Reflections of Past Missions

Reflections

PRAISE TO ALL FROM BISHOP ADAMS

I could tell you some stories of the many folks of El Salvador that we met during our week, but I want to do something a bit different. My story is of all of you, an extension of my sermon from our last day if you will. I want you to know that is was an incredible honor to serve next to each and every one of you. I meant what I said that I did and can see Christ in each of you. Often I would look around the rooms we were in to observe the work you were doing. I saw radical acts of kindness, many of you on your knees at times - looking at wounds of soul as well as those physical; listening intently to words of fear and I hope at times joy; offering comfort and perhaps even hope; honoring another person's humanity through a touch, a gentle prick of a finger, even taking blood pressures. My experience as I looked around was this: This is what love looks like. And you are just that - the incarnation of love. So again I say thank you. You are another on this earthly journey who helps expand my heart.
And I am grateful - always. Peace and God's love to all of you, Skip

FROM THE REVEREND JEFF HOFFMAN:

The people of the villages we visited were truly happy to see us and showed their appreciation the only way they could, by dressing up and looking their best. The older women wore their Sunday dresses and their best aprons. A lot of the kids would have their Church clothes on as well. One particular child I saw brought home the entire reason we were there and pushed the reality of what we were doing to a crystal clear picture. This was a 6-year-old little boy and I do mean little. He came over and sat down with his grandmother at my station. He was wearing a rather interesting fleece hat with ears, a winter hat by our standards in weather, well it was probably 85 – 90 degrees that day, no humidity but still rather warm. He complained of a stomachache if I remember correctly, not an uncommon complaint.

When I looked at him there was just something missing. I tried to get a giggle out of him but it did not happen. It’s not that he was unhappy. It was more like he lacked the energy to be happy. And he wouldn’t take off his hat. His height and weight were charted against the norms for Central America, and when I say little, this guy came in at the 1% mark or so. We bring our kids in for well child checks and they fall in the 50th or 75th percentile but this boy was barely on the chart. I did the rest of my thing and then I looked at his grandmother and through the interpreter I told her he was a bit small and I wanted them to see our nutritionalist for advice on feeding him. As I looked into her eyes while the interpreter was relaying the message, tears began to form and she began to cry.

Now for the rest of the story. See the boy’s last meal was 1 ½ weeks ago and that meal was only a tomato, that’s it, a tomato. The child’s mother had just up and left him with his grandmother, there was no man in the house, a significant point in a male dominated society like that in the world we were visiting. Grandma worked in the fields but now had to bring the young boy to work with her, she couldn’t leave him alone in the village. Her boss, the landowner, didn’t like that so he simple fired her. She and this child were living off that which they could get for bottles and cans they collected, trying to pay rent and eat. Not doing well with either one, they were about to be evicted from the home they were living in. The first thing we did for this little boy was to give him a sandwich, peanut butter and jelly I think. He broke off a small piece and put it into his mouth. Then, with a special look in his eye, the look I believe was that of Jesus, that little man broke off another piece and gave it to his grandmother!

FROM REVEREND HOFFMAN'S WIFE MARGI

As you all know this was my first experience with the mission. I don't have a specific story, just an overwhelming feeling of compassion and love for all of you and the people we came in contact with over the week.You made me feel excepted and loved from the first day. Thank you!!
My heart is thankful to our Lord every time I run the tap to fill a glass of water or make formula for my boys knowing, trusting, it is safe. When I give them a bath every night and dress them in warm pajama's and tuck them into their beds after a book is read and the Lords Prayer sung I thank my God. Knowing they will have food when they are hungry and medicine when they are sick and a safe, warm home to live in with lots of hugs and love thank my God. These things before our trip I took for granted. The mission has been the piece of the puzzle that was missing in my life. I will always be thankful Jeff "made" me go!!
The biggest impact for me was seeing the strength of the women in the villages. Seeing them go through each day with pain just to survive. Looking at their hands, riddled with artheritis, (totilla-itus i named it!) or their neck shoulder, & back pain due to carrying large jars of water, food, ect. on their heads, bending over in the fields all day.Coming home after a 10-12 hour day to washing clothes by hand, cooking for numerous family members without any of our modern convienences. The feeling of fear of thier children becoming ill every time they gave them water to sooth their thirst. Some of them with no husbands for companionship or husbands who abuse them. So many hardships, so little complaints. How can our lives not be change after seeing that?
I am looking forward to being a part of this mission every year if the good Lord is willing. I miss you all and keep you in my thoughts and prayers daily.
Blessings
Margi

