Soles 4 Souls

 The other campaign I had the privilege of participating in recently was that of washing feet and giving out shoes. A team from Soles4Souls came to serve Trujillo with us, bringing approximately 1,500 pairs with them.  This was their second visit and surely not their last.  The team leader was Christian and fun to hang out with and share experiences of working abroad.  The team itself was super patient worked very hard and we had a great time serving with them.

          

Here's a happy face from our first of four locations, Peru Mission's Presbyterian church in Arevalo.

Washing feet and distributing shoes at the Wichanzao Presbyterian Church (right next to our clinic)

Parque Industrial is an impoverished sector of Trujillo where we hope to have a clinic in the future.  We often go to the church there for campaigns and this week was no exception.  In this pic you can see one of our pastors sizing one pair of feet as another walks out with some new tennies.

Nothing like a smile on the face of someone who so appreciates the love and simple gift of shoes that we were able to give on this two·day campaign.  Sorry I don´t have too many pics of thier sweet faces, but if you search on the other missionary blogs, I´m sure you´ll find better photos.  Many of them were still wearing the same shoes that were given them the last time Soles4Souls came!  One of the coolest things was when some of the folks from these neighborhoods recognized me from the clinic or previous campaigns. 


Praises:  God has continually blessed me with good health, great relationships, and financial means to this point.  I am so grateful!
Prayer requests:  That the people we reached might come to church and be more aware of the church's presence in their community.  For the clinic as it continues to grow and become well known in the Wichanzao sector of Trujillo, that we may show Christ in all that we do.

If You Build It, They Will Come!

We've had some really fun campaigns lately.  A medical team recently came with Independent Presbyterian Church from Memphis, Tennessee.  Every morning for a week they set up a day-long clinic in an under-served part of Trujillo to meet the medical needs of the community.  When we arrived to the different campaign sites every morning, it would appear as a ghost town.  Not a soul in site.  Just tumbleweeds and a wild dog or two sniffing piles of rubbage.  Then as we would begin to set up, people gathered around.  We brought a megaphone to go around announcing what we were doing in their neck of the woods and before we knew it, there were people everywhere.  The presence of a team gives us the opportunity to make many new contacts in these neighborhoods, and allows us to spread the word about the availability of our clinic in the Wichanzao sector of Trujillo. In addition, many people also get a taste of what our churches are like in the surrounding areas.  

Pastor Baker translating for the pediatric nurse practitioner.  

The pharmacist came prepared. 

The dentists cleaned and pulled a lot of teeth.

Everyone went home with new toothbrushes and toothpaste and floss!

The patients patiently lined up as they waited to be triaged.  A couple of the team members were devoted to playing with little ones as they waited.

Taking down chief complaints while a nurse from the team takes vitals signs.

This gentleman isn't a doctor.  He came to give away reading glasses!  He brings a huge box full for people to try on and then has them read the bible to see if it's the right fit.  Cool idea ya?


Trujillo is large and has many different neighborhoods.  Neighborhoods that I have been instructed not to explore on my own.  This campaign was a great opportunity for me to get to know some of the areas where we plan to build clinics in the future (and churches and schools etc).

Prayer requests: That the contacts we made through the medical campaigns would receive spiritual healing as well as physical healing.  For my health and safety as Trujillo is reportedly becoming more crime ridden and I am frequently coming into contact with people who have contagious diseases such as tuberculosis.


Things here are going really well.  Thank you all so much for your support.  Will try to keep the updates coming.  Until then... - Yvette

Otorrinolaringologo

We had an ENT doc come from the states....

His name is Dr. Berry and we had a blast learning from him.  He comes every year for a special ear, nose throat day at our clinic.. 

We announced it to the public ahead of time so there was great anticipation.

 

                  

We saw a lot of swollen tonsils (which he was a little dissapointed that he could not operate on), diagnosed some Mineir´s disease, seasonal allergies, deviated septums, benign paroxysmal vertigo, chronic otits media, TMJ, etc.  We cauterized some bleeding noses and inner cheek sores (aphtas they are called.  I always knew them as kanker sores). 
A new skill I´ve mastered, that of cleaning out the ears, was made easy by a new contraption Dr. Berry brought us which is basically just a spray bottle connected to a little tiny hose.  Once I got past the grossness of what was coming out of these poor folks´ears, it was instantly gratifying when my patients would say ¨I can HEAR now!¨ 

It was good to tag-team the translating with Dr. Joulton who is our full-time Peruvian MD.  He speaks English really well, but I was pretty still pretty useful with some translation.

