’t have to spend a bunch of money to replace it. Juan and I have also started talking about trying to do something for the week after holy week like going to the beach. I was going to go to Guatemala to visit my host family however I discovered a mistake was made with my passport that said I had arrived in the country the 8th of January, LAST year, so I am in a way illegal right now. I did not want to get caught at the border and have to pay huge fines just to cross and have to pay them all again when I came back since I did not leave far enough out of country. 4/2/09-4/3/09 Today I left with Marvin to go to El Progresso and San Pedro to do pre-brigade supply shopping. Diana came with us because she needed to leave to go to the states and do a round of clinicals for her school. This trip is always long, and seemed particularly longer because I was trying to watch the whole trip how to get to everywhere we needed to go as the S2S people would like me to start driving more. Partly because the had to let go one of the drivers the other day do to bad behavior. Either way we had a really good time on the trip there and it was great to be in El Progresso and away from the clinic for a little while. Friday we went out and did all of the shopping. It was a long day, I have no idea how Marvin does it on his own. We barely were able to fit everything in the truck though. And the other issue is that we have to store everything the hotel until we leave so that it won’t smother in the heat or get robbed. We ended up doing dinner at the mall in El Progresso at some random restaurant. We thought it would be better than going to Applebee’s but it was not that good. 4/4/09 Saturday we got up early to take Diana to the airport and to buy a few more things. By the time we packed everything in the car we barely had room for all of us but we made it. We dropped Diana off and headed back for the rest of our stuff and so I could shower. After that we made our last trip to the airport to get the UD brigade. They were a younger bunch of kids, all 3rd and 4th year undergrads but very nice. Also we saw Yanire at the airport getting ready to go on her vacation as well. I said goodbye to her and helped David pack up the bus top with all the brigade stuff. Again we barely fit everything but we headed out on our way towards La Esperanza. On the way we ate at the usual cafeteria place, the food there is always awesome, I think I eat the same thing every time. Then we finished the rest of our journey to La Esperanza. On the way we made several stops, gas, coconuts, the essentials. And every time we would re-pass the brigade, sort of funny. This was my first time in Grand Hotel La Esperanza, which was not so grand, but they were renovating and adding rooms. I also noticed they were filling up a kiddy pool on the roof, hilarious. After everyone was settled in we were off to the hotel bar to have a couple of drinks and the best part was, everyone played euchre. I left with Marvin for a little while to snag dinner with Matt, a med student who had been living by himself for a year and doing the water project for S2S. He seemed like a really nice guy, and we kept joking how he needed the company. Apparently Marvin goes by to visit him frequently as I think one would go crazy after a while not talking to a lot of other people. After dinner I headed back to get in on some cards and then everyone went to bed. 4/5/09 Today we left early for SL. We had to make a stop in Conce to allow some of the brigade to meet the scholarship kids. I ended up taking the bus with the brigade to go to SL while Marvin stayed in Conce to do the presentation. Once in SL we unloaded everything and soon after Marvin arrived and we unloaded his stuff as well. After that the usual post carrying relaxation commenced as everyone got to know everyone else. We just missed church so I opted to take a group to Magdalena for the late mass for those who wanted. We had a decent group of us to go, and we were way on time. Mass here never really starts at a specific time, but instead when the majority show up and feel ready. It just so happened that this time an hour and fifteen minutes passed and nothing, so we had to go. We headed back, at dinner, then sat in on the CHI meeting that all the new brigades get. After that we had some Euchre playing and off to bed. This brigade is so much different than others in the past. I think they were up until like 2 or 3am, but they were having fun.