momentous moments on the river

Happy Summertime to all!

Like all teachers across the globe, we simultaneously take a deep breath in April and then exhale with great satisfaction on the last day.  And I have had so many memorable moments and wish the days could slow a bit so that I could savor them a little longer.

First motive for celebration: Ava! She completed 11 years just a few weeks ago; celebrating with a soggy night of camping with her friends. Even the graham crackers were soggy but still utterly enjoyed because they are an imported treat.

And a motive for thankfulness:  Gabriella! She started out her summer graduating from 8th grade, writing and giving a co-salutatorian speech, and then getting baptized by her father in the Amazon River right in front of the school. 

But she doesn't stop there....3 days after school got out Gabriella and I joined a medical team traveling by boat to villages upriver.

Our team was made up of people from all over the south of Brazil who came up to the Amazon Basin to give of their resources and love in the name of Jesus.  We started out by presenting ourselves to one another, which led to a spontaneous gifting of rather unoriginal nicknames. Riri for Rita, Roro for Ronaldo, Lulu for Zularte; these exotic bird-like sounds made me envision our boat turning into the aviary on Noah's ark. Pricilla (Prepre) and I (Bribri) must have been of a similar species. How very fitting for a boat trip in the midst of the Amazon jungle.  But I like human stories best so let me mention a few things that I found inspiring.

For one lady it was her 3rd trip. She shares about how on a previous trip there was no one to be a dental assistant, "I can do that", she admitted, and she went on to explain how she once had a horrendous 3 month job with a disagreeable dentist.  She quit, and brushed the dust (or should I say amalgam powder) from her hands and became a hairdresser having no idea that it was God who gave her that knowledge so that she could participate fruitfully in His work in a little village.  She also gave free haircuts in the village, many people sharing that it was the first time they had ever had a cut by a professional.  She does it because she loves Jesus and His love compels her to give of what she can.

Also participating was a lady who pastors a favela (slum areas in the city areas which are often governed by gangs and, until recently, avoided by police) church in the huge city of São Paulo. She ministers in a drug rehab facility and speaks fluent Portuguese ghetto. She and I were an inverse; I have complete serenity bathing in the river and using the jungle as my "facility" while she finds her comforts walking the slums and searching for drug dependent people needing help.  She admitted her fear of alligators would always keep her in the boat. So what was she doing in the jungle? She asked herself that same question before coming, and upon arrival in the Amazon found out that there is an outbreak of drug use (cocaine, i had no idea it was being made in the Amazon. It is.) among young people in the two villages we visited.  Some as young as 13.  Heart-breaking.  So that is why God sent her to the Amazon.  She is already making plans to come back to help out a local pastor.

Also, my own Gabriella.  She worked doing various things on this trip; dental hygiene teaching, boat clean-up, and participated in a rather unorthodox musical performance involving a rhythmic cup game during the service in which the favela pastor accompanied the beat with an original rap about which I am sure was God.  Her Portuguese stretched my abilities hugely.  Mostly Gabriella worked alongside me in the pharmacy until she could read the doctors scripts just as well as I.  During a quiet moment, she doodled the 5 most popular medications on her leg and we laughed that she now knows how to treat various different types of parasites.  Let's just see where God takes her with that!

The two villages we visited were similar to so many others that I have visited.  The men fished or worked in the manioc fields, bring in the last of the crop; still green so that they won't loose it as the river threatens to flood their fields. Mothers as young as 14 and no one blinks an eye.  I spoke with several women whose babies were born at home and had not seen a doctor (until we arrived) despite having what to me was an obvious syndrome of some sort and also a cleft lip.  Our first patient one morning was an 18 year old boy having a sever asthmatic exacerbation. The doctor told me to draw up some epi, but I couldn't because we were out of IV dilutant.  So we prayed and gave him some oral meds. He sat in my clinic two hours so I could watch him (technically listen). Another one of the young guys on the team sat with him, discussed life with asthma where there are no doctors and prayed for him.

The children watched while we turned this home into a temporary doctor's office.

One family brought Gabriella and I some abiu fruit from their yard. 

In the second village we were able to use a multi-room school for both triage, medical clinic, pharmacy and the dentist room.

Gabriella got to know the Asas stock of medication and how to say them in Portuguese. 

After going to triage, patients sat in this "waiting room."  Which makes for a good time to do oral hygiene teaching or just chat.

Everyone gets a little cup and toothbrush and a demonstration on how to brush properly.  Much needed teaching as evidenced by how many teeth get pulled.  One little 8 year old boy had 3 teeth pulled as he sat alone on a hard wooden bench. And with gauze still in his mouth, and with thankfulness to have his pain relieved, he climbed into his canoe and paddled back home all by himself.

The first village had a one-room school house that we turned into both a pharmacy and the dentist room.

A church served as the triage station and our team did games, songs and stories while the children waited with their families.

Gabriella organizing and chatting with an observer.

We bring large plastic barrels filled with everything we need for clinics; transportable dentist chairs, overhead lights, batteries, trays, medications, medical forms. 

In this picture, Luce is troubleshooting a problem with a piece of dental equipment. Luce is an RN and the missionary with Asas that coordinates all the medical trips into the interior.

I got such joy on the trip. Joy in serving alongside my daughter. Joy in having the privilege of being God's hands and feet and meeting such a basic need of healthcare. I delivered no babies, I saved no one's life and I often repeated myself several times when I give drug information because I know my Portuguese seems like another language to them and I really want them to understand.  Understand how to care for themselves and their family but also understand that it was the love of our Father that brought me to them and that when all accounts are settled, it is God who heals and God who cares.