 ¨Now what do you you think that is?¨ Doctor Berry would ask.  When we would give a wrong answer, he would respond with some cute southern sounding anecdote like ¨Now when you hammer, everything looks like a nail.¨

    In between patients Dr. Berry would tell us about his clinical trials he did for a new throat cancer drug in China, or about how he treated folks like Alison Krauss when he worked at a voice center in Nashville.  He convinced both Dr. Julton and I that we absolutely need to visit the south someday!

   Prayer requests:  We would love to have the capacity for guys like this to do surgeries.  We have some space (our church building next door) but the anastesiologist and equipment, not so much.  Sounds like a lot to ask, but it may be a reality pretty soon!  Will tell you about that next time.  Until then, thanks for reading.
                            -Yvette
 

Oh how I Wish You Were Here...

...so you could see for yourself.  But you´re not.  So I´m going to try and bring it to you

In the Wichenzao neighborhood of Trujillo, we have our clinic that was 
originally run in a little room of a church.  It´s now in its own two story 
building and eventually, God willing, will grow into a mini hospital.



We open our doors at 0800 and start the day with scripture and prayer, which our patients are more than welcome to join.  Today it´s Lydia´s turn to read.  She´s one of our interns that plans to go to med school after her year Peru.  Her Spanish is really good which has been a huge help to those of us mostly uni-linguals.



Then everyone forms a line to register and pay for whatever service they came for.  I´m proud to say that we are stinkin reasonable compared to what the other options are in town, not to mention what you would pay in the States.  7 soles for a medical or obstetric consult.  5 for a nebulizer treatment.  Just examples.

This is the room where we triage, administer injections, do ear irrigations, IV transfusions, wound treatments, etc.  It´s very open which can be a bit odd. At one time we could have one person getting nebulized, another their blood pressure taken while answering medical history questions, one being weighed, and yet another getting a shot in their rear.  You see the folding curtain on the left?  I was trying to use it one day when it was as busy as I just described in order to give an antibiotic privately.  My patient chuckled, said something along the lines of ´let´s just do this thing´ and pulled down her pants and bent over in front of everyone.  The other folks in the room were obviously in agreement so I didný protest.  We also have 3 rooms for the doctors to see  patients in more of a private setting.

I haven´t taken care of little kids since nursing school so this has been a fun change of pace.  I´ve also been learning to do new things like place stiches, nerve blocks, joint injections, etc.
Story: We had a gal with asthma come in who was basically going into respiratory distress as one of our nurses was trying to give her a neb treatment.  As anyone would be, our patient started freaking out due to her lack of air.  She felt claustrophobic with the mask on and this anxiety led to even worsening bronchospams, which doesn´t help the gas exchange at the alveolar level (where the oxygen actually transfers into the blood in the circulatory system).  I overheard the nurse saying that our gal needed to go to the hospital because we weren´t outfitted to treat her worsening condition.  Our patient started balling because she couldn´t afford that.  Again, this doesn´t help the respiratory distress. 

Our nurse immediately started praying with her as I snuck this snapshot.  Now do you see that oxygen tank behind them?  ¨Why isn´t our patient hooked up to that?¨  I asked.  ¨Because it´s empty and it´s for CO2.¨  Oh ok.  Huh?  Turns out this thing was ´converted´.  We bought it in Lima with O2 in it and the CO2 label covered up by a label saying ¨OXYGENO¨ and now when we go to fill it up, nobody will do it ¨...because this tank is engineered for carbon dioxide¨ they tell us.  Agravating....

So this leads me to my first prayer request.  In order to purchase the proper tank, we need to raise about $300 (American).  At least it´s cheap to fill up once we have it.  If you or anyone you know want to pitch in, let us know. 

Also, we need to find another full-time nurse to fill the shoes of ours (pictured above) who is getting married in October and moving to Lima.  Honestly I don´t know how we´re going to find someone as awesome as her.

Lastly, my Spanish skills could use a lot of prayer.  I´m translating for some medical campaigns in a few days and really don´t want to mess anything up.  Especially with the surgeons.  Could you imagen the damage that could be done?

Thanks for reading and there´s a lot more to tell so stay tuned. 

Need catching up?

