It's been a long time

April 7, 2011

I know its been a while since you have heard from me and there's no need for explaining, but I'll feel better spitting it out.

Wednesday morning Rach shared her morning devotion with me and made me want to share what I had been repeating in my mind.

I told her that previously I decided to make a list of reasons as to why i hadn't blogged. I REALLY wanted to know. My list began with surface excuses: laziness, no computer, not enough time, etc. As I kept adding to my list, the reasons became more realistic and true. I realized that my frustration, disappointment, and true feelings where coming out. I was upset at the fact that I felt fake when I would blog. Yes, much of the stuff I had written was true, but it was more of a "fluffy" version --words written down to please my audience. The true knitty, gritty stuff is what I kept inside my journal. I felt that because I have an audience I would be judged for what they would read. I wanted them to read what an "ideal" mission experience is like. I wanted to write a "better" me.

I desired to sound intellectual, witty, and eloquent --not what I found in my journal. Being able to write like people that I admire had become my goal and I didn't want to accept any less. In reality I wished to be someone else and I wasn't excited for who I was. I'm simple minded and with few words. Yeah, I can sit down and talk with anyone about superficial things, but when it comes to deep discusions... let's just say I loose my words. I struggle with publicly announcing my thoughts and feelings. When I want to come up with something smart to say, I have to run it and rerun it several times in my head before expressing it out loud . For example, what I'm writing now was a discussion I had with Rach and it's a discusion I played in my head several times before spitting it out. It takes time and I don't like it. I want to live life and be able to write and speak about my thoughts as if it where easy as breathing.

So without really knowing these feelings, I stopped blogging. I merely made excuses.

As a child I grew up talking about daily things; our discusions never centered around intellectual topics. We never sat down and had a family discussion about Mozart or world polotics. It's not a horrible thing, but I wish I was better at having those types of discussions. I wasn't accepting that part of myself. As I journaled these thoughts, I felt God telling me that there was no need to worry or fret. He accepts me for who I am. Accepting my method of thinking, I decided that God would be the one to grant me wisdom as I live through different experiences. To make things even better, Wednesday morning Rachel read me this:

God made you you-nique. Secular thinking, as a whole, doesn't buy this. Secular society sees no author behind the book, no architect behind the house, no purpose behind or beyond life. It simply says, "You can be anything you want to be."

Be a butcher if you want to, a sales rep if you like. Be an ambassador if you really care. You can be anything you want to be. But can you? If God didn't pack within you the meat sense of a butcher, the people skills of salesperson, or the world vision of an ambassador, can you be one? An unhappy, dissatisfied one perhaps. But a fulfilled one? No. Can an acorn become a rose, a whale fly like a bird, or lead become gold? Absolutely not. You cannot be anything you want to be. But you can be everything God wants you to be.

Max Lucado, Cure for the Common Life

Society makes me think that I need to be an eloquent writer and deliver no less. But I'm not and God is ok with that. And so am I.

Each of us is an original. Even when it comes to writing or speaking or whatever it may be.

Galatians 5:26 (The Message and a little of me)

Lots of rain along with some action

The past week it rained almost every day. Along with the rain came cooler weather, and I have loved every bit of it. Not only did we get rain, but we also got a lot of action.

On the first morning of rain we heard “parto” coming from outside our fence. “Parto!” A man was standing outside our fence yelling “birth.” It was 5:30 AM and the girls got up to get ready for the new baby. Unfortunately, I had just battled a fever that same night so I wasn’t feeling strong enough to help out. All I know is that while the mom was in the room hooked up to an IV it was raining cats and dogs outside. I never heard a thing, not the mom yelling or the baby’s first cry. I was a bit sad, but I knew that it wasn’t going to be the only women giving birth in our clinic.

As the days came so did the rain. It would not let up. Due to the rain we didn’t see very many patients. All the roads where full of barro (mud), making it very difficult for patients to come and for us to leave the clinic. There were some nights when we were unable to attend VBS because of the bad roads.

The birth wasn’t the only exciting thing we saw. I got to witness a circumcision of a 6 year old boy. Due to an infection he had he was unable to urinate and it was causing him lots of pain. The only way to help was to remove part of the foreskin and give him his antibiotics.

This week we should be having two other women coming in to give birth. I’m super excited! And this time I’m not missing out. So hopefully next week I can update my blog to let you know how it went.

Los Mangos

January 10-14, 2011

This past week we were at Km 6, La Gran Villa de Manantay or Los Mangos, holding a medical and evangelistic campaign. It’s been one of the busiest and tiring weeks of my life. But at the same time I have been blessed in so many ways. From Monday to Friday we have been pulling 8+ hours attending patients with dental and medical care. Our team may be small but we sure know how to work hard.

Considering we have a clinic at Porto Carrero we couldn’t stop attending patients there. So we had to split up the team. Luis, Rachel, and Dr. Cecilia stayed at Porto Carrero and the rest of us worked at Km 6. When the morning shift was through the team at Km 7 joined us for the afternoon shift.

In the dental side Lauren and Rebecca were cleaning/extracting teeth left and right. In the pharmacy Anthony and I were handing out meds like crazy. We were trying our hardest to keep up with the Doc. Once the shots started coming in all hope was lost. Ha ha. While Anthony handed out the meds I devoted my time to giving shots. Shot, shot, shot… It seemed like it would never end. I averaged 30 shots a morning. And the numbers would only increase in the afternoon when both doctors would prescribe multiple shots. I was giving shots to patients in my sleep.

