Our week in Moquegua

It’s Friday, February 27th, and Will and I just returned form our 2nd mission. This one was shorter than the last – only Monday thru Thursday – since I took the fist week of the mission off for medical reasons.

Moquegua was a small town, very calm compared to Arequipa’s crazy traffic. My job changed, as did Will’s. Instead of working in the pharmacy, I helped Cathy in Salud Integral playing with the children. My job was to take them into my room, have them color, do math or teach them English and play a little bit, and then give them toys as a reward. It also helped to keep them entertained while their parents had to wait in line for the doctor’s appt or attend Salud Integral.

3 Canadians in our group got a large donation of toys from a toy store in Canada so I had a lot of toys to give away (3 bags full). Because they were active children, I also took them outside to play baseball, Frisbee, or play with the legos and cars. Will got to be a translator for one of our doctors. So he didn’t get to take as many photos this round since he was very occupied helping patients. We had another photographer in the group, so he hopes to get some photos from her so that he can put them on the MMI website.

Overall it was a fun group. The Municipality of Moquegua provided food and housing for us, so we stayed in a nice hotel. Unfortunately, both our lunches and dinners came from restaurants, so it was a lot of food and it wasn´t too good.

We were all invited to their town hall, and the Mayor made us citizens of Moquegua and gave us little fancy pins. So that was nice. We were unable to help everybody who came to the clinic, they were just too many people, but overall we helped nearly 1,300 people.

I got sick again, but I’m hoping it’ll pass quickly. I am a little worried that this will happen every time I go on a mission, but let’s hope my body gets stronger. And other than that, my Spanish is getting better, especially my comprehension, but my conversation is better as well, I am able to communicate with people, and they usually understand me.

Anyways, I’m going to go rest.

AND PICTURES!!!!