Well we did it! Another trip to Mazatlan in the books. I woke up not feeling well today, slept through breakfast but did make it out to clinic with no stops to use the restroom! I loaded up on two bananas and the first dose of traveler´s diarrhea antibiotic and I was ready to go. We were out at Villa Union today which is the place we went to church on Sunday. It was another good day but slower than usual. We saw about 58 patients. The weather was nice and cloudy and cool. God has really blessed Bill and I this trip. We were really concerned about being the only two providers and having terribly busy days with hot hot weather to drain us further. The days have been a nice pace and the weather has been cloudy. We have had only two really hot sunny days (one that I chose to run during). It has been nice to know that we can do it with two providers and I think God brought us the people who needed to see us. We only really felt overwhelmed once on Thursday at Madero. Today´s medical highlight was that I got to lance this boil from a kid´s face with no anesthestic. He took it like a champ but my already queasy stomach was not quite so ready for all that pus.
We bought a walmart plastic tote and decided to leave a lot of our supplies down here instead of lugging them back every time. They are being kept locked up in the office and should really help our luggage allowance for the upcoming trips. I did find out at continential.com that they will only charge for the extra bag any ticket bought after May 8th so hopefully we will not have to pay extra tomorrow.
One sad note, we had to say goodbye to Big Blackie today. Big Blackie is a huge heavy rolling suitcase who has been with me since at least 2000. It was a hand me down from my folks. We have seen the world together, me and Big Blackie. He still has a tag on him from the cruise I went on in 2001. And he has my official YL area director name tag from 2000. Big Blackie has three of his four corners covered in duct tape and he is really dirty but he still rolls like a champ and has made 7 trips to and from Mexico, 28 days of clinic in the colonias being dragged through the dust and dirt. Big Blackie has not has pulls for his zippers for about 5 years. He has these plastic tabs my dad put on him. Big Blackie´s main zipper broke this trip and only one zipper will close the bag and that one does not go all the way around. There is no way Big Blackie could make it home having to be opened by security. I am afraid he will not get closed again. And though you cannot put a price tag on a faithful companion like Big Blackie, I am not spending $25 (if we get charged) to bring him home almost empty because he is too big to fit in another suitcase and too fat and squat for any suitcase to fit in him. So Big Blackie was emptied for the last time today. I took off my favorited name tags. I rubbed some dirt off his handle and gave him a kiss. Sleep well, Big Blackie, in the place were used and abused and discarded suitcases go. We were great together. You will be missed and I love you almost as much as any other inantimate object that I have named. (I took some farewell pictures and will post them when I get back)
Wanted for our next trip: a slightly used big roller suitcase who could never replace Big Blackie but will be loved, used, rolled through the dirt, loaded to 49.5 lbs, tossed on and off airplanes and given a proper name. He will join Big Blue, Gigante (who is bigger than Big Blackie but newer to the fleet) and Duct (a smaller version of gigante who had duct tape to close a huge hole in him last trip but Bill did surgery with a giant needle and some twine I think and now he is free of duct tape but retains the title). How could I not mention our faithful duffle? Purple Cow. Bill hates purple cow because he does not pull that well, but he is giant and bright and hard to miss on the turnstyle at baggage claim.
Prayer requests:
safe air travel tomorrow and ease at customs coming home
safe driving home from Minneapolis with no major road closing due to flooding
for Iowa City as the floods just get worse.
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