Hola amigos.

Everything is going very well to this point. We are working very efficiently, seeing more patients than I thought we could. Today the optical staff saw 635 patients. I think we could have seen more, but the group was pretty beat, and it was very dark in the exam rooms.

The dental group saw more than 70 patients in the morning alone. They spent the afternoon doing procedures including fillings. They taught the local dentist a new procedure, which he said would make him alegend to his patients. The medical group was overwhelmed as usual, seeing 150 people.

A couple of stories to let you know what you're missing. The dental group had a girl with a tooth that needed to be pulled badly. It took 45 minutes, but when they finally removed it, it was unlike anything they had ever seen. Besides removing a little bone, and seeing a little blood, there was an abcess so bad that the pus did not stop coming out. This kid had to be in a lot of pain. We occasionally hear screams from their clinic. I don't want to trade jobs, that's for sure.

One patient I saw was a difficult one. She took her glasses off, and I immediately noticed that one eye was protruding about an inch further than the other. She probably has some form of tumor. The local Minister of Health, Dr. Aleman, arranged for her to be seen by a specialist tommorow (not Nica time.) We hope we caught her in time to save her.

We have seen some very odd prescriptions here, including ones we don't normally carry. What the dispensary is doing, is finding lenses that match, but in different frames, and filing one lens to fit the other frame. We have a lot of pros with us, and they keep complaining that we aren't working fast enough.

We are seeing a lot more myopic people than we are used to. Vicky Weiss' first patient this morning was -19.00 OU, which we will fill when we get back and ship down, along with a few other special Rxs.

We are seeing all kinds of odd diseases, from congenital cataracts to scars to some things none of us has ever seen. We could print a book from this year's mission.

I'm going to let you go back to your lives. We wish you were here.

Start to make plans for next year's trip. We have already begun scouting sites.

Adios,

Juan Carlos