ASAPROSAR, Stove Team International, and Football (Both Kinds)

WOW! It’s hard to believe it’s been nearly a month since my last blog update, so please accept my apologies upfront for my complete lack of writing. In addition to all that, Happy Belated MLK Day, Happy Valentine’s Day, Happy Presidents’ Day, and Happy Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday. I am sad to have missed Mom and Dad’s Valentine’s Day Chili Party (I heard there was quite the crew at 459) and I am disappointed to have misses the Fat Tuesday Dessert Supper at the Edmonds’ (I’m sure my share of artery clogging delicacies was eaten and enjoyed).

Since the last time I wrote, my schedule has filled up quite a bit, and my last three weeks were pleasantly busy. So without further ado, here’s a (longwinded) rundown of what I’ve been up to…

ASAPROSAR Eye Campaign

I spent six rapidly passing days at the ASAPROSAR, Asociación Salvadoreña Pro Salud Rural (Salvadoran Pro-Rural Health Association), eye campaign in the city of Santa Ana, where the main complex is located. (For a complete rundown on what ASAPROSAR is, how it was started, what they do in El Salvador, and what you can do to help, check out www.asaprosar.org. After reading their descriptions of service, you will feel like you’ve been to ASAPROSAR’s campus in Santa Ana.)

Every year, a team of doctors, surgeons, nurses, and volunteers, mostly from the Boston area, fly down at their own expense to provide eye services including eye exams, free eye glasses provided by the Lions Club (if you’ve ever donated glasses to the Lions Club, they actually get used at campaigns like these), free sunglasses, and surgical procedures such as terigium and cataract removal. ASAPROSAR provides these services to those who come to the campaign at little or no cost, depending on a person’s ability to pay. All services are means tested, and no one is turned away because of an inability to pay. This campaign enables those who would otherwise never be able to receive eye health services the opportunity to see.

Months before, the team of volunteers pack up their equipment, surgical supplies, antibiotics, their arsenal of over 10,000 pairs of glasses from the Lions Club, and more in an enormous container that gets shipped down here to El Salvador by boat. The whole process is a perfectly timed, well-oiled machine that only 25 years of experience could have produced. The team arrives in country one day before the campaign is to start, the doctors spend hours in customs with their surgical instruments having their credentials verified, drives to ASAPROSAR in Santa Ana and gets to work setting up immediately.

Days in Santa Ana are long, especially for the surgical staff. Breakfast is served at 7AM sharp with the first surgeries scheduled at 7:30AM and the last at 5:30PM. The OR staff is scheduled to be finished by 6PM, but of course things never go according to plan and a 7PM finish time is a good day. The surgeons complete an average of twenty-five surgeries a day, with the ages of patients ranging from two to ninety-two. The most common procedures are cataract removal, terigium removal, and asbithsmus (crossed eye) correction.

While the operating rooms and surgical staff are always busy, the Barn and the Dispensary, where people undergo the traditional eye exams and receive glasses are even busier. The Barn, where the eye exams and refractions are conducted, really should be called the zoo. At any given time, a minimum of five patients are being seen and a line of twenty others are cued up outside. Once they are finished with their eye exams and have their prescription for glasses based on their refraction, the patients head out to the Dispensary where they receive free glasses from the Lions Club or can opt to pay for a new pair of glasses to be made at a significantly reduced rate. (If you check out my photos on Facebook, you will see why many people opt to have glasses made. Think 1980s large-framed glasses). All patients also receive a pair of sunglasses or clip-ons if they receive glasses to protect their eyes from the sun. Here in El Salvador, the sun is so much more damaging to peoples’ eyes because of the country’s geographical location close to the equator. Also, the majority of people spend their time outdoors with no eye protection, causing significant damage early in life. In the Barn and the Dispensary, an average of 200 patients are seen daily.

At the eye campaign, it was my and other PCVs job to serve as translators for the team of volunteers from Boston and Arkansas. Though many of the volunteers could speak enough Spanish to get by, it was best that we be there to help understand the patients’ needs and concerns in relation to their eye health. Most of my time I spent translating in the Barn and in the Dispensary. In the Barn, most of what I was translating were the reasons why the patients decided to come in, what their complaints were, and then asking if they preferred lens A to lens B when determining the best eye prescription for them. Most of the doctors I translated for were really wonderful and caring of their patients, talking directly to them even though they spoke a different language instead to speaking to me and having me ask the patient their concerns. The amount of care and attention given to patients, regardless of the huge cue outside, just showed how much the medical team cared about what they were doing and their concern for their patients.

