Darcy's mind then turned to the fact that her coin purse was now empty. Bouncing with excitement, she said, "Oooo, Oooo Mom!!! Can I have some EL SALVADORIAN money???!!!"
I shook my head and explained to her, "Honey, they use AMERICAN currency in El Salvador."
To which she promptly replied, "Cool! Can I have some EL SALVADORIAN money???!!!" as she dove into my suitcase after some loose quarters!
The teenage years have descended upon us.
Then, this afternoon I spoke with Dave (the dentist that joined us on the trip) over the phone and he told me he lost 10 pounds the week we were in El Salvador. I am like, "How does THAT work?!"...I came home TWO POUNDS heavier. I had thought for sure I was losing weight while we were there, because we didn't do ANY snacking those 8 days...just ate the sensible (portion allotted) three meals a day (small, but healthy meals) that were provided and drank water by the hundreds of gallons. I KNOW my calorie intake was about 1/4 what it normally is...and we were on our feet from dawn to dark...and we lugged really heavy luggage everywhere we went (all those medicines and equipment--Dave even had a DENTAL chair (though it was actually really light!)). And we poured sweat non-stop. Yet I came home heavier than I had left! I'm sure it was water weight, though, as I was back to my normal weight within 48 hours of returning home...soon as I lost the PITTING EDEMA that I had been carrying in my lower legs the last five days of the trip. (Never had THAT before!) Still, I SHOULD have LOST some of my fat there...some things just don't add up!
To explain the photos with this post: Dave is a dentist from Lexington, Missouri that we just met when we got ready to embark on this trip. He has to be the most EXUBERANT dentist I have ever met! He was a ton of fun on the trip...and I've never seen anyone get so pumped over fixing teeth (or pulling them as the case might be)! He pulled 103 teeth the week we were in El Salvador. One day, everyone else had closed up their portion of the clinic, but, there was Dave happily pulling away...with half the village still lined up outside his door. We talked him into just prioritizing the five or six that were the worst and only working about an hour or so past the time we were suppose to have left. There he slaved away, so excited that there were so many people he was able to help...while the rest of us quietly collapsed of heat stroke and waited for him to finish! Dave's camera was stolen while he was working on someone's teeth on Tuesday...but, we didn't know that until we were on the plane going home on Sunday. Dave didn't want to let his own misfortune dampen anyone else's experience, so he hadn't talked to us about it until the trip was at its end. (That was the only misfortune that we had the whole trip. Oh, Sarah dropped her camera into a deep puddle Thursday night, but, by Friday afternoon it had dried out and was working as well as ever again!). Anway, back to Dave... he was SO EXCITED about being able to serve on this medical mission! His enthusiasm was such a blessing to us. And his propensity for giving away toothbrushes soon became a chuckling point for us. (I met Dave about a couple of weeks before the trip when he came down to Bolivar and met some of us for lunch at El Rodeo's for Mexican food. He gave all of us a toothbrush that day inscribed with his name. I, who can never remember ANYONE'S name, actually had HIS name firmly established in my mind by the time of our packing party a few nights before our journey began...because I had been brushing my teeth with his toothbrush and SEEN his name multiple times a day, every day prior to that! Most of us met together at the church for a massive packing party. We had a warehouse worth of medication to sort and pack. The church paid for an extra checked bag for each person and that second checked bag (as big as possible without going over the 50 pound weight limit) was stuffed full with medications. The church had learned from the previous medical mission NOT to pack the medications into plastic shipping cartons...because, then, if there is an overload of luggage for the plane, the shipping cartons are the ones that get bumped to later flights (they are easy to sort out from personal luggage and are priorized lower). So, we packed all our medications and medical equipment into regular suitcases. Further, we divied up all the medications so that if any one suitcase got lost in transit, it wouldn't wipe us all out of any one item. Then, we had to weigh each suitcase and redistribute items until none of the cases were over 50 pounds, but all were pretty much right at fifty pounds (we were packing everything from heavy liquids to very light containers with small amount of powder that would be reconstituted later). Anyway, when we had all met again just two nights before leaving on the journey, there was good ole Dave passing out toothbrushes to everyone again. "I already have one," didn't deter him a bit! Afterall, EVERYONE needs at least ONE back-up toothbrush! Then, the morning we left for El Salvador, there Dave was AGAIN, trying to ply a toothbrush into each of our hands! Too funny! (Actually, though, at least one person in our group had (don't tell Dave!) forgotten to pack a toothbrush and were quite relieved that reliable Dave was there on the spot handing them out once more! It wasn't ME...I REMEMBERED MY toothbrush!) All of that just to lead up to the story behind the photo published here with this post. We were all in El Salvador gathered around chatting after coming back from a worship service at Strong Tower, when someone yelled, "Where's Dave? The hotel guard needs a toothbrush!!!" Well, Dave was Johnny on the Spot and pulled a toothbrush (from his pocket?...or does he just sprout them like buds from a potato?)... Dave was grinning with delight that SOMEONE WANTED one of his toothbrushes, but, he got a bit uncharacteristically greedy this time and, rather than offering his toothbrush freely, he decided to do a bit of bartering. He figured one of his toothbrushes was certainly worth a rifle or two! He told the guard he would trade him a toothbrush for his rifle! The guard was only too happy to comply!
Soon, Dave was truly looking like a native El Salvadorian! (You know, as I write this, the TIMELINE of events just occurred to me. Dave's camera is stolen Tuesday morning (and he is as much a photo nut as I am) and Tuesday evening the gentle, jovial dentist has gone from carrying toothbrushes to packing a rife!...hmmmmm.....!)
(Oh!...and the final "How's THAT work?": I've felt lousy every since stepping foot back on American soil (intestinal symptoms, enough said!)...I'm blaming it on the water here!)
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