Pictures

Our group picture. From left to right: bottom row: Dr. Barb Weise, Jane, Annette, and Dr. Viviana, the anesthesiologist. Second row: A little boy who somehow snuck into the picture without us knowing it, Damarys, Linzy, Loita. Third row: me, Jorge, Angelita, Maria Luisa, Nancy, Gonzalo.

Gonzalo and I stood together and I tried to look like him but I don’t have quite the belly he has. We frequently call him, “Buddah,” especially when he goes shirtless.

Left to right: Gonzalo, Maria Luisa, Damarys, Angelita, Jane, Nancy, and me.

Left to right: Me, Gonzalo, Maria Luisa, Angelita, Jorge, Nancy

We are on the pier that is now repaved and quite nice. Before this was very treacherous with loose boards across the supports and gaps between the boards. You walked on the pier with great caution. Now it is a very nice attraction for the city.

The pier was an old railroad trestle. Not it is safe to walk on with new paving stones and then solidly installed thick boards. People ride bicycles out to the end of the pier now.

This is a picture of the pier from 2005 when I was there working with Jane.

The tide was out when we were at the pier. This man was pushing his canoe up through the mud to his home. He pushed with his paddle and slowly worked his way through the mud.

Barb, Annette, Linda and Linzy are listening to Jane and Damarys describe something. The boy on the right was selling fruit. We purchased some and enjoyed a delicious snack.

In the downtown area the paving stones for the street were taken up. We learned that the street will eventually look like the walkway with colored brick. This is a great improvement compared to what was there a year ago. There is a definite attempt to improve the looks of the city.

Across the street was another new addition to the downtown area – a playground for children. In this area were all sorts of playground equipment and several children were having lots of fun.

We stopped at the Hotel Continental where Rosa is the proprietor. Before jane built the house on the clinic grounds, she and the visiting physicians would stay at Rosa’s hotel. Rose makes ice cream and sells it. She treated us to a free ice cream cone. The flavors were vanilla (she calls it milk), mora and orange. We got mixtures of all three. Very tasty!

Back at the house after our tour of the city we were treated to a hot meal prepared by the lady standing by the refrigerator. She has been treated at the clinic and I did a hysterectomy on her at a previous time. She is so thankful for her health and what we did for her and wanted to give us a good meal. She and a friend fixed fried fish, a salad topping of onions, tomatoes, and other vegatables, and plantain. It was very good.