What an incredible day. We journey over 2.5 hours to the community of

Montanuelas. Our team visited this village in October, and trust me, the drive

has not gotten any easier. The drive to this village is over an hour over bumpy,

rocky roads. Just imagine the roughest, most difficult road you've ever driven

on, multiply by 10, and then add sheer rock cliffs and incredible ridges and

views.

 This village has approximately 162 people. The majority of the houses have

latrines outside their homes with no electricity. The landscape is very rocky,

but the people are able to farm between the rocks. Most of the crops consist of coffee, corn and beans. The water source is a three hour walk away from the village!

Our numbers for the day were; medical-295, dental 15 patients with 36

extractions, eyes-39, deworming-155, vitamin A-39, and fluoride-5. The children had lots of cavities today.

The eye clinic was brought to tears today. An older woman came in who had

suffered severe burns to her face, arms and body. Her face was so badly

disfigured that she was missing an eye. Her eyesight with her one eye was so bad she couldn't see a face right in front of her. She told her story about falling

into a fire, but was still in such good spirits. Paul was able to fit her with a

pair of glasses that weren't perfect, but good enough that she could now see

faces! She was so excited she started crying. As she left the eye clinic we

could see her proudly displaying her new glasses.

Another touching moment happened in the dental clinic. One of our members, Bill, brought a harmonica on our trip. He is translating for our dentist, Ted, and has been playing tunes for the patients. One little boy hovered by the dental clinic all day. He watched the harmonica and would not take his eyes of Bill. At the end of the day the boy followed Bill out of the gate. Bill realized what the boy was interested in, and he let the boy play his harmonica. It was so beautiful to watch this happening, and the boy was just beaming afterwards.

As our bus drove away from the village the children kept running along the

ridge, waving to us and yelling. Even though the drive there is very difficult

for us, this village is very special to everyone.

well everyone has been getting along and how well we have all worked together. I was speaking today with a special friend, and asked "I wonder why not everyone wants to do this?" Because these trips are so special to me, why wouldn't everyone want to experience this? Her response, "I believe that everyone on this trip was called by God, for one reason or another. Whether we are here because of a passion for the country and people, or we are here because we need this experience for our own lives, God has called each of us." How perfect.

Mallory Williams for the FOBF/Harrisonburg Medical Mission Team