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Hector

Through this past month we have had an unexpected baby that we have taken on. His name is Hector Daniel. He is four months old and just over five pounds. He was discovered at a church at Yerbos Buenas. The baby was suffering from severe malnutrition and wouldn’t last much longer.

A few days went by and Jenni and Anita went and saw the baby. The next day the family brought the baby boy to our house at km.38 where Jenni and Laura took him to a hospital in Pucallpa. He was admitted just under five pounds with sever malnutrition and infection. His arms and legs had no fat; his cheeks were sunken in as well as his stomach. His eyes wandered around aimlessly and he had no idea how to suck a bottle, how to hold a finger, or even how to smile.

The Mother, Sandra, had delivered Hector at seven and a half months because of complications. After Hector was born she had no milk to breast-feed and no money to buy powdered milk. The family resulted in giving the baby cows milk, rice powder water, or flour water. Surprisingly the baby lasted even three months before he was discovered.

Hector was released from the hospital having been cured of his malnutrition and infections. He has learned how to focus his eyes, suck a bottle, move his arms and legs, cry, and even smile. All of which he did very little of before. After about a week of being out Jenni discovered that he was having trouble breathing and he was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia.

He is now out of the hospital again but is still having problems that are caused by unknown reasons. The mother has had many tests that we are waiting for their results as well as the baby. We pray that the tests lead us to an end to the sickness with this precious baby boy.

This was a letter that I started writing about a month ago and many things have happened since then. This was the big turning point of Hectors life and the life of his family…

I think it was a Monday morning but the day is not important. I had come in early that day to get some stuff in town and also pick up the lab results of Sandra. I headed to the hospital and the results weren’t there. They told me I had to go talk to the lab accompanies by the counselor so I headed over there and she went and got the results for me. She came out with a blank look on her face then told me the results. The results came pack positive for HIV. I was a extremely shocked because I didn’t even know that those were the results I was picking up. I walked out of the hospital and headed back to the hostel. The whole time just thinking that ok it’s a false positive. There is no way it could be right. I got back to the hostel and looked up online to see how accurate the tests were. 95% correct. Well that’s pretty high but it could still be false.

About twenty minutes later Jenni walked with a distressed look on her face. I told her the results of Sandra. As she bit her lip looking at Hector she looked up at me and told me that she just picked up Hectors results and they came back positive with HIV. I sat there a little stunned and shocked. Sandra and baby Hector were both HIV positive.
It kinda went down hill from there. Hector got worse with breathing and eating. I brought the rest of the family in for testing and their two little boys came back negative but Daddy Hector came back positive. Hector was still pretty bad, he was getting oxygen treatments which helped relax him and give him the oxygen that he couldn’t bring in himself.

I went with Jenni late one night to the pediatrics doctor which was kind of the finalization of the whole situation. He said that Hector would slowly be able to breath less and less and gave three days and no more than a week of life. Yes I was still praying for a miracle and I even pray now that God will take away his sickness all together. As we walked back to the Hostel all I could think about is how unfair it is for this little child. Why did God lead us to him if he was just going to die. All I could do is stare at the precious little baby.

Days went on and he was still getting oxygen and medication and then things slowly turned around. Hector started breathing better. He started eating better. He still needs his medication, and be put on the mask every once in a while, but he is getting better. He is back up to eating 3-4 ounces. He has his energy back. He is smiling again and most of all he screams and screams when you don’t feed him right when he yells. He has so much strength again it is amazing.

I don’t know what happened to those three days of life that Hector but God has multiplied them. Our prayers still go up to God asking for a life long miracle for Hector and that His strength grows daily in this child

Nicknames (or names he is called)