JIM BOSTON WRITES:


February 2nd, We visited Bajo Lempa .. and I was over whelmed when I
first saw the crowd [ having been at the village previously]. We managed
to keep above water but we needed to reevaluate our efficiency for
later visits that evening. My Impression which always leaves me saddened
is the accelerated aging noticeable mostly in the women - most like a
confluence of social and medical issues showing their effect on "life in
rural "El Salvador.

February 3rd, Tuesday we visited Las Salinas another village populated
with a hard working community scraping out a meager existence in farming
and fishing. I was touched by a women who had chronic urinary tract
symptoms, which we easily treated [ at least giving her some relief from
the infection for a brief period of time] but what we could not treat was
a more over whelming issue confronting many in the community. She told me
she "worried every day that she would not have sufficient income in the
family to feed her family". We were not prepared to give her a
solution to her fears because they are grounded in the reality of
subsistence living in a third world country. I left that day wondering
what could give these people hope for there children and their future.

February 4th ... El Maizel
Today we had a very successful day from my perspective. We had many
interesting cases but two come to mind that reflect unique issues and
characteristic of El Salvador. The first was a woman who came in with
multiple complaints and was initiated on hormonal therapy of menopause by
her local pharmacist. She was found to have a nodule on breast exam, which
raises the issue of no routine mammograms being available in this country
[ something we are use to having done routinely]. The second case
represents in an indirect way of seeing some changes in the culture
of a woman's right to self determination, as she came in with back pain
and reported having an abortion in the first15 days. The concept of having an
abortion in El Salvador was taboo [ as I have been lead to believe] and
in the past 7 years of visiting El Salvador in various medical missions I
have never had a young woman report to me openly of having an abortion
here. We prescribed yoga stretches for her back pain which was also the
first time I have done that here in El Salvador.

February 5th ....IZELCO
It was incredibly windy causing us to huddle in the building ... which
for a while left me without a space to work in. So as others were able to
work in the limited space I felt lost and disappointed ... although I was
able to explore the village and interact with some of the villagers in a
non medical way, I was very happy when we were able to free up enough
space for me to interact with the patients. The most interesting general
observation of the day to me was the fact that almost all the patients I
saw were not following through on their medical treatment plans of past
visits with the mission or other medical providers. The major "take away
lesson" that I perceive is a need of continual educational efforts with this
community about the importance medicine can play in there quality of
live. This is a cultural issue I believe and will change with the younger
generations.

Feb 7th El Congo
Today was the last village and quite a busy day. The day also brought
to me perhaps the most depressing patient situation of the week. We saw a
19 year old young man who was both good looking and very
pleasant, but virtually blind from cataracts. He had been diagnosed with
the cataracts about 6 years earlier but was never treated [ the etiology of
the cataracts is unknown to me]. He works in the fields picking coffee
beans [ which has to be quite a struggle with almost no vision ]. He was
evaluated by the vision team in our group and
hopefully arrangements will be made for surgery which will restore some of
his vision ... I find it tragic to see such a young person handicapped with a condition, which left untreated, has a limited future as well which will make his life so difficult.