Between shots I had to find time to do different procedures, like: scraping out infection from wounds, bandaging wounds, taking out nails, washing out tons of ears, taking out and putting in sutures, and the occasional translating. And I would always have those patients who would be like, “Doctorsita [little doctor] please explain to me how to take this drug.” Always going, going, going.

I was always thankful when Rachel would arrive in the afternoon. We have been working together since day one and this whole separation thing was not cool. But when we were together we were invincible. Keeping up with the Doc wasn’t so impossible. While she gave a shot I could be giving one as well. I don’t want to boast, but the Doc has turned us into machines when we are in the pharmacies.

If there was ever a question on a drug: the dosage, how many days to take it, its effects, what it was for, etc. We knew the answer. Of course there were those times when we had no clue and we had to ask the Doc.

I am BEYOND grateful for all that I have learned from working in these campaigns. And for all that the Doc has shown and taught us. Thank You!

It’s not over yet. Once we closed and packed up the pharmacy we had to meet up at the tent to gather all the kids. It was time for VBS. In total there was about 50 or more kids. We would start all together with songs. They loved to sing and that was the most entertaining part of it all. Then we would split them up in two groups: 8 and up and 8 and under. The older kids would study out of a booklet with Dr. Cecilia and Rebecca. The rest of us worked with the younger kids. We would sing, tell them a story, and then do a craft relating to the story. Once the kids program was done we would join the adults for their program. The hard part was trying to keep the kids quiet while the adults listened.

In the adults program we would sing, listen to a small message, have special music, and then at the end Domingo would have the main topic for the night. Occasionally I would give the 5 minute health chat. I did topics like: how to make a healthy salad, washing your hands, drinking water, etc.

When the day was done, we were all exhausted and ready to hit the bed. Once my head touched the pillow I was out and when my alarm would go off, I felt as if I had just laid down.

Blessings:

*The patients who thank you after you give them a shot.

*The smiling kid after you show him the large piece of wax you washed out of his ear.

*The strength God supplies you with to continue on.

*The meals of each day that the hands prepared. Boy would we get hungry by the time 2PM rolled around.

*All the smiling kids at VBS.

*The nice people who would offer you a free ride, food, cold, water, etc.

*The mom who thanks you for her kids medicine

*Our team working hard and together

*The home we could retrieve to when it was time to rest

*And many more blessings

Struggles and Searching for the Truth

Traveling in a bus during vacation gave me a lot of time to think. Time to think about where I was, where I used to be, and where I plan to be. Mentally and spiritually that is. As the scenery would pass by in front of me different moments in time would pass by inside of my head. I went far back as to when I was a child and dreamed of becoming a doctor. The days when anything seemed possible in a worry free world. I reminisced about the days at WACA (Wichita Adventist Christian Academy) when I met new friends, gained new responsibilities, but yet still young enough not to have to worry. Then my mind took me to Loveland, Colorado where the circle of friends only got bigger. I was away from home for the first time in my life. At first it wasn’t easy, but as soon as I got the hang of things, life was as simple as pie. Of course there was the occasional drama and stress over homework. The stress had a good purpose, because with good grades you could get a scholarship for college.

College. One of the best things that has happened to me. A wonderful environment called Union College where you can blossom and work hard to become what you’ve always dreamed of. More new friends who are dreaming of the same career, study groups, clubs, and so much more. If you desire to leave the country and serve God, you can do that too. Here in Peru I have a new family and friends. I’ve experienced so much and have learned even more.

All this time I’ve been blessed in so many ways. I have been taught to love my family, to love my neighbor, and to love my God. Growing up as a Seventh Day Adventist I’ve been surrounded by many good people who have taught me all I know. But all of a sudden I have hit this strange hole in the road. Unfamiliar with it I don’t know how to do deal with it. I don’t even know how to pray about.

Two weeks before Christmas break I was really struggling. Not wanting to deal with the confusion I pushed my feelings away, only to make me irritable at small things. I figured, “Maybe I’m just tired and I need a break. Hang in there Steph, break is almost here.” Break came and went and I only felt worse. It was in a bus when I found what was missing and what was irritating me. This truth that is in my mind is no longer in my heart. All these great things that I know have lost their meaning. The passion is gone. I got scared. All these years of knowledge and truth, is all just a waste? I felt like a horrible missionary portraying to be a Christian. How can I do my job here in Peru if I don’t have the passion for the truth?

I decided to talk to a friend about it. Funny thing was that we were both feeling the same way. It’s somewhat of a blessing for me. I was able to talk with her and relate with her. We pretty much came to a conclusion that we both want to search out this truth. We know the passion is deep inside us somewhere; we just need to find it. So I made a very specific prayer to God one morning.

“Lord, I want to know the truth. I want to search it out and study it. I want to have the passion for it and share it with others. However, I have no idea where to start.”

I opened my Bible randomly and landed to John 15:1, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardner.” I was encouraged by the passage and asked the Lord to continue guiding me in this search. I’ve been following a 3 Track Reading Plan in search for the truth. I know that it’s in His word and that with his guidance I will have that passion once again.

Uno Mas

December 4, 2010:

Second Sabbath at Km 8. This Saturday we had many more members attend the service. We had at least 6 adults and about 15 kids! We more than doubled our membership. It was oh so beautiful. I had the greatest time leading out children Sabbath school with Lauren and Rachel. The other wonderful part was the fact that Chris, Jonathan, and Lyn decided to join us for our service.

For Sabbath school we learned about the time when Jesus calmed the storm for his disciples. The kids loved the story and to remember the story we built origami boats. When that was done we all learned Psalms 56:3 For when I am scared I put my trust in you. From the smiles on all the little faces I think Sabbath school went well J

We continued our service with songs, offering, and more singing. Then Lyn had the sermon for us with Dr. Cecilia translating. It was wonderful! I enjoyed this service very much and as far as I could tell I think the members did too. Once church was done we all got ready to head towards Ivan Sick.

