First Medical Campaign

This past week has been extremely busy. On saturday night i returned from another trip to masisea where i preached my second sermon. Our team had to finish packing medicines and supplies for the campaign. We got to the campaign sight which was just outside of Pulcallpa around 8 in the morning. The building they gave us for clinic had just been built. It had two rooms, one for pharmacy and one for patient consults. It also had a dirt floor. Not only was the building our clinic it was our sleeping quarters and surgery center. After unpacking the medicines Laura, Dr. Fillman, Emmanuel, and I started seeing our first dental patients. It was a little nerve wracking at first to be pulling people's teeth out but I quickly got used to it. Throughout the week we saw a wide variety of patients. We had every where from a 3 year old up to people in their late 80's. A couple of the people had the last of their teeth pulled while some of them only had one or two. Kids were especially difficult because a lot of times they were scared of the needles. I had one kid actually try and jump out of the dental chair while i was giving him the injection. I learned so much about dental this past week. Also, i got to assist with three surgeries that Dr. Matthews performed. All three of them were tumor removals but it was fun to watch. The schedule for the week was pretty crazy. I usually woke up at around 3:30 am to the sound of people lining outside the building to get their tickets for the morning session. I would finally get out of bed around 6 am, take a shower, and start converting our sleeping quarters back into a clinic. We would set up, go eat breakfast at the mayors house, and then start clinic around 8:30 am. Usually dental would stop about noon and we would go and help with clinic until lunch. Then the whole process started over again for the afternoon session. The dental clinic was held in the large, orange evangelistic series tent. Because we were in a tent it got extremely hot. It was around 100 degrees inside and we had gloves, scrubs, and masks on. Needless to say we sweated A LOT! I really enjoyed working with the different patients. A lot of times we would take teeth out that had been causing the patients quite a bit of pain. It was especially hard to see the kids in pain but it helped to know that they only felt it for a few seconds until the lidocaine started working. This coming week we are going on another campaign to a chipevo village. It is going to take 16 hours to get there by boat. Please pray that our team will have the energy to get through this next week and that we will be able to reach the people we meet for Jesus. Thanks for all your prayers. I know they are working!

Ps. the pics are as follows.

1. the dental team: laura, dr. fillman, emmanuel, and I
2. Our medical team after a long week
3. carrying logs in the rainforest
4. what the logs did to my back
5. working on a patient in the orange tent

Earthquake, fire, and dental

This week has been filled with excitement. On wednesday as most of you know there was a large earthquake that devastated much of the coastline. We did feel it but there was no damage in our area. Also on wednesday we turned into forest firefighters because of a fire that got slightly out of control. On thursday as you will see in the pics laura and I learned how to do dental blocks on each other. My mouth was numb for a good 5 hours but it was fun and a little freaky. Countinue to keep our project in your prayers!

