Gordon Hospital clinic

Having fun sorting medicines

Pulling teeth

Sleeping "Franky"

Our new monkey

Elbow surgery

Getting the wormies out of my foot

Hanging out in the hammocks

We hit the ground running after our first clinic. After a two day “rest” which included doing a weeks worth of laundry we went into Pulcallpa to finish last minute preparations for the medical group that was coming down from Gordon Hospital in Georgia. There were 14 people coming to do a 4 day clinic with our group assisting them with translation, logistics, medical, and dental. We picked them up from the airport on Wednesday, got all of the supplies/medicine somewhat organized, and then headed to the port to catch a large boat called a launcha. It took a while but we finally got everything loaded onto the boat and we though that we were ready to leave. But as with most things in Peru nothing is confirmed until it actually happens. So after getting everything on the boat we found out that the boat wasn’t leaving until the next day. Thus began the saga of moving supplies/medicine to the next launcha. It was late at night and everyone was really tired but we all worked together and moved the stuff to the next boat which was leaving that night. God definitely had everything planned because the new boat was nicer and we had almost the whole third floor to ourselves. This was just an example of some of the amazing plans God had for us on the trip.
The next day was extremely relaxing because the way the launchas work is you bring your own hammock, hang it up between to poles that run the length of the room, and you have your seat on the boat. But even on the boat the work didn’t stop. We organized medicines, did a few minor surgeries, learned how to fit people for glasses, and had team meetings. At about 2 am the next morning we arrived at our destination which was called Inauhaya. After getting all the supplies off the boat we had to transport it to the town municipality. By the time we finished it was around 4:30 am. I fell asleep right when my head hit the pillow. But my visions of sleep quickly came to an end when Jenny woke our team up at 6 am to sort medicines. Because our team was big enough we split into two separate groups so that we could go to two different sites per day. The first site we went to ended up taking a 20 minute boat ride followed by a 7 Km hike through the jungle to get to. Laura and I were teamed up together to do the dental. The first day was especially frustrating for me because we ended up pulling only 3 teeth, all of which Dr. Matthews had to help us with. The last patient we had screamed so much that everybody who was even thinking about getting their teeth pulled decided not to! But with God’s help I was able to see the first day as a huge learning experience. After finishing the first day our team was closer, more efficient, and ready for the next day. The next day was Sabbath and fortunately we only had to take motokars to our site. Dental went much better because we got some additional instuments which helped tremendously. Before we started dental however Dr. Matthews did an insect removal surgery on my foot. He said that I had a whole family living in me but thankfully he got them all out! Another cool experience I had was assisting Dr. Matthews with a tumor removal from a girls elbow. After finishing up for the day at around 6 pm we went back to Inauhaya, had supper, and started with the night clinic. We ended up finishing the evening clinic at around 11 pm. I was utterly exhausted and pretty much everyone couldn’t think straight. But all in all it was a very rewarding Sabbath day! On Sunday we had to travel to a village about an hour away by boat. Unfortunately the propeller on our boat started trying to come off. Dr. Matthews and his friend Julio tried to fix it with a metal toothpick and a plastic bag (I love Peruvian ingenuity!). The fix worked for a little while but we ended up having to link together with the other teams boat and travel together. Some of the of the other highlights from Sunday included getting a pet monkey for the SM team and almost getting stuck in the middle of the lake because the boat ran out of gas! For the last day of clinic we stayed at our home base of Inauhaya. Dental was quite challenging but very rewarding. One of our last patients was a teenage girl who was deathly afraid of needles. After a lot of coaxing and a few tricks I finally got her numb. Unfortunately she did not like the feeling of getting her molar pulled out. I didn’t think I was going to get the tooth out but with Laura’s help and a little prayer the tooth finally came out! The feeling of getting a difficult tooth out is indescribable. You really have to experience for yourself to understand. The last day of clinic didn’t end up finishing until about 11 pm because we had to finish seeing patients and pack up supplies so that we could leave in the morning. Tuesday morning came and we were all sad to leave. We packed everything onto a midsized pecki pecki and about 8 hours later we reached our destination of Contomana were the Gordon group was flying to Pulcallpa from. The next morning we saw them off from one of the most interesting airports I have seen. Although there was pavement it was extremely worn. Also, the “terminal” consisted of a grass-covered hut. As the Gordon groups plane took off into the air our clinic was officially over. It had been hard but very rewarding. We saw hundreds of patients and with God’s help made it through the week!