Day 1 - El Salvador Mission Trip 2011 - trip to Guadalupe

Anyway, after a good breakfast, we set out for Guadalupe. We passed some interesting traffic on the way there, like this calf suckling at her mother’s teat in a pickup truck.


The journey to Guadalupe took about 2 and half hours. Guadalupe is a small village.


Where the King’s Castle has a small church community. Once we got there, we began setting up within the church building.


The picture below shows the pharmacy section being set up.


Us doctors set up our section as well and then waiting for our first patient. I’m ready!



Patients would come in and get their vital signs recorded


Once that was done, they would take a seat and pass by to see the doctor in turn.


This picture shows a bunch of girls tickling each other to pass the time while waiting. It was such a cute sight, I had to stop what I was doing and take a picture


Patients would wait their turn and then be seen by the doctors.



I kept track of what I saw and saw about 33 patients that day.

I tapped one swollen knee.


After seeing our patients, they would pass by the ‘pharmacy’ and get their prescriptions.


Both at the beginning and end of each session of seeing patients, we would have to unload and load the bus back up with all our equipment, supplies and medicine. Then there was the long bus ride back to base.

Day 2 – El Salvador Mission Trip 2011 - Dawn and Insect Stories

Day 2 - January 31, 2011

The next morning, we all got up and after a cold shower, were ready to set off for our first field location, Guadalupe. Outside, we could see the beautiful sunrise...



And horses grazing on the field on the campus.


The girls came down from their dormitories with stories of having found a scorpion on the floor...


They also had a huge (about 5 inches long) grasshopper hanging out on their shower curtain.


These guys were all over the place.

Day 2 - El Salvador Mission Trip 2011 - trip to Candalaria

February 1, 2011 - Trip to Candalaria

The next day we were ready to get back to work. Today we were scheduled to go even further, to Candelaria to the location of a second church. On the way there, we saw this cool-looking igunana that was about a couple of feet long.

I saw about 42 patients at Candelia, including 2 cases of a rare skin disorder, epidermolysis bullosa. The first patient, shown in the pictures below was only 29 years old but looked more like 60.

The pictures below show the bullae on her hands and the scars from ruptured bullae and sloughed off skin on her back.









Even if she lived in the States, I doubt we could have done a lot for her.

There was also a lot of bad teeth in El Salvador, probably because of no fluoride in the water.

Here's a funny picture of a little boy that does not want the doc to look in his ears.

Seeing a lot of rashes,



white spots on skin

and fungal infections.

Here's our dentist looking happy, tired and ready to work.

It was a busy day of seeing patients.

By the time we got back to base, we were all pretty tired.

Day 3 – El Salvador Mission trip 2011 – trip to Ayutuxtepeque

Day 3 ; February 2, 2011

On Day 3, we went to the location of the future Dream Center – a project planned by Castillo del Rey. At the moment though, the church has been meeting in a tent for a few years.

On the way to this location, we stopped to the a field of lava rocks. We took some samples as souvenir.


I saw about 41 patients here.


The kids are the most fun to see.


The kids are just the cutest and instead of working, we were tempted to just play.

Day 4 – El Salvador Mission trip 2011 - Lago Coatepeque

Yay! We don’t have to drive anywhere today because we will seeing patients here at the campus. We set up medical camp in the gym. From about 4:30 am, patients had lined up outside waiting to be seen. Some came on wheelchairs whose wheels were almost falling off. People here walk long distances over hilly terrain (it is after all, a volcanic terrain). We saw a lot of foot problems.



This lady’s feet had dried and formed large cracks like this one.


Others had diabetic sores on their legs.

This young lady had the classic physical exam findings and symptoms of Grave's disease. We had seen her last year too and she was not so far along. Unfortunately, she could not get in to see anyone to care for her. This time, we just bought her the medicine.

Day 4 – El Salvador Mission Trip 2011 - Lago Coatepeque A cauliflower mole

We saw one 57 year old woman with a large cauliflower mole on her face and removed it for her.


We did this by first cutting the mole out.


Then sewing up the skin.




She didn’t feel a thing because we used local anesthesia. Such simple procedures are forbiddingly expensive and so people live with these skin defects in resignation.

Day 4 – El Salvador Mission Trip 2011 - Lago Coatepeque - treating dehydration

A 17 year old volunteer came into the gym where we were seeing patients. He had nausea, headaches and did not feel right. After checking him out he seemed quite dehydrated. I was able to place an IV and give him some fluids. This turned him around. Heat exhaustion is an ever present threat to those working in hot climates, especially those who came from chilly Wisconsin.

Day 4 – El Salvador Mission Trip 2011 - Lago Coatepeque Paronychia

We saw a 70 year old man who had injured his finger a couple of months ago cutting wood. He thought that maybe a splinter got in and had become infected. His finger looked like this.

This is a paronychial abscess.

You could see the bulge in the skin with yellow pus beneath it and increasing redness and swelling.


I numbed up the finger up, cut the abscess open and drained the pus out. He felt much better. After dressing the wound, I sent him home with some antibiotics.

Day 4 – El Salvador Mission Trip 2011 - Lago Coatepeque End of the Day

I saw about 50 patients that day.

All told, between 6 doctors, we saw about 1000 patients over these 4 days.

After a long but rewarding day, we got to jump in the lake… I mean we got to swim in the crater lake. It is about 1400 feet deep in the center, being a crater lake.

That evening, we were served a traditional El Salvadorian food – pupusa. I loved it.

As a special treat, some of us (those who were willing to have it) got coconut water from the coconut palms that grew on campus.

Here is me with the local doctor there, Dr. Boris.

That evening, our local partners put on a show of El Salvadorian dance for us.

During this program, our hosts said lots of nice things about us. It made me worse to think that here we are who give up 5 days of our comfortable lives in the States while they live in need, and they thank us!

I hope to come back every year and I am going to get involved with the hospital project (see the post nearby).

Day 5 - El Salvador Mission Trip - Going Home

The next morning was our last day in El Salvador. We had a good breakfast, packed our stuff up and prepared to leave. Before that, we took a few photographs. These show the medical team and then only the doctors and the dentist.

I also took one with William, one of the students on campus who helped us. He is preparing to enter the ministry.

I had a great time during the trip. Unlike last year, this year I boarded the plane to come to El Salvador sick. I had been working in Urgent Care the week prior and had contracted an upper respiratory illness. During the whole trip, I was sneezing and coughing and felt tired. Nevertheless, my discomfort was nothing compared to the need all around me.

I did arrive home with no voice, so my posts will have to serve as my report until I get my voice back.