2007 Bolivian Mission Journal

February 14, 2007

We begin another year on Valentine’s Day. This is always the longest day of the mission. I finished a few last minute tasks and left for the airport at about 11:30 AM. I will arrive in Montero, Bolivia about midday tomorrow. A full 24 hours of travel.

I am excited about this year’s mission. There are several new faces, and their excitement always gets me in the right spirit. Letty Power and her daughter, Rachel, are fluent in Spanish. Letty was raised in Mexico and Rachel spent last year in Chile as a Rotary exchange student. They are presently planning the Taco Dinner which will be held at the recreation park on March 2nd. That is our last fundraiser for this fiscal year. When we get back we will begin fundraising again for next year. Both Rachel and her mother are very excited to go to Montero, but they don’t arrive until April. Accompanying them will be three other students, Josh Hendricks, who has been on the mission three times before, Katelin Cochran-Smith and J. T. Schandolph from Scaly Mountain. This is J. T.’s first trip out of the country. Our special member in the last group is Linsey Wisdom of The Highlander Newspaper who will be doing several stories about the mission for the paper.

Fred and Martha Rodenbeck have become regulars on the mission. Fred does his dental work and teaches dentistry at several schools in Santa Cruz. Martha works from dawn to midnight doing her evangelical skits which have become famous in Montero. Her helpers will be Mary Yoder and Eugenia Green. Eugenia is a native Spanish speaker also, and has been invaluable to our mission over the years. This is her 9th trip with the group. Mary is Polish and survived both the Nazis and the Russian invasion. She enjoys speaking Polish with several of the nuns at the girl’s orphanage who came from Poland during the Soviet rule when freedom of religion was stifled.

Nancy and Michelle Main will return for the second time after a lapse of several years. Their job will be the setting up of a microfinance project involving several of the groups we have worked with before, a church, Dios Es Amor, and the Etta Turner Center. This project will teach women to develop a business plan and a budget to enable them to borrow small sums of money, e.g. $100. This will be paid back over a period of time and that money can be loaned to other women. A small loan of this nature can transform a woman from an employee, earning less than $1 a day to an independent business person making her own decisions and keeping the money she earns. Many of these women will be able to afford to buy the fruits and vegetables they sell, or buy a sewing machine and fabric to make clothes or accessories. If they can earn one or two dollars a day, they will be successful in this country where an average family lives on $300 a year.

Joanna, my wife will join me with Steve Hott, our master builder, and Wayne Clark, who works three jobs to be able to spend his vacation in Bolivia. I love this kind of dedication.
Joanna couldn’t come with me due to unfinished work on the Playhouse Trip and delay in finding a place for the Antique Show, a big fundraiser for the Highlands Playhouse, to be held in September. I look forward to her arrival.

Twelve students will join us again from the Honors College at the University of Mississippi. They will experience the hospitals, the foster home and building houses. It is always fun to interact with these smart, energetic young people. This is the third year this group has joined us. One of the graduates from this group will be coming from Harvard Medical School where he received a scholarship last year. I hope his experience in Bolivia was influential in his receiving that scholarship. His advisor is Paul Farmer, MD who is quite well known for his mission work in Haiti and Africa.

Work details this year will involve the groups in finishing the second foster home for the older boys, 12 and older, the prison ministry, our evangelical work, building houses, medical and dental clinics, work in the hospitals, and the microfinance project. I am going early to help the Rotary Club distribute the 280 wheelchairs we sent to the area last month through a worldwide Rotary program. I will be joined by a group of Rotarians from Washington State. The date for beginning to distribute the chairs is February 24, but there needs to be a lot of work done to determine who gets a chair before that date. Everyone who donated $100 to the Wheel Chair Foundation will get a photo of their recipient receiving their chair. These chairs were made in China and are specially made for dirt roads. There has been so much rain this year that they need to be able to float.

I am especially interested in seeing how the new government, the president is the first indigenous Indian to hold that position, affects our mission. Our goals are the same, to help the poor and disaffected. If he can get rid of some of the graft that has made governing practically impossible in the past, he will be seen as successful. Unfortunately, he is a friend of Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro and has made many un-American remarks that make a few of us a bit uneasy. There has always been an enmity between the lowland people of the tropics and the mountain folk. In the past all the commerce was done in the mountains. The tropics were mostly uninhabitable due to malaria and other diseases. Now, with improvements in mosquito control, the tropics control the commerce and the flow of money. Unfortunately, the taxes still flow to the mountains, and the money doesn’t come back. To those of us who live in Highlands and Cashiers, this is a familiar story. Evo Morales, the president, is from the mountains, and he recently sent a governor to Santa Cruz, the largest tropical province, who is from a mountain tribe. This was not well received. I pray there will be peace.

This is a busy schedule, and new projects always attract our attention, and sometimes make us shift our attention and funds to other areas. That is the challenge and the joy of this mission. I hope to be able to tell you in the daily journal about our successes, and with God’s help, I will.

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Friday, February 16, 2007

As expected, the longest day was just that. I spent the morning unpacking and putting my computer and other electronic equipment together. I keep a printer and a transformer here in a big box with work gloves and sun hats and other things we have accumulated over the years. The Pinocho, our hotel, is kind to store this for me. Next, I set out to get new cell phone cards and a new chip. The chips that control the phone number and the account need to be changed if they are not used over a six month period. Obviously, we can’t use the same one year after year. That cost about $35 for the two phones that the group will use this year. I went to the supermarket to buy some batteries and lunch meat for the meals that will not be supplied by the Hotel Pinocho. When larger groups come, they will furnish lunch and dinner. In the meantime, I will have to make due. I really don’t mind having just a sandwich for lunch considering all the food I get when I am invited to friends homes for dinner and occasionally lunch.

I ate lunch at the home of Dr. Patzi. He is one of my best friends here. Every day, the whole family has lunch together. There are two daughters and their husbands, including one grandchild, and their son, his wife and their two children. It is also the grandson’s birthday, and two cakes have been bought by mistake. One was eaten after lunch and the other will be used for his party in the evening, after the Rotary meeting tonight. A typical meal includes soup, and then a main course, usually chicken, beef or both. There are several vegetable side dishes to complete the meal and then the dessert. Everyone seems to be so happy to be together. I am sure there would be less peace if the family didn’t get along, but I think the togetherness shown here in Bolivia is now missing in the United States. When I was young, my whole family lived within a one hour’s drive from one another. Now all my relatives live in Colorado, California, Tennessee, or Arkansas. We almost never see one another, even on Christmas or Thanksgiving when we used to always be together. Here the family is very important and I will give an example of how this works later in today’s message.

After lunch I went down the street to see the home of Jamie Weathers who is adopting two children from the foster home. She has spent two years doing this and today she finalized the adoption, and now must begin the visa process. That will take another three months. She had to become a Bolivian resident to complete the adoption, thus the four room house she rents for $180 a month. This is actually a quite large house for a single family. There is a patio, a kitchen, a living room and two bedrooms, plus a bathroom.
She gave me something to eat as she is becoming very Bolivian. You need to offer something to eat or drink to everyone who visits. After Jamie’s house I went to the house of Herman who also lives within a block of Dr. Patzi. As it was raining hard, I drove to each of these houses. It has been raining for the past two months and the water has no where to go.

Herman is just recovering from dengue fever, a mosquito borne viral disease that can be very serious, especially in people who are not very healthy initially. Herman is the richest man I know in Bolivia and he is healthy. He was very ill requiring IV’s and bed rest for four days. He looks to be on the mend today, and he will try to come to Rotary tonight. There is really no treatment for this malady and, unfortunately, no vaccine. Perhaps, if this disease were common in the US one might be developed. I was brought a plate of cake, and offered a drink. I took water, with ice. The water was bottled but the ice was made from water from the faucet. Oh, well! Maybe I am getting used to the water after all these years. Still, one needs to be careful.

I returned to the room at the Pinocho and read and rested a bit before the meeting tonight. The meeting was held at the home of Dr. Plata who is the gynecologist and does the prison clinic every Saturday morning. After our stories in the newspaper this past summer two people donated $500 to pay for a year’s worth of medicines for the jail. Now the doctor can buy more medicines or make the funds last for two years. We are the only support the jail has, receiving no money from the government for medical care. The Rotary Club has a huge covered area and this is being used for constructing the floats for Carnival that begins tomorrow. Thus, the meeting is being held at the future Rotary president’s home. The dinner was similar to the lunch with a different kind of soup and chicken for the main course, followed by cake for dessert again. Many of the Etta Turner volunteers, including an uncle of Etta, and Etta’s mother were in attendance as were some of the Rotarians from the Washington (state) club. They are involved with the wheel chair project that will commence next week. I will explain about the Etta Turner Center later.