Gady, from Ivan Sikic, had invited us to their 4^th year church anniversary. Considering we are cheap we all (6 people) crammed into the smallest taxi and headed to Ivan Sikic. They prepared us a delicious lunch and treated us with great hospitality. We introduced Lyn to everyone there and they all became good friends with him. When we finished eating we headed to the church to get seats for the concert. We arrived an 1 hour early, hoping that they would start early. Ha ha. What were we thinking? As usual the program started an hour after it had been scheduled. At this concert we heard members from different churches sing with beautiful voices. And to our lovely surprise, they later called us to give a special music. So we did, then they said, “uno mas” one more.

By the end of the program we had sang 8 times. We did duets, trios, and then all of us together. It was a lot of fun singing and listening to others perform. At the end of the concert we all enjoyed home made cake J It was pretty yummy.

Rabbit rabbit

December 1, 2010:

The first day of December. I can’t believe how fast time is flying.

I just wanted to write about our friend Vilfredo. He’s the little boy that came to us a week ago in a very bad condition; very dehydrated and malnourished. Well since that day he has gained 2 more kg and he’s looking a lot better. His cheeks are fuller and his skin isn’t peeling anymore. His hair looks fuller and he’s got more energy in his little body. From speaking with his mother we know that he’s now eating solid foods and drinking his milk at least 4 times a day. Lauren even caught a picture of him smiling J

It just makes my heart smile every time he comes in. I will continue to update his progress as time goes by.

New neighbors too

November 28, 2010:

This evening we went out to meet our neighbors and let them know of our Tuesday evening event. We walked to the nearest house to ours and talked with anyone that we could find. Everyone that we met and talked to was very nice and hospital. They all offered us a seat and even a little treat. We sat with them for a good 15 minutes and just chatted. We swapped names and they told us about their families. After our visitations there was one man in particular who touched my heart.

His name is Pedro. Thankfully, it’s a very easy name for me to remember. When we first arrived to a fenced area we called out, “Hola?” We then heard a funny voice answer back, “Hola.” We smiled at each other and walked in. We found a man who looked like he was in his fifties – we later found out he was 75 – just working away. He had a shovel in his hands and was clearing away weeds that were starting to grow around his plants. We told him what we were doing and we immediately hit it off. When we asked him what he was doing he got very excited and began sharing with us all his hard work. He even gave us a tour of all that he had done. He showed us his papaya trees, his planted wheat, rice, aguaje tree, yuka plants, and so much more. He even explained how he would gather some of his produce. After his tour he invited over to his house for a little treat.

At his house we enjoyed curichi. Curichi is a popular frozen treat amongst the Peruvians. It is aguaje juice poured in plastic little bags and then frozen. As we ate our delicious treat we admired his small yet beautiful house. He had a fence around his home with beautiful flowers at the entrance of his home. Of course, all the flowers he had planted and cared for himself. Looking inside his house, it was very clean and organized. We also got to enjoy listening to him talk about his story. It was actually very entertaining. When he would talk about his dogs he would act out exactly how they would act. You would have to been there.

After enjoying his presence, I remembered why I loved doing this. We have the chance to meet all these people and add them to our lives. Just by listening to their struggles and victories in life is such a blessing. It teaches me how to connect with others by sympathizing, laughing, or being excited with them. I’m excited for the many more families we have left to visit.

New home = New church

November 27, 2010:

First Sabbath at Km 8. When we were told that we had to lead out church at Km 8, I was scared and sad. This meant that we would no longer be part of our current church L All the people we had bonded with would no longer be part of our Sabbath experience. And I had never lead out a church before…

But that’s the point of being a missionary. Sometimes you have to do things you’ve never done before and trust God that He’ll lead you. So that’s what I decided to do. I said, “God, I have no clue what I’m doing, but I ask that you guide us and bless us.”

So that week we planned out a church service. We prepared hymns, special music, offering, Sabbath school, a sermon, and more. We also let our patients know that we were going to have church that upcoming Sabbath. By Saturday morning we had the whole service written on a piece of paper.

The service went a little like this:

Rachel had the welcome, announcements, and opening prayer.

We sang four hymns and broke into two groups to have Sabbath school. Cecilia took the adults while Lauren, Rachel, and I took the kids.

We then sang some more.

Cecilia had the offering call and the children’s story.

Rachel, Lauren, and I sang a hymn for special music.

I had the sermon.

We sang our closing hymn.

Cecilia closed the service with a prayer.

It went well, not as we had planned, but I do believe God still blessed. We had a total of 7 people come and join us; three adults and four kids. We’ll continue letting our patients know that we have a church service on Saturdays along with Bible studies in the near future. We want to reach out to our community both medically and spiritually.

My favorite day

November 25, 2010:

Thanksgiving day. I am very grateful that we were given this day off so that we could celebrate my favorite day of the year.

Being in Peru didn’t change the fact that it’s still my favorite. Yeah things would be different, but being here has opened my eyes to new things to be grateful for. Being in Peru has given me a deeper meaning of Thanksgiving.

We started our day by collecting money from everyone and then heading shopping for the food. Lauren and Rachel left to buy the turkey while Jenessa and others left to buy the rest of the stuff and pick up the mail. We were very excited to see what our families had sent us in the Thanksgiving packages. So now I just want to say thank you to all the parents who made our Thanksgiving meal possible and delicious.

