The clinic days are exhausting to be sure – but Team Prep Day takes it to a new level.  Without the hard work of the entire group today – there would be no clinics in the week ahead.  The teams from all four departments, Medical, Dental, Pharmacy and Distribution, must plan, organize, unpack, take inventory, repack, label and complete a raft of other tasks to prepare for our first clinic early tomorrow morning.

The Dental team tested all their equipment and packed their supplies.  They’ll have a particularly early start tomorrow as they require more time to set-up on-site.

Pharmacy pulled in anyone who was available to continue counting and packaging thousands of both children’s and adult vitamins and other key medications.  This maximizes the efficiency of “picking and packing” when over 100 patients are lined-up to have their prescriptions filled.

In Distribution, hundreds of boxes of donated clothing, footwear, toys, glasses and household supplies we’re opened, logged, repacked and labeled.  This included a two hour trip to our nearby warehouse to load up the truck with supplies for at least the first two clinic days.

Finally, our Medics took stock of their equipment and supplies and met for 90 minutes to discuss process and treatments – all in the name of helping as many patients as possible tomorrow and in the coming days.

Thanks to our veteran leadership and the 10 hours of incredible effort from the entire team, the truck is now loaded and we’re ready for tomorrow.  We’re planning a team dinner tonight across from the hotel at a restaurant in San Salvador’s World Trade Center.  It’ll be a fun but early night as tomorrow, the real adventure begins.  We’re off to Joya Del Ceren, a rural community in dire need of our help. We’ll set up in the local school and, no doubt, the line-ups will be long – but we’re excited.  Tomorrow night, I’ll bring you an update and recount some of the more compelling stories of the day.  Stay tuned!  Now, I must consult one of the Medics about my carpal tunnel syndrome (thank goodness the pill counting is over!!).