| WEDNESDAY WORK AND SPECIAL CHURCH What an amazing day…. The team has gotten quite efficient at setting up and getting things going in the morning. There was a bit of a crowd waiting on our arrival again this morning. We pulled in, hauled all the bags of meds and supplies and dental equipment in, and were set up and checking in some patients within 25 minutes. We ended up seeing more than 100 patients again today. Lots of parasite problems, many decaying teeth, many with chronic back pain or recurring headaches, a few cases of bronchitis, some skin infections (they don’t look like the MRSA infections we have in America, but, of course, we can’t do cultures here….so who knows for sure…), and one abdominal tumor. We got word this morning that the baby boy we sent on the bus to Puyo to the hospital was, indeed, admitted there, but had not improved at the time of this report. We will try to check again tomorrow. With no phones and no Internet, communication is not reliable or easy… This afternoon, the teacher from the area pre-school (government-sponsored) brought her 8 young students over to the clinic, and we got to see and check each of them out. They were surprisingly healthy, and only needed to get some vitamins and some medicine for parasites. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ We got back to our hotel before 5 PM, ate a quick dinner at 5:30, and re-boarded the bus at 6:30. We were going to a special church service, set up for us and to be held at the Community House right there in Centro Yuu, the same place we’ve been working the past 3 days The community came out just for us. Now, church services in this area are attended primarily by women and their children, with just a few men in the crowd. They had saved the front rows of plastic chairs for our group. A generator was running outside and fed 4 “trouble lights”, all the light that was available. (It made for lousy video work – see below, but felt so appropriate in this setting.) The service started at 7:00, and the local pastor announced that there would first be a “Miss Salud” (Miss Health) contest. He noted that God is a fun God, and He likes laughter. Our 9 women were asked to line up along the front wall, and 3 judges were selected to evaluate who would win the competition for Miss Salud. There were lots of laughs and applause as each of the 9 had to try to introduce themselves in Spanish, but they made Mackenzie do it in Shuar (their native Indian language) since she knew Spanish. With a little coaching, they muddled through. Then each had to sing something solo….more laughter and applause followed. The crowd joined in (in Spanish) as one sang “Jesus Loves Me”. The clapped to the beat of a Spanish gospel song sung by Mackenzie, and she became the obvious frontrunner at this point. Now, it was announced that the soon-to-be-crowned Miss Salud would need an official escort, so our men had to line up on the other side of the front and compete for that position. After humiliating attempts at introductions in Spanish, the men had to do an impersonation of an animal selected by the pastor. We “saw” a monkey and a Cuye (remember….the Guinea Pig), and Martin did a great impression of an Anaconda, ending up wrapped around and squeezing Mackenzie. Finally, it was time for the judges to weigh in. You guessed it, Mackenzie was declared Miss Salud, and Martin was chosen as her escort. A fancy “crown” of stems and leaves was placed on her head. There was lots of clapping and whistling and smiling. Now, it was time for us to sit down and enjoy the Centro Yuu folks. A boom box was powered up via the generator and a microphone was used for some special music. Marcello, one of 2 local students who attend the Seminary (run by Don and by Manuel) one week out of every 2 months, lasting 2 ½ years, sang a very moving song. It was obvious that he was full of love and compassion. Several women sang some traditional Shuar Indian songs (in Shuar), and then some children, dressed up in traditional Shuar garb, complete with spears, seed necklaces and rattling anklets, and some paint, danced to the singing and chanting of the “choir”. Pretty amazing… Our friend Manuel then provided the message as he spoke of physical health and spiritual health, and of God’s love. It was nearly 10 PM, and now everyone lined up along the sidewalls, and all stepped forward to meet and greet their counterparts across the floor. Small gifts were exchanged, and there were lots of hugs and smiles. One young man allowed us to hold and play with his pet monkey, and had him eat some bread from Mackenzie’s lips. As we said goodbye and walked back out onto the soccer field in the darkness, we were overwhelmed by the sky. There are gazillions more stars visible down here than what we can see in Florida, and the white Milky Way bands are “clear as day”. Back in the bus, back to our hotel, and to bed…. Wow! What a day! |
Teaching oral hygiene...
Bob is a poisonous snake; Shuar kids perform traditional dance; Mackenzie is crowned "Miss Salud"; the post service party animal...