Lauren and Rachel returned with a complete, pail, dead turkey. Lauren being the master chef took the responsibility of cleaning it out and preparing it for the oven. She pumped milk into to it, added the seasonings, and wrapped it up. She had planned to prepare it and then send it to Campo Verde so that someone could roast it. When the rest of the gang arrived we all filled the kitchen to help out with the other preparations. Some peeled potatoes, others chopped veggies, and some stirred deliciousness over the stove. We were a team of busy bees while listening to Christmas tunes. When the food was about done Hanna, Rachel, and I decided to decorate for the special dinner. We laid out the tablecloth and plates that Mrs. Downey had sent us. They were decorated with very cute and funny turkeys. Thanks Mrs. Downey J We then cut out leaves of different colors and hung them off the rafters. It turned out so beautiful, we were very proud of ourselves.

Unfortunately, the chicos didn’t get the whole day off. However, when they finished working, Hanna and I joined them in a game of soccer. Considering it had rained earlier that day everything was muddy and slippery. Let’s just say that by the end of the game Hanna and I were ready for our showers. Oh and I forgot to mention that I scored my first goal J

All cleaned up I joined the rest of my family in the other house. With all the food laid out in the middle of the table it made me so happy just walking in. We had invited everyone that is part of our new family. In total it’s almost 30 of us. As we finally all arrived, Jenessa offered a prayer for the food and we all sat to enjoy our wonderful feast. We had: turkey, stuffing, cranberries, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, and many more yummy things. When we were about done eating we all went around the table and said what we were thankful for. It was such a wonderful day!

Like I said before, being here has made me very grateful for many things that I would normally take for granted.

*Running water

*A roof over my head

*The food of every meal

*The rain that we receive to cool us off

*Our protection

*My good health

*Moments to relax and take a breath

*The smiles of our patients

But I will never take for granted my families at home that love and care for me. The mission here and everyone that makes it possible. The love of our God.

Slinky worn out

November 16-20, 2010:
This week has been tough. Yeah there were good days but there were also some hard ones. I write this because I feel it’s important to write down when I have a bad day and when I have difficulties. I may seem to be strong in tough situations, but there are definitely moments when I break down. I’m human too and even the small things can get to me just like anyone else.

This week we had a medical campaign at our new home. We had a lovely pharmacy with medicine, a consultation office, and a dental room all ready to go. As soon as the word got out that we were having a free medical campaign the flood of people poured in. Once again women were bringing in their 7 kids and other relatives. It made me happy to be able to attend to so many families. However, we quickly ran out of vitamins and worm medicine. This alone began to frustrate me…

The new doctor is very nice and she speaks English. It’s really nice being able to communicate in both languages if I wish. So far she has taught me a lot. She’s allowed me to sit with her as she sees patients, shown me how to do different exams, shown me what to look for and what is not normal in patients.
We saw many different cases. Some people just had headaches and tummy aches, but some were in worse shape. As usual we gave many shots to help with pain and severe infections. There was one case in particular that tore my heart.

It was Friday and a young man came in with his aunt and her baby. The mother spoke very little Spanish because she was from a jungle tribe. Her one-year-old baby only weighed 3kg! That’s about 6 pounds. His skin hung on his little bones, his face was sunken in, and he moved very slow compared to a healthy one year old. His skin was peeling severely and in some areas it was losing its pigment. Rachel and I were shocked. We had never seen anything like this, only in our schoolbooks.
The Doctor asked questions and found out that his only diet to that day was his mother’s milk. He was very malnourished and dehydrated. His condition was so severe that we had to do something quick. We figured that the quickest way to help him out was to give him electrolytes and an antibiotic through an IV. Trying to find a big enough vein was impossible. We finally found a vein in his foot that looked big enough to do the job. Rachel and I were sweating bullets because we were so nervous. Sure we had both learned to do IV’s. Yeah we had poked a few people, but they were all healthy. This baby was severely dehydrated and did I mention he was a baby. We had never imagined ourselves starting an IV on a patient such as this.
I was the first to attempt. As I stuck the needle into his skin it felt like rubber. It was hard to put the needle in and even harder to thread the catheter. Fail. Luckily the vein on his other foot looked like it would do. So Rachel went for the second try. Once again, no success. Our needles weren’t small enough and we didn’t have the right tools to do the job. Luckily for us Doc arrived and took a look at him.
We finally ended up buying him Pediasure and Complex B, hoping that with better nourishment he could improve. I also accompanied the mother with her baby to the laboratory in Pucallpa. They took his blood, feces, and urine to run tests. The Doc wanted to see exactly what he had. We have yet to know what the results are. We hope that by Monday we may have them.

We were told that from now on we would run a clinic in the mornings and then have public health classes in the evenings. The public health would be a variety of things: lectures at the clinic, visits at home, activities, and much more. Then every Saturday we are going to lead church service. On top of all that we began to plan our water, food, and transportation.
So many new responsibilities, new difficulties, new things to get used to. I couldn’t help myself but feel a little overwhelmed. Is it ok to feel like this? Yes I can be flexible, I’ve done it before. But when you get hit with a huge sack of potatoes it tends to hurt a little. Well, that’s how I feel.
I’ll just break down the details.
Thankfully we have running water. The catch is that the water falls at random times; times that we don’t normally shower and that’s when we really want it. So we turn on the water and fill our two buckets so that we may have water to shower with, drink, and cook with. We have one bathroom and it’s almost full. There are a ton of mosquitoes and as far as I know, they love my blood. There are only three small rooms in our house. One is the boys room, one is the kitchen, and the third one holds four girls. Not the easiest or most posh living conditions.