Following the meeting I went to the birthday party of Dr. Patzi’s son, Jorge. It was 10PM and the party was just beginning. I had a few glasses of beer with my friends and left before the food was served, most likely at 11:30, having had a long day and eaten enough for one day. There were many children there who would not sleep until after midnight. This is common in Latin America. I slept well.

Today I went to the Etta Turner Project. Etta, as you know if you have read this journal before, was an exchange student who was killed in a bus accident when the exchange students went on a tour of the area around Potosi in the southern mountains of Bolivia. Her mother, with the help of several Rotary Clubs in the US, turned a tragedy into a wonderful project that feeds children and teaches their families how to cook healthy and inexpensive  meals and also gives classes in labor skills. Today several of the workers would spend the morning at a family complex teaching the families how to cook Soya beans into several different inexpensive and healthy dishes. We drove to the house, only a few blocks away in the rain and mud. Fearing we would get stuck in the muddy road, we parked and walked through the mud, finally arriving at the home. The complex had four bedrooms, one each for the four relatives living there, all having their own cooking range and a refrigerator and two beds for an average of five persons. There was a larger kitchen outside covered by corrugated metal sheets. This was where the cooking demonstration took place. The rain was coming down in various degrees from a hard rain to a light drizzle, and the dirt floor in the kitchen was turning into mud with all the human activity. A twelve year old girl was the most attentive student, and actually earned enough money selling tortillas she made to buy a blender for her mother. We cooked the Soya beans in boiling water twice, throwing out the water, but, after that, nothing would be wasted even the water used to boil the beans. We made a paste from the beans, using the blender and the water from the last water bath. We squeezed the water out of the paste using a towel and that liquid would be used to make jell-o, a Soya drink, and a milk substitute. The paste would be mixed with vegetables and made into vegetable “hamburgers.” At the same time, other Soya beans were boiling with vegetables to make soup. Chicken parts were added, none of which we would eat. The legs and heads were the only parts I could recognize. The claws and the beak were cut off by the 12 year old girl and those were the only parts discarded, although I suspect the dog would eat those. They complained that the food prices were up significantly due to the rain. Farmers cannot get the goods to market even if they can be harvested. Before we could be invited to lunch and not wanting to be inconsiderate, Mort, a Rotarian from Washington, and I left to go to the market, the mercado. The mercado was not very busy, although there seemed to be plenty of fruits and vegetables available. They were probably too expensive for the average person to buy. I wanted to buy some boots as the ones I have only cover the shoes, and the water and mud is much deeper than that today.

I went to the foster home with great difficulty getting there even with four wheel drive. Something has to be done to this road. We spent many hours of back breaking work fixing this road last year. The small drainage canal that runs along the foster home road is nearly at the top of its banks and I was told that it has been over the banks at times. I had to park far from the home and walk through ankle deep water to get to the home. The boys were eating lunch and were a bit subdued. I saw them last night so my visit was not a surprise. With difficulty I made it to the carpentry shop where business is poor due to the price of the wood and the scarcity of this commodity. Only two of the workers from last year are still there, but there is a full group of workers. The cook at the home has not been able to get to work for nearly two months. That is bad for Irma, the house mother, who now has to cook in addition to her other duties, and the cook, who is not earning any money. The garden is a lake and weeds are everywhere. There will be no crops for the boys to eat. The farm is a source of food, and a learning experience for the boys. There is no playing outside and that is probably the reason the boys are down. They did sing a few songs to us and then we left to eat lunch and rest. The rain is really causing a lot of trouble with disease and economically. I don’t know what will happen if it continues.

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Sunday, February 18, 2007

The rain has continued here as it has since December. In all the ten years I have come to this place during the rainy season, I have never seen anything like this. I made it out to the foster home two days ago and it is a microcosm of the problems that affect the whole area. The road which was bad last year was nearly impassable. The drainage creek was nearly at the level of the road, and I was told it has been over the road at times. Normally this is a dirty sewage ditch with hardly a flow of water even when it rains. On approaching the foster home compound, the normally well maintained farm was in weeds and even the hardy yucca plants had died. I could not go to the new house for the older boys due to the water that covered the garden that occupies three quarters of the grounds. Normally they would be harvesting corn, beans, tomatoes, potatoes and yucca at this time. Not only are they not in harvest, but there is little likelihood that a new crop will be planted anytime soon. Therefore, they will have nothing to harvest in three to four months. For our home this is not a catastrophe, as we pay for the food, and the farm is more for educating the children than a source of food, but it still helps keep the cost of feeding the children down. For the average farmer, this is a disaster. In the market, there is little food as compared to usual and the price is higher. Most of the common laborers cannot work or even get to their jobs. The big road to Cochabamba has been washed out in three locations. Most of the fruit and vegetables come from Cochabamba and conversely, the meat and chicken comes from this area. There is no chicken in Cochabamba and chicken is the main protein in the diet of most poor people. I think this is the main difference between the third world and our world. When disaster strikes, we have the ability to cope better, although a tragedy like Katrina stretched our ability to cope to the maximum. Disease caused by mosquitoes will become rampant when the sun ever does come out and it gets hot. The only saving grace, for me at least, is the cool temperature. It has been in the 70’s all the days I have been here. Normally it would be in the 90’s to 105 degrees.

This is Carnival season, and most of the parades have been cancelled due to the rain. Some families make most of their yearly income from the Carnival sales. If they don’t make the money this week, they will be in financial trouble the rest of the year. One of our projects this year is the microfinance program and I fear people will get the loans and use the money just to live. Then they will never be able to pay back the loan and keep the program going. These are going to be very interesting times, and our mission is going to be more important than ever this year. I think this country is going to need a lot of help to get through this troubled time. Even my more affluent friends here are feeling the pinch. The doctors are not getting paid, and the farmers see their crops rotting and the produce they do gather in can’t get to market. I pray the rain will soon end, but there is no sign that it will.

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Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Well, prayers are answered! The rain stopped as we went to the parade of the Collas. Joanna and I went to this parade three years ago and it was fantastic, especially compared to the Camba, the tropical version. The latter was slow and unorganized while the former was well run and featured the folk dances typical to the mountain areas. I was very disappointed as in only three years the parade had degenerated into the same sort of affair as the lowland parade. It was slow, late and the dancing was done mostly by children. We were sprayed by ink and the groups could not dance for being sprayed by foam that is sold by vendors. No wonder the adults don’t want to dance in their costumes that can cost more than a house. The Carnival I went to last year ruined my enjoyment of these parades, not that I liked them all that much before. There are just too many drunken people and too much noise and mud. It is traditional to throw water on Sunday, paint on Monday and mud on Tuesday. My car got all three yesterday. I will get it washed tomorrow when there will not be any more mud thrown on the car on purpose. The mud from the roads is enough. I spent the last two days with my boys in the foster home. That is really what I enjoy, and I think they enjoy my presence as well. They call me “Papa John.” Some are speaking English fairly well, having had special lessons for three years now. Since the rain stopped, there are some high places on the property that can now be mowed. Due to the amount of time it has been since this was done, machetes needed to be used. Later the ground will be tilled by a machine and then the seeds can be planted. It is hard to believe that this area was a shallow lake just a few days age. The road getting here, on the other hand, is still terrible. The ruts are so deep that the wheels get stuck in the ruts and the ride is very uncomfortable as the car is thrown back and forth. I am sure this is not good for either the car or its inhabitants. The only good thing is that there is no fear of getting stuck, unless the chassis of the car would get hung up because the ruts were so deep. They have filled the ruts at the foster home with bricks where I got stuck yesterday. It is like a paved road if you can stay on the bricks, which is not easy.

The boys played football until I know they were tired, but this is the first time they have been able to play on the field for over two months. The sun came out and the temperature rose into the 80’s, but that is still cool for Bolivia in February. Soon the mosquitoes will hatch and that will be another problem. There was so much rain and it was so cold the even the mosquitoes couldn’t hatch. I was bitten for the first time today. The daytime mosquitoes are not supposed to carry diseases, but how do they know that?

