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. 



Cutting hair, in Ouro Verde

Riverside home, Ouro Verde

 "The Clown Show" - a splendid mechanism to convey the grace of God and the love of Christ.

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.