Out in the Dispensary where people received their glasses was probably the most hectic, yet uplifting place to be. By the time patients arrived in the Dispensary, most had been at the eye campaign, traveling through the process for at least four hours. Of course, many patients’ patients were running thin, but when they were attended to and given their glasses, in many cases their first pair, their attitudes completely changed. People were seeing clearly for the first time in years, and for some the first time in their lives. It was amazing to be part of a life changing process. Sure it sounds cheesy that a pair of glasses can make that big of a difference in someone’s life, but just think of an 88 year-old grandmother who received her first pair of glasses and was able to see her grandchildren’s faces clearly for the first time. That’s a big deal.

Two of my six days I was lucky enough to scrub up and translate in the operating suite. (I look pretty cute in scrubs and they are by far the most comfortable work attire, but I will not be leaving the Peace Corps to attend medical school, sorry Mom.) There I helped the team of pre-op nurses and anesthesiologists explain to patients what the procedure was going to be like, what they would feel, talk them through the neuro-block, and walk them to the operating room. The ASAPROSAR operating suite has three operating rooms, and most eye procedures only take about forty-five minutes to complete, so the pre-op process, which also takes about forty-five minutes per patient needed to run without a hitch, otherwise the schedule would be knocked out of balance.

In addition to translating in the pre-op room (a photo of which you can see on my Facebook account), I got to observe a few different surgical procedures, as well. The surgeons were performing three different cataract removal techniques, two of which I got to observe. I also had the opportunity to observe a stribismus correction surgery on a fifteen year-old girl.

By far, though, the best thing I had the privilege of doing over the course of my week at ASAPROSAR was to accompany one of my community members and friends, Niña Juana, through the entire process of her cataract removal surgery. Niña Juana is 68 years old and has been only able to see things two feet in front of her and closer for as long as she can remember. Both of her eyes had severe, dense cataracts preventing her from being able to see. The doctors identified her as a worthy candidate for cataract removal surgery in her right eye. Niña Juana is usually the most talkative woman, never shutting up and drawing even a simple one-word answer into a five-minute soliloquy. On the day of her surgery, though, she was as quiet as a mouse and kept all her responses to five words or less. To say the least, I was shocked. She was clearly nervous. I’m just glad I was able to be there with her, to hold her hand into the operating room, and reassure her everything would go smoothly. The surgeon who performed her operation allowed me to observe, and to say the least, the procedure was amazing. How the doctors have the ability to operate on something so delicate as the eye and improve the quality of life for so many people is tremendous. The difference made in Niña Juana’s life was proof enough that what the doctors come to do every year is not only worthwhile, but also so necessary.

I could continue on for pages about all of the experiences I had with the ASAPROSAR team from making fun of them for bringing bagels from the States for breakfast to the drama of breaking the news to a 13 year-old girl that her eye is inoperable and her vision will never return, but I won’t bore you. If you want more stories, just ask, I’d love to share.

The bet part of the eye campaign, though, was meeting the people who come down to El Salvador, literally year after year and improve the quality of life for pure strangers with no financial or personal gain of their own. I’m glad I got the opportunity to meet them, share meals with them, take them out for a couple nights on the town, and even act as their travel agent (it’s a long story). I look forward to next year when I get to translate for them again.

Stove Team International

A quick update from my last blog entry: the original date for Stove Team International’s efficient stove demonstration was canceled. Due to reasons out of my control, the demonstration team was unable to attend. Needless to say, I was extremely disappointed and felt terribly, having to tell my community the morning of the scheduled meeting, that I had been talking up so much and was so excited for, was postponed to an unknown date. Fortunately, my community members were very understanding, and by the next week we were able to reschedule the demonstration for Saturday, February 6^th.

To get the word out about the rescheduled demonstration, I passed out invitations to all houses, hung up fliers in all the tiendas and molinos, and talked up the event whenever I had the chance. Most of the community seemed very excited and interested in the demonstration. Efficient stoves was one of the topics I found the majority of the community had interest in during my community diagnostic survey back in October, so I figured this demonstration would be a good, simple, nearly fail proof project to undertake with my community.