I brought some kits to make projects on the mini lathe I brought last year. It was my plan that the boys could make things for us to sell and the money would go to their college fund. Last year we made pens and pencils. The pens were good but the pencils were harder to make and they didn’t work very well. I have cork screws and letter openers this year, in addition to pens. Since I have not made any of the new items before, I stole away into the carpentry shop during siesta and made one of each of the letter openers and the cork screw. First I had to rewire the lathe as someone had disabled it. I don’t know if that was done on purpose to keep the workers from using it, or they just didn’t know how to reset the circuit breaker that was tripped. The surge protector I bought last year also didn’t work, and the power is very erratic. Finally I was able to make a corkscrew out of scrap mahogany that was just lying on the floor by a table saw, and a letter opener out of a soft wood called guaycan (Pronounced y- a-can) which was left over from our projects last year. These were very easy to make and assemble and the boys will enjoy doing this later in the visit. If they are careful, making these is very safe, and they will learn some valuable lessons in carpentry and in marketing and sales, in addition to providing money for their college fund.

Tomorrow I will be able to get some real work done, although eating at Rotarian’s homes every night during carnival has brought me some feedback about our projects. I talked to the president and vice-president last week, and they obviously talked to other members of the club and the projects have been bounced around enough to begin to see how they will function. The recipients of the houses have been chosen, and the people that will work on the microfinance have also been identified. There is even a bank in Santa Cruz, run by women, which may be interested in helping us. I am very encouraged by this. Also the Etta Turner Center people are all here and ready to get involved as they train people for home work and that type of person is our main target for the project. The wheelchair project is very well organized from the highest levels at Rotary International, so my concerns in that regard were groundless. Each of the 280 chairs comes with a certificate with a number on it and a camera. The cameras are sent back to the US where they are developed, and the Rotary then has a record of the donor of the chair, the name of the recipient, and where it was given out. Each donor will receive a photo of the chair he/she gave. I bought a new camera just to do the same thing. Oh, well! The one I had last year got hit by a water balloon during Carnival in Oruro and the flash has never been reliable since. The next group comes on Saturday, the day of the wheel chair project, and I was able to find someone else to pick them up at the airport. Slowly, I guess I did get some work done during Carnival!

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February 22, 2007

The rain has held off for five days at this point and things have returned to “normal” for the most part. Many roads are still impassable especially in Pando and Beni, more rural areas in the northern lowland of Bolivia that are difficult to enter in the best of times. Photos are finally being published from those areas in the newspaper and the pictures are graphic and horrible. Many cattle drowned and I am sure people as well. Islands of high ground are inhabited by cattle, all of whom will starve to death. We are lucky to be here. The city is fumigating every night to kill mosquitoes before they get bad. So far, I have seen very few of them. The hospital is full of patients with dengue, but I have not seen any malaria.

I have spent the last few days organizing the work teams that will arrive on Saturday. The wheelchair distribution is also on Saturday so I had to arrange for others to pick up the next group. As the whole group coming has been here before, it was easy to find volunteers to pick them up. I will visit the clinic where Fred will work beginning Monday to be sure everything is ready, and then I have been invited to go fishing. That should be interesting with all the rain, although the drainage ditch near the foster home is now at the normal level. That stream has become by barometer for the water level.

Yesterday, I worked with the children to make pens. They made two nice ones with my help. Today I left them on their own to see how they would do. I was not surprised to find that both pens were a disaster. There was little that was correct, but even in failure, they learned a lot and both pens worked even if they looked funny. The boys promised that the pens tomorrow would be better. Some of what they do is perfect. Soon I hope they will have the whole process down to the same perfection so the pens and other wooden articles can be sold for their education. They assembled the good pens in the presence of two Rotarians from Washington State, who bought them immediately. More money for their educational fund and a lesson in commerce also. If you do good work, you make money.

I have been eating lunch at the home and today the same two Rotarians ate with me. One, Mathew Paul, is from Holland, and his family took in Jews during the war. His story would be another Anne Frank diary if he chose to write it. One of the survivors is now a professor in a university in Israel. His story had a nicer ending than Anne’s. It is always interesting to meet people here. There are so many stories to tell. We went to the girl’s orphanage while the boys did their pens and gave some presents there. We have several sponsors of children at the little girl’s orphanage and everyone likes to visit this place as it is a Shangri La in the midst of the chaotic market right outside. The girls were making a kind of cookie that the Polish nuns taught them to make many years ago when they were the only sisters here. Now nearly all the Poles are gone but one of their legacies is these cookies. If you have ever been to Eastern Europe, you have probably eaten this kind of cookie before. They are long and thin and are very rough on top and not very sweet, which is just the way I like cookies. The small cooks have changed the recipe a bit to their own liking, but the basic cookie is still the same. We never know what our legacy will be, but this one will still be around many years from now.

Last night we had our final meeting to be sure the paper work was satisfactory before the wheelchairs are distributed. Of the 280 chairs we have available, the Rotary Club and the social workers have located 231 recipients that have a social worker’s report, a doctor’s consent and live in the area that is served by this project. Another crate of 280 chairs is being distributed by a club in Santa Cruz. There was a lot of work done by the local club and the local social workers. This is an excellent opportunity for these workers to actually accomplish something that can be measured, seen and felt. This kind of opportunity does not come around often. I am excited and these workers and the Rotarians must be ecstatic. The head of the group of social workers is blind, so she knows what it is like to have a disability in a third world country. There are no special efforts by the government or any other agency to help people with handicaps. Basically the families are on their own.

The Rotary meeting was like all the others except there were six visiting members and the staff from the Etta Turner Center. All are welcome here, without cost. We charge $12 for visitors and every other club that I have visited, in the US or abroad, charged for the meal. They are missing an opportunity to make a little money here, but hospitality is always a main concern here and always has been. Charging for a meal might ruin the feeling of hospitality that pervades this place. There were the usual introductions and then the reading of the minutes from the last meeting. We only do that at the board meetings to expedite the regular meetings. There is no rush here. Then all the correspondence from the last week was read. Because of the wheelchair project, there was plenty. Then we went to eat. Each week is a different member’s responsibility. There is quite a variety in the food from week to week, but today’s selection was chicken cooked in a mushroom sauce, pot roast, rice, potatoes, tomatoes, and a meringue cake that was delicious. The cakes in general here are more moist, heavier, and taste better to me than cake in the US. Of course, all these are made from scratch. There are five Rotarians from Washington State here for the wheelchair project, which made me feel bad because I am the only person from our clubs that donated money to this project. The Cashiers club and both of the Highlands clubs were involved. Furthermore, this is the seventh crate of chairs the clubs in Washington have donated. This is one of their main projects. All clubs have different goals, which are nice, but this is a great project. I was proud that we had been able to help with this crate, but now I see what could have been done. Maybe next year we can do more. We took out one chair just to have a look at it and took a lot of pictures. Saturday there will be many photos taken, to be sure.

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Friday February 23, 2007

Last night the men with whom I was to go fishing told me the river was so far away that they planned to go there for three days. I told them it would have been nice to know this before but I could not go due to the wheel chair project, which was the reason I came so early to Bolivia in the first place. Therefore, I have basically a free day to catch up on things. I had plans to meet Dr. Dardo Chavez, the head of the Cruz Roja and Villa Cochabamba clinics, in the morning and I did that after getting some Slim Fast for one of the Rotarians who got sick the second day here and has not been able to eat since. I thought he might have a bacterial gastroenteritis as he got sick too fast for it to be a virus, but where he got it, I do not know. He is an experienced traveler. At any rate, he was admitted to the hospital later in the day while I was out. With some IV’s he should be better tomorrow. The clinics Dardo runs are managed well. He maintains the equipment and is a good boss, but he makes people work. Most of his employees are the same as they were ten years ago when I first came. That makes a good team. The clinic we visited today is the one in which Dr. Rodenbeck will work on Monday, the Cruz Roja or Red Cross. Everything is ready for his arrival tomorrow and I should not have been surprised by that fact. He will still spend the better half of Sunday setting up.