I’ve realized that Friday evenings and Saturdays are my hardest times. I miss vespers at UC and I really miss my family and friends on Saturdays. Saturdays here are never restful. There is always something that we must do: lead out in Sabbath school, special music, sermon, and so on. Then As soon as4pm rolls around we are completely in charge of JA. All the games, activities and messages has to be done by us the missionaries. It really burns you out. Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy leading out. But I can’t do it EVERY Saturday. I feel like I never rest, not even on the day that God gave me. Once again, is it ok to feel like this? I know missionaries are to do it all, but we are humans too and we get tired too.

Even though I try hard to be happy it feels fake. The smile on my face is only a mask. I don’t know if I’m burning out. I probably am. This past week I’ve really been missing home. My family, friends, the fall, the cool brisk weather, I miss it all. I think it’s hitting me now especially because its getting closer to the holidays.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that I know I’m going through that really hard part of being an SM. Many student missionaries have probably felt this way. I don’t ask for sympathy, just for understanding and prayers. Only God can supply we enough strength, patients, and passion to continue on.

Fixing our new home

November 8, 2010:

Today Rachel, Lauren, and I worked at Km 8. We cleaned the three bedrooms: swept, dusted, and made sure the beds were cleaned. We were told that the new doctor lady was arriving this week. I’m not sure when that day will be. But I’m very excited for her arrival.

Our new home has no running water, one toilet, no shade, lots of dirt… there is a lot of work to do. It will not be easy, but we will do our best to improve our new home. The only thing holding us back is the money, of course. However, I have complete trust in God that He will provide.

Sadly, Rachel wasn’t feeling her best. And things only got worse towards the evening. On our way home she threw up. After thinking about it, we believe it was the bad mango that caused her to feel sick. Now we pray that this will pass, that she will regain her strength, and that our Rachel may return.

So what I do know:

*Our new mission is to clean up our new home and get it get ready for us to live in it.

*This coming Sunday we will start a medical campaign. Sun-Fri.

November 9, 2010:

Tuesday. Because Rachel wasn’t feeling well, it was only Lauren and I who went and worked at Km 8 with the chicos. While the guys worked hard making frames for the walls and doors, Lauren and I sawed planks of wood. These planks would then be hammered onto the frames to make the walls. For an hour we sawed about 15 planks.

We then went and had lunch at a restaurant nearby. We were served horse soup. The soup itself was very tasty, but the horse was not. We then had a very delicious dish made of: rice, tomatoes, potatoes, and onions. The dish is called Lomo. Loved it J It was a very nice and clean restaurant.

As soon as we finished lunch we headed back and started working again. This time Luaren and I had a technique figured out. We worked much faster and more efficient. We sawed about 90 boards in 3 hours! Of course towards the end of the day I could feel my arms and back weakening. When we finished working we headed towards to Pucallpa. Lauren and I used the Internet while the chicos picked up supplies for the next day. An hour later we were on the road back home.

It was a good workday. I truly feel like I’ve accomplished a lot.

November 10, 2010:

Wednesday. This time it was us three girls back at it again. Thankfully Rachel was feeling much better. Today we did less sawing and more nailing. Our first job in the morning was to finish the shower. Lucho, Lauren, and I worked on it for about two hours. Our new shower is pretty much a small black box “La cajita negrita.” The wall frames are made of wood and wrapped around the frame is a thick black tarp. The floor is made of wood and that’s it. The plan is to bring in a bucket of water and shower with that. Or we might later work on rigging the solar shower that Rachel has. Like I said our new home has a lot of work that needs to be done. But its turning out really good and we all have great ideas for improvement.

I really like this work. It feels so fulfilling because I will be living inside of the walls that my hands have been building.

After the shower was done we did some cleaning. The Doctor then stopped by and brought us lunch. We ate, rested, read a little, and then headed back to work. This time we all worked really hard in finishing the three rooms. Two teams worked on nailing the planks to make the walls. All I have to say is that my partner Daniel is a machine. I wish I could have recorded him working. He worked so fast and well. A third team worked on finishing the doors and a fourth team worked on the electrical wiring of the rooms.

Another reason I really like this work is because I’m learning a lot of new things. Construction of houses has always interested me and now I can actually learn and do it. Of course I can’t really build a house in the USA with the skills I’ve learned here. Houses here are much more simpler and faster to make. But at least I have learned the basics.

We had another long day of work. But our hard work paid of. We were able to finish the three rooms! It felt so good.

Elvita meets Yerbas

November 06, 2010:

Yerbas and Elvita. This Saturday instead of our usual church service we had a special program set up. My church, Yerbas Buenas, had invited the church members of Santa Elvita to join us for the whole day. As we pulled in it was so awesome to see all of our benches filled with members. I even noticed some new faces J We first started with some hymns and shaking of hands. We then split into our groups and started Sabbath school. Jenessa, Hanna, Rachel, and Rebecca led out the children’s class. I led out the youth’s class and Doc led out the adults class. This week we studied about David and Bathsheba and we discussed the difference between Urias and King David.

Once we were finished with Sabbath school we went straight to the church service. We sang some hymns, picked up offering, had special music, and so on. At the time of special music there were three groups that sang. First us SM’s sang “How deep the Father’s Love for Us,” the children of Elvita sang a hymn with two part harmony, and we had a duet from Yerbas. We then listened to Hermana Welfa as she gave the sermon.

Once church was done we all got together and had my first Peruvian potluck. Our house prepared pasta and tea. Others family brought food like rice, beans, chicken, and juanes. We all sat outside and enjoyed sharing our food. Once we were all done eating we went back inside the church and watched Gifted Hands in Spanish. After the movie we started JA (Adventist Youth). However, it wasn’t only the youth, the whole church participated. We sang, played, games, and listened to a small message from the Doc.