I am learning the hard way, or perhaps the way volunteers need to learn—through experience—that no project or program is fail proof. Much to my disappointment, only fifteen women showed up for the demonstration. I was shocked by the low turnout when so many people had expressed what I thought was genuine interest. Now I realize they were probably just being nice to the gringa and not wanting to disappoint me. But, of the fifteen women who attended the demonstration and participated more actively than I have ever witnessed, twelve have since placed an order and provided me with a down payment for the efficient fire burning stoves.

I am learning more and more from each initiative I undertake, and this stove project is no different. Starting small with those who are genuinely interested is not a failure. In most cases it’s a positive thing. As always, there are successes and lessons in even the greatest disappointments and failures. So, my first stove order will be for twelve stoves. Hopefully once the stoves are in the community, the owners will begin to talk them up and interest with spread like wildfire.

Check out www.stoveteaminternational.org for more information on the Econcina. It’s pretty fascinating stuff!

Football: Both Kinds

We PCVs are very dedicated to our sites and the people within our communities and often go through periods of what we call “site guilt” and being a “site rat” when we rarely leave our communities. When we do manage to break away, all we think about when we’re gone is what we would be doing back in our sites if we were there and how our community members must be judging us for our absence. That’s true for all PCVs at least once in their time of service when they meet up with their friends for various occasions like birthdays and swearing-in anniversaries, but true American holidays like the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving and the Super Bowl are definitely not of the guilt-inducing variety. We may be fully immersed in Salvadoran culture, but our blood still runs red, white and blue and football will always be an American institution.

This Super Bowl, though I don’t know of anyone who really cared who won the big game, was no different. We all wanted to get together and celebrate our nation’s pastime. Of course I, along with another PCV Joe from our most senior group in country, became the unofficial organizers of the event. After several trips to TGIFridays to negotiate a reservation, fully booking our favorite PCV hostel in the capital, and countless text messages and phone calls later, we had plans for the big day.

Unfortunately TGIFridays was not so accommodating to our group of over fifty, but regardless everyone enjoyed themselves. When it comes to the Super Bowl, the most important things are that the beverages are cold, the wings are of the Buffalo variety, and there are enough TVs. Ultimately, TGIFridays was able to give us what we needed, though I’m pretty sure they did so grudgingly. Needless to say, we won’t be going back any time soon.

Once the bill was paid, we continued our American celebration at one of our favorite PCVs haunts where I finally could enjoy myself that we had celebrated the Super Bowl together without a hitch.

The following weekend, we PCVs had the opportunity to meet up again, this time focusing on one of the three main goals of the Peace Corps, cultural exchange, when we played soccer out east in Usulutan in the site of one of our married couples who will be completing their service on April 6^th. As always, we had a great time playing, but unfortunately this time, neither team was victorious. The Usulutan heat proved to be too much for us to handle. As my Mom would say, though, it was defeat with honor.

In the weeks that come I look forward to continuing the planning of a Business Plan Competition that will be launched here in El Salvador in May. This is an initiative of the Agricultural Business group that I am one of the founding three members. Once details of the competition are solidified, I will be sure to share them with you.

Also, this Sunday I will be running in the Yo Amo ES 11k race in the capital with a group of my fellow PCVs. Though I am grossly out of shape, the proceeds of the race go to benefit an anti-familial violence campaign here in El Salvador. So, around 8:30AM EDT on Sunday, think of me and send me positive energy to finish the race. Let’s hope I’ll be able to walk on Monday.

A special thanks goes out to my Mom and Dad for the most amazing Valentine’s Day package they sent me including a louffa, dark chocolate and Biore strips. Trust me, it’s the simple pleasures in life. Also, my sister, Dana, gave me the best news I have received since I’ve been here in ES: she will be visiting in just one month! Dana will be my first visitor and I couldn’t be more excited. Why don’t the rest of you buy your tickets already?

Oh, I have a new cell phone number here in ES seeing as my old phone was stolen on the bus this past week. No big deal, but if you want my new number, just let me know and I’ll send it your way.

Lastly, a HUGE CONGRATULATIONS goes out to my best friend Caitlin on her acceptance into medical school! I am so proud of you! You never cease to amaze!

I love and miss you all. Please comment and please write!