It was about 9 pm when we got an emergency call from the clinic reporting the arrival of a family with 5 children who had been overcome with fumes from a gas generator.  Apparently the children had been watching TV in a room where a gasoline generator was running.  When they stepped outside to bathe, the 3 and 4 year old girls passed out, and the 11 year fell down, disoriented and confused.  The parents had been working outside, so were not exposed.

When I arrived, there was an 11 year old girl on the examining table, struggling to get her breath, and only intermittently responsive.  A 3 year old girl was asleep, and the others seemed pretty groggy.  The room reeked of gasoline.  As I walked over to the clinic, I was wondering if this was going to be situation of carbon monoxide poisoning, or toxicity from gas fumes, or both.  We quickly got 0xygen saturation readings (Thank you Wisconsin team for the oximeters) on all of them and they ranged from 72% to 84%-for children, these readings should be more like 98%.  We had only one oxygen tank, and only an adult mask, so we played “musical oxygen masks”, giving O2 and holding masks on a child until the saturation came up, and then we would switch to the next child.  We had to go about 3-4 rounds before everyone’s 02 sat was holding above 96%.

Thankfully, nurses and students from the Elim team were present and each one held a groggy child as the oxygen was administered.  Their clothing reeked of gasoline, so we stripped them all down and found a suitcase with mostly kids’ clothing that had been left behind.  They were all quite pleased with their new duds.
We talked with the parents about safety in using a generator in the house, but were not totally confident that they understood the gravity of the situation.  The next day, several of us and a visiting “engineer/can fix anything” man all went to visit them.  The kids were all bright-eyed and playful, with no complaints of headaches or dizziness.  We checked out the generator situation and discovered it would not be possible to vent it to the outdoors.  Leaving it outside was apparently out of the question for fear it would be stolen.  There was a small gasoline leak in one of the hoses that we fixed with some tape.  Truly, the fumes in the room were very strong and the generator had not been run for many hours.  So even though they seemed to understand they should run the generator early in the day with no people in the room, I am still concerned that the room is their sleeping room, and it has no ventilation.
So, we will try to stop by on a “casual” basis now and then, so as not to appear to be prying.  (We will, however, continue to be praying for them!). We walked by yesterday, and the two little girls waved very enthusiastically.

Dave discussing a case with students and a clinic nurse. In this room, we see patients, do procedures such as minor surgeries and IV therapy, and take care of multiple members of a family as in this story.

Que Dios te Bendiga!  Mary Kay

We have enjoyed sharing our knowledge with the Elim Students in the Community Health Tract.  It is clear that there are many people around the world with limited or no access to medical care.  But so much of health is so basic that having such trained people in a deprived area could literally save lives.  Starting with a hish school education I see these future missionaries being able to render first line care and saving lives with sound advice and treatment.  In the past, some have gone on to become nurses and doctors, as God has called them.
We have done some lectures about common health problems.  We have shown some videos.  But most importantly they are shadowing us and then learning to take a history and do an examination, identify the problem and then work toward a solution.  Next weekend we travel to El Mosco where our mountain base for outreach is located.

Classes are held in the Clinic Commodore.

Saul and Lorena, key workers in the Clinic.

Students do the initial intake on the patients in the Clinic.

Next weekend the students will have the opportunity to shadow, to check in patients, to distribute medicines, and to do children’s ministry in the mountains.

