We had a bit of wait before we caught our flight to Santiago so we hung out Puento Arenas. Luggage and rain don't mix.
I guess you eat so you can take shelter. Funny thing is we ordered sandwiches and they said the bread hadn't showed up yet. And then they served us bread. Odd.
Once the rain cleared, we headed to the cemetery with our personal tour guide. We didn't ask for one, but we got one. I don't know why so many dogs felt like they were our body guards/tour guides, but it became comical. Every town we were in, it seemed like some dog was always there to greet us and show us the town. At one point, I believe we had a total of three dogs showing us around.
Now, one usually doesn't visit the cemetery while on vacation, but this was a particularly interesting cemetery and very old and we were very intrigued.
On to the clinic....
Dr. Vogul had some hard cases lined up for Mat to see and potentially operate on next time we come down. Here is a picture with the staff and the new instruments we brought.
It was Christmas!
The Mom of this bunch is a big spiritual leader in her village and when she noticed our missionary tags, she wanted a picture so she could show the people of her town all the good work going on in the world.
Many patients travel all night to reach Santiago and wait a long time to get care.
Sometimes surgeries don't go as planned and you realize doctors make errors too. This boy in particular was sewn up incorrectly after surgery and as a consequence, he now has scarring over his eyeball and is forced to wear a prosthesis.
He was cute and did not mind the undivided attention!
This was the saddest case of all. This beautiful gal has a skin disease that does not tolerate the sun. Unfortunately, she did not know to completely stay out of the sun. She told us that she does cover up but lives in the shadows of the sun (shade).
She is now blind due to infection and scarring over the eye.
Her family was really supportive and her boyfriend, who ironically, has the same disease.
We closed the day with a press conference and a reception. They had TV cameras and newspapers there to spread the word. It was fun to see Mat interviewed and watch him speak his magical Spanish as if he grew up there.
The rest of the time we caught up with Ryan and Becky touring the city and taking a drive to the beach.
Fresh sopapillas from a street vender!
Beautiful walks
My lunch date!
With lunch friends
And a cute old man playing the guitar while we ate.
Squirrel balls
Hike to San Cristobol
Santo Domingo
Mat had them make the sandwich of his dreams, made to order, just like the one he had on his mission.
Flew in on the red eye looking stellar!
We surprised the girls at the school for lunch and dropped off Becket some chocolate. They were not expecting it and I teared up when they ran up and gave us a hug. Mr. Checketts said that Micah just wasn't herself while you were away. We were so happy to see them. Thanks again to Mat's parents for watching them while we do this.
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