Dear Friends and Family,
I’d said I was going
to write quarterly reports, but 6 months into it, here’s my first report. I’ll start with a story.
The day that our
new CAT scan was up and function, Lyndal (an Australian who works in the
radiology department: taking X-rays, CT scans, and performing ultrasounds)
asked me to send one or two patients for a head CT because the machine hadn’t
come with a manual and they were trying to program the machine. Everyone wants CT scans of their head for
headaches, but most of them don’t meet my criteria to risk the radiation (the
radiation of one CT of the head is equivalent to that of 1000 chest x-rays). My response to her was that she should pray
that God would send me people who actually needed a head CT. So then God responded and sent me two patients
who needed head CT’s and one who needed an abdominal CT---at which point Lyndal
said, “That’s enough.”
One of the
patients was a 23 year old male with a 2 month history of seizures. He had what looked like a tumor and a brain
bleed on his CT scan. I sent him to a
neurosurgeon. The other was a 33 year
male who left his village to go to Lima 8 years ago. When he got back he was
not the same. So his father had brought
him to be evaluated. He’d just start
talking about nothing, not answer questions appropriately, and mentioned that
he’d here different things being told to him (which sounded like audio hallucinations—ie. Hearing voices). His CT
was negative. I suspected either
influence of drugs or schizophrenia, started him on anti-psychotics and sent
him to have a psych eval. We waited a
week for the final read from a radiologist in Germany. The patient and his dad waited for 3 days, but
when they ran out of money and couldn’t even afford anything to eat they left. The dad came back alone to receive the final
reading. He was a poor, simple Quechuan
who was very concerned about his son. I
felt that what he needed most was encouragement in Christ and prayer, which is
what we offered him.
This is my usual
work day. I care for anything from a
healthy check up, to a chronic medical problem, to an acute emergency. I take care of kids and adults; inpatient and
outpatient. Anyone I admit into the
hospital I take care of in the hospital and then follow up in my clinic. Also I’m on call 4-6 times a month; covering
any emergencies that arrive between 5p-8a on weekdays and 8a-8a on weekends.
Like all Christians, I share my faith and the love of God daily with my
patients, the nurse who works with me, and the other workers in the
hospital. It’s especially easy to get to
know the nurse assigned to me for the day and who ever I eat lunch with in the
cafeteria. I just started a bible study
with two women who work in the hospital (Dennis and Rosemery today). I rode my bike 30 minutes uphill to get to
their village, and was just starting to regret my commitment when I arrived (I
didn’t know where I was going. I just
had a map they’d drawn me. I was looking for a bridge and two trees. They said it took 15 minutes by car, so I was
anticipating it’d take me at least 60 minutes to arrive.) The trip back, though in the dark, was
obviously much easier—10 minutes straight down hill (almost no peddling).
I’d been
attending a church called the Puente (meaning “bridge”, because it’s located at
the bridge into town), but after much prayer have started attending another
church called Iglesia Evangilico del Peru (Evangelical church of Peru). They
have serves for teens and young adults Saturday nights, church Sunday morning
and night, night of prayer Tuesday nights, and evangelism training Thursdays. Peruvians come late to everything. So all services start at least 30 minutes
after when they advertise they will. All
their evening services start for real at 7:00pm at the earliest and go until
9p. That’s really hard for me, because
if I don’t go to bed the night be for work between 9 and 10pm I can’t speak
Spanish the next day and I’m not very patient.
So currently I’ve been attending Saturday night, Sunday morning, and
Tuesday night. I really enjoy the IEP
church because the leaders are still pretty young, and full of enthusiasm for evangelism
(especially to the youth) and to do the Lords work. Since I started attending Sunday mornings,
they always get together for lunch afterwards.
Today we had typical Peruvian food and then walked the final World Cup
game together.
Every 4th Sunday I still teach 3-7
year olds at the Puente church. Every 3rd
Sunday I go with Kirstin and Ryan (two of the other Americans here) to a
village up the mountain (an hour walk or 30 minute drive) called Puka Puka do
teach bible class to the kids there.