Cultural experiences in Peru

This past week has been filled with adventure and fun! On Sunday we went to the wild animal park and went shopping which is always fun with 7 American’s who know very little Spanish. Also on our shopping trip we saw the famous “naked man” of Pulcallpa. He is a guy who walks around the city without any clothes on. A little weird I know, but this is one of the things that makes the city interesting (ha ha). On Monday I learned how to wash my clothes by hand. It is a huge pain but it is definitely making me appreciate clean clothes. One of the problems I ran into while washing was putting too much soap into the bucket. My first load of laundry had so much soap that my shirts could practically stand up by themselves! I am learning quickly the art of laundering. During the week besides Spanish lessons and meetings with jenni I helped emmanuel (one of my friends at Km. 38) plant noni which is a type of medicinal plant. It was fun to work with him because it helps me to learn Spanish as well as some agricultural skills.
The biggest highlight of the week was going to Masisea for the weekend, which is a town that just had an Adventist church planted this summer. To get to the town we had to ride on a Pecke Pecke for 5 hours on the river. The boat was crowded with people but it was a really fun experience to see how people traveled. When we got to the port we had to ride on motocars for about 8 km. to get to the actual town. I got to ride on the back of the bible workers moto. His name is Domingo and he is a really awesome Christian man who loves Jesus. While at the town we stayed at a church members hostel. That night we helped put on the Friday evening program. After the program I took a shower without my headlamp because I forgot it at Km. 38. In the morning we went to Sabbath school and church. We helped out again with the service. A couple of the girls sang special music and told the childrens story. I got the privilege of preaching my first sermon in Peru. It was fun but a little scary to be preaching. But with God’s help I was able to make it through the experience. The plan was to return to Pulcallpa Sabbath afternoon but the heavy downpour that occurred prevented us from leaving. Instead we had to leave at 4 am to get to the boat on time. Unfortunately the road to the port was really muddy so it took a long time to get to the port. Also we had an interesting experience because our driver dropped us off about 1 km from the port in the middle of a papaya field. It was pitch black and there was a few guys just hanging out at a house. It was a little freaky to be there but the rest of our group finally caught up with us. The trip back to Pulcallpa was a lot shorter because we were going downstream. One of the interesting things about the trip back was getting Domingo’s dirt bike onto the top of the boat. It took about four of us to lift it but we got it on after a lot of struggle.
Another fun experience that I had yesterday was learning how to move logs out of the rainforest in our backyard. The logs are massive. They are around 6-10 feet long, 1 ½ feet wide, and 6-8 inches thick. Also, they are extremely dense which makes them even heavier. I think they weigh over 100 pounds maybe more like 150 lbs. We carried about 20 logs out of the forest on our backs to the trail were we loaded them onto a cart. Then we pushed the cart through a very uneven trail to the sawmill. Needless to say I am extremely sore and I have a lot of respect for the guys I work with who make it look easy. The dentist just arrived so I am gearing up for a crash course in Dental. Please pray for the project as well as the first medical campaign that is coming up at the beginning of this next week. Thanks for all the prayers and support!

ps.
the pics that i posted are as follows
1. houses- our home at km. 38
2. people- our group and some locals at the animal park
3. playing futbol at santo domingo
4. my feet riding on a pecke pecke
5. sunset on the yarina river

Peru at last!

After taking off from ft. lauderdale airpost i had a 5 hour flight to get to Lima. On the flight i sat next to a man named jorge who gave me a lot of good tips on what to do when i got to peru. Once we landed i made it fairly easy through customs and found jenny the project leader outside of the gates. We had to put my luggage in storage and then take a bus two hours to dr. matthews mom´s house. It was quite an experience to get off the plane and then get packed into a little bus with about 20 other people! In the morning we made the 2 hour bus ride back to the airport were we met up with Mr. and Mrs. Neish who were flying with us to Pulcallpa. The flight to Pulcallpa lasted about 1 hour. We got to fly over the andes and then we landed in the jungle were pulcallpa is located. Once we got off the plane we got picked up and driven around pulcallpa. Later that day we went to our new home at Km. 38 which is exactly 38 km. from pulcallpa. The house we live in is very rustic but we have running water and a bathroom and shower. This week we have been having meetings about what we will be doing as well as spanish lessons and cultural experiences. One of the cool things that i got to do was drive the project truck through the traffic of pulcallpa which needless to say is insane. If there are any rules I sure haven´t seen them in action. Lanes are disregarded and people watch out for their bumper and knowbody elses. A typical day in my life goes about like this. At about 6 am the sun rises which helps to wake me up in the morning. I usually get up, have my worship and then do some of the chores around the house such as sweeping or letting out the sheep. After chores comes breakfast prep which can take up to an hour. After breakfast we have worship as a team and go over the activities for the day. Usually we have a spanish lesson in the morning and project orientation meetings. In the afternoon we sometimes go shopping for food or work at the project. Once this week we went swimming and I have attempted to play Futbol without any luck so far. In a couple of weeks we go on our fist clinic which should be quite an adventure. Thanks for all the prayers from everyone. I will continue to keep you up to date as the weeks go by. I would especially appreciate it if you would pray for the project as it is going through lots of growing and changing! Keep in touch.

Flight down

Currently i am in the Ft. Lauderdale airport in Florida. So far my flight has gone smoothly. I just have the last leg to Peru. A big thankyou to all my family and friends for your support and prayers. I could not have done this without your love and support!