Que Dios te Bendiga!  David Ness

It seems as if every outreach has one or more medical themes- maybe diabetes, maybe diarrhea and worms, maybe malnutrition- and this outreach was no exception.  We saw a whole range of vision problems, everything from cataracts to corneal injuries related to prior injuries that were not taken care of, to the need for glasses for near or far vision, to conjunctivitis related to the smoke and dust in their environment. Loss of near vision, which happens as many of us reach 40 or more, is especially critical to the women whose livelihood often depends on weaving and embroidery.  There are no nearby Walmart’s to buy a cheap pair of reading glasses.  Abdela is a 32 year old woman who came in with the chief complaint of greatly diminished vision, both near and far, that had come on quite suddenly.  After a few questions, it was clear that this history was not making sense.  So we asked her exactly what happened the day she lost her vision.  I was not prepared for her answer (I knew I would not be).  She had been standing on their porch with her family, watching as her mother walked down the street to visit them.  It was raining hard, and suddenly, water roared down the street and swept her mother up and carried her away.  Though they were nearby, they were unable to help her.  They found her mother’s body about ¼ mile away. She had seen something so terrible that she “lost her vision”. She was devastated, and as we found out as we talked more, she felt guilty that she had not been able to save her.  She was having dreams where her mother would be calling her to “come to her”, and she wanted to go- creating more guilt for wanting to leave her young family.  She had had prayer for “return of her vision”, but not for release from her tremendous sense of loss and sense of guilt.  She accepted (it seemed) our explanation of why she could not see well, and expressed hope that her vision would return over time as she was able to release her guilt.

We were fortunate to have a dental team with us, but these were too far gone to save.

We have never seen this in our 35 years of practice. Help!

We were hosted by Pastor Eduardo, his family and the members of the church.  Since there were 30 of us, that was no mean feat!  They gave us a spot to erect 5 tents and to keep our vehicles, and housed the rest in 3 different homes.  They served 4 different meals a day to us.  I can’t begin to count the number of tortillas they made, and the soups and stews were simmered in huge washtubs. The women cooked in a communal type kitchen, and served us all with graciousness and generosity.  Sunday evening was their worship service, and our group was asked to do most of it.  It was a pleasure for us to see the worship team (led by a Mixteco man from the base) lead worship, and then to hear one of the young Bible school graduates preach a simple, core message: God is Love.  Subsequently the Mixteco worship team began to play and sing, and the tempo and the decibel level really ratcheted up, and there was a lot of dancing by young and old.  The music, the dancing, the shared smiles dissolved the language barrier.  It was one of the highlights of the outreach.

Two chronologically enriched Mixteco women.

Read on.

He came to the base clinic from 2 hours away.  About a third of his left foot was gone.  He had diabetes, but denied it until gangrene forced him to go to the hospital for this procedure.  He forbade the surgeons from doing the recommended higher amputation. As he lay there, he had a vacant stare.  His sister-in-law spoke for him.  Then we saw his sister-in-law and her husband, the patient’s brother.  The only other relatives have dropped out of the picture, leaving this couple to care for him.  His brother had not worked for a month.  He was holding the patient’s hospital bills in his hand; he had been helping him with the daily necessities.  More than respite care is necessary.  What could we do?  We counseled him to resume work, and try to get a neighboring youth to help in the personal care.  Then it became clear that the patient, with the partially amputated foot (with bones showing and without skin covering) understood the undue toll on his brother and his family.  He was choosing his own way to die.  The church had helped a little, but that was now gone.

Work, a meal, and now relaxing.

It seems as though personnel on the Base are under attack.  Right now respiratory illness is prevalent.  An important worker has been sidelined with kidney stones.  Another leader has been weakened by physical health problems.  Others are facing challenging personal problems.  Some short term teams have cancelled, causing chronic revenue shortfalls (problem began with the crash of the market in the USA and has not corrected).  Please intercede in prayer as the Spirit within you directs that the work being done here will continue through these obstacles, and that we will be strengthened by  His grace to overcome them.  It is after all His work and His battle.

