Today was a bit of an adventure. While we did not go out into the communities, we nevertheless had a lot going on. The plan was to meet with the Lion’s Club at 10 am to discuss plans for vision screenings and getting glasses to kids in the community that needed them. We had been emailing them back and forth, and the plan was to meet at 10 am at the one and only Starbucks in SMA. Due to some miscommunication, we were still waiting outside of the Starbucks at 11 am. I had taken one for the team and bought a coffee so that we could have internet access (a true martyr, I know) and so we managed to find some sort of address for the Lion’s Club. Lauren and Michael caught a cab to go see if they could find it, taking the cell phone with them. Jason and I remained on the street corner just in case our ride came to pick us up there after all this time. After a while, we got an email that Lauren and Michael had made it to the club, so Jason and I tried to make our way there. Our cab driver wasn’t sure where to go at first, but he eventually managed to take us to the Club de Leones. We ran upstairs and found a pretty much empty building. A very nice, older lady asked how she could help us, but it was pretty clear that we were in the wrong place. It turns out that there is a Club de Leones Internacional and a Club de Leones de Mexico in SMA. We had arrived at the Mexican Lion’s Club, and needed to get to the International Branch. We tried to call our cell phone in the possession of Lauren and Michael from the phone in her office, but the number we had copied down in a hurry did not work. The lady gave us the address for the International branch – which, to our dismay, was on the complete opposite side of the city. We walked a few streets, caught another cab, and told him the address. When we had reached the outskirts of town, the cab driver took us down la Avenida Revolución, the street that the lady said the building was on. There were many run-down, abandoned buildings, but no Lion’s Club to be found. We had, however, caught sight of a children’s clinic on the next street over through the smattering of buildings on Avenida Revolución, so our cab driver backtracked to that building. We asked him to wait for us while we went inside. The receptionist informed us that, yes, the vision clinic for the Lion’s Club was in this building on the upper floor, but the clinic was only open on Thursday mornings… So I went upstairs to check, and everything was locked up. I asked to borrow her phone and again was unsuccessful in getting my call through to our little Mexican cell phone. So Jason and I decided at this point since we couldn’t find Lauren and Michael or the Lions, and since we had another appointment at 1, it would be better to just go back to our house to wait. Luckily our neighborhood was actually really close to the Lion’s Club, so we were soon home.
The next problem: Lauren had our key with her, and no one was home. It was also around 12:30 at this point, with the hot sun directly overhead. Jason and I stood up against the door to take advantage of the small sliver of shade provided by the balcony. As we were both former cheerleaders, we did consider somehow scaling the wall to get onto the balcony and entering the house from there… but we decided that would be a little sketchy. Soon enough, however, Alex and Kelly returned from the store and let us into the house. We were able to call Lauren and Michael from the house phone (turns out we had written down the wrong number for our own cell phone number…) and were glad to hear that they at least had managed to have a meeting with the Lion’s Club, and were a bit envious when they told us they were having lunch on the Lion’s Club right now at a restaurant three blocks down from the Starbucks. Of course. So I really can’t tell you too much about the involvement of the Lion’s Club, save that they are excited to help us out, and that we will start our vision screenings out in the communities tomorrow.
Our next meeting at least had all four SMA-ers present: we went to CASA, an organization that provides a lot of educational and supportive services to women in rural communities. We were trying to establish a relationship with their organization and hope to work closely with them in the future. They have a very prestigious school of midwifery, and are about to open another this August in the region with the highest infant and maternal mortality in all of Mexico. It was a beautiful building and the organization shares many of the same goals as PPS, so we hope to be able to arrange more collaboration with them during our time here. This is a wall mural in progress in one of the hallways of CASA – the colors are fabulous.
Tonight we went to the finals of a very extravagant karaoke competition. The family was supporting a young fellow named “Alex” – so we all went, toting “Alex” signs (I felt very special). The bar was really cool inside, with lots of star-shaped glass lanterns. We arrived around 10, thinking that it might be over around 12… when actually the proceedings started around 11. So, needless to say, it was fun, could have been a lot more fun if we didn’t have to get up so early tomorrow to visit our next community!
Other exciting things of note:
We stocked up on toilet paper and christened the toilet after Montezuma – you should watch Michael’s explanatory video on Facebook about the Game of Thrones he and Montezuma are currently involved in down here in SMA. We also purchased an oscillating fan – which was a surprisingly long process considering we are medical students and not completely unintelligent. It is working now, but I had my doubts throughout the construction process. It is still very, very, very warm in our room, but it might be taking the edge off, just a bit, and the air movement might help deter some of the mosquitos.
We had, quite simply, one of the most delicious desserts of all time tonight. Mango champan, or something like that. Made from fresh mangos, it was chilled and very refreshing.
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