Following the clinic visit, I went to the foster home to lance an abscess on a boy’s eyelid. I had bought some anesthetic and some eye medicine which were quite expensive here, but the abscess was just below the eye lid so none of those medicines would be helpful. I washed it up and lanced it with a large needle, with little discomfort. If you cut the white area in the middle of the boil, there is generally little or no pain, except for the feeling that one will have pain. That, I can’t make go away. This was over in a few seconds and I proceeded to try to show another boy how to make a pen. Oliver is very competitive, which is good in a way, but he is no match for Nestor, who made a pen yesterday. I try to keep these two apart. Nestor is good at most everything and really doesn’t care. He scores more goals than Oliver playing football and that really makes Oliver mad. One day I hope they will work together on the same team, but right now they are rivals. Nestor made a really bad pen yesterday and I am sure Oliver wants to make one better. He is a quick learner but he, like the other boys, has trouble with certain aspects of the lathe. With my close supervision he made a very good pen, but when I left for a little while, he fell back into the same mistakes as before. I learned from yesterday to not leave for a really long time, so we were able to correct things before the project was beyond help. After he and the rest of the boys went to school, (they only go for four hours a day), I left to do a few chores and see another patient who had a really bad fungal infection. On the way I passed one of the largest sink holes I have ever seen. Two or three cars could have fallen in and not been found. The problems related to the rain are only now being addressed and the sink holes are just the most obvious result of too much rain. I have been here 10 years and never saw anything like these sinkholes. After buying a few things we need for the pen project, I went home to rest and write this missive. Tonight I will play tennis again. The guys that went fishing probably didn’t catch any anyway.

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Saturday, February 24, 2007

Today was one of those days that make one proud to be a missionary and a Rotarian. After much planning we finally had the day of the distribution of the chairs. Hundreds of people were present as I arrived late having made a hospital call to one of the Rotarians from Washington, Jack Frisk. He was the leader of the wheelchair group from his club that sent five Rotarians here to help distribute the chairs. He had also been to Trinidad and South Africa to do this before. The day was hot and the recipients may not have been out of their homes for months or even years, but the protocol called for speeches and a few folk dances, which, in my opinion, took way too long. Also, dancing in front of people that only wish they could walk, perhaps, is not the best therapy for the wheelchair recipients. Many of the older women were fanning themselves, and many in the group could not help themselves. In the two locations in which we distributed wheelchairs, there were three boys with spina bifida, a condition of the lower spine where the spinal cord is exposed in the uterus and irreversibly damaged by the amniotic fluid in the mother’s womb. This is usually accompanied by hydrocephalus, or water on the brain. Two of the boy’s heads were huge, but one boy had a mild case and was able to walk with a walker, and refused the wheelchair. I was proud of him and he will be better in the long run using the muscles he can use for as long as he can. Most of the recipients were very grateful, but only a few cried when they got their chair. Bolivians are generally very emotional people and I was surprised by the apparent lack of emotion today. Still, no one left in their chair without heartfelt gratitude, thanking all of us for our help. Not including the cost of freight, these 280 wheel chairs cost about $50,000. However, money is not the reason for the thanks. The caregivers and the handicapped both benefit today. Also, as is the case almost everywhere, there is a kind of discrimination against the handicapped here that may be more pervasive due to the physical environment of most of these people. It just isn’t that easy to get around, even if you have no handicap. In the mud last week, none of these chairs would be any good outside the home and if the home had a mud floor they wouldn’t even be useful inside.

It was amazing to see the variety of the maladies today. Many were just old and probably had Alzheimer’s. There are no homes for the elderly here and everyone is cared for by family or relatives. This is another example of the strong family unit that exists here. They may not have much but they have love. A few had amputations, several of both legs, and a few had strokes, but most of the crippled people had polio. Thankfully the youngest was about 14 years old, as polio was last eradicated in Bolivia just before I came for the first time in 1998. Rotary has also been involved with the largest polio immunization program in the world. Polio still exists in only a few locations in the world and these places are involved with tribal strife and war that makes immunizing the least able to care for themselves very difficult. Most people in the US, especially those born after 1957 have never seen a case of polio. There were many reasons to be thankful today. I am thankful to be able to be here, to be a Rotarian, and to be from Highlands, NC where the generosity of the people in our area has made the mission to Bolivia possible.

Martha and Fred Rodenbeck arrived today and along with Eugenia Green and Mary Yoder they will begin the evangelical and dental missions on Monday. I will be attending the hospital rounds and trying to see where we can be more helpful there. Last year the hospital said they didn’t need any more equipment. I was glad to hear that but this place will always need help. It gets very little help from the government.

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Monday, February 26, 2007

Yesterday we finished, I thought, the wheelchair project by going to Warnes, a town to the south of Montero. This town has a lot of industry but few residents. I think there are several large land owners that keep the land available for home owners to a minimum. At any rate there were 35 people who needed these chairs and the fact that there was no Rotary Club in Warnes to help plan for the event did show as the preparation for the distribution was lacking. In their behalf, the room used was small compared to the Rotary Club in Montero but the process was chaotic to say the least. There was not enough room to hold all the boxes of the chairs so many were left in the truck until needed. There must have been some planning as the number of the chairs and the sizes eventually came out correctly with only four chairs left over. The last recipient was home bound and we delivered the chair to her house which was across the street and around the corner. She was a stroke victim 79 years old. The people getting chairs were generally different. Most were older people with strokes. A few were amputees and there were a few children who obviously had birth defects or developmental problems. I don’t think any were victims of polio as compared to the day before. Perhaps the small population and the age of the people made polio less common in Warnes. There was a woman there from the first who had a wheelchair from a previous distribution. At home she would be called a “bag lady” using her chair to carry things in and using the handles as a walker. She would have a grocery cart back home. She was always in the way and wouldn’t move and was, more or less, ignored by the workers. At the end, everyone just left without saying anything to her. Just like the homeless back in the states, the people have learned to ignore this kind of person. I suspect she wanted to turn her chair in for a new model.

Following the event, I wanted to return to the Pinocho for lunch, having told the owners to expect us at 1PM, but the organizers of the distribution asked us to stay for “just a little food.” I knew what that meant but my efforts to return to Montero went for naught. We were taken to a restaurant in Warnes where we had a full meal taking over two hours to complete. Food has a special relationship expressing thanks for efforts given on behalf of ones friends. This has been apparent to me since I first came to Bolivia. Every home we ever went to in order to give aid gave us water, food, or refreshment which could not be refused. On returning to the Pinocho I expressed my sorrow that they had prepared food that was not eaten. We told the cook staff to take the night off as we would eat at a restaurant in the evening. I was invited to the fraternity across the street to celebrate the last day of Carnival. I thought it was over on Tuesday, but here festivals last much too long. Being the last day, everyone was soaking wet after being hit by water balloons and a hose. I was dressed nicely having just returned from Warnes but the rest of the men knew what was in store and were dressed more casually and prepared to get wet, which they did as did I. Also there was more food. I politely ate just a little, and returned to the Pinocho to gather the others for dinner. Most of our group had been invited to various locations for dinner, and the rest of us left to find a restaurant, giving the staff at the Pinocho a rest. Unfortunately, due to the Carnival, all the restaurants were closed. I would have been happy to skip dinner but the owner of the Pinocho said that they would prepare dinner for us. I felt awful about this as we hadn’t shown up for lunch and then, after being told to rest this evening, they wanted to give us dinner. Again, Teresa, the owner’s wife, said she would only make us a little food, but as I also expected, it was a full dinner. Much of the food was probably left over from lunch, but it was an effort we appreciated very much. I have never left a tip before after a meal here at the Pinocho, but we did this night.

On Monday morning the dental team went to the Cruz Roja and Mort, a podiatrist with the Washington group, and I went to the general hospital for rounds. There were several patients with dengue and a couple young people with kidney stones and a gall bladder patient. The most interesting patient was a man in a coma. He would respond to pain by a grimace in the face, but had no other movement of his trunk or extremities. All the doctors did painful things to him with the same reaction. I don’t know if they thought their stimulation would do something different from the ones before, but it began to cause me pain. He had a cough, with a normal chest ray, elevated white blood cell count, and a fever. I thought he needed a spinal tap, to rule out meningitis, but the most likely cause of his strange neurological symptoms was probably lack of oxygen to his brain caused by drinking too much during the Carnival. He may improve with time. Here there are no other tests available so there is little else they can do but wait.