Que Dios les Bendiga!  Dave and Mary Kay Ness

Atotonilco is a small Chatino village about 3-4 hours from the Roca Blanca Base.  Pastor Clemente, who had been pastoring the church there since its inception 12 years ago, invited us there for a medical outreach.  We left Tuesday morning and planned to arrive in time to set up the clinic in the church and to see members of the church that afternoon.  On Wednesday, we planned to see patients invited from neighboring towns.  There were only 8 of us, including another physician and his wife from Tulsa, OK who have been long-time supporters of the Base, often visiting 3 times a year.  We had 3 translators and a person to staff the pharmacy.  Being a smaller group, we were able to mix well with the church members administering the clinic, including the Pastor, his wife and 5 children.  It was lovely to see the devotion, respect, and love within the pastor’s family.  We stayed in a compound that contained at least 3 or 4 families (with many children) and it was humbling to see the cooperation among the women, in a communal kitchen, as they prepared plentiful and delicious meals for us.  The children were very playful and engaged us in Frisbee games, Chinese jump-roping, working on Sudoko problems.  In addition, they taught us the song “God is so good” in Chatino, a very different language from Spanish.  We are now able to sing it in 4 languages: English, Spanish, Mixteco, and Chatino.

Bertha, surrounded by children

We learned on Wednesday morning that we had just made it through to Atotonilco   before a road block was erected in San Gabriel to the road between Oaxaca and Puerto Escondido to protest the defeated mayor’s refusal to hand over the town seal to the new mayor of the same political party.  Many truckloads of people had gone down to San Gabriel to participate in the demonstration.  As a result, we had many fewer patients than we had anticipated on Wednesday morning.  By 1 pm, we had seen everyone, including two house calls, and were packing the truck for departure.  One house call was a pregnant woman, near term, who had developed headache with high blood pressure; we gave initial treatment and referred her on to the Central Salud (local government health clinic).  The other was to a man who had sprained his knee a month earlier and it had not gotten any better.  He had a significant amount of fluid on his knee, and he was referred for an x-ray and offered an appointment at the Base to try to drain the knee.

Mary Kay examining a robust 7 month old.

Ordinarily, we offer spiritual care to each patient after he has been seen and is waiting for medicine.  Usually the local pastor or church members provide this.  However, they were busy with other tasks, so each team of physician, Spanish translator, and Chatino translator offered prayer at the end of the consultation.  As is the custom here, everyone (including the patient)  prays simultaneously-3 different languages at once.  At first this was a little disconcerting and distracting, but then it began to feel very natural and appropriate.  At one point, a 70 year old wizened woman, with a bit of a sharp edge to her manner, came in for a consult.  Our translator advised that she was well-known as a vocal opponent to the church and its activities. We dealt patiently with each problem she presented and she seemed to warm up slightly.  We were briefly interrupted during which time the translator (17 year old girl) and the woman spoke in Chatino.  When we returned, we asked her about her sleeping, was it restful and restorative?  Finally, the dam broke, and she started describing that she was unable to sleep because she would see children, all dressed in black, in menacing and threatening postures.  She was unable to make them go away, and was exhausted and terrified.  We gently presented the Gospel (not new to her), and suggested He could help her with her fear, and she accepted Christ into her life.  We taught her some simple prayers to repeat when these night-time terrors appeared and told her that others would be praying for her as well.  The encounter ended with her smiling and weeping at the same time, and the exchange of many hugs.  About an hour later, while we were with another patient, she burst into the area to give us a present-a big bag of frijoles (black beans).  Again, smiles and hugs, and also a photo.

Consulting team with beaming Fortunata.

With the road block not expected to lift for 5 or more hours, we prayerfully accepted the suggestion that we return to the Base by another dirt road in the opposite direction, over the mountains.  Pastor Clemente accompanied us, for he was expected at a conference back at the base that evening.  Since he had never traveled this route, we stopped at several settlements to confirm we were going the right way.  It took 4 hours to drive 31 miles, over bumpy and curvy mountain roads; despite that, we all enjoyed the gorgeous vistas, and trees of coffee, bananas, and palm.  Clemente brought his 5 year old son who proved to be a fierce and persistent teacher of Spanish.

Two sisters-they really take care of each other.

Grinding the cooked corn into Tortilla dough, a daily task.

And a praise report!  We drove 2 vehicles the 2 ½ hours to the airport and picked up the Elim students last Friday.  They soaked up the warmth and sunshine and enjoyed the beach and a visit to Puerto Escondido, before starting classes on CHE (Community Health Evangelism) being taught by an American pediatrician who has lived in Mexico for >10 years and is involved in training people for this program, which concentrates on people learning to identify needs in their communities and develop plans to help themselves.  It is an integral ministry that includes ministering to the spiritual, physical and social needs of communities.  Next week a dentist will come to give a week of classes, culminating in a 3 day outreach to a Mixteco community.

