Phew...we´re ready for bed after an amazing day!

Hi all!

We´ll we survived our first clinic day. Dan and I were split as we took 2 small groups to different locations. Dan told me he wants to tell all his stories in person (I really think it´s because he wanted to swim instead of type, but that´s okay.)

So, our day started early with breakfast and a bus ride to Palmaris. Me and about 8 other people got off there and started to work. We worked hard, sweat and all, until about 1 when we went to get lunch. Surprise surprise, it was beans, rice and chicken. About every meal has that here and I choose to stick to that because I´m not sure what the other meats are, but I want to know what I´m eating before I eat it, so beans, rice and chicken it is. Oh, that was lunch yesterday and dinner tonight, so as I write, I´m eating a pop tart and gatorade :-) mmmm

After lunch we went back and saw more people. I got to adjust my first pediatric patient today, saw lots of weird cyst-like things and found an irregular heartbeat on a old lady who says "when she gets up out of bed after sleeping, she reaches up in her closet to get something and feels weird...like she´s going to die." Nice, huh. So, needless to say, I adjusted her thoracics and lumbars, but no cervical adjustment for her. Hopefully she will get that all checked out and won´t die.

At about 4pm we packed up and headed about 15 miles back towards lencois. We stopped and they let us out of the bus onto a van which we all crammed into, drove up the side of a mountain, got out of the bus and proceeded to climb to the top of a mountain. Now, I think Brazilians forget we are lazy Americans, plus we aren´t used to 90 degree days and 8 hours of work all at once...while living off beans, rice and chicken. So, we made it, and most of us didn´t complain because a few of the group complained enough for us all. We took some amazing pictures and then climbed back down. Off to dinner we went and ate the same thing again. We then made it to the hotel, swam, finished clinic notes, SHOWERED (ahhh, its so amazing to shower after days like this) and am heading to bed.

Dan´s day in a nut shell (we are trading locations tomorrow, so we will experience this tomorrow I suppose) was clinic, lunch, clinic, a festival in town, to a alcohol maker´s house (I guess he makes awesome liquor), dinner with the best food ever (according to Dan...and Justice family you will be proud...it is carrot and pesto pizza), back to the hotel, swimming and swimming and swimming.

Off to bed we go and we will continue writing as we can. Also, if you want to see where we are, the hotel address is www.lencois.com/br (the pictures don´t quite do it justice though.)

Love to you all!

Off to a clinic day in the rain, though it is still about 80 at the moment. Went swimming, had a 2 hour dinner and an awesome breakfast with a few hours of sleep in there.

For those of you wondering, the Chili earthquake was far away from here, didn´t affect us and we are 6 (or 10) hours inland so if a tsunami happens to hit south america, we will be just fine.

We´ll update you tonight when we are back.

Love to all of you!

Lindsay and Dan

We´´ve arrived!

Hello friends and family! We just got to the hotel and are quickly writing to let you know that we are safe and sound and our trip has been amazing!

A few quick things...a 4-6 houur bus ride in Brazil is really about 10 hours (you were right Sarah!), but we have amazing people helping us along the way. Our flights were uneventful, which is awesome.

We´ve stopped to go to the bathroom and get drinks (which we had to squat and shake since they don´t provide toilet paper) and then ate at a local buffet for lunch. We then stopped to drop off food that we purchased with the money we raised (thank you to all of you for helping out) to home that were make of sticks and mud with 10-20 people living in about a 20x20 foot hut. What an experience.

We´re headed to the pool, dinner and clinic tomorrow. Hopefully we can write more tomorrow night and post some pictures.

We miss you and thanks for all your support to get us here! We love you!

Lindsay and Dan

Packing, Packing and more Packing...

Well, it's the day before we head to Brazil and we still have a ton to do. We've been preparing for our trip since last trimester and the day is almost here.

For those of you that don't know why we're headed to Brazil, we are part of the Clinic Abroad program at Palmer College of Chiropractic. For years, Palmer has sent groups of doctors and students to various countries to provide chiropractic care to those who do not have regular access to chiropractic, and some that don't have regular access to any healthcare, in order to spread the message of chiropractic and provide care to people throughout the world.

We have heard amazing stories from past trips and hope that we can touch some lives as well. The body, particularly coupled with chiropractic, has amazing healing potential and even though we may only get to adjust an individual once this year, that adjustment may change their life in more ways than we can imagine. After all, chiropractic began with a man having his hearing restored after a chiropractic adjustment.

So in this last day before we head off to the airport, please be praying for safe travels (not only for us, but for the groups headed to Manaus Brazil, Morrocco and Bequia), health and knowledge as we go to spread chiropractic to the world. Our motto is "adjusting the world, one spine at a time", so here we go!

I will be trying to update this blog throughout our travels, as long as internet is available and doesn't cost too much in Brazil. I look forward to talking to everyone when we get back on March 8th.