Hello all. It is Wednesday today and we've spent the last two days in Yanacancha Baja. There is a little debate on how far away the town is from Villa Milagro but as Larry said, "We don't measure in miles around here, we measure in hours." Yanacancha is 3 long, bumpy, and slow hours from where we set out early Monday morning. Most of us got a little queasy but everyone made it through unscathed in the end. By the time we arrived and got set up, the line was already 50 people long. We saw only children from the school we were using as a clinic on the first day and powered through 108 before lunch. What's more impressive, after lunch we saw 150 or so, bringing the day one total to about 250 give or take a few. Ricky passed out Bibles, Jo and Jan did BP and vitals, Chip and John worked through all the complaints, and Martha and Vicki ran the pharmacy to near perfection. We had a helper from VM handing out the medicine and explaining how to take them, even our bus driver pitched in! We finished up that night around 6 and headed back to the Yanacancha Hilton, an adobe bunkhouse with women's quarters on one end and men's on the other separated by a small kitchen. We even had a first class toilet--a commode set up in an outhouse that gets flushed with a bucket of water. After dinner Monday night Raul, a missionary/pastor from the Amazon jungle, gave his testimony to the group. He had quite a story to tell complete with witchcraft, beatings, and all sorts of jungle wildlife. He spent 3 days on a boat getting to the bus and 30 hours on the bus getting to Yanacancha where he met up with us. Then today (Wednesday) he reversed the process and set out for the jungle. The youth from Rock Creek led a service in the town church Monday evening and you could hear praise music echoing through the streets until about 8pm. Most of our group was in bed by that time, getting ready for Tuesday. David and Larry slept in the School to guard our medicine and by the morning the only thing missing was the bucket we used to flush the toilet.
As for Day Two, well, you'll have to get that information from someone else, but I've heard it was more of the same. I (Chris)was asleep from 730 Monday night to 63o Wednesday morning, sick from the altitude.
Totals for the trip: About 550 people seen, Over 1500 prescriptions filled, More than 600 Bible passed out.
3 comments:
what an amazing story! you all are doing such a great job--your speed and teamwork are enviable. cd--your mother is NOT going to worry about you at this point as you sounded pretty upbeat in the note! do take care of yourself!
Wow! I'm totally impressed and not going to worry anymore about the newbies on the trip. Sounds like everyone got a really good orientation to how a medical mission works. I hope all were inspired by Raul and want to go on the river trip with him in Feb. It is an awesome experience. Dr. Scrib, we've missed you at the clinic and have been busy, but I'm not going to even mention numbers because they sound piddly compared to 500+. Work is same ole, same ole...nothing exciting, thank goodness! Chris and David, we missed you at Sunday dinner. I've had to eat leftovers for 3 days now since you were not there to eat your portions. We've had hot weather, without rain, since you left. Chris, hope you are feeling better. Naomi
from cd's grama:
Mercy goodness!!
What that child is seeing, hearing, doing and thinking!!! What precious, wonderful folks that go to do those things--my grandson included. I do hope he is feeling ok by now and continues to feel good the rest of the time. My prayers are with him, and the rest of the crew.
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