Other trees were cut to provide wood for the vast refugee camps just south of the town. Men continued to burn areas to corral and hunt the few remaining deer in the area. And loggers cut trees during the night to carry the wood illegally across the border. Without the trees, precious topsoil is washing away, hurting the growth of crops and causing shortages of food. One of the few foods farmers can sell is sugar, and the harvest only lasts two months each year.
Families have trouble paying for school uniforms and supplies to send their children to schools.
Still, some patients can't pay, and the Luke Society has set additional money aside for these cases. Her only assistant is Gregorio, a young man from nearby Santa Ana. With the help of the Luke Society and an indigenous aid organization, Gregorio spent a year in La Esperanza studying medicine. He had a small stipend for food, but he used it for his books instead and lived for a year mostly on Litrosol, a sugar and salt solution used to treat diarrhea. He's continuing his studies and hopes to eventually become the first doctor in Santa Ana.