It was a very wonderful Sabbath, but I must admit it was a bit tiring.

When we got home I had the Doc take a look at some of my cuts and manchas (spots). I was told that I have a type of fungal infection on my face that’s causing the manchas and staph which is why I have infected wounds. So after relieving some puss from one of my cuts he told me to take antibiotics and ibuprofen. I can now truly relate with the people that I help in the medical campaigns. Ha ha And no worries, I´m doing very well and I´m in good hands.

Later that evening, Rebecca, Jonathan, and I accompanied Jenessa to a Quincenera she was invited to. I had my expectations of what it could be. I don’t know why I even bothered ha ha I had told myself to leave all my expectations behind a few weeks ago. When we arrived to the home of Angelica her mother sits us down and serves us all “chicken” soup. I wasn’t hungry at all, but I didn’t want to be rude so I started to eat. Before I knew it I had scooped out a chicken heart, the aorta and everything. Ha ha As the people around me where starring at us eat I couldn’t just toss it to the dog. So… I did it. I cut the heart in half and ate it. Yuck. Not the best thing in the world. Oh well ha ha. As we continued to eat, I noticed that some of the meat looked different. It didn’t quite look like chicken. Before I put it in my mouth Rebecca tells me, “Steph, I have guinea pig in my soup.” And then I’m like, “What?!” ha ha I looked at her bowl and she had an entire guinea pig head in her soup. She showed me the brains and everything. I couldn’t help myself from gasping and laughing. I tried really hard not to look disgusted. I didn’t want to offend the family. And before I could say anything else, I saw Rebecca eat the brains and anything else she could. Groose! Ha ha I couldn’t believe it.

Other things we found in our soups:

Chicken feet (Johnathan’s bowl), chicken kidneys (Rebecca’s bowl), and the butt of the guinea pig (Jenessa’s bowl).

It was an eating adventure for sure. Rebecca the food explorer ate it all ha ha. I ate the vegetables, rice, and chicken heart. That was all I could do. We then moved outside to where all the other people where at. We sat and listened to the evangelical band set up their audio. An hour passed and nothing had happened. Then it started to rain so we all moved inside the house and sat. Two hours had passed and nothing yet. We were so tired and we wanted to go home REALLY bad. But we hadn’t seen Angelica and we didn’t want to be rude by leaving. Finally, after sitting for four hours, the ceremony began. It was the longest ceremony I had ever been to. There was a lot of repetition, SUPER loud music, and much more. Then when it came time where everyone could go up front and congratulate her, we went and told her happy birthday and then headed out the door. I was super bummed that we had been there for five hours and I never got to try the cake. Ha ha As we were about to get in the truck the mom comes out and says, “Wait, wait, I have food for you.” So we went inside and waited a little longer. I didn’t mind waiting for some cake. Then she came out of the kitchen and handed us all plates of food; rice and more chicken. She told us that this was the food that everyone was going to eat after the games. Games? How much longer was this party going to last. We thanked her for the food and her hospitality and then left. There was no way we could stay any longer. We were beyond exhausted.

Upset that I didn’t get any cake, all I could do was laugh and get in the truck. I was relieved just to be going back home.

Boy what a long day.

Substitues!

November 2-4, 2010:

We taught! Because Jenessa left to Lima with Hanna and Chris Kusay (I have no idea if that’s how you spell his last name), Rachel and I had to be her substitutes. Wow. What an experience. I am positive that I couldn’t handle doing it any longer. Let’s just say that I am very happy with my position J

There were two different schools we had to teach at. One was at Santa Elvita and let me tell you, I saw some crazy stuff. In a 1 hour period I saw everything. Kids fighting, jumping on you, touching you, screaming, running around, crying, things unthinkable… The ages were from 5-8 and the majority of them were 5-6. At first I thought that they were acting this way because we were the substitutes, but Jenessa later told us that they are almost always like that. Wow, power to you Jenessa.

So at Snt. Elvita we were supposed to teach them their numbers in English, Rachel and I split the class into two groups. We hoped that this would lessen the chaos. It did for about 3 minutes. I taught the 7-8 year olds the numbers 20-30. And Rachel taught the 5-6 the numbers 1-10. It took us an hour to teach them ten numbers. It was a different adventure for sure. We left the school completely exhausted.

We then had to teach Yerbas Buenas. A completely different world. I couldn’t believe it. These kids were so well behaved; we actually loved teaching them. They paid attention, participated, and all around were great students. We also taught them English. In fact, we taught them how to present themselves, how to say goodbye, how to ask and tell time, and 10 different foods. We got some much done!

Overall, this was a completely new adventure for Rachel and I. And there was never a dull moment. Even though some kids made us want to pull our hair out, we just loved the little hugs we received at the end of the day. And it made things better. I really fell in love with several of them. We both learned many new things. Things like:

*Education is a very important thing.

*It’s not as it seems.

*Sometimes you have to be firm, even with the cutest kid.

*If you promise them something, they will NEVER forget

*Kids will be kids

*You just got to love them J

Nueva Tunuya

October 24, 2010:

Sunday clinic in Nueva Tunuya. Last night Rachel and I packed all the meds and equipment and even got to bed at 9 PM! We are doing so much better! We knew the Doc had said he wanted to be out of here by 7 AM, so we wanted to have plenty of sleep and be ready to go.