After rounds I talked with the hospital administrator about the state of the hospital. The doctors and nurse have not been paid since December. Why they don’t complain with protests and other forms of nonviolent acts is beyond me. They had to close the intensive care unit as it was just too expensive to keep it functioning. Later I did examine the equipment and it was still in good shape and well maintained. The head nurse had the only key to the room and she was responsible for the care and stocking of the various mobile carts. She is very capable and competent. I trust her with the equipment and I was told the unit would reopen as soon as the money was paid to the hospital. Mort and I went to the emergency room where he treated a girl with an ingrown toe nail. Not major surgery, but many doctors really don’t know how to treat minor problems like this. He cut and I cauterized the skin. We then went to the delivery rooms and found the fetal monitors we brought last year were being used. The fact that they were being utilized made me feel good also. The hospital itself was in horrible shape. The ceiling in the halls had fallen in several areas and looked terrible. There seemed to be no urgency to fixing the problem. This, too, was apparently due to the excessive rains. I don’t know how any of the patients could possibly feel secure getting care in a hospital with the roof falling in.

Following lunch the Rotarians here from Washington and I went to Santa Cruz to shop and eat dinner. This was the only time they could see another part of Bolivia. Having had a busy day we were happy to see the Pinocho and get a good night’s sleep. Another day of heat and no rain. It has not rained since this group of Rotarians came last week. If it begins to rain when they leave, we may have to ask them to return.

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Tuesday, February 27, 2007

The days just keep getting better. I took Jack Frisk to the foster home as he was the only Rotarian from Washington who had not seen it before. Jack was in charge of the wheelchair project but he got sick right after arriving and spent the night in hospital. He has been afraid to go anywhere since, but he is now feeling back to normal and he was happy to visit the home. We arrived in the middle of the English lesson and we participated with the children. Then we took two of the older kids to the carpentry shop to complete a few more pens. Every day they get better. If I can teach three boys to do these well, they can teach the others. When we returned to the house the computer classes were in session. Jack, who is an educator, suggested that we change the mode of teaching as the boys have been taught computer two and a half years and they are still doing the basics, not doing hands on work. With some of the boys being 14 years old, they should be fluent in computer by now. The teacher tries to teach the whole group at the same time and that is impossible. I will have to speak to him.

Following the morning we left for lunch and ate some exotic animal meats. Armadillo, wild pig and another animal I don’t know. They all tasted about the same and none tasted like chicken. They were a bit tough and tasted more like pork. As soon as we finished lunch Mort and I went to the Etta Turner Center and had a makeshift medical clinic. He was scheduled to see foot problems and the first two patients did have orthopedic problems but none related to the foot. One had a fractured femur, the upper leg bone, which healed poorly and was short. He also had knee problems and couldn’t straighten his leg. He would need major orthopedic surgery to repair his leg. In the meantime, he tied a rope around the foot so he could raise it to be able to walk. A young boy came in with a poorly healed elbow fracture, but he could do everything he wanted to do with the arm so there was nothing to do for him. After the news got out that there was a free clinic, fifty people came in to see the two of us. I cut the visits off at 40 or we would have been there still. Most of the children were affected by the creeping eruption, a parasite disease of the skin. This worm gets into the skin from animal feces in the soil, but humans are not the usual host so the worm just winds around near where it enters the skin. We freeze the worm with carbon dioxide but here there is no such treatment. I saw at least five times as many of these cases in four hours than I have ever seen in my life before. There is a medicine for this but I don’t think any of these people can afford it. It eventually goes away as the worm dies, not being in the right host for the usual life cycle, but it can be very uncomfortable while it is still alive. Some had the outbreak on their feet, but some also had it on their buttocks and a baby had it on her back, having been laid on the mud on her back. I think the muddy conditions are the reason for this outbreak. Even with shoes on, the mud with the parasites can come in contact with the skin allowing the parasite to enter the skin. Most of the other cases were dengue or something like dengue. All were not that ill and we had lots of Tylenol to distribute so they were lucky to get free medicine. I have arranged to buy several thousand antibiotic pills tomorrow. That purchase will dent the miscellaneous account another $700.

I was called at the end of the clinic to go to a meeting at the sugar hospital. They had apparently called to arrange the meeting and left a message at the Pinocho. Unfortunately, I received the message when I got back from the meeting. Due to the poor weather, the sugar company has not been able to work as the cane cannot get to market. Consequently, they don’t have the money to replace the ultrasound machine they had for 20 years and now doesn’t work. The model they want costs about $18,000. I don’t know how much money they think we have, but I told them we couldn’t even think about helping them until next year, and I really don’t think we can spend that kind of money in one place that benefits only a small group of people who actually have insurance. They did mention that they are contracted to take care of our foster home children. I think we can help with the purchase of a new machine, but we will not pay the whole amount.

I got back just in time to eat dinner and then I got a call to see if Dr. Fred and I wanted to play tennis. Even with the setting of the sun, the temperature was still in the 90’s and the humidity was high. A few bats showed up for the first time this year. Usually when we play tennis we have to deal with the bats flying around the lights at night. There have been very few insects of any kind since they have been spraying for mosquitoes. I suppose the bird population will suffer in a few years due to the continued use of DDT which can be used in poor countries even with the ban elsewhere in the world. I don’t agree with the use, but I am grateful for the lack of insects.

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Wednesday, February 28, 2007

The last of the Washington Rotarians left this morning leaving the Pinocho housing only the five members of our group. The wheelchair project was a great success and it is continuing to go on to smaller towns that have been isolated by the rain and couldn’t come to the distributions when they were planned. It should be interesting to visit these places later, as they are the most remote and poorest of all the places we have donated the chairs. What a wonderful group of people these men were and several have mentioned that they would like to join our group next year and even bring their wives. They were surely impressed with the congeniality and comfort of the hotel and that has to be a big concern when coming to a third world country. This place is never what people imagine it to be before one visits. I certainly hope to see some of these people again and I will keep in contact by e-mail at least.

The anesthelogist from the hospital, Dr. Barba, came by to pick up the computer we bought for him to complete his project to document all the teams of volunteers that work in Montero. This will include the visitors and the local persons as well. He wanted a new video camera and a computer but he got a refurbished computer and a less expensive camera than he wanted, but these will do the job. His DVD is unlikely to be that professional at any rate. I kept the camera as mine doesn’t work and we need to make a DVD for our micro-finance project. Nancy and Michelle Main arrive on Saturday and that will be their main project. Also the plans for the house we will build are being drawn up. This will be a main focus for the Mississippi group when they come on March 11. We are beginning to get really busy.

I spent the morning purchasing medicines for the medical clinics. I will need special medicines for the creeping eruption, ivermectin, which costs about a dollar a pill, but one pill is the entire course, so it is easy and economical. Common antibiotics like amoxicillin and erythromycin are cheap, but those only came in blister packs which are more expensive, but they will be easier to dispense and keep dry, especially in the areas I intend to go. My calling cards were ready but I forgot to put my e-mail address on them. It cost $10 to have another 100 made, the smallest amount they will make. I don’t want to give my e-mail out to everyone anyway so it is good that I have two cards. The rest of the morning was spent making another airline reservation for a teacher, Henry DeGrazia, who is coming to see if this would be a good place to bring a group of students this summer from his private school in Atlanta. One never knows how the mission will grow. I got another e-mail from one of the Ole Miss grads who will be in his fourth year of medical school next year and he wants to come for his elective quarter and work in the hospitals and clinics. I am taking the microscope to the Cruz Rojas lab to refresh my memory on parasite testing. They will see more parasites in one day than our hospital will see in ten years. The same can be said for TB, although I did diagnose a case of malaria in Highlands and I have yet to see a case of that here in Montero. I am also waiting to get my truck back. One of the back tires had a 4 inch crack so I bought a new one to replace it. When they changed the tire, they found the brakes were bad and needed to be changed. Then they saw that the suspension needed repairs. No car except the very new ones has a good suspension here. I think they knew they had a “rich” gringo in their midst, but I always like to help Dardo keep his vehicle in good shape, as I really appreciate his giving it to me for the two months that I am here. Being mobile is a real benefit and many of the taxis just can’t get to the foster home when it rains.

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Thursday, March 01, 2007

March always comes at you so fast due to the short month of February. I still don’t know why February is so short when they could take a day off two months that have 31 and then most of the months would have 30 days. I guess they would have to make up a new song replacing the “30 days has September, April, June and November…

I spent the morning taking pictures of Dr. Rodenbeck who usually gets left out of my journal because we are always working at the same time in different places. He does such fine work here, both providing care to the poor and teaching, even at the dental universities in Santa Cruz. I am very proud to have him working with our group. Finally the lab called and told me they had five samples to check for parasites. Of the five, three were positive. Two have the eggs of the common long white worm, ascaris and one had the hook worm, ancylostoma. A form of this worm, the cat and dog ancylostoma causes the creeping eruption, cutaneous larva migrans. I thought the preparation of the slides would be difficult but the process was very simple. No stains or anything else was needed except for some stool and a drop of saline. This exam will be easy to perform in the country if the microscope can get enough light without using electricity. I am looking forward to going to the campo, the country, as the people here in Montero have access to medical care if they so choose to be seen. Of course, the parasites will return if clean water is not found and the habit of walking around without shoes is not changed. All of the parasites enter the body through the skin except for amebas, pin worms and giardia. Giardia is the only parasite commonly found in the US and certainly exists in the mountains of North Carolina. Cutaneous larva migrans is found in Florida and other tropical beaches where dogs and other animals are free to roam.

