Our friends from Mexico City (DF) leave this morning and go to Sumidero Canyon for a tour before flying back home. We got to know much about the Mexican culture and about Germany which adds to our educational experience. Staying at Bela's B & B has made meeting these wonderful people a very special trip.
Left to right: Ana, Kieu, Christine and Eva.Sergio awaits us at his museo with Isabel, a college student who grew up in San Cristóbal. We got to Teopisca to see the little girl with the leg burn and to our surprise there were no other patients waiting making our trip short.
We saw a few patients in San Cristóbal then had to end our morning rounds a little early to meet with a local B & B owner and philanthropist who is part of a group called Amigos de San Cristobal that helps a variety of NGOs in the community. I left a few DVDs with him to share with his B&B patrons who may be interested in purchasing them.
We walked through the neighborhood where I usually stay that has beautiful small markets. Kieu could not resist stopping and buying pineapple, fresh strawberries and mangos. Mango season in Mexico is out of this world!
There is a Holiday Inn in San Cris and it is like no other Holiday Inn I've ever seen. Kieu and I browsed through the area to take a few photos.
Back to Bela's for lunch we had pozole made fresh by Manuela. Her food is so tasty that Kieu has had seconds with every meal!
We get back to the museo at 4:00 pm (mas o menos) and there is a house full of patients waiting. Sergio in his usual chair treating patients looks up at us as if to say, "¡Por fin!" We quickly divide the patients and get to work.
This three-year-old girl has 1st and 2ndº burns to 25% of her body. Her parents brought her in for Sergio to take care after spending 45 days in a local hospital. She was amazingly calm and cooperative.
Here she is after getting her dressing changed. She never cried while being worked on.
Sergio was translating three languages to make sure patients understood our instructions.
An indigenous patient with widespread vitiligo and psoriasis came for care. He was showing us the extensiveness of his skin condition. It is a not cultural norm for a man to be evaluated by a female medical practitioner. This is such an honor to serve this indigenous population that we would normally have no access to. They really trust Sergio and therefore trust us.
We meet Susan, a friend of Bela's who runs an NGO helping the autonomous communities in Chiapas with various projects called Schools for Chiapas. She came and took a tour of Sergio's museo and walked with us back to Bela's after we were done for the evening. We stopped at a chuck wagon to buy a bottle of homemade beer for a friend of hers.
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