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.