Tular is a sleepy village close to San Lorenzo, Valle. It is a dust bowl with little more than a few schools, a police post, a NICE library and a couple of pulperias. A pulperia is a small mom and pop, usually mom only store in the front room of a house. They sell a plethora of small items like coke, coffee, sugar by the cup, cornmeal for tortillas, matches, aspirin, dry beans, churros (chips in small packages), toilet paper, maybe some very small packets of spices, maybe eggs and possibly even dried milk in packets. Rarely does a pulperia have a freezer or a refrigerator. Once they have the luxury of those electrical conveniences, they are considered mercaditos (meaning small market).
Chepe Benavides explains to the people how the free surgery program works.
Victor Montoya takes a quick break and checks out the lines outside.
We had a volunteer sitting outside taking names and keeping people in line.
People are perfectly content to wait outside under a tree until their turn to see the eye “doctor”.
Rolando fits the people for eyeglasses when they need them.
Cataract patients are then sent to COVA for free surgery about a month later.
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