Que Dios te Bendiga!  Mary Kay and Dave

Yucucha’a  is a small Mixteco village about 3 hours from the Roca Blanca Base.  The last hour involves driving on curvy, rutted, at times steep roads for about 12 miles.  Traveling with the regular team from Roca Blance was a team of 8 nursing students and faculty from Oklahoma Baptist University.  As we travel, we learn the life stories of those traveling with us, always interesting and edifying.  This village has been attended medically by Lupe (Laura’s adopted daughter) who has nursing assistant training, but who has learned additional diagnostic and therapeutic skills.  Our visit there is a way to support her and the local church which has been there for 10 years.  We were warmly greeted by the village Pastor and his family and members of the local church who helped us unload and begin to set up clinic in the church with strings and sheets.  Though they had not made a general announcement that we would do consultations that afternoon, we nonetheless saw members of several church families (most being rather large and multi-generational).

Later in the afternoon, we were served a delicious meal by the pastor’s wife and some women in the church.  There were 19 of us as well as about 6-8 Mixteco translators supplied by the village.  Preparing meals for this size group is no mean feat (remember, no modern stoves, sinks, dishwashers, etc), but they did so generously, with joy and a spirit of service in their hearts.    In the evening there was a lively service during which we were introduced.  Following that, there was an even more lively birthday fiesta for one of the parishioners, with food, loud music and dancing, and a cake.

Almuerzo, or 10 am meal

Children at the birthday party

The birthday celebrant and her spouse. She danced a lot!

We slept in a tent set up on the porch of one of the houses, while others slept in rooms graciously vacated by the family. Two puppies managed to find the side wall of our tent-a good place for warmth, comfort, and a sentinel  post from which to bark occasionally.  A pig patrolled the courtyard with his own cadence of grunts. We arose relatively early, there being no dearth of local alarm clocks like roosters, pigs, dogs, etc.  Some arose in time to see clearly the alignment of the moon with several planets.  After devotions, coffee and “Marias” (a kind of cookie), we again set up the clinic, teams of providers and translators, the pharmacy, and the spiritual care area, anticipating a brisk day of seeing patients.

Spiritual care team

Children engrossed in drawing scenes from the Christmas Story

From Sunday 2 pm to Monday 7 pm we saw about  115 patients, 35 of whom  chose to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior.  Pastor Balthazar will follow up with them.  From our perspective as physicians, there was much pathology.  A cachectic 15 year old girl presented with fever, cough, blood-tinged sputum, weight loss, poor appetite, night sweats – tuberculosis until proven otherwise.  A referral letter to the local hospital was written to facilitate her evaluation and treatment.  A 44 year old woman presented with a blood sugar of 600 (normal <120), on no medicines now, having failed on various regimens of oral diabetic medicines.  Insulin had not been tried, and it is problematic in this area because of a lack of refrigeration in many homes.  We wrote another referral letter to the local hospital, suggesting a trial of insulin to get her diabetes under control.  A 24 year old woman presented with a complaint of headache; additional history revealed symptoms suggestive of early pregnancy: prenatal vitamins and general advice was given.  We saw a 68 year old man, still working in the fields, with marked evidence of emphysema (had smoked for many years, though had stopped some time ago).  He had the most abnormal lung exam (wheezes, ronchi, and rales in all lung fields.  It was a good teaching moment for the students.  We visited his home the next morning, and as suspected, there was smoke from the cooking fire and dust.  We had chosen to give him an evening dose of furosemide (a water pill), as his sleep was troubled by coughing.  That next morning he reported less cough and better sleep, so we gave him more furosemide.  We made the house call to see his wife who is bed and chair bound due to a long affliction with rheumatoid arthritis.  His love and compassion for her was evident in his eyes and in the way he carried her from chair to bed.  For what the family said was the first time, she accepted medicine to ease the pain.  And also, there were no bed sores!

