La Ultima Dia

What an AMAZING last day. Wow. Storybook. Cant go into it all right now, will have more time tomorrow afternoon. Basically, the morning we drove way up into the mountains and blitzed out 125 patients in 3 hours. It was insane. But I had the time to sit and talk privately with a woman who lived with the stress of her father being an alcoholic. Not violent, but she was so worried about him and didnt understand his disease. That was probably the most effective thing I've done in Peru. Then at 1pm we headed to Lamay, the clinic was packed by Jackie, and we ran out for a 2pm meeting with the Mayor.

It was some meeting; it was a diplomatic banquet.

In the top of the municipal building, they had decorated the party room with streamers and balloons and flowers. Everyone was there -- the elders of the community, the clinic workers, municipal workers, and of course the Mayor and his wife. They served us vegetable soup (still dumbfounded why anyone would opt not to eat meat), and beautiful fresh fruit, and we sat and talked and enjoyed. There was Bach on in the background. Everyone felt like they were going to be asked to waltz. Then Guido got up to talk. He spoke about all the back and forth in the year before, and how excited everyone was when we got here. But more than that, he said how impressed he was by the compassion and attention and sensitivity that each doctor and student displayed towards the poor people that we treated. And of course how excited he was to have a partnership that will continue on into the future to effectively improve the health of the people of Lamay. Then he presented us all with two large plaques, written on leather and pinned to a framed background. They are of course hilariously Latin American and so wonderful. Then each of us got a "certificate" which we assumed was a piece of paper, but here apparently means a hand-painted wooden plate personalized for each person. Incredible. We all hugged and laughed and some more people gave speeches and I even cried a little. We gave small gifts to Guido and Lucia (who always made us lunch), and formally gave the microscope to the clinic... with a red ribbon and all, like in a perfect dream. So much friendship and good will. I cant wait to come back next year. They all stood in the street and waved to us until the bus was out of sight.