Following the learning cession at the clinic I went out to see the property where we will build the house. Having learned about the rain and the devastation of the roads while I was still in Highlands, I decided that we would try to find a family that needed a house right in the town of Montero. The secretary of the Rotary Club has been working at the club for 21 years and presently earns $1000 per year. From this salary she supports her aging parents and four children of her sister who died several years ago. She has always been a great help to me, and is more valuable to the Rotary Club here than they know. She sometimes works 14 hours a day, and often is called upon to work on Sundays, as she did a few days ago with the wheelchair project. Saturday morning is also a normal workday. No one in Highlands would work this many hours per week even for a normal wage. She will need a bathroom, kitchen, bedroom and a living room with the house costing about $5000. This is a bigger house than we normally build but I am happy to help this hard working woman out.

I set up my clinic hours at the Cruz Roja and brought three minor surgery trays in to be sterilized and also brought about 100 packs of suture. I have two suitcases of suture material that will arrive with the following groups. That should supply the area for a year or more. I had read an article about a patient who died because the family could not afford a pack of suture and that will not happen here. No one should die for lack of such a simple thing.
I spent the afternoon planning the micro-finance meeting to be held on Monday at lunch, and then met with a man who would like to be the English teacher. We spoke almost totally in Spanish, and when I spoke in English, I was sure he didn’t understand. He had certificates from several schools indicating that he received excellent marks, but the proof is in the pronunciation of our words. He didn’t pass my grade. Tonight we will discuss the house building project, the teacher’s contract for music and computer, the micro-finance, and the schedule of events for the further distribution of the wheelchairs. I thought that project was done, but there are about 100 more to give away. I need to know when these distributions will occur. One of these events is tomorrow afternoon. That I do know!

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Friday, March 02, 2007

We did have a very good meeting last night, lasting only 30 minutes as I thought we were to go to dinner at 8:00PM. There were four groups of meetings at different Rotarian’s homes. Later I found that my dinner began at 9 but all the others started at 8. The plans for the home we were to build were initiated, and the contracts reviewed. Money for the projects was budgeted and a meeting time for the micro-finance was set for Monday at lunch at the Pinocho. Following the meeting I walked to Dr. Patzi’s house where our group of Rotarians would discuss the upcoming events and come to some conclusions. Three other groups would do the same at other locations. We call this a club assembly, but we break up into four groups after lunch and discuss the four different club service areas. Apparently the other groups talked about the same things as we did. The big project on the horizon is a child care center and clinic in a growing but underserved part of the city. This is actually near where the Etta Turner Center is located. Since none of the other persons from our group could understand what was being said except Eugenia Green, who had no idea what the project was about, they were quite bored. At least at my group, the discussion was limited by the fact that we talked before the dinner, while they discussed the project after dinner at the other three sites. We all arrived back home at about midnight. While at dinner, Nancy Main called and said that she had missed her flight. I am so glad that I have the cell phone that can be called from anywhere; otherwise we would have been wasting our time at the airport as we did a few years ago when the Ole Miss group got stranded in Chicago due to snow. I still don’t understand how the cheapest flight from Mississippi to Miami went through Chicago. Fortunately, a new flight from Miami to Bolivia just started on March first and they will be on the ground at Santa Cruz tomorrow night at 11:45PM, so they will be only 14 hours late. Before you never knew if you could get another flight for a few days as the planes are usually full. They were very lucky!

Friday morning I did some visits to different areas trying to set up the meeting of the micro-finance and trucking people to their work locations. I went to the Villa Cochabamba clinic hoping to see Dardo who consented to pick up the Mains as it is quite late at night and I will be in Santa Cruz celebrating the birthday of a friend. I wrote some letters in Spanish and English to help with the customs as the last group was held up for not having a letter explaining the use of the things in their baggage. I have never seen the need for such a letter before and I went through customs without a single question. I guess it is just luck. Dr. Dardo was there at the clinic and he happened to be in the store room and I needed a few things for the stool for parasites tests we were planning to do tomorrow. He had the slides and the cover slips, and a glucometer for the strips that were given to me to bring here without the machine in which they work.  I knew they had about a hundred of the glucometers that use this kind of strip so I didn’t bring one. They brought out all the supplies I needed in about a minute. Now we are ready for tomorrow’s visit to the country to have a makeshift medical clinic. After lunch I went to the Internet café to be sure there were no other changes in plans and to check if the ticket I purchased for the teacher in Atlanta arrived (which it had) and I readied myself for a trip to Santa Cruz to celebrate the birthday. Birthdays here are quite a celebration, at least for the well to do. Some of the younger children of the poor do not even know their birthday.

I went to Buena Vista to distribute the wheelchairs there and on the way we passed the town of Portachuelo to see if the X-ray machine we had sent 14 months ago had cleared customs. The hospital administrator, a doctor and the head nurse just happened to be there. What a coincidence! We talked with the mayor and the rest to see what was needed and what we could do to expedite, if that is the right word after more than a year, the situation. It seems that they still don’t have the right papers but they thought $300 might grease the right wheels. I can’t understand why the government would keep such a valuable piece of equipment in storage for lack of anything. If the government had provided this kind of machine to the hospital, we would not have needed to do so for them. One would think they would be grateful and do all in their power the help the machine get to the hospital to help their own people. I wondered how many people had died because this machine was not in use. Also I feared that the equipment, if not cared for properly, might not work at this point. It was obvious to me that no one had done anything about this matter for some time and I was glad we had come to reignite the flame. They need someone to call every day until something is done and if it is only $300 that is needed I will gladly pay. We went on to the next town which was Buena Vista, which is well named. It is in the foot hills of the Andes and overlooks a valley with the mountains in the back ground. It is, indeed, a beautiful view. As we get farther away from the bigger cities, the crippled people seem to have greater disabilities. There were polio victims, amputees, children with cerebral palsy and brain damaged kids who were probably normal before they had some sort of diarrhea disease. I have seen this kind of child before. With no diagnostic equipment, the doctors have to treat by the seat of their pants, and these patients are the unfortunate result. The host of the birthday party was my driver to assure I arrived at the party on time, but I was glad I had come to this event. I got to speak this time and I told the people present that they should not tell us “Thank you,” but we should be thanking them for the opportunity for us to serve them. After all, Rotary is a service organization. This type of work is our duty. This group of people moved me more than all the others so far. We still have several more places to go before we are done distributing all the chairs.

In Santa Cruz, the party included all the brothers and sisters of the husband but none of the wife’s relatives other than her children and grandchildren. They were all there and very well behaved. The youngest grandson said, “Grandma, this is the best dinner in the whole world.” We were in an interesting restaurant featuring meat in the Brazilian style, serving all the grilled meats on skewers and the meat just keeps coming and coming. This kind of restaurant is very popular here and it is becoming popular in the bigger cities of the US. It is not the place to eat if one is trying to keep his cholesterol down. There are all different cuts of beef, kidney, stomach (tripe), udder, pork loin, and chicken hearts. There may have been a few more and having tried all of these before, I felt good about refusing several of the local delicacies. Actually the chicken hearts are one of my favorites.

We began our trip to Montero and it was just the right time to see if Nancy and Michelle Main had arrived as we came to the airport. We got into the terminal just as they came out of the customs area having had a wonderful flight with many open seats and practically none of the usual customs people to give everyone a hard time. You are allowed to bring in $1000 worth of things and our baggage always has less than that. Our carry on baggage is a different story… We arrived at the Pinocho at about 12:30 AM and I know the Mains were happy to be back home, having been here four years ago, but their hearts never left.

