The past-due update
Sorry for the long spaces between updates on this thing. I don't often have this much time to just sit and write. Usually I have about 30 minutes, which is just enough time to check my email and write a note to my parents to send out. But today is different. I actually have time! I'm shocked! But now the problem is that there is not much to update about. The doctors and their families all left last Sabbath night and now the 'compound' is very quiet. I have started Spanish lessons with two different people at the Colegio and I have been learning quite a bit. The next 3 months are going to be rather slow, though, other than the Spanish lessons. The plane's engine quit a couple of days ago, so there are no patients being flown in to check on at the hospital, and there really aren't any other projects that have come up yet that are possible without the use of the plane. All medical trips to villages are out of the question now because we no longer have doctors to work with and the government won't let Buckley, a nurse, go out and do clinics on his own. But I'm keeping fairly busy with gardening, Spanish, and some other possibilities that I will tell about if they become reality. There have been a few frustrations due to lack of communication and some other things but they are getting worked out slowly but surely. God is good and He is teaching me to trust and submit especially when things cause frustration. If nothing else, my time here in Venezuela has helped me to rely more on God, which is one of the reasons I wanted to be an SM. Life in the U.S. was becoming too predictable. It was easy to slip into the mindset that I was running my own life. Once I got here, though, God had a few things to teach me. The #1 thing was that I can't control or plan my own future, only He can. I knew this already in my head, but I hadn't submited to His leadership. Now I have. But now I'm just rambling to fill the page. These are just things that I have thinking and praying about the last few weeks. It hasn't been easy to sit back and let God lead. I like to plan my future. In fact I have always known what I was going to do with my life. But now, I have to say that I don't know where I'm headed. Its kinda weird when people ask me what I'm going to do when I'm done with my time here and I have to say that I don't really know. The nice thing is that its not up to me to decide. But its true. I don't know where God is leading me in the future. I don't know what His plan is for me. But I do know that He has a plan and I know that it has something to do with serving Him somewhere, somehow. And I'm rambling again:) So I'm going to sign off for now. Maybe I will write again in another month ;) Just kidding, I will try to update sooner. =) God bless!
Corrie
Some pictures, finally!
Here are some pics from the hike to the village of Caracol. We have figured that it was about a 25 mile hike. Most of it was through sandy desert areas. There were palm trees and jungle in areas where streams were, but other than that, most of the way was barren.
On the left, you see the small creek where we ate lunch on the first day of the hike (Tuesday, 14th). You can´t actually see the water because it is down in the rocks quite a ways.
This is the canoe some kids used to ferry us across a larger river. Caracol was just on the other side, for which I was very happy. We could have easily swam across except for the fact that we had a lot of medical equipment that needed to stay dry. We had to wait for an hour before the canoe finally showed up so we had some good swim time :)
Here, Dr. Michael Duehrssen and Dr. Brent Hildebrand extract a tooth that was infected. We held clinic Wednesday night until 8 pm but there were still more to see on Thurs. morning. I don´t have a picture of it, but I got to drain an abcess, which means that I got to give the shots to numb it, then use the lance to cut it open. It was fun:)
Wow! Time Flies!
Where has the time gone? It seems like I just got here, but in actuality, is has been more than 3 weeks! My time here has been fun, though I haven't really dived in and started language learning and friend making a whole lot yet. The reason for this is that I have been kept busy helping to keep the large group of Americans here right now functioning. But now we are finally starting to branch out to other villages. At the beginning of this week we were informed that a village not far from Chiricayen (the Bible school) had called for medical help more than once, informing us that there were multiple sick people there. We decided that since the plane was down for its 50 hour work-up, we would hike to that village. So on Monday we went to Chiricayen and did a clinic there, then early Tuesday morning we started hiking. It was a long hike. Everyone was carrying 50lbs or more of medical gear and food. Unfortunatelly, our guide actually took us to the wrong village, which was dissappointing when we found out. The village that had called for help was quite a bit closer to Chiricayen so would have been a shorter hike. We ended up going to the village of Caracol. They also had quite a few patients for us to see, and I actually got to do some hands on stuff. But I'm getting ahead of myself. We hiked for more than 7 hours on Tuesday and were told that there were still 3 more to go (which actually ended up being 4) so we stayed the night at the home of the uncle of our guide. We feasted on semi-ripe mangos and cooked some cornmeal over the open fire for breakfast, then took off for the last "3" hours of hiking. By the end of the first day of hiking I had 3 very large blisters on my feet, but I was able to package them in such a way as to keep them from breaking the next day. Wednesday we arrived at the village around noon to discover that the villagers were all out in the fields and that they had been waiting for us all day the day before! So we cooked some