July 13, 2005      The San Dionisio Clinic

Wednesday evening.

We got up really early this morning.

The plan was to head for San Dionisio, a small village further up into the mountains where a small church was to serve as the clinic site.

Breakfast at 6 AM….into the bus as 6:30….bumpy, lurching, dusty bus ride for 90 minutes (and about 28 miles) past beautiful valleys and mountainsides…

We were met at the corner by Pastor Humberto, who ushered us across a small muddy ditch and up to the church. The building was an Assembly of God Church, a typical small, one-room structure, and the team set about moving the wooden benches and the couple tables, and stringing up a sheet to create “privacy” for an exam room, to turn this into a clinic. Pastor Humberto had passed out 100 ticket numbers during the week to those who were to be able to be seen by the team, but he now reported that there were many more who had health complaints and wanted to come in.

So, we adapted. Arlen and Clay created 2 “exam rooms,” one on each end of the exam table, each with 3 or 4 plastic chairs. Now, we could see twice as many as usual.

Some highlights of the day:

We saw a few cases of scabies here in San Dionisio, whereas we had not recognized any while at the hospital on Monday or in Las Tejas on Tuesday.

A couple babies and young children had some pretty bad respiratory infections; we were happy to be able to provide some antibiotics.

One baby had visited a local clinic 2 weeks before our arrival, and Mom was told the child had pneumonia; however, she was told they didn’t have any antibiotics at that time, so the baby did not get treated. Fortunately, this one survived; she was still quite ill, and we started her treatment…

One elderly man had a near-total bladder outlet obstruction, and his bladder had stretched up past his umbilicus; we were able to arrange a referral to a doctor in Matagalpa (who will hopefully get this man’s prostate taken care of…).

A spirited elderly woman with completely white hair told us she was 109 years old; she still got around very well, and wanted to thank and hug everyone.

Two babies had horrible, excoriated rashes and, or course, were fussy; we had several soaps, lotions, and creams to help.

With our double exam room system, we were able to see 147 patients this day.

Pastor Humberto met with many of our patients after we finished our medical care with them, and he reported, at the end of the day, 15 new souls added to God’s flock.

We observed women washing clothes in the river behind the church all day long.

On a lighter note, Martin came upon a group of young boys having a peeing contest along the bridge (to see who could pee out into the river the farthest).

One of the soccer balls that Lance brought disappeared during the day.

They say these mountains are full of monkeys, but we apparently scared them off, as we didn’t get to see any during this day.

Missionary Ventures has established several “Feeding Centers” here in Nicaragua, where underfed children can get 3 balanced meals per week. The World Health Organization has reported that that is all it takes to avoid severe malnutrition in children. One of these Feeding Centers is here in San Dionisio, and Pastor Humberto oversees it.

We were fortunate enough to be here on a Wednesday, one of the 3 feeding days at this Center, and got to see the 25 kids sitting in rows on small benches outside the church, eating their bowls of yellow meal and a bit of chicken. It was an amazing sight to see them so eagerly scooping that food into their mouths. We had about a dozen left-over bologna sandwiches from our lunch, and Pastor Humberto tore them in half to create a little something extra for each child this day.

Again, we were amazed at the level of happiness exhibited by these children and their parents in this setting: poverty, dusty roads, no refrigerators, not enough food, very little health care, doing laundry in the river, using outhouses (or the jungle) for bathrooms, no Wal Mart, 7-11, or Home Depot up the road, etc. They are so un-like us needy, demanding Americans.

Anna enjoys some friends at the San Dionisio Clinic.

 

  

Clay evaluates one of the many patients at the clinic.

 

  

Pam and Cheryl work on a plugged up ear in a patient.

 
 

Madisen poses with Braulio, one of our excellent interpreters this week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Curious onlookers checked us out at the church clinic.

 

 

 

 

 

  

A young girl gets one of her 3 balance meals this week at the Missionary Ventures Feeding Center in San Dionisio.