*Precious

*Handsom

*Sweety

*Fella

*Critter

*Honey

*Gordito

*Pumpkin

*Puggy

To Stuck to Move

We were at clinic in a village called Nuevo Era just outside of Pucallpa. A woman came into our clinic who was very sick with dehydration and infections. We needed a medication and a specific iv tubing. It had been raining all night and all morning and I didn’t even think about how bad the dirt roads would be. I hopped in the truck and had trouble turning it around. I got about half way down the road driving towards the exit as the back end fish tailed and threw me into the ditch/gutter. Having very little mud driving skills I got out and went to get Brent so that I wouldn’t get it even more stuck. Brent as busy as he was with his dental came out to help. I had no idea how long it would take and the sick woman had to have her medicine. Three little boys were there wanting to help and five middle aged men. After twenty minutes of getting it stuck in different positions I hopped out to catch a moto to town to get the medication. After forgetting my sandals in the truck I hopped in a moto that took me straight to the pharmacy. Realizing that I didn’t have shoes I went and bought the medications and hopped the moto back to the site. The moto wanted five soles. I was getting ripped off but after the rainy shoeless morning I didn’t really care and I gave it to him. I started walking back to the campaign house and saw where the truck was. It was way deeper and there were many more men around it with shovels. I laughed and ran on my barefooted way tromping through the mud back to the hut and brought the medicine. They had made the medication that we had already work but it did come in handy later. Later in the afternoon I heard the truck driving down the street and I looked out to the road and the village boys and Brent had finally got it out. My heroes. Ha. Needles to say I was very thankful that the truck that I got stuck was finally out.

Student Dorming

Since I have been out on my missions trip in Peru, it has become so much more to me than a mission trip. It has become my life. AMOR Projects has made a huge impact on me. By seeing them work and by seeing their goal which is Gods plan I have taken it into my heart and have made it my own project as well. Each one of our team members at km 38 has chosen a project of their own to fundraise for. I have chosen the project of student dorms. I saw the project and looked at the numbers that were below the heading and then kept looking at the other projects especially the ones with smaller numbers below their title. Then I came back to the dorm project and thought about it I decided to make this my project my project for the years to come.

Why do we need dorms? “We want to start a trade school but where will we put the students? We are recruiting for a larger SM team next year, where will the live? As we move forward with the beginning of some of our industries, it is also time to move forward with a dorm, the most basic requirement for housing students, which can also serve as a guest house, SM house, worker quarters, and much more.” What will these dorms look like? There will be two wings of twenty rooms each and will hold 2-3 persons per room. There will be one bathroom on either wing and a study room alongside the lobby. How much will it cost? $39,523 for the materials and $25,127 for labor. AKA a lot of money that I wont make a even a small dent in with out the help of God.

How am I fundraising? I’m asking for prayers. Without God not a sent will come in for this project. Without God there is no project. He is the base of this project as a whole and for this individual project. I can’t move the hearts of others to support and pray for the project but God can. So, I am asking for prayers. Pray that this project moves the hearts of others and that we will grow and move on to higher stages all for the glory of God.

I am rather intimidated about this project because it is such an amazingly large task that I can not do alone. I will talk about this project and I will fundraise in hopes that the project will succeed.

There are many worthy mission projects that are in need of support. If you are moved by AMOR projects and would like to know more or would like to donate, you can go to www.touchofloveperu.org then click on the donate link. All donations are tax deductible and will be greatly appreciated.

Clinic in Nuevo Era

All clinics are the same similar process. We pack up, we load the truck, we find our destination, we search the town for tables, chairs, and benches, we set up medical pharmacy, consult, triage, set up glasses, and set up dental. After we are all set up we hand out tickets. Tickets 1-80 usually sometimes more and sometimes less. Then we check if there are any emergencies ( high fevers, chronic diarrhea, vomiting), then we send them in to get their information, then triaged, then if they aren’t diagnosed with the common parasites or the need of vitamins and sent to pharmacy to pick up their medication, they are sent to the doctor. Doctor sees them, diagnoses them then sends them my way where I fill out their order of medication from either one medication to eight medications.

This sounds like an easy process and actually it has become much like clock work as someone had pointed out. If all I stated was the facts of how things are run, you would never know how the people of Peru have impacted my life. Being the last clinic as a team in Peru, I have been greatly impacted and my eyes have been opened to some of the hearts of these Peruvian people.

This clinic we were in a place called Nuevo Era in a Shipibo village. We saw the most abnormal cases this week. Everyone had major diarrhea, vomiting, and tons of fevers. There were 40.1 and 39.5 fevers every day. Our patient load would jump up to the 90’s because we would have to pass all the emergency fevers that walked in.

The mornings were crazy! We were sleeping in tents on top of our clinic house platform and around six in the morning people would start showing up. They would some would stand on the platform and watch us white people sleep. We are such interesting creatures aren’t we. Then as the days went on, the people started coming around four in the morning. Our tents were rather close to the edge of the house where people loved to sit which resulted in some of our heads being sat on through the tent. We finally go up at six and handed out tickets one morning because it had started to rain. People are rather sneaky. I would give them a ticket then they would jump back in line and try to get another one. Which led to me getting very frustrated especially after being woken up by clustering people so early in the morning. After we handed out tickets, triage and consults would happen. Doctor had to work mornings so Jenni would try and give out medication to as many as she could and tell the ones that she couldn’t to come back at a later time to see the doctor. This worked rather well but a little stressful as well.

