We woke up to the sound of a generator running at 4:30am, which was a pleasant introduction of when the village starts its day. People had walked from neighboring villages to receive medical help, so we set up the clinic and began to de-worm as many people as possible. Deworming reduces malnutrition and aids healthy mental growth for kids for the next 6 months. This is really huge because it normally would not have been possible due to the lack of even simple medicines here. While Griff was responsible for de-worming, Keith and Eric saw patients with more serious issues. A dentist was also supposed to be helping out, so Clay and Jeff took an elder to go find one in the neighboring town. Once he arrived and started his clinic, kids were lined up to get checked out. Many of the people had to get teeth pulled and no matter how bad it looked for the previous patient, the kids would still sit down and not cry or complain one bit. We were told there is an old saying that “Mayan babies don’t cry because they were born warriors”. From what we’ve seen so far, that seems to be very true!

After a long day of Team 5 seeing tons of patients, we all took a river taxi to the Finca Tatin on the Rio Dulce. This unique jungle hotel is probably the most tranquil and pleasant place on the Rio Dulce and we were able to relax and stay the night.