AUGUST 5, 2009. Wednesday.
It’s very very very hot in Puerto Arturo.
This morning at breakfast, Sarah spoke to the group about sacrifice, and we thought about what it means to sacrifice
for others.
We left the hotel (“Hostel Akemi”) at 0730 in 4 moto-kars, and headed for a port along the river (Rio Huallaga,
pronounced “why-YA-ga”) here in Yurimaguas. Each kar has a metal bracket behind the passenger seat, and the
bags and boxes of supplies were perched there for the 12-minute trip. We needed to climb down about 50 concrete
steps from the road, and then continue on down another 30 or 40 feet to the water’s edge to enter the boat, a 35-
foot wooden structure built in the shape of a dugout. There were some wooden planks perched along the sides, and
we joined several locals onboard for the ride. The sun was just climbing into the eastern sky and the “pecky-pecky”
motor putted along with the river’s current to move us fairly quickly toward our workday.
This is the dry season, so the river levels are down. The banks of the rivers now are quite steep and exposed, but
are ready to accommodate a lot more water once the rainy season returns in a couple months.
It was only about 25 minutes down the river to Puerto Arturo (“Port Arthur”), a small village in a picturesque setting at
the river’s edge. We climbed the dirt path up to the main village level for 10-15 minutes, and most were in a full
sweat by now in the rising temperatures. From up here, we look down to another even smaller village that is set on a
flat area about 100 feet or so below us. All the thatch-roof structures down there were on fairly tall stilts, and they
tell us that entire community is flooded for months during the rainy season. From up here, it looks like a picture out
of an old movie set…
We were led to the church, a wood plank building on only about 2 feet of stilts, and it had a corrugated metal roof
and only one window. There was almost no breeze.
We hung some folded-over mosquito netting about two-thirds of the way toward the front of the church so that the
work areas for the medical and dental corners would have partial privacy from the rest of the roomful of people.
Setting up the medical corner is pretty easy: drag a bench over (for laying down for abdominal exams), get out the
few pieces of equipment, and we’re ready to go.
The dental side is much more complicated. The chair is a stiff cardboard that snaps together like an erector set.
Our wonderfully friendly translator and friend, Warren, popped it all together this day (after assisting for the past
couple days). Bob and Barbara pull out the plastic tablecloths and start arranging the dozens of pieces of
instruments and packets of sterilized tools that will be needed this day. Mary Beth sets up the sterilizing area, and
the plastic containers are filled with the right chemicals.
Meanwhile, a small wooden table was brought in from someone’s home and it functions as the triage desk near the
door.
We’re all ready to work, and the line of patients is now already 30 or 40 people long. Word spreads quickly out
here…
]
We were not able to bring along the bulky air compressor in the narrow boat, so the dental work was extracting
painful teeth this day. There were plenty of those.
The medical work included many headache and back pain patients. Having been here just a few days in this
incredible heat, we all understood why someone would have headaches around here. It may not be possible to stay
hydrated. Most of the adults, and many of the teenagers work in the fields and the jungle with machetes, and back
pain is probably just a normal everyday affliction.
We saw 2 people who had pretty big cuts on their feet from using machetes. We re-hydrated a very sick baby, and
ended up taking her and her mother on the boat back to Yurimaguas with us at the end of the day.
Everyone out here has parasites, and we gave them all an albendazole tablet to chew up as they checked in.
There was the 17-year-old mother and 19-year old father who had just lost a one-year-old to pneumonia last month.
There was the father of 6 who had just lost his wife to TB in May. All 6 children were there with him to see us; the
oldest child, a 12-year-old girl, was carrying the baby that had just been delivered by her mother just days before
her mother had died. There was the man who had fallen out of a tree 3 weeks ago and injured his shoulder; it was
dislocated and it would not pull back into place this long after the injury. Although the fingers still worked just fine,
the arm just hung there along his side. Susan set about trying to figure out a way to get him back to Yurimaguas
and then up to Tarapoto for surgery….and how to pay the equivalent of $150 that it would cost.
