More Adventures, Big and Small 

My trip to Manaquiri was less exciting.  We didn’t crash into anything under the water.  Just as I arrived, a new trauma hospital was being dedicated by the governor.  I judiciously avoided the scores of politicos and only went there at 1 PM.  They were still putting things away and getting organized, so not many patients were present. 

It’s a bit unusual for a trauma/urgency hospital, but everyone assured that it is nothing but that.  The place has a very basic ER, a modern delivery room, an operating room (but no surgeon),  x-ray and mammogram capability, and five beds each for women and men  Another room has two beds for women with brand new babies.  The morgue with a big granite autopsy table is in a room out back, separate from the rest.

I helped close a very large scalp wound on an 84 year old man.  He was cutting trees and one fell on him.  His right femur was shattered also. He never once complained of pain!  We sent him to an orthopedic hospital in Manaus.

In my clinic on Thursday morning, when I opened the lid on the toilet, a frog jumped out at me.  The nurses said it was my lunch and I’d ruined their surprise. 

On each of the past Sunday afternoons my Brazilian family has taken me to a water park on the far edge of town.  It’s a very nice place, with many pools and slides and water toys for kids.  I laid in my hammock in the shade while my family was away playing in a pool together.  Gradually, an overwhelming sense of peace and tranquility developed.  There was music in the background, a group of ducks walking under me, and a gentle breeze.  The sky was a deep blue with numerous huge fluffy clouds growing into distant, gigantic thunderheads.  Far, far overhead I watched several turkey buzzards soaring effortlessly in the sun.  These big, black birds (called “uburu” in Portuguese) live on the worst kind of garbage, bloody road kill, and rotting food.  Yet, they are absolute masters of the air and thermoclines.  I never saw a single wing flap.  They just glide in perfect control, making big circles in an aerial ballet of endless harmony.  And I could feel it, the incredible interconnectivity and sublime balance of our world and universe.  I felt simultaneously incredibly tiny and yet vitally important as just one piece in this phenomenal  dance we call life.  It was a very spiritual moment, and I feel so blessed to have experienced that brief moment of proximity with God.