One memorable patient was a young woman, very slight, looking more like a child, and obviously anxious and easily distractible.  Her chief complaint was “mareo”, or dizziness.  Now this is an extremely common complaint, especially among women, and is often secondary to low blood pressure because of inadequate fluid intake (maybe 8 oz. a day).  So it is tempting, especially towards the end of a long day, to do a perfunctory history and exam, recommend increased fluids and be done with it.  However, in her case, we learned that she would often “fall down” when she became dizzy.  More than once this has been the presenting description of seizures, so we continued.  These spells had begun at the age of 1 ½ years of age.  Eventually, they took her to a doctor and she was diagnosed with “spells”.  They do not call them “seizures” because those are attributed to Satanic influence.  She was seeing a specialist in Oaxaca City (8 hours away), who had her on a very reasonable,” American-style” regimen of medications.  She reported that if she did not forget any doses of pills, she did not have spells.  She was visibly distressed and sad when we said the regimen was a good one and she should stay on it. Further history revealed evidence that she was treated differently in her family, and denied opportunities such as attending high school.  We tried to encourage her that she could live a perfectly normal life, with a career if she wished it, marriage, family etc.  By now, she was on the verge of tears.  We finally asked her directly, “When you came here today, were you expecting and hoping that we would have a cure for you and you would not have to take medicine again?”- a tearful nod of the head.  Such an amazing, innocent expression of hope!  She then went to spiritual care, where she eventually broke down crying and was embraced by Marisol (our pastor’s wife) and accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior.  Perhaps out of that will grow acceptance of her condition and mature care of herself.  Who knows? Perhaps more.

Family team that was so hospitable to us.

Mother, infant daughter, grandmother, great grandmother

God bless you!  Que Dios te bendiga! Dio nasoka chu’u! (Mixteco).

Dave and Mary Kay Ness

We are safely at Roca Blanca. Our thanks go to God and all of you who sent us on our way with warm wishes and prayers. We took a new route via Roanoke, Birmingham, and Houston through the States.  A huge benefit of this was to meet more of Bertha’s family: two sisters in Roanoke, VA, l brother in Birmingham, AL, and a nephew in Houston. We also visited with another of her sisters in Monterrey, Mx. We then traveled on to Puebla to stay with Dan, whom we had picked up in San Antonio. He brought his American car back to the states to sell, and needed a ride back to Puebla. We enjoyed visiting with him and his wife, Dr. Angelica and son Jacob. We were thrilled to see the progress in their ministry center just since we visited last March.

Besides the family contact, the other overriding consideration was the weather. It seemed as if we were riding a tidal wave of cold and snow as we rushed southward. From church on Sunday we had snow and snowy roads until Rte. 17 joins Rte. 15. We had snow and freezing weather through PA. There was snow on the ground into southern VA. We drove through flurries in Tennessee. In Birmingham it was still 15 degrees, but the snow on the ground was gone. Not until we were about 100 miles from the Gulf, near New Orleans, did it climb above freezing. Houston was below freezing when we arose to leave Wednesday morning. It was chilly in Monterrey, MX, and the day after we left there and ascended past Saltillo to the central plateau, the road was closed due to snow and freezing temperatures. Others behind us destined for Roca Blanca were unable to get through, but hopefully will arrive in a day or two. A friend called from Kansas Thursday night and said truly frigid conditions are coming upon you up north, so we will believe and pray for your safe travel and warm homes. But as we write this, a coolish breeze (maybe 78) is coming off the ocean and we have overcast skies. But finally, the sandals and shorts are out.

