First day of real work here in Mexico and we must say it was probably the best day yet. It's really tough to put today into words but we're going to try...
We started our day by waking up before the sun had fully risen (this was a first for us here in Mexico). We joined the crew for breakfast where we learned that Doc has finally joined our small yet faithful group of blog followers (Yay Doc!). While waiting to board the bus, Polo got a small lesson in Catholic history from the Deacon and Marco got in trouble for not going to church yesterday (sad face).
The bus took us to Empalme, where the real work of the trip began, starting with unloading, opening and organizing billions of boxes of glasses (we only exaggerate slightly people). We were assigned to dispensing which is where we take the prescriptions from the docs and find the correct glasses (this is where the horseshoes and hand grenades come in...). We all quickly learned that finding that 'perfect' match to the script was nigh impossible. This is when Marco decided that the trip motto should be 'Close enough only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades... and VOSH trips'. It was a steep learning curve trying to work out the subtle nuances of lens prescriptions, deciding just how much you can sacrifice in one area just to get a little closer in another without totally screwing up their vision. By the end of the day we think we had it figured out pretty well but we're sure tomorrow will bring new challenges to throw us off our game.
Despite having many helpful interpreters, there were often times when we were left to our own devices. Which in our case meant pooling our collective 10 years of Spanish classes to figure out how to communicate. By the end of the day we figured out how to say the important things like: ¿Puedes leer esto?(Can you read this?), un momento (hold on while I get a translator), muy bien (very good), de nada (You're welcome), para el sol (for the sun aka sunglasses) and ¿Esta bien? (good?). For Polo there was a lot of charades happening creatively using the 12 words of Spanish she could remember. Hopefully, we can pick up some more Spanish tomorrow and sound less like a babbling, bumbling band of baboons.
After a hard day's work of seeing 382 patients through registration, exams and dispensing we were invited to a party hosted by the Empalme Rotary Club. Let us tell you from our new experience, that no one throws a party like a Mexican Rotary Club. It was a fantastic night filled with good music, great food and terrific company. There was plenty of carne asada, carnitas and fresh made tortillas (Polo's favorite) to feed twice as many people as were there. The entertainment for the night (other than Doc's dancing skills) was a local group of teachers who practice traditional Mexican dances and a young man (Mexican Idol) who was a fantastic singer. The dances were incredible and we were surprised that the dancers still had functioning knees by the end of the night; even in another language Mexican Idol's songs were captivating.
There was plenty of not so great dancing by Americans (and Canadians) that think they can dance. Our favorite to watch was Sarge (disclaimer: we aren't sure whether he currently is or ever has served in the military or any other organization that would grant him this rank). The Sarge is one of those people who looks like he would make a great drill sergeant but when he smiles, it makes you want to smile right back. Doc's dance moves seemed to consist mainly of running in place awkwardly but he has an unbeatable enthusiasm about it. We also learned that Mexicans have similar dances to our awkward American line dances except theirs are WAY cooler. Blondie (a quick witted, hilarious wise-ass and many year veteran of the trip) was quite talented at one such Mexican dance called 'The Golden Lasso', she was really quite impressive.
All in all, today was an unforgettable experience and we are sure tomorrow will be just as great. Until then...
¡Quédate un empollón!
Marco y Polo
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