| TUESDAY WORK, BABY CRISIS, AND CUYE Our second day in the Centro Yuu Community House was busy from the start. As we pulled in to the rock driveway and crested the small hill, we looked up to see a large crowd waiting around the front of the building. We found out later that these folks, from the jungle village of Tuna, had walked 2-3 hours yesterday to get here, had stayed around the area last evening, and had arrived here early this morning to wait in line to see us. It is indeed rather humbling to think that anyone would feel that it is worth that much effort to come and see our team, but that’s what happened today. We carried our bags across the end of the dirt soccer field with the deep ruts from our bus that had been stuck there, and we set up the operation within a few minutes. Our day went rather routinely for the first couple hours, but that changed when the young single father (Peter) whose wife had left him returned to the clinic with his young son, this time because the baby had taken ill last night, with a lot of diarrhea and fever. Things went downhill from there rather quickly. In spite of Brenda and Kate taking turns with a syringe and forcing some Tang/fluid into the child, he continued to deteriorate, becoming listless and lethargic. Martin started an IV in the baby’s arm, and we administered some fluid and then gave a dose of IV Rocephin. It was obvious that we did not have the capacity to fully evaluate and care for this child way out here in the Centro Yuu Community House, and our host Don Wolfram made arrangements for the father and baby to be taken by bus to the hospital in Puyo. We don’t know yet what transpired when they arrived there. We will be awaiting word on what happened as we return to the clinic tomorrow. We saw more than 100 patients today. On our way back to the hotel in the bus, we stopped at the home / farm of our hotel owner Romolo, and he showed us around his place. Pretty amazing…. He grows yucca, platanos (plantains), banana, a potato-like root they call papachina, sugar cane, and a couple other plants that we’ve been eating here for our hotel meals. He raises Tilapia, chickens, ducks, pigs, peacocks, and Guinea Pigs, all for food purposes. We continued on to the hotel, showered, cooled down, and came to dinner, where Don announced that this would be a special meal. Sure enough, they served us our rice and yucca and chicken that was cooked within a certain huge leaf that acted as the plate and added a special flavor to the entire meal. But, before we got started, he brought a special appetizer, 2 whole roasted Cuye, each on a plate, surrounded by pieces of yucca and papchina root, and with a small piece of papachina in their open mouths. You guessed it, the Ecuadorian delicacy, Guinea Pig, was our special appetizer! I am happy to report that it was actually very very good. Roasted Cuye is good. At dinner, the hotel owner’s son Max – the same one who presented the Boa from his pocket his first night here, pulled out and played with a huge spider (not a Tarantula, but one about that big), and also one of the world’s biggest green grasshoppers. After dinner, we shared some reflections on the day, some feelings about what we have experienced so far, and just where we saw God or His love today. …..can’t wait for what we find tomorrow in this great land. |
A very sick baby...
Relaxing with some Cuye for dinner... YUM!