Crossing the border is always an adventure, and this year was no different. Our preparation was a bit different in that we have obtained our FM3 visas, which legitimizes the work we do down here. We had also obtained a letter from the President of the village where Roca Blanca is located; he invited us down to do medical work and to bring in the necessary supplies and medicines-not a fully proper importation document, but better than nothing. We packed all the medicines into 3 very large suitcases as instructed by him. We had an inventory list of both supplies and medicines. As we approached the customs booths, we prayed for a green light, but instead the red light appeared and we were pulled over for further inspection. They took more than a cursory look and asked a lot of questions about where we were going and what we would be doing. They looked at the papers and we had to unload about half the truck. Ultimately, we ended up having to pay duty on the supplies (accepting our list and prices), but they allowed all the medications a free pass (after we reminded them of the regulation that each person was allowed to bring in a suitcase full of medicine). The final bill of $90.00 seemed like a gift. Once across the border, we were stopped by federal police within half an hour. It all seemed like an inauspicious beginning to our travel in Mexico.

Today we are continuing to unpack and organize. Tomorrow we go out on a 3 day outreach to the mountains. From our perspective our prayer needs are: 1) Good health and rest for us after our travel. 2) Safety in travel for the several parties coming and going this weekend, including our medical outreach. 3) Preparation of all our hearts and minds to perceive every bit of goodness in His will as we seek to be obedient to His calling.

Dr. Tom Ball is an internist/pediatrician who practices in Leroy, New York.  He came down to Roca Blanca by himself for 2 weeks during March.  He wrote some reflections on his experience that we present here.

Dr. Tom and Kay with KP duty at El Mosco.

Arrived yesterday at our base in the Sierra Madre Mountains.  We set up our tents and enjoyed a tortilla and a piece of chicken broth with rice.  Afterwards, we shared communion and Troy read a passage from a book which spoke about the exchange that occurs between people when they listen and connect and when there is a healing touch-how one is blessed by being helped and the other is blessed by being able to know the joy of helping someone.  After group devotions, I asked if there was a time that we should be quiet for the night.  This caused some laughter that I would only appreciate after the night in El Mosco.

The air was fresh and cool.  I settled comfortably in to my sleeping bag complete with air mattress.  A Mexican ballad descended from the hills above us.  How quaint, I thought.  Soon I became aware of a cacophony of roosters.  The dogs around our tent joined in the chorus.  Their barking passed along to the neighbour’s dogs and around the valley like a wave in a stadium.  Snorers joined in.  After a while there was a predictability to these sounds that was reassuring.  That was the burro’s cue.  The moment when it all seems like everyone is about to drift off, the burro’s job is to take the party to another level with a painful screeching roar that could raise the dead.  Yet despite this, I somehow managed to fall asleep.  Somewhere, someone in the village must have sensed this because three gunshots rang out jolting me from my slumber.

I must have fallen asleep at some point.  I know this because I woke up to the crow of a rooster.  Maybe it’s just an urban myth, but I always assumed that the first crow of the rooster was the sure sign that morning had arrived.  But as I stumbled out to the tent and looked up at the stars, I realized my error.  Making the most of things, I decided to take a “shower” (splash cold water from a bucket all over me).  At least there would no line.  I then came back and lay down staring up at the tent roof until morning.

After a short while spent in prayer and reading the Bible I joined the others for our group devotions.  Dr. Dave opened in prayer, “Thank you Lord for the night’s rest.”

By Dr. Tom Ball

Dr. Mary Kay and Dr. Tom consulting about a difficult case.

Lauren and team sorting pills for mountain outreach

Tent city in El Mosco. The big one with the red roof housed all six of the Honeoye Falls team.

On a chilly Valentine’s day, the team from Honeoye Falls Presbyterian Church, led by Bertha Guild, left Rochester, traveled all night, and arrived in sunny, warm Huatulco, Mexico the following morning. Because of a travel glitch, Bertha, who was traveling with her niece from Alabama, did not arrive until the following day. This team of young ladies, ages 14-18, along with the mother of one of the girls was eager, energetic, and enthusiastic. After a night’s rest, they began immediately to help prepare for the mountain outreach 2 days later. First, we taught them how to weigh patients, take temperatures, and take blood pressures. Then they helped assemble medications, counting pills and pouring them into bags that would hold a single treatment. They also enjoyed some time on the beach and walked around a nearby town.