It was 7 AM and Rachel and I were ready to go. However, our new addition to our family wasn’t ready to go. This new addition that I mention is a 22 year old Toyota van. She/He has many names, but to me she is known as Gordita. After a long push from all of our guys she was ready to do her job; transport the team. We loaded all of our trunks full of meds and gear onto the truck. Some of us went in the truck and the others loaded into Gordita. As I proudly sat inside our new friend, we made our way towards Nueva Tunuya. The ride was pretty smooth considering we were driving through a dirt road.

We finally reach our destination. Janessa and I are sent to make an announcement to the whole town that we have arrived. Through a large intercom our voices are heard announcing to everyone that we are offering free medical and dental care. We tell them to invite their kids, grandparents, friends and neighbors. With the announcement done, we head over the towns clinic and start to set up. Rachel and I unpack our pharmacy in a small, but very clean room. There was a table, chair, and long bench that worked for our benefit. We had been sitting for only five minutes when the patients start lining up with their prescriptions in their hands. We worked from 9AM to 1PM handing meds and giving shots. It was a very fast paced morning but not much excitement. No procedures, no ear cleanings, no surgeries, nothing interesting. We had our lunch break and ate some chicken, rice, and beans. While we ate the ground around us was getting very muddy by the rain that was following. When we finished eating, Rachel and I left with Caleb to grab more meds that we had run out of. The muddy road was an adventure of its own as we made our way home. We quickly grabbed our meds and headed back to Nueva Tunuya. The truck was doing really well and only slid a couple of times. It was actually all Caleb, he was doing such a great job driving and controlling the truck. When we were ten minutes away from the clinic we saw a motor car stuck in the mud. Instead of colliding with him, we decided to squeeze by him on the right side. Unfortunately, we ended up sliding right into a small ditch. This left our truck tilted to the right so that our left tires had very little traction. Caleb tried to move forward: fail. He then tried to put it in reverse: fail. We were stuck and there was no one around to help. So at this point Caleb went looking for some type of wood that he could put under the tires. Unfortunately, that didn’t work either. Finally, after about 20 minutes, a man and his wife came passing by. Thankfully they decided to stop and offer some help.

I jumped into the driver seat while Caleb and the guy started to push the truck. They pushed and pushed: failure once again. After many failed attempts I asked the guy if he could give me a ride to Nueva Tunuya. Without any hesitation he made room for me and we were on our way to the clinic. When I got to the clinic I passed the news to the Doc and I then went in search for a vehicle that could pull the truck out. With the help of the town leader we found an owner of a Toyota truck that was willing to pull us out. As three young guys jumped into the truck I headed back to the pharmacy to help out with the meds. After 30 minutes Rachel and Caleb had returned safe and sound with the truck.

We continued on with the clinic and finished at 6 PM.

At the end of the day Rachel and I visited an elderly lady that was suffering from a bed sore. This 90 year old lady had hardly any muscle left on her body; she was mainly skin and bone. The bedsore was on her back and it was pretty deep all around. There wasn’t much we could do. So we dressed it and left them with material that they could use to continue dressing it. We also told them that it was very important to turn her on different sides frequently.

Around 6:30 we were on the bumpy and muddy road headed home.

It was a fun, adventurous, and great day!

Other things that happened in the past three weeks.

*Rachel and I operated on my wart. We surgically removed it. And it is healing very nicely.

*We had a puppy named Oso. Unfortunately, he was sold and is no longer with us :(

*We also had a monkey for the first week after the robbery. Unfortunately he died and is no longer with us :( R.I.P. Martin the Monkey

Up the river along with pirates

October 4, 2010:

Because yesterday everyone was electing Ucayali’s president, we were unable to by meds and get our transportation for today. So today we will continue to pack and wait. I ended up getting the best birthday surprise ever! We had tostadas, cake, piñata, and dancing. It was such a blast! They even decorated the place. We then had to pack the meds. We didn’t get to bed till 2 AM.

October 9, 2010:

I still can’t believe what happened to us…

Yesterday (October 8, 2010), about noon, we loaded our stuff into the boats and headed out towards home. Hanna, Rachel, Laura, Doc, Shirley, and I were in one boat. The rest of the gang was in the other boat. We were exhausted from the jungle beating (mostly the bites from the insects) yet excited to be going home. All was going smoothly and we had been traveling for about three hours. All of a sudden I heard a big bang! I was sitting in the very front with Hanna right next to me. Rachel was sitting in front of us, near the bow of the boat. When I looked to my left I saw a small metal, grey boat. In this boat I saw four men and one of them was jumping on our boat. The two men I got a good look at had double barrel shot guns. At this point Rachel had jumped towards Hanna and I. With her head down, she grasped onto our legs tightly and began to shake in fear. The one on the boat, who I assume was the leader, began to scream demands at our driver. He demanded that the boat get moved to the shore. He also stared to yell, “No me miren!” (Don’t look at me) At his command I closed my eyes and put my head down. As he continued to yell at us, I held on tightly to Hanna and Rachel, while telling them to close their eyes.

With his gun pointed in our direction, he started asking for money and anything valuable. Afraid to be shot, I kept my eyes closed and raised my arms over my head. I let him feel in my pockets. Of course he found nothing. He searched the other girls and then asked for cell phones. I knew I didn’t have any so I didn’t say anything. Hanna kept telling him, “No tengo nada, no tengo nada!” (I don’t have anything). As he was searching us, there was another guy towards the back of the boat going through our bags and asking for the Doc and Shirley’s money. Everyone forked over what they had.

