Bucaramanga, Colombia

Last Monday and Tuesday we traveled to Bucaramanga for the purpose of meeting with government and hospital officials to discuss the Neonatal recusistation training which will take place in October. We accompanied Dr. Jeff Zollinger and his wife Mary. We met with Health deparatment people from the state and the city as well as toured three hospitals that will participate in the training. We also went on a little tour of the city. Bucaramanga is famous for its shoes, leather, gold and silver and even baby clothes. There are two stakes in Bucaramanga and the NRT training will be held in a beautiful new stake center that opened its doors last week. These photos show us with the Zollingers in a city park in the colonial part of the city, including the cathedral. The other two photos show us meeting with city and Department (State) people. We took long tours of three hospitals (every hospital director wants to show you all of his facilities). All the health people in Bucaramanga are very excited about the NRT project. In the photo on the right of the top row, the young man standing next to Royal is a Department of Health executive and one of those overly-busy administrators who walk around with a blackberry in one hand and a cell phone in the other, both of which are ringing at all times.