On Wednesday, the team of 24 assembled and we packed the trucks and cars with food and water for the 5 days we would be gone, sleeping bags and tents, tables, and boxes of supplies for the mobile clinic, several drawers full of medication, and materials for the children’s ministry, brought by the Honeoye Falls team. We were favored with good weather, no vehicular problems, and no road construction delays as we traveled up to the mountains. We had plans to visit 3 different villages, but as often happens, local political considerations dictated some changes in plans.

Laura, with two of her Mixteco proteges helping in the pharmacy. 

Jumproping was a favorite activity, enjoyed by girls and boys.

Children absorbed in some art activities in El Mosco.

Continued in the “previous” section-click on “previous” to see it.

Visit to Pueblo Viejo

Maricella and Carmella are the Mixteco missionaries in Pueblo Viejo

Prayers written by the children on the wall inside the church at Pueblo Viejo.

The following day we went to Pueblo Viejo, a village about 45 minutes away, and saw about 80 patients with 22 people seeking a personal relationship with Jesus as their Lord.  Not long before this trip, a child had been kidnapped, so the leaders of the village forbade the young women on our team from playing with the children or giving them toys or candy, for fear they would be enticed away and kidnapped. That was definitely disappointing to them, but they understood and helped out in other ways.  We did notice that the younger children in particular seemed to stay closer to their parents  than usual.  Consider how you might feel if a group of Mexicans drove into our village, set up a clinic, and our kids were asked to play with them in spite of the language and cultural barriers.

One young woman had been walking to the clinic when she was attacked by a donkey who kicked her in the chest, the abdomen, and then on the side of her head.  Her husband, who was with her, said she was unconscious for about an hour, but was able to walk to the clinic when she came to.  She had a laceration that required stitches, as well as bruises and a lot of abdominal pain.  In the US, she would have had a CT or MRI of the head, and a CT of the abdomen, chest x-ray, blood tests, all within an hour of arrival in the ED.  Here, however, we had to content ourselves with observing her (BP and pulse), giving her some IV fluid, stitching up her cut, and examining her repeatedly over several hours.  She seemed to improve, so we ended up sending her home with instructions about possible complications, and praying that none would happen.

Pictures of children at the orphanage we visited.

Bertha with the newest resident; she was found on the beach.

The day after we returned from the mountains was to have been a free day to go to the beach or to shop, but the team wanted to visit the Orphanage in Puerto Escondido.  We had no formal agenda, but the team members played with, talked with, and cuddled with the children there and were blessed by that contact.

Every night in the mountains, we had meetings in the evenings, and then again Sunday night after we returned.  We were impressed by how tender and touched their hearts were towards the people, especially the children, they met.  They realized the impressive poverty of these children who were often in the same dirty clothes day after day, and who looked on with apparent hunger as we ate our meals.  One of them just wanted to give her plate to them.  They wondered why, by some stroke of luck, they had been born in the USA.  One reported being unable to relate to a friend and classmate who e-mailed, complaining about the color and style of a new car she had been given for her 16^th birthday; this is so totally far from the reality here.  Another noticed that men are served first here and women are very submissive.  It is hearts such as these that God can shape into instruments of life and love.  Guard such a heart for from it flow the wellsprings of life.

Honeoye Falls team with their peers at the orphanage.

When you encounter someone who has been helping the poor and disadvantaged (no matter who or where) he or she will look and speak differently than you remember.  Take several minutes and listen to one or more stories about how God has moved in their lives.

The path from the road to the clinic site. It was steep and slippery!

Dave relaxing a few minutes, with Pastor Lalo sitting in the background.

Our visit to Atoyac this past week prompts a few observations and reflections.  The people’s faces are noble, beautiful, and even regal, despite advanced age or poverty.  They see much, they understand much, they endure much, they accept much.

When a daughter is single, she stays at home in these villages. One woman, 30 years old and with a strong appearing body, presented with symptoms that had no clear explanation.  “How is life at home?”  She responds, “My dad is an alcoholic.  He goes around town and buys beers, and tells the shopkeeper that his daughter will be along to pay for them.  I have to work extra jobs.  He beats me at times.”