Hi Team,
I have appreciated all of your stories to date, and I look forward to hearing more. Every member of the team, regardless of their capacity, surely holds a story that is moving to some emotion. As we have since read and witnessed personally, they can range from sadness and desperation, to hope and optimism. This story, which I do not really have the exact words to execute with the correct justice, is on the brighter end of the spectrum. In Bajo Lempa I was taken by surprise. My mother, who has been to El Salvador and to these communities many times before, had never painted the exact image of the severity of the personal and medical needs of the places that we would visit. Maybe it is an impossible feat to get the truth of what is going on in such a distant place through the thick skull of a kid who lives a relatively cushy life in a place where the days worst crime may have been someone shoplifting meat from the local P&C Grocery (a phenomenon amongst some groups of people I recently heard about while listening to the John Tesh radio show...). I'm that guy who gets queasy when somebody rolls an ankle, or when the strange food portion of "Fear Factor" airs. As Dr. Barb put it, Table Connor/Ireland had a "weird" morning on our first day out. Our table opened up the day with a very odd, unfortunately placed rash on a young male patient. While shocking to see, it fortunately turned out to be less severe than originally hypothesized. Next we saw the beautiful and shy Flor, which was great for everyone. The next patient to sit down was a woman who has been making trips to Bajo Lempa for a few years now, who has only one arm (lost from a gunshot wound during the civil war) and was resistant to iron and was extremely anemic. In case you didn't know, I'm Dan the liberal arts major, who is still working on his very amateur Spanish ability, and I immediately realized that I was in way over my head. Right before a sinking panic set in, a very cool thing happened. A man in his late 70's (as Dr. Connor mentioned to me, patients of this age generally have an idea how old they are; but it may not be exact. They are usually born at home, and have no birth record), who still had to work, came hobbling in to our table. I greeted him with a smile, and he could not have been more gracious and happy that we were in his country, offering him help. I did not meet one man - who through an unscientific observation of my own usually seemed to be flying solo, or at least separate from their family unit - who was not overly grateful of what we came to do. Every time we met a patient like this one, it really confirmed the validity of our mission to me. Not that the trip needed confirmation; with some patients you could just see the value in their eyes, feel it in their handshakes, or notice it in their smiles - through illness that would leave me miserable and confined to my couch watching: "The Price is Right," or in worse shape - that never flinched. This patient, who I regretfully do not remember his name, complained of knee pain and headache. He had to come some distance to see us, and was near the front of the line, which means he was likely there before our set-up crew rolled into town bright and very early. I asked him to lift his right pant leg, and Dr. Connor was pretty surprised at what we found. Correct me if I am wrong; but I believe that he had a dislocated knee cap, which was now floating in the area right above his knee. The knee cap looked like a lemon moving fluidly on a leg that was not much more than a bit of sinew and skin. When he stood and walked it moved to the side and was painful; but tolerable. When he sat down the bulge moved back on top of his knee, and caused extreme pain. The signs that he was a tough guy were visible on this man from head to toe; but this problem was really bothering him, and we fortunately had the tools to help. With the help of Dr. Connor, Ms. Adams, Ms. Murphy, Ms. Bowman, my mother and Noah we got our patient equipped with an ace bandage, an athlete's knee brace, some pain medication, and a fresh (potentially his first?) pair of crutches, with lessons included. When we finished with his knee, he hopped out of his seat, and feeling like a young man again, proceeded to move about our room, smiling, fist pumping, and kicking his bum leg like he was back with friends playing futbol. After shaking all of our hands with both of his, he posed for a picture with me - which is probably my favorite memory of our trip - tipped his cowboy hat, and left without carrying the same burden he had when he entered. This quintessential Salvadoran: hard working, gracious, and always wearing a smile, has offered me more in terms of perspective and priorities than any medical equipment we gave to him. Not every patient left this type of lasting impression on me; but many did. This trip was about giving back to the people of El Salvador; however every day since returning I have felt that through the experiences with our team and patients throughout the week, I received far more than I gave. I have a hunch that I am not alone in this sentiment. After the patient I mentioned above walked out of our room, I felt that even if our mission was going to be challenging for a Junior Varsity translator like myself, it would work out all right.
Salud, Dan Kelly