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Sunday, March 04, 2007

This was one of those blessed weekends that makes you sure there really is a God, and he led us all the way. We had breakfast Saturday morning at eight and we were to leave at 9 AM. Following breakfast I went to the pharmacy as the pharmacist promised that all the medicines I had ordered would be ready. She had said the same on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday but I had faith that all the medicines would be there today and my faith was not displaced. Five boxes of medicines richer and $700 less wealthy, I returned to the hotel to pick up the rest of the group. It had rained quite a lot in the night and there was some concern about the state of the road we would have to take to get to Santa Martha. The main road was fine, but then we turned onto a dirt road, and I knew the rest of the trip would be an adventure. The road was wide and farms of sugar cane lined the path, but the road itself was a sea of mud. With four wheel drive we did quite well but our windshield was so muddy I could hardly see. When we approached a truck that was stuck I knew we were in trouble. The taxi that had led the way got stuck, but was able to get by the truck and the mud with the help of several of the men working with the truck. I thought I could get through on the other side of the road, but I got caught in a deep rut, and the mud in the middle, between the ruts was so high that it lifted the wheels up enough to be useless. With some cut tree branches, we were able to lever the truck backwards until we were able to dig a channel around the ruts to let me escape. I was able to get to the other side of the bad place and we finally got to our destination and set up our clinic in a school house. The man in charge of the school just happened to be there even on a Saturday. Perhaps he actually lives there. They did have electricity and we had a strong cell signal for the phone which I found both comforting and confusing. I don’t always get a good signal in the town of Montero. However, the cell phone wouldn’t work even though we had a great signal.

We all prayed there would be no more rain or we might have to spend the night here. Unannounced and unplanned, it came to me as no surprise that people began to congregate to be seen by the medical team. In less than one hour there were at least 100 people waiting. Numbers were passed out and the patients would be seen in numerical order. This technique had always worked before when we had so many people and it worked again. While patients waited, Martha, Michelle and Maria Eugenia did skits to entertain and educate them about God. My medicine would only work for a few days or weeks, but their message might help some for much longer. The first patient had scleroderma, as diagnosed by his fingers which had a very characteristic appearance. If had lived in a cold climate, he would have ulcers on the finger tips, so perhaps he is lucky to live here. There is no cure for this systemic disease that affects the esophagus as well as the skin. I asked him if he had trouble eating and he said he could not swallow well. That, however, was not the problem for which he came to the clinic. He was having symptoms compatible with the dengue. I didn’t bother to tell him about his real problem as there is nothing we could do for him whether he lived here in Bolivia or in Boston where he could go to one of the best hospitals in the world.

Many, if not all the children had parasites. The microscope worked well and the eggs of the ascaris worm were easy to see when the stool samples could be obtained. Most of the kids and their family had actually seen the worms and these children we treated without doing a stool test. Many of the children and adults were anemic. Some of this is nutritional, as there is little meat in the diet, but most is from chronic illness like parasites. One thing that did strike me was the lack of the creeping eruption that proved to be so common in the previous clinic we had. Now I had the medicine for that problem and there was none. Foot fungus was common but we had no medicine for that problem. It will disappear when the weather is dryer. There were the usual depressed people along with many that had stomach pains. Some probably had ulcers from being infected with helicobacter pylori, a bacteria that cause inflammation of the stomach and ulcers. It comes from poor sanitation which surely is the case here. We tried our best to treat these cases with two kinds of antibiotics in hope that the combination might clear the infection. Soon it was 2 PM and we had to leave, with many patients unseen, and many more were on the way to be seen. As it was, we had seen almost 75 patients. Whole families were seen, but few of the children were really sick. The mothers just wanted them to be seen. All had their blood pressure taken and the adults had a diabetes test. I was happy with the way we were able to take care of the patients, as Mary Yoder did the Blood pressure and some of the finger stick blood sugars, and Nancy Main learned how to do the blood sugars also. Outside the school room Martha, Michelle and Eugenia managed to keep the people happy. As we were leaving they brought us chicken and rice which we politely refused as we had another birthday party to attend. Most of my friends here have birthdays in March. I felt bad about leaving and not eating their gift, but I knew the food would not go to waste, and I wouldn’t take the chance of eating in this place knowing of all the patients with the stomach bacteria and the children with parasites. On the way back the car was pulling strongly to the right. As we arrived at the hotel, there was the strong smell of brakes. I hoped that the car would not need another mechanic to fix it again. The car was muddy from front to back and top to bottom.

Thankfully it had not rained any more and the road had dried sufficiently to make the return trip a lot less adventurous than the one going in. The birthday party was at an estate in Santa Cruz. A German family had come here in the seventies and stayed, becoming quite prosperous. The son had married the daughter of the Rotary vice-president and a good friend of mine and several of the group had actually stayed with them over the years. We had gone from one extreme to the other, which is not all that hard to do in Bolivia. It is not unusual to have a beautiful home right next to an adobe hut. We returned home ready to go to bed as this was a fun day but a hard one. Maybe soon our bones will stop shaking from the trip down that road.

Sunday was one of those special days. First we went to the church service at the Dios Es Amor. We were given the opportunity to speak to the congregation, interact with the church members and enjoy the sermon and songs. Since the time was growing short for the dental team, I took them to the foster home to see the boys and the grounds, and also eat lunch there. The house mother prepared us all chicken we brought and cooked bananas or plantain plus rice to complete the meal. They know that we don’t eat leafy greens here as they are impossible to clean adequately for the gringos stomachs. A few of the group went to Santa Cruz for a meeting but I returned to play with the kids. I love playing with my boys. We had a successful soccer practice and a good game. Then we played make up games in the playground. There are several areas where your imagination can invent new games. There is a place where old tires are buried half way in the ground separating the play area from the parking lot. That area in particular was the source of new games. My first real job in 1960 was being a playground leader and that experience has served me well here.

I had hoped to write in the journal before I forgot the interesting things that have happened today, but other things got in the way. Nancy and I had a long discussion about the micro-finance project and whether it would be a Bible based program or a business based one. The business based plan has worked before but the Bible based one, to my knowledge, has not been tried. We will decide on the path tomorrow when we meet for lunch. Since we gave to cook a night off, I have not seen her to tell her that she might expect an additional 15 to 20 people for lunch tomorrow. She has always taken this in stride before, but I hate to do this to her.

Soon it was time to go to the various churches for activities that had been planned. As we began to leave I noticed we had a flat tire. I had traveled about one half a block before noticing the characteristic noise of the tire. What next, I thought. Two tires in a week! We changed the tire in about half an hour, not being familiar with the jack and it was dark. We had to find a few bricks to elevate the jack enough to put on the spare tire. I thought how impossible this would have been if we had been in the mud yesterday when the tire went flat. The good news was that the brakes seemed fine after the mud was washed off. We still arrived at the first church before their bus that was supposed to leave a half hour earlier had left. This is typical Bolivia. God knew what would happen and we were on His timetable. We did our business there and went to a small Presbyterian church where Michelle was supposed to do some skits. The service was over, but there were still people there as we arrived. Those remaining were mainly deaf, mutes signing with one another. What a perfect place to do the skits that really need no words or explaining. They did have several hearing signers who translated the Spanish to signs as our translator changed the English to Spanish. It was quite an experience. Also I know what happens when there is more than one translation. I don’t know signing, but it was probably different from the message given in English. I had previously planned to leave to write in my journal and then come back, but I was glad I stayed. Here were all these people who could not hear or talk, but I have never seen so many happy people. I was enthralled by the enthusiasm of one man in particular. Also their children, all of whom seemed able to speak and hear, were some of the happiest children I have ever seen. These people had practically no possessions and then God seemed to have taken away even what little they had left, e.g. their senses, but they were happier than many people I  know who are blessed with much. I think this is the reason I like this place so much and why everyone else enjoys being here too. It is way past midnight as I write, but I don’t care. It was a great weekend!