One very sick baby required aggressive re-hydration, and we ended up taking the baby and his mother back with us
in the boat to Yurimaguas at the end of the day.
As the sun rose higher into the clear sky this morning, the metal roof heated up, and the heat radiated in on the
team. With no air circulation, this place became an absolute oven. We drank water and Crystal Light by the gallon.
Sweat dripped from everyone’s faces and arms. By mid-afternoon, some were lightheaded, some could hardly
stand, and all were whipped. Brenda said later that she does not ever remember a time of being hotter than she
was this day. Others concurred. We finally stopped signing in new patients about 4 PM, and it took until about 5:15
to finish seeing them.
While Barbara packed up the dental tools, Kelly and Brenda packed up the pharmacy bags. We finally ambled down
the hill to the river’s edge just before 6 PM, and we had an amazing view of the setting sun along the Rio Huallaga as
we made the 40-minute trip back up to Yurimaguas against the current.
Then it was moto-kars back to the Hostel Akemi, and the cold showers felt really good again this evening.
Although we started the day thinking about sacrifice, somehow our heat exhaustion, fatigue, and innumerable bug
bites still don’t stack up to what the folks we’re serving here experience on a regular basis. There were times this
afternoon when some of the team didn’t think they could go on, but we persevered and made it back to the Akemi in
one piece. We were too exhausted to sit and talk this night.
The folks we served this day didn’t have a shower, nor did they have the nice chicken dish we got to eat.
Dirt floor? No problem.
Working out in the hot sun with a machete day after day? Sure.
Finding food in the jungle and the river every day? Of course.
Losing young children to infections that would be cured easily in America? Wow.
Seeing worms come out of your children? Certainly, frequently.
Being significantly injured and having no hospital as an option? That’s everyday life in Puerto Arturo.
These folks out here understand what sacrifice is. The members of this mission team, completely worn out this day
in the blazing jungle heat, aren’t able to do enough to help.
It’s very very very hot in Puerto Arturo.
This morning at breakfast, Sarah spoke to the group about sacrifice, and we thought about what it means to sacrifice
for others.
We left the hotel (“Hostel Akemi”) at 0730 in 4 moto-kars, and headed for a port along the river (Rio Huallaga,
pronounced “why-YA-ga”) here in Yurimaguas. Each kar has a metal bracket behind the passenger seat, and the
bags and boxes of supplies were perched there for the 12-minute trip. We needed to climb down about 50 concrete
steps from the road, and then continue on down another 30 or 40 feet to the water’s edge to enter the boat, a 35-
foot wooden structure built in the shape of a dugout. There were some wooden planks perched along the sides, and
we joined several locals onboard for the ride. The sun was just climbing into the eastern sky and the “pecky-pecky”
motor putted along with the river’s current to move us fairly quickly toward our workday.
This is the dry season, so the river levels are down. The banks of the rivers now are quite steep and exposed, but
are ready to accommodate a lot more water once the rainy season returns in a couple months.
It was only about 25 minutes down the river to Puerto Arturo (“Port Arthur”), a small village in a picturesque setting at
the river’s edge. We climbed the dirt path up to the main village level for 10-15 minutes, and most were in a full
sweat by now in the rising temperatures. From up here, we look down to another even smaller village that is set on a
flat area about 100 feet or so below us. All the thatch-roof structures down there were on fairly tall stilts, and they
tell us that entire community is flooded for months during the rainy season. From up here, it looks like a picture out
of an old movie set…
We were led to the church, a wood plank building on only about 2 feet of stilts, and it had a corrugated metal roof
and only one window. There was almost no breeze.
We hung some folded-over mosquito netting about two-thirds of the way toward the front of the church so that the
work areas for the medical and dental corners would have partial privacy from the rest of the roomful of people.
Setting up the medical corner is pretty easy: drag a bench over (for laying down for abdominal exams), get out the
few pieces of equipment, and we’re ready to go.
The dental side is much more complicated. The chair is a stiff cardboard that snaps together like an erector set.