A young man, 30 years old, comes in with two small children.  “Why are you bringing them in?”  He responds, “I am helping to raise my sister’s children because she was killed by her husband with a machete.

Meals were served in a nearby home. They were very gracious.

The ubiquitous dust.  When I think my sandals, clothes, nose, eyes or hair have too much, I think of my truck.  After a mountain trip, it takes 5 minutes using compressed air to blow out the air filter.  The dust has been so thick on some of our vehicles that a rancher from Kansas told us that when their truck was spray-painted at a road block, it washed off when the dust was washed off.  It finds its way into the cargo box even when the cap door is tightly closed.

The body lay on the highway on the way home; the motorcycle in pieces on the shoulder.  He was unconscious but with a pulse, and breathing.  He had a huge gash on his scalp that went down across his forehead; the skull looked a bit depressed.  Another large gash went through his mouth, nose, and chin.  His right elbow was open down to the joint; left leg was possibly broken.  He had not been wearing a helmet (we have seen only a handful of helmets during our many road trips).  The white vehicle that had hit him had driven on without stopping.  An ambulance, with a driver,  an armed guard and a gurney arrived; no medical personnel or supplies.  We took a few sheets from our supplies, rolled him onto the sheets, stabilized his head, lifted him onto the gurney and said “GO!”  The hospital was fortunately only 15 minutes away, but to our knowledge it had no one on staff with trauma expertise.  We have no way of knowing what has happened to him.  When do we stop praying for him?

Mixteco translators; theirs is a difficult job!

Bertha and Mary Kay leading the children in "God is so Good" in Spanish and Mixteco.

House calls are always interesting and it is a privilege to visit people in their home.  Here it almost always means someone is terribly ill, possibly in the very terminal phase of an illness.  In Atoyac, the pastor came to us the second day and said there was an elderly man in the village who had been sick for a week with high fever, abdominal pain, and diarrhea.  We gathered up the “black bag”, IV bags, equipment for starting IVs, IV antibiotics, pain medication and trekked over to the house with the pastor and some team members.  It was a tiny, windowless adobe hut.  At the doorway sat an older woman, dressed in traditional Mixteco ie a long, heavy striped skirt and a necklace-she was scowling and would not permit us to enter, saying “He does not want to see you”.  As we milled about, a younger man (his son) appeared, brushed his mother aside, and went in and spoke loudly to his father.  Eventually we were allowed in (only the translator and I)-he was huddled in a corner on a blanket on the dirt floor.  We could hardly see, and it was extremely hot.  He was emaciated and his skin was very warm, and he could barely speak.  We eventually learned that he had gone to the local health center when the illness began, and then went to the local witch doctor, but was getting worse by the hour.  He had quite a lot of abdominal pain and tenderness.  We suspected he was probably septic (ie infected in the blood) , probably from a urinary tract infection, or possibly an intestinal infection.  He was very dehydrated as well.  Though we could barely see what we were doing, we were eventually able to start an IV and gave him two different antibiotics, and also gave him a shot of pain medicine.  We were able to leave IV fluid for a day or so and additional IV meds and oral meds as well.  They asked the pastor with us to pray for him, though clearly the woman did not approve.  She apparently was openly and vocally hostile to the pastor and his church.

As is so often the case, we do not know how he fared.  Hopefully the fluids and the IV antibiotics were sufficient to treat his infection.  Perhaps when we visit the village next year, the pastor will be able to tell us what happened.

Right after the house call, Mary Kay was stricken with abdominal pain and was unable to work.  But she was wonderfully ministered to by the team; they set up a comfortable place to lie down, gave her medicine, prayed over her, and one young woman fanned her for over 2 hours (it was beastly hot in there).  By the time the afternoon was over, she had improved significantly, and by the time we encountered the motorcyclist in the roadway, she was able to jump out and assist the others in assessing him and getting him into the ambulance.   The concept of teamwork had special meaning that day.