 Alright, after living in the 'Emerald City' for almost 2 years I felt it was time to move on. Returned to the Golden State in spring where I spent time with family, old friends and made some new.  Heard about a Presbyterian mission that had a clinic in northern Peru, yada yada yada, off I went to learn Spanish.  Spent the fall (our fall, their spring) in the southern part of the country, headed back to the states for Christmas, and now here I am.  Arrived in Trujillo (northern Peru) on New Years Eve.  Reunited with the Ueltcheys (who I studied Spanish with in Arequipa and will work with in the clinic) at their new digs where I also met some of the other missionaries.  Went to the beach where we we saw a mostly drunken firework display at midnight, and then stopped by the church office for the non-drunken after party which I hear lasted until 5am.  I really think I'm going to love living here.  It'll be nice to be near the ocean again.  Can't wait to meet tons of new people, work in the medical ministry and be a part of taking over Peru for Christ, yeehaw!  Our mission has tons of other outreaches to the city including biweekly soccer games, free English classes daily, a paper company, a furniture company, a micro-financing program, three churches, plans for a school and more.  Even out and about it's so much easier to preach the gospel here than in the states.  Folks everywhere are more interested in engaging in conversations about life and death, God and man, sin and redemption, etc. They seem to be more conscious about the need to depend on something greater than themselves in contrast to what you find when chatting with your neighbor in the States.  Why is this you think?  Share your thoughts under comments if you like  :)
     My first impression of Trujillo is similar to Arequipa except for subtle differences like brighter colored buildings, more options for public transit, different word for menu, things like that.  I was advised to take the first week easy.  Didn't do it, now I'm pooped.  Will try harder this week.  Have a huge apartment to outfit for being hospitable.  It's really secure.  I have five keys and a watchman.  Already locked myself out twice (the stinkin doors lock automatically).  The second time, our watchman had to pull a spiderman and propel down into my third story window from the above apartment via a rope he dashed home to get on a little pink bike. The lady to who lives in this apartment was also there when I locked myself out the first time which was a little embarrassing but hey, now we're good friends.  Made the decision not to bring my laptop in hopes of reading more.  Pastor Wes says I'll be sending for it within weeks.  I think I can hold off as there is a place across the street from my apartment that only charges one sol per hour (35 cents) of internet/computer usage.  I apologize for the lack of pictures to go with this fascinating entry but I haven't had the courage to pull out my camera in public much in fear of it being stolen.  Anyhow, stay tuned for my next installment about the clinic!

View from my window

That's it. I'm conviced...

Everyone should learn to speak a second language.  Such an amazing challenge for the mind and soul.  I've been acquiring quite the backbone.  Not only does one have to memorize a bunch of new words, but the order in which the words go in just to construct a simple sentence is just, loco!  If you haven't tried, I highly recommend it. It'll change your life.
Being a mute can cause one to be freakishly reflective.  As I am constantly wracking my brain, trying to form sentences these days, I begin to wonder if the thing I was going to say is even worth communicating.  (And then of course there's the fact that the conversation has already taken three turns and is now in a completely different neighborhood from when I started to form this now useless contribution.)  It's also a bit difficult to listen and learn while thinking so hard.  Even in English, I have this great habit of only hearing about half of what is said and then remembering only about a third of that.  You know how mothers do when children say "mom! mom! mom! mom!"  They've subconsciously trained their ears to completely ignore it.  Well that's exactly what I do with incomprehensible jargon.  Really not an option when you're trying to learn an entire language in just three months.  It's painfully challenging to maintain attention to conversations that only kind of make sense, some of the time.  However, I do have to admit how flattering it is when the taxistas here tell me "Usted habla Español muy bien!" 
       Needless to say,  I have a whole new respect for the bilingual population.  We always gave my father (who didn't learn English until moving to the US from Lebanon at age 30 or so) a hard time and would have no patience for him when he didn't understand as I would mumble something rapidly, with my back to him, or better yet from another room.  Sorry dad.  And is it odd to hate your own accent?  Can't role an 'r' to save my life without feeling like a huge dork.  I have a darling nephew with the cutest speech impediment.  He too would often rather just not speak much of the time.  I feel you kiddo.

Goodbye Hello Goodbye Hello

My time here is flying by.  I've already said goodbye to dozens of missionaries who have finished their Spanish classes here and are now off working in far away places.  Here's a group shot of one of the many going away parties we've had.

It's truly amazing to be able to spark up an immediate friendship with people from completely different cultures and backgrounds simply based on our common ground that we love and honor the Lord Jesus.  I just fared well to a gal from Germany yesterday who I only knew for a week, but it honestly felt like we went back at least a few months.  It is a bit sad to see people go who I probably won't ever see again in this present life, but we do anticipate a great reunion in the life to come and therefore remain cheerful.  And while it's hard when they leave, there are always new people coming that I get the pleasure of getting to know which makes life here that much richer.  Soon, I'll get to meet a whole new crop of people in Trujillo, where the community will be a tad more stable, I think.  Check out Peru Mission's news letter if you like.  It includes a little tid bit about the clinic I will be working in.