Our wonderfully friendly translator and friend, Warren, popped it all together this day (after assisting for the past
couple days). Bob and Barbara pull out the plastic tablecloths and start arranging the dozens of pieces of
instruments and packets of sterilized tools that will be needed this day. Mary Beth sets up the sterilizing area, and
the plastic containers are filled with the right chemicals.
Meanwhile, a small wooden table was brought in from someone’s home and it functions as the triage desk near the
door.
We’re all ready to work, and the line of patients is now already 30 or 40 people long. Word spreads quickly out
here…
]
We were not able to bring along the bulky air compressor in the narrow boat, so the dental work was extracting
painful teeth this day. There were plenty of those.
The medical work included many headache and back pain patients. Having been here just a few days in this
incredible heat, we all understood why someone would have headaches around here. It may not be possible to stay
hydrated. Most of the adults, and many of the teenagers work in the fields and the jungle with machetes, and back
pain is probably just a normal everyday affliction.
We saw 2 people who had pretty big cuts on their feet from using machetes. We re-hydrated a very sick baby, and
ended up taking her and her mother on the boat back to Yurimaguas with us at the end of the day.
Everyone out here has parasites, and we gave them all an albendazole tablet to chew up as they checked in.
There was the 17-year-old mother and 19-year old father who had just lost a one-year-old to pneumonia last month.
There was the father of 6 who had just lost his wife to TB in May. All 6 children were there with him to see us; the
oldest child, a 12-year-old girl, was carrying the baby that had just been delivered by her mother just days before
her mother had died. There was the man who had fallen out of a tree 3 weeks ago and injured his shoulder; it was
dislocated and it would not pull back into place this long after the injury. Although the fingers still worked just fine,
the arm just hung there along his side. Susan set about trying to figure out a way to get him back to Yurimaguas
and then up to Tarapoto for surgery….and how to pay the equivalent of $150 that it would cost.
One very sick baby required aggressive re-hydration, and we ended up taking the baby and his mother back with us
in the boat to Yurimaguas at the end of the day.
As the sun rose higher into the clear sky this morning, the metal roof heated up, and the heat radiated in on the
team. With no air circulation, this place became an absolute oven. We drank water and Crystal Light by the gallon.
Sweat dripped from everyone’s faces and arms. By mid-afternoon, some were lightheaded, some could hardly
stand, and all were whipped. Brenda said later that she does not ever remember a time of being hotter than she
was this day. Others concurred. We finally stopped signing in new patients about 4 PM, and it took until about 5:15
to finish seeing them.
While Barbara packed up the dental tools, Kelly and Brenda packed up the pharmacy bags. We finally ambled down
the hill to the river’s edge just before 6 PM, and we had an amazing view of the setting sun along the Rio Huallaga as
we made the 40-minute trip back up to Yurimaguas against the current.
Then it was moto-kars back to the Hostel Akemi, and the cold showers felt really good again this evening.
Although we started the day thinking about sacrifice, somehow our heat exhaustion, fatigue, and innumerable bug
bites still don’t stack up to what the folks we’re serving here experience on a regular basis. There were times this
afternoon when some of the team didn’t think they could go on, but we persevered and made it back to the Akemi in
one piece. We were too exhausted to sit and talk this night.
The folks we served this day didn’t have a shower, nor did they have the nice chicken dish we got to eat.
Dirt floor? No problem.
Working out in the hot sun with a machete day after day? Sure.
Finding food in the jungle and the river every day? Of course.
Losing young children to infections that would be cured easily in America? Wow.
Seeing worms come out of your children? Certainly, frequently.
Being significantly injured and having no hospital as an option? That’s everyday life in Puerto Arturo.
These folks out here understand what sacrifice is. The members of this mission team, completely worn out this day
in the blazing jungle heat, aren’t able to do enough to help.
| The climb up to the workplace in the heat was a sweaty adventure for the team. The village down below Puerto Arturo is flooded during the rainy season each year. |
| Just before we started working, we were told that the villagers had prepared some chicken soup for us for our breakfast. Being team players, several of us had some, and noted how they do not waste any parts of the chicken... It was, of course, very good. |
TODAY'S VIDEO........