Monday evenings the hospital staff plays volleyball. In August, a couple women at the church and I
are planning to start a women’s bible study (modeled after Rachel Kincholoe’s,
my most recent roommate in Tulsa) for teenagers and up on Monday evening, after
volleyball. Thursday evenings I help with Kid’s Club, which is hosted at the
hospital for the kids who like in Lukmos--- the village I’m living in right
now. Kid’s Club is kind of like Sunday school/VBS. We sing songs, play a game, have a
lesson/skit, and do a craft. They do kid’s
club in Curahuasi also. But the sessions
run throughout the week based on age and gender. The Lukmos club is all the ages and genders
together. Usually there are at least 80
kids in attendance. For the craft and
sometimes the lesson we break them up into three groups by age---3-5 years old,
6-9 years old, 10-16+ years old. Friday
evenings the Americans (all English speakers are welcome) meet to eat, hangout,
and study the bible together in English.
What free time I
have I spend either hanging out with my friends (foreigners and Peruvias),
learning to play guitar, studying Spanish, Studying Quechua, reading Up-To-Date
articles (to try to figure out what to do for my patients and to trying to
learn more about stuff I see frequently), and reading bits and pieces of a pile
of books I have on evangelism, culture shock, living as a “missionary”, disciplining,
etc.
As far as living
situation goes, I spent my first two months living in the hospitals temporary
housing. Since then I’ve been staying in
the guestroom of Ann Charlotte (the nurse administrator) and Ursula (the ophthalmologist,
who’s been on furlough in Germany since I’ve been staying here) until I could
find a place to stay. In August, I plan
to move in with Lisa (a dental technician from Germany), when her roommate, Inessa
(a dental assistant from Germany) goes back to Germany for 6 months. When Inessa comes back, Lisa will return to
Germany, so the arrangement works out great.
They live in Curahuasi, so it will be a lot easier to have people over
because it’s closer to where everyone lives (Lukmos is on the opposite side of
the hospital. To walk from Curahuasi to
the hospital will take close to 30 minutes, and to arrive at Lukmos will take
you another 15-20 minutes [that’s why I have a bike. It takes me 11 minutes to ride from Lukmos to
the IEP church in Curahuasi]).
Cost of living is
very cheap here. Rent is about $60-100
per month. Electricity is maybe $10 more at the most. I eat a large lunch at the hospital each day
for $1. There’s not that much to spend
your money on here. I guess that’s
good. In Cusco and Lima, though, things
cost a lot more. And touristy things
will drain your wallet quickly. I have
an account through my sending church in the states, Park Plaza, for projects,
but I’ve not figured out how to use it yet.
I’ve considered creating an account at the hospital that I can use to
given even more discounts to patients who are really poor. Or maybe just put the money into the account
that already exists at the hospital.
Currently, I’m allowed to give medicines that we have that where donated
to us for free, and I have a 50 sole donation cap (about $20) that I’m allowed
to give on labs, imaging, and medicines.
If I think the patient needs more help, I have to call the Peruvian
social worker to come talk to the patient, because we foreigners get scammed
and taken advantage of by rich patients all the time.
Overall, my heart
is content and I know why God has called me here. Although superficially Peru
seems to have lots of medical resources and everyone “knows” God, it’s now very
apparent to me how much of an illusion those are. If you have enough money you can move through
the medical systems. But if you’re poor,
you’re out of luck. And the training of
the physicians overall is pretty disappointing.
Everyone says they believe in God (a lot of them are Catholic, but many
more are evangelical) and they believe they obey everything God says. But I usually ask them this after they tell
me that the trigger of their headache or stomach pain (which is the reason for
their visit) is getting very upset/angry, anxious and/or worrying. So then after they tell me that they obey everything
God says, I ask them what he says about getting upset/angry, worrying and being
anxious. They can’t answer me. They say, “I don’t know” and look at me with
a blank stare. So I’ve realized that
they all say they “believe” in God, few know what he says, and fewer still
really serve him.
Please be Praying for:
-
My Study
with Dennis and Rose Mery
-
The Women’s
bible study
-
My work
in the hospital: for wisdom to practice excellent medicine and on how to be
Christ to each patient
-
For kids
club Thursday
-
For my
new living situation
-
There’s a
youth conference in Abancay (a large city about 2 hours away) in August that I’ve
been asked to speak at
-
Melanie
Brinkley, one of the daughters of a family who has been spiritual mentors to
me, is graduating high school and coming to hang with me for 2 weeks before she
goes off to AIM (a 2 year program that prepares people for missions) in
August. Pray that God fills her with his
heart for the nations and that he shows her clearly the area/type of missions
he’s preparing her for.
-
For
wisdom and discernment on how to financially support the work that’s being done
here.
Thanks
for your thoughts, prayers and support.
Ari
