volcanoes, ziplines and our own rastifarian

While our medical team held their first medical clinic today the rest of the team spent sometime working hard at playing.

The day began with a boat trip on a volcanic lake; some of our team members bravely splashed around in the very cold water trying to find the hot springs which were intermittent at best.

We ate a beautiful restaurant which in addition to having an incredible view of the lake and its surrounding volcanoes, served a local favourite drink called a limonada in the funkiest glass (which we were tempted to walk away with....)

After Mitchell Ray did a little shopping we piled on our 'chicken bus' (that's what the buses are known as around here) and headed for the mountain to zipline.

Here are some of the observations we made at our debrief meeting

tonight:

· people of all ages (particularly young children and very old women) were selling things
· not many boys selling stuff; playing soccer; men working on the boats, in the fields
· it costs money to use the bathroom
· women/girls carry huge baskets on their heads
· if you get a drink to go, it gets put in a plastic bag with a straw
· a lot of kids walking around by themselves, no parents with them

And update from our medical team...

· treated 98 people; 49 were kids – eventually had to cut off the people coming in
· people were not “reserved” (contrary to what we heard before the trip and were expecting), instead they were very gracious, very warm

The clinic went very well, each member of the team (even those with no medical/phrarmaceutical training) jumped right in and did what needed to be done. They experienced a lot of peace, no stress - a real sense of God's presence there with them.