River Trip #2, More Adventures with Wonderful New Friends
Mariana, Ludmila, LiVia, Me, Amanda, Jose, and Zaac
On Friday night, 25 July, I joined a group of missionaries
from the State of Rio de Janeiro (as opposed to the city of the same
name). They were from the Igreja
Metodista Pendotiba, in the city of Niteroi. It was a huge team, 23
people! [We had felt somewhat crowded
with our team of 15 from Montana/Colorado.]
When Augusto and I joined them, there were 25 of us, plus 2 cooks, and 4
crew members. It was amazing how readily
adaptable everybody was. I heard no
complaints till the end of the trip when several people had trouble with frequent
diarrhea and the three bathrooms were often occupied.
We went to Alto Manaquiri, an initial journey of about 30
hours. The farthest little “town” was
called Ouro Verde (“Green Gold”). It was
a beautiful place, with a large pasture /futeball field where many cattle
grazed and pooped everywhere. This did
not impede vigorous soccer games, with most people playing in bare feet. Our boat crew eagerly played a match here and
in all the places we stopped. They even
have the same uniform to wear. This “town”
also was actually just a collection of families from a large section of the
river. There was no mercado, no street,
no electricity, no government. There was
however a nice school, and that’s where we attended our patients and did all of
our work. The community leader has
donated a very pretty piece of land upon which a Methodist Church will be
built. I got to hold up one end of the
banner proclaiming this while it was nailed into place.
This is where a new church will be built in Ouro Verde.
We were very far off the grid here, surrounded by dense rain
forest. Most of the population consists
of indigenous people. I asked an old
tribal woman if there were big spiders around, big enough to eat birds. She sort of snorted and replied, “big enough
to eat people!” Then she laughed and laughed.
The team was magnificent!
Two people gave haircuts all day long.
Great activities were coordinated with the children. And there were four pediatricians, a
cardiologist, an allergist, and a dentist with the team. The church’s Pastor also was with them, and
she was a great asset.
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| Cutting hair, in Ouro Verde |
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| Riverside home, Ouro Verde |
"The Clown Show" - a splendid mechanism to convey the grace of God and the love of Christ.
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| Captain Paulo and Gerson, off to play a futeball match in Ouro Verde. |
At 6 AM each day a group met on the boat’s roof for an hour
of singing and prayer. Each breakfast
and supper was preceded by singing (guitar accompaniment), prayer, Bible
reading, a devotional study, and another devoted prayer. This typically led to a substantial delay in
eating, so our food was usually cold by the time we got to it 30-70 minutes
after it was on the table. That may have
contributed to the many people who developed significant problems with diarrhea
and nausea. Only 2 or 3 actually vomited.
Each afternoon, a clown show took place. Three people in very complete clown costumes
put on a performance regarding having a happy and clean heart after accepting
Christ as one’s savior. All the kids and
even all the adults who watched were genuinely impressed and entertained. Then
children were invited to come forth and become Christians. Quite a few usually did. Then their parents were invited to join them,
followed by anyone in attendance. The
Pastor then gave a sometimes rather fiery sermon. At each little town, a fair number of people
joined the family of Christ via this “clown show”.
Mirian
Because there were so many other doctors, I actually got to
do other things this week! I was able to
use up every one of the 150-180 reading glasses that were left over at the end
of the Montana trip. This was a very
rewarding experience. People were so
very happy to be able to see things up close again! Fishermen were elated that they could tie
knots and use their fingers so much better.
One older woman absolutely cheered when she saw that she would be able
to start sewing again. She was just bouncing
up and down with joy in the chair. I
also attended “a boatload” of patients.
One or more of the other docs was usually out for the day with diarrhea,
so there was plenty of work for all of us.
Curiously, even with all these doctors, the team had no
capacity to treat themselves when and if problems developed. I “saved” a couple on the first day or two with
a dose of my ciprofloxacin and zofran, earning eternal gratitude. I “saved” several others as the week went on,
including the team leader who was puking over the side of the upper deck on the
boat as we were unloading on the day of our return.
This team was
naturally somewhat cool towards me when I joined them. But on the third night of the trip, five
young people came to me on the roof with an “homagem” – a ceremony to honor
me. They had each selected a song with
my name in it, and they took turns singing a few words. Because all Brazilians
have trouble pronouncing my name, it was simply hilarious. The songs were (possibly!) “Don’t Leave Me
Now…”, “Don’t Go Away Baby…”, “Don’t
Stop Loving Me….”, “Don’t (something else)……”.
And the grand finale which they all sang together was “Dom, dom, dom,
dom!” After this, I knew that I was
totally accepted.
Truly, every member of this big team became a gracious
friend and I am so pleased to have met them all. People I hope to remember
always, who were especially kind and friendly towards me: Amanda, Rogerio, Sias, Jose Cunha, Ludmila,
Mariana, Zaac, LiVia, Dra. Selma, Rosana, and Mirian. I will remember that it was Amanda who first
came to talk to me at length. And Mirian,
I will never forget the sincere and loving hug that you gave me on top of the
boat after the morning devotion. I was
expecting just a quick, friendly, somewhat superficial embrace. But instead, you gave me a genuine abraco,
full of Christian love, support, and fellowship. I sought her out when we got back to Manaus to
tell her how much I appreciated it. She
tipped her head to the side, grinned, and hugged me again in the very same way.
I can’t say enough good things about the team dentist,
Richard Lipfert. Back in Georgia, he
coordinates a small group of dentists who provide care in nursing homes. He therefore is very adept at pulling teeth while
his patients are lying in their beds.
This enabled him to set up dental work off the boat this week, in a
school room, or corner of a church, or on somebody’s back porch like the rest
of us. He usually set up two tables and
was able to double the number of dental patients we usually see. While the anesthesia was kicking in on one
patient, he could be pulling out the teeth of the person on the next
table. And pull teeth he did! One (poor) guy required the removal of 16
(sixteen!) teeth. These were not teeth
with modest cavities, these were teeth rotted to the gum line. Many had abscessed roots. Most of them broke into pieces as he worked
them out. Richard was an absolute dynamo
of good humor, compassion, and superb dentistry. Nearly every patient had two or more rotted
teeth. He often worked well after dark. Four or five people usually helped him stay
maximally efficient.