lunch and waited for them to come in from where ever they were. We held clinic that night but didn't really see anything more serious than babies that needed deworming. Michael Hoppe, the IRR student, decided that he did not want to wait for the plane to show up to take us back (it was coming Friday) so he and Buckley (a nurse working with us), hiked back to Chiricayen with the guides on Thursday. It was too bad because they missed the best clinic day. Thursday morning quite a few more people showed up for the treatment and this time there were some fun ones. There was a machete cut that was infected, a tooth that needed to be pulled, and an abcess to drain. I got to drain the abcess. I first numbed it up with a shot of lidocain, then I cut it with a lance in order to let the pus out. Once we were sure that it was drained, Dr. Michael stuffed a strip of idoform gauze (a thin type) into the empty hole in order to keep it from building up more 'stuff'. After we had seen all the patients, there was nothing more to do but hang out and wait for the plane. I was 'in charge' of cooking so that took a good two hours for every meal. We hadn't been able to prepare very well for the trip because it was a last minute decision to go, so all we had were bags of lentils and pasta with which to make soup, and some breadsticks and date bars for when we ran out of lentils. We had only been planning on staying until Thursday, so we had to try to make the food last an extra day. Which we did without a problem. But those who had not gone on the hike were worried because somehow they had gotten the idea that we had already run completely out of food and that we were starving:) But now we are back safe and sound. The plane came and got us out Friday afternoon and now it is Sabbath! I love Sabbaths around here. We often go out and find waterfalls to play in after church. It is just so relaxing. And now you are semi-caught up on what has been going on here. God bless!
Almost there!
Travel began on Sunday morning at 3:30am. Not my favorite time of morning to travel, but hey, I didn´t have a choice. Our plane left Omaha at 6:15. Between the Duerhssen family and myself we had 11 suitcases all weighing 75lbs. Somehow the three of us adults mananged to handle all of the them and get them on the plane. We had a short layover in Detroit MI then flew straight to Miami. We arrived in Miami at about 1pm but we didn´t get to the hotel until closer to 3 because the shuttle had a hard time finding us. Chuck Franklin, one of the doctors working with us, Michael Hoppe, an IRR student coming for his training, and Daniel Adams, another SM that will work with us for 5 months, all met up with us at the hotel in Miami. Dr. Brent and his family met up with us at the airport the next morning. We all got to Venezuela and through customs with no problems whatsoever. Thankfully all of the suitcases made it also, including all the expensive medical equipment. After landing in Caracas we had to get on one more plane for a one hour flight to Puerto Ordaz. The temps here have actually been cooler than I expected because it has been raining a lot here. We leave Puerto Ordaz this evening on an all-night bus ride to Santa Elena. Yesterday I spent lounging around the hotel watching the four kids in the group while their parents were out shoping for things like a vehicle and appliances such as stove, oven, refridgerator, washer, and dryer. Today they are going to do the last of the shopping (mainly for a motercycle) then we leave :) I'm really looking forward to finally reaching our final destination. Man, this computer keyboard in frustrating. It is set up quite differently from the ones in the U.S. It has all the keys needed for typing in Spanish in the places where punctuation keys usually are. So far, I have had to do a lot of backspacing, lol.
One week 'til Takeoff :)
I can hardly believe it! My plane leaves in just 1 week from this morning. I'm getting more and more excited as the days pass! My tickets have been purchased and my suitcases are packed (well, mostly :) Friday I went in to Union and went on a camp out with the other IRR majors. We went to a place called Mahony state park and stayed in cabins. The school had rented out the ice skating rink at the park so Saturday night I was able to see a lot of my friends there. It was tons of fun! Now I'm hanging out at the school for a couple of days and keeping my friends from doing their school work lol. Then I will go home for the last couple of days and finish the packing and whatnot. Then I'm off. My flight leaves Omaha NE at 6:30 am next Sunday which means I have to get there by 4:30, so I will have to leave home by 3:30. ICK! Oh well. I will at least be flying with Dr. Duerhssen and his family so it shouldn't be to terrible :) We will stay in Florida overnight then we're off to Venezuela!
Tuesday, Dec. 13
I'm soooo excited today because one of the hurdles that was holding me back from going to Venezuela was finally cross today. In order to go to Venezuela I had to have the local mission request a Student Missionary through the South American Division, who then had to forward the request to the General conference. I started this process back at the beginning of the school year and as of yesterday the request was still being held up at the South American Division. However, I found out today the information needed has been sent to the GC and they have already approved me and posted the call online, reserved for me. Praise God! Now I am free to purchase my plane tickets and take care of the final preparations needed before leaving the country. God is so good and His timing is always perfect!
Monday, December 12
Hey everyone, I just created this blog spot today so that I can post pictures and tell stories of Venezuela easier. :) I have only 6 more weeks before I leave. The next two days are full of finals, but then Christmas break is here. Yay!
