Riobangbang - Day 1 in Alao

Day 1 in the village of Alao (sounds like allow)
Altitude 10,200ft

Up early! Breakfast and our military people tripled. From three to ten.

Happy Villagers Waving Hello!

Off to the village. It was a solid hour and a half drive. Over half was gravel/dirt. Which isn't a big deal, except when there is so much moisture. The bus got stuck multiple times and we literally drove overtop of waterfalls breaking over the road. There was also the fun parts of the drive where the road wasn't visible when you looked out the window down the cliff face. And, the three bridges we crossed. Guarantee those are not up to code. Just close your eyes and pray. Thanks to the skill of our amazing military drivers we made it.

Our BIG Building

One of Many "Water Over Roadway"

The space they had for us was amazing! It was the largest I have seen in my time on these trips. Medical, lab, children, and the eye clinic were all in one building. While pharmacy and education, were in another. It was a huge pharmacy! Huge like 6'x7'. It was like being on the Oprah Winfrey show, except with drugs, "you get mebendazole, you get mebendazole, and yyyyyooooouuuuu get mebendazole!!!!" Mebendazole is used to treat worms from the unclean water. Our group did a great job. During the half day at Alao, we were able to see 72 patients.



The Line

Pharmacy (AKA a bedroom)

Alao is on a loop, so, we did not have to flip the bus around, thank goodness. But, we did manage to get stuck and slide around a bit on the way back down.
Katty is attempting to teach me the story of the spiritual bracelets in Spanish... yea, that's not going great.