Luchadores del Norte

Today I had my first day at work at Luchadores del Norte, a small clinic in the very poor barrio near my house. I was excited to finally get started working. Upon arrival, the place was packed, kids and mothers were streaming in and out and I could tell that the doctor that was going to train us was very busy. After the initial introductions he showed us how to take the height and weight of the patients and then took me outside for the eye exams. He wanted to use me as an example to show how it was done. Unfortunately I had slept on my glasses in Montañita and can´t see much of anything. As he goes down the sheet I kept shaking my head and the children (and some of their parents) started laughing at me. When I took over I had the kids stand in the right place with a piece of paper over their left eye first then their right. I began to realize that the hardest part is keeping everyone quiet. It seemed that half of the clinic´s visitors were reading along with the student that I was giving the exam to. Some of the parents were doing it without even noticing and when I scolded them they held their hand over their mouth in embarrasment. Needless to say, everyone was scoring very well and it appears that some of the poorest kids in the city have got the sharpest eyes.