Monday and Tuesday (aka Clincic days 4 and 5) included many patient visits, approximately 125 per day, but also allowed for time for us to better understand Las Mercedes and the environment in which our patients live and work.
A little background- Las Mercedes is part of a co-op, which includes 13 communities in the Intebuca region. The co-op was formed 15 years ago with goals to improve education, health, and bolster economic progress for the communities. It is with this co-op and Heifer International that the clinic has been built.
Regino, the President of Las Mercedes (who personally donated his land for the building of the clinic) gave us a brief walking tour around Las Mercedes. And by walking tour, I mean a HIKE. During this hike we began to see our patients beyond their pathology and see their lives as well. Patients told us they walked 4 hours to get to the clinic, that only is beyond imaginable, but the paths are steep, rocky, and wind through mountains.
Not only is the terrain difficult to traverse, but the homes tell much of the patient’s story as well. 
Our most common patient would complain of tos, dolor de cuerpo, dolor de cabeza, dolor de estomago (cough, headache, body ache, stomach ache). When we visited their homes we saw the wood burning ovens which filled their homes with smoke (cough), we saw them working all day in the fields with more coffee on board than water (headache, bodyache), and then we saw the sanitation and impossibility for cleanliness, making way for parasites (stomach ache). Walking and talking with Regino provided us much insight into what we were seeing in the clinic every day. 
As an aside, Monday night we were walking up the hill to go to bed and saw a lot of smoke from across the ravine to a neighboring village, Belen. A few of us gathered together and told Regino about the fire, eager to help in any way possible. We all grabbed some headlamps and quickly began walking around the mountainside for a better view to see what was happening. We found a good look out point and Regino told us that it was ok. We didn’t know how to respond, the entire mountainside appeared to be on fire and we were doing nothing, and he said it was ok.
We all just watched the fire burn the side of the mountain. It was such an emotional experience to watch fire destroy a piece of the mountain. We worried so much about the people that might somehow need help on the other side of the ravine. What we were told that night was that it was very common to have fires this time of year when it was so hot and the land was so dry. The fire itself was in a different community, a few hours walk from where we were. It would be the community’s responsibility to handle the fire. It was too far for us to really get involved. We eventually walked back down to our Honduran home to fret over what we had seen. What we later learned, after so much fretting, was that it was actually a controlled burn for the upcoming planting of maize
It is Wednesday, and we have completed our work in Las Mercedes and hit the road to Copan. We ended up treating nearly 550 patients in the four and a half days of clinic! Dr. Clements further explained that that worked out to about 120 patients per person there! 
It has been a great experience for us all. Seeing and treating many different ailments, truly working together as an interdisciplinary team, and growing to understand the culture of the community. Last evening, we had a going away ceremony with the people of community. It was held in the church, across the way from the clinic, and people of all ages attended to thank us for our help and to wish us well in our endeavors in Copan and back home. The ceremony consisted of a few people of the community participating in thanking us for our service, followed by songs from the children. We also performed songs and skits that we had prepared. The closing of the ceremony was from the President of Las Mercedes, and he was very gracious for all that we had accomplished on our trip and done for their community over the last few years. It was a very special moment.
Currently, we are on the road to Copan. It was a very early morning due to the long journey we had ahead of us. More to come from Copan.