The guy with the painted face, the head honcho, started to yell questions, like: Where are you coming from? What are you doing here? Do you have guards? Where is the other boat? Are there soldiers on the other boat? I never spoke a word and neither did anyone else except the Doc and his wife (Shirley). Shirley, at this point, was in tears and pleading for our lives. The painted guy would get mad at her and tell her to shut up. He would tell her that they weren’t going to do anything to us.

This whole time, I’m praying HARD. I’m praying for courage, strength, and most of all for our lives. I was telling God that my life was completely surrendered to Him. If it was God’s will for me to go, I would be ok with it. But I would prefer to stay alive and safe. I prayed this for everyone in the boat. As soon as I prayed for strength, I had this powerful feeling come over my body. It’s so hard to put in words, but my heart rate slow downed and I felt calm. “At times God may not calm the storm, but He will calm His child.” I strongly believe in this quote. When I would get a chance I would whisper to Rachel and Hanna, “Be strong, God is with us.” Not one moment did I let go of their hands.

Towards the end I heard one of the guys say, “Come on, lets go.” His voice sounded a little worried. Laura, in the back, saw the guys quickly grab Rachel’s, Hanna’s, and my bag and toss them in their boat. All that I had was in my back pack. Clothes, Bible, journal, water filter, bedding, and more. They were even so low to steal Rachel and my Chaco's. Seriously. Once they had all our stuff they zoomed out. When they had asked if we had soldiers on the other boat, the Doc told them that we had angels in the other boat. I strongly believe that we had angels in both boats. When the robbers saw the other boat they quickly took off without getting near to it. When they were gone I opened my eyes and only embraced my friends tighter. I immediately thanked God for keeping us safe and alive. We cried and only held each other close.

The rest of the trip was full of challenges as well. We encountered a spot were we thought they were ready to attack us for the second time. Down the narrow part of the river we ran into boats that had completely blocked the way. The whole time we were racing against the sun and hoping to get to the dock. We are convinced that the sun had set later than normal. Considering that the thieves also stole our gas, we were in another pickle. When we were nearing the dock our boat ran out of gas. So we decided to pray. When we finished praying for gas, our boat started up again and then took us all the way to the dock. God definitely worked miracles that day.

Exhausted and in shock, we unloaded the boats and headed towards the police station. Shoeless and confused I attempted to gather my thoughts together. At the station Doc filed a complaint and we then headed home. It wasn’t till midnight when we arrived home. This whole time Jenny had been calling and communicating with our parents. We made some ramen (because we hadn’t eaten since breakfast – we were starving) and for the next two hours we were all making phone calls and receiving them. We wanted to make sure to tell our families that we were alive and safe. I didn’t get to bed till 2 AMish.

Now I just continually thank God for my life. This has strengthened my faith, but I hope I don’t have to go through something like that again. My new prayer is that we may be able to get things figured out with insurance, our stolen belongings, and stolen documents. And that God will take fear away from our hearts so that we may continue to serve Him.

The three days of medical campaign in the villages was wonderful. Yeah it was super rough with the conditions, but to see the smiles of the people was worth it. Not only the smiles, but their friendship and hospitality was amazing. Many times we had to ask villagers if we could borrow their kitchen and they never hesitated to share with us. We made so many friends and it was sad to leave them.

They taught me a few phrases of their native language, introduced me to different fruits, showed us where to bathe, and all around helped us with anything we would ask for. I wish to go back into those villages and spend more time with them. The only things keeping me back are the millions of man eating bugs and of course the robbers. Every single one of us has more than 50 bug bites. Not even joking. There were three main bugs that feasted on our blood. There were big water flies, tiny mosquitoes that were quick and hard to kill, and HUGE mosquitoes that were the size of dragonflies. I wish I could post pictures of the week, but the camera with all the pics was stolen L

Today, I went to church and tried my best to not think about what had just happened. If I did, I would break down in tears. After church we went back to the detectives and looked at pictures of different criminals. Then when I got back home I was able to talk to my family and let them know what had happened. It was very relieving to talk to my family and let them know I was ok.

More fires then some rain

October 2, 2010:

SABBATH!!! Yahoo! My beautiful day of rest (so I thought). Today we went to the church of Ivan Sicke, because this will be the place where we’ll be doing our public health teaching. We had Sabbath school, church service, and a wonderful lunch at a friends house. They served us soup, fish, and some yummy fruit juice. We also had to stop by the premature baby’s home to follow up. She looked better, but we still had to give her another shot. It was 4ish when we arrived home. We were welcomed by two massive fires behind our house…

We threw on our fire fighting clothes and went at it. Shirley told us that the fire started up again in the jungle around noon and was too big to put out. So it got out of control and spread like crazy. Bucket after bucket we battled with these fires. My legs, back, and shoulders ached. But I had to go on. I couldn’t let my team down. Between 5pm and 1am we went out four different times to battle fires. We would put one out and think it was completely out. However, some how an ember would catch something on fire and the flames would quickly grow out of control.

This Saturday has been one of the most exhausting Saturdays in my WHOLE entire life. I went to bed exhausted and defeated with body aches. Almost everything behind our house was ash. There was hardly any grass left for our cows to eat.

I can’t believe that we have been fighting fires four nights in a row. I want rest. God please send some rain and finish this.

October 3, 2010:

IT RAINED!!! Yeah, it’s been SUPER windy and chilly, but it’s raining. I’m so ecstatic. God answered our prayers! Today we went shopping for food in Campo Verde and then celebrated our day off in Pucallpa. We went to an internet café and then had pizza at the same pizzeria we tried to go to on Friday. It was such an awesome and relaxing day.

The Doc told us that if the weather is better we might pack up and leave tomorrow. However, if it stays windy and rainy we will have to leave on Tuesday.