Pharmacy was rather busy all day. We had baby Hector sleeping in the back who often wanted to sleep but even more often wanted to eat and be held. I of course am a sucker for crying and would have to pick him up even if he had just been fed, burped, changed and was still crying. Often times this resulted in me holding baby and picking up and filling orders with baby in my arms. The patience would offer to help us by holding the baby but I didn’t think about that to longs and nicely said no thanks.

One blessing that we had this week was Brent’s family. It was really nice to have not only visitors but visitors who jumped in and helped out with clinic. Brittany was an amazing Spanish learner and called all the numbers, names, and could communicate enough to get them on the scale and to get their height. Jane, Brent’s mom, did all the blood pressures, temperatures, and she and Brittany worked as a good team doing registration and when they were done we were thankful for the extra hands to hold Hector. Brent’s dad took amazing pictures of pretty much every aspect of clinic and I can’t wait to see them.

A few things that stood out this clinic

-Little Cindy who had terrible fevers and came three different times for her painful shot. She was such a sweet, obedient, and patient little girl.
-Getting the truck stuck in a ditch.
-Early wake ups by eager patients.
-The crazy lady. Everyone had a hard time telling her what her medications were because it was just too funny to hear what her questions and comments were. Especially with clotramazol ovules.
-Kristen’s comments at the end of the day with glasses.
-Precious baby Hector who always brightened my day in pharmacy. Sometimes made it a little more stressful.

Some More Teaching

Summer classes have come and gone and school has begun. There are the same amount of struggles as before if not more. We start our classes at eight in the morning by singing la cancion de creacion (The creation song), then we have prayer then start our lessons. Our first day I realized that our class was not just a heap of students but each one had a specific grade and it was categorized by the row of seats they were sitting in. From first to sixth we have nineteen students all in one class. This has formed a difficult curve in our teaching because now we have a huge difference of knowledge that the students understand. We have the kindergarteners that are now first graders, the first graders that know a little bit of what we learned in the past classes, the kids who know more because they were in our summer school, and the older kids that know tons because they soaked up everything we taught them and they were in our summer school. So many different levels and we are expected to teach them all at one time. It is absolutely amazing how a teacher can do that out here. Im not quite sure how the system and classes work out hear but I have not grasped the concept of how they can all be taught the same thing all at the same time when we have seven to twelve year olds. I love our student and the little first and second graders are so adorable! I have fun teaching the older kids because they grasp things so well but it is a huge challenge for us to teach them all at once. Somehow everyday it works out and they start to understand and become knowledgable of the information that we are teaching but I hope planning and teaching gets a little easier in this last month of April. We hope to soon start home visits and see each of our students family and home. Im excited to get another month to teach them all and I am looking forward to the fun we have with English games and inventing fun crafts and projects the help the learning progress.

Thomas and Anita

These past weeks two people who are very close to the hearts of km. 38 have been missed very much in all of our lives. Thomas and Anita have made such an impact in my everyday life and when I stop and think what’s missing at km. 38 these two names come to mind. I first noticed the change when we were at worship the morning after they left and realized that there was no manly deep and tuney harmony or cheerful accented words or talking in the unknown Swiss German at our table. And from this point on the list keeps going. I miss our friends that have become our 38 family. Anita always was good in the kitchen. She kept things clean and was on top of it. Everyday the dished were usually put away mid afternoon after lunch but now I look out side and they are still sitting there being over dried. Thomas is usually walking back in the afternoon in his big white bee suit and I don’t see that anymore. This clinic I have missed the greatly. From doing the dreaded job of handing out numbers to the early medical patience at 6 in the morning to filling out their names, age, weight, blood pressure, and their other information, clinic was not the same without them. After they were finished and doctor was on a roll pushing people through, Thomas and Anita usually would come back and help Tara and I finish filling the line of orders that awaited us. The clinic still ran fairly smooth with the help of the team and the help of Brent’s family but I always thought about our past clinics with Thomas and Anita. So many memories and wonderful learning experiences we have shared together. Anita’s garden still stands and when I see baby hector I think of her time that she had with him as well. When I hear I bee buzzing or the boys coming back from work, Thomas’ name comes to mind. If you are reading this my dear friends I want you to know that you are truly missed and that our team is not the same without you.