Saturday, May 31

We've had a good 1st day of working. We went to a village about a 30 minute drive from Villa Milagro. You have to measure distance to a place by minutes, because milage is decieving considering the roads here. Actually, we drove on blacktop most of the way to Marcobamba today. Things started a little bit slow, but word soon spread and business picked up. We saw a total of 164 patients today, which was not bad at all. It was good to have a somewhat slow day on the first day to get the kinks out of the operation. We didn't see anything much out of the ordinary, mainly the usual headaches, backaches, stomachaches due to spicy foods and parasites, and of course many toothaches. Everyone is tired. A few brave souls dug down deep and found enough energy to go to a wedding at Monte Sion. The wedding invitation said 7 pm, but Larry and Doyne advised that they never start on time. Martha Robertson says it's tradition for the bride to be 30 minutes late. However, the group went ahead and left here to be at the church at 7. They returned just a few minutes ago at 10 pm. Apparently the wedding started an 1 1/2 hours late...and then the electricity went off during the ceremony. They said it was a beautiful ceremony, however, none stayed for the reception.