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Monday, March 05, 2007

The weather has finally turned to hot! This is normal Bolivian weather. The 70’s and 80’s felt cool to those of us who know how hot it can get, but today was the first day of near 100 degrees and it felt it. This kind of heat can sap the strength from you. After breakfast I told Teresa the cook and owner of the Pinocho that we might have 12 more for lunch and, as always, she didn’t outwardly flinch. Inwardly she must have been thinking, “Oh, no! Not again, you crazy doctor.” The truck went to the shop to get the tire fixed, so Nancy and I went to the Etta Turner Center to see if the women there could come to lunch at such a late notice. The message I had left last week did get to them and they were happy to come as the micro-finance project is something that should be of interest to this group. They train and educate and this can be the conduit for beginning a business for the women. While there, Celso came with the truck. He does all the maintenance of the vehicle and does other odd jobs for me as well. He had a box made for the microscope yesterday so it would be less apt to get broken when we travel to the country. We took Michelle to the Dios Es Amor church for her scheduled work with the children, but there was a misunderstanding and her work here was to start next week. I suggested we go to the girl’s orphanage which is right down the street instead. Mary Yoder was born in Poland and left when she was five, but spoke Polish to her mother until she died in 1987. The nuns at the orphanage were all Polish many years ago, but now only a few are as the majority have returned to their homeland after the fall of communism. Mary was thrilled to be able to communicate in her mother tongue and Madre Christina was happy to respond. Michelle worked with the little children while Nancy and I went to the other Etta Turner Center (Number two) to see how many women would attend the lunch for the micro-finance organizational meeting. This place is very large with a lunch room able to feed 120 children, class rooms, and sewing and craft areas. It has been funded by the Etta Turner Foundation and also The Mother Teresa of Calcutta Foundation, a Spanish Foundation and an Italian one as well. On the way home we picked up Michelle and Mary and made it back to the hotel just in time for lunch. Exactly 12 persons came to the function which was the guess I had made in the morning not knowing for sure how many would attend. No one we invited didn’t come. The meeting went on for two hours and I suggested we think and pray over the project and return on Wednesday to further discuss the project. It will be interesting to see how many repeat persons we have in two days since this meeting went on so long and seemed to be confusing to the participants.

As the meeting was breaking up, a woman who had twins just a few days ago came in with the two children. The minister who brought the family to me was concerned because the umbilicus, the navel, looked funny to him and the children were so cold on Saturday. The mother took the children out of the cloth sack that all these Colla women have and many literally carry all their worldly goods in these sacks in addition to their babies. I always wanted to see how they carried the babies in these blankets. I was shocked to see that the babies were wrapped like two Egyptian mummies. The first wrap was a belt like strap about two inches thick followed by a second layer of thinner material that prohibited any arm or leg motion, and I am sure, didn’t allow for ample breathing. Then there were the clothes that were made of a thin cotton material. There were no diapers. The two precious babies were perfectly formed and totally healthy. The umbilical cords had fallen off and there were no hernias. I don’t know what the men saw that concerned them but they said that it looked different now. Perhaps they had never seen a baby with the cord still attached. I guess that could look scary if you had never seen it before. One of the babies had a very mild eye infection so I gave her a tube of eye ointment I had bought a few days ago, anticipating a need but I didn’t need it for that patient. The woman who had been nursing the little boy child stood up and was only about four feet tall. Now I know what Shaquelle O’Neal feels like when he looks down on the likes of people like me.

In the afternoon I went with the Rotarians to Saavedra to deliver the last 10 wheelchairs. The town square was one of the most beautiful I have seen, and the writing on the town hall across from where we were sitting noted that the founding date of the city was 1804, only 28 years after the founding of the United States. Many of the small pueblos here are more than 300 years old. Of the ten chairs, most were given to small children with apparent severe brain damage. These chairs will make caring for them much easier. The others were old stroke patients. The most amazing thing of the evening was a man with really severe scoliosis, curvature of the spine. He was waiting with all the other patients who received a chair, but in the end, he didn’t have one and he didn’t seem to be concerned. I asked a woman there who seemed to know everyone and she stated that he didn’t need one as he could walk around quite well. He obviously didn’t walk well, but he was ambulatory. I guess he felt fortunate to only have a partial disability. We took the last chair to the hospital. If you could get into this hospital, you didn’t need to be there, the path to the door was so bad. There was a pool of stinking still water next to the path. If one fell into this water, I am sure you would just die. They asked me if I could help them purchase an ambulance that they thought would cost about $7,000. I told them I would try to help next year. For a day in which I only had two meetings, it was a busy 24 hours.

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Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Today I awoke with no plans except to play tennis in the night. It turned out to be one of those days when it is obvious that God is really in control. This kind of day is common here. We tend to take control of our lives at home as we are very busy and have schedules for every minute of our lives, fooling ourselves that we are in control. We often get angry when we have changes in our schedule, instead of accepting that God is trying to get our attention for His schedule. I went to the plaza with Jamie who is doing research for her thesis on the shoe shine boys. Since the boys that she knew had the creeping eruption were not there, I went to visit my friend The Camba Florencio, the local historian and story teller, who is the head of the cultural center, right on the plaza. We have much in common as he had a heart attack one week before mine (the third anniversary is tomorrow) and was the first patient to receive clot busters here. I was the second. He has stopped smoking and received my congratulations for that. After exchanging niceties, he told me of the drug and alcohol problems in the youth that often come to the plaza. Some of these youngsters are the ones with whom Jamie is working. He asked for a projector to give programs in the schools and the plaza and I said I would donate a projector if he personally made the video and didn’t use some off the shelf video that wouldn’t mean as much to the students and children as one that he was in. He is a very good communicator. Good story tellers are rare and he is one of the best. He is even immortalized in the mural in the plaza outside his office.

I went to the foster home and started to work with Pablo, the youngest of the three boys I am teaching the lathe project to, and the best. The president of Rotary came to look at the road and determine how many loads of gravel we needed for the road entering the foster home. I left Pablo alone to visit the gravel supplier where we did our business and returned to find that Pablo had done a fine job. I was not surprised. I returned for lunch and Martha made a request. She needed a projector for the movie she wanted to show the next night as Fred was using the one I brought several years ago to do some lectures in Santa Cruz. I feigned that this could not be obtained on such short notice, but a few moments later I told her that I was going to buy another one, but I needed to go to Santa Cruz for such a purchase. Shortly later, Pancho called and asked me if I wanted to go to Santa Cruz with Herman and him in the late afternoon. I gladly said yes, and called to terminate my tennis date.

We left at 4 PM which was early to go to Santa Cruz, but it soon became apparent that Herman had a lot of business to do before we would come home. We went all over this confusing city from one place to another until I had concerns that the electronic shops would be closed. Suddenly we were in the middle of the city and found a parking spot right in front of the electronics store. I had brought $1000 in cash as I thought that would be sufficient to purchase the projector, but I was $200 short. Across the street were three ATM’s. The first took my card but wouldn’t complete the transaction, while the second wouldn’t even accept the card. The third, however, gave me the money I needed. After completing the business at hand, the clerk left and brought out another machine that was more powerful for the same price. Herman had told the clerk that the projector was for mission work and apparently he thought a better projector for the same price was a good idea. God working again.

Finally we went to another fraternity in Santa Cruz. Now these members are the real movers and shakers in this place. My favorite singer in Bolivia, Aldo Pena, is a member, and there are generals in membership along with wealthy businessmen. I gave them the cork screw that Pablo had just made and they were all amazed, and seemed anxious to purchase some of the items at US prices, $25 for each one. I will have Pancho bring a few samples when he comes to the fraternity the next time. I was amazed that most of the members remembered my name while I, as usual, only remembered a few, which is actually good for me. These are good men, but I have never seen so many men talk as much as these fellows do. Communication is much further advanced here, approaching an art, as compared to the US. Any of these men could give a speech better than several well known politicians in our country.

We had a safe journey back to Montero with my projector in hand. I know that good things are going to result as a result of this machine.

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Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Today I went to the hospital to bring some items that the groups have brought. This was combined with medical rounds to see patients again. As before, the epidemic of dengue has brought five more patients into the hospital. Most of the people who get this malady never need to be admitted, as this disease seems milder than the form of the disease I am used to seeing. I am sure some of these patients have something else other than dengue but who knows. They all seem to be getting better. One good sign that a patient is ready for discharge is when you see the patient carrying their IV pole down the hall. Interestingly, they put mosquito nets over only these patients to keep the mosquitoes from biting them and spreading the virus to others. Actually, I have seen very few mosquitoes this year. However, many of my friends, who are in the upper class and their family members and their household employees, have had the dengue and I don’t know where they are being exposed. This disease can be serious and even cause death in rare cases.

I distributed the goods to surgery, the labor room and the medical wards. The intensive care unit is to be reopened again today but the staff has yet to be paid. In April, they will receive their salary for January. They will continue to be four months behind until the government has more money whenever that day will come. I can’t imagine American doctors and nurses working under these circumstances. I went back to the foster home to continue the pen project. Two of the boys who worked together before did a good job finishing three projects. These are the two 14 year old boys that are rivals in the home. My goal for them is to work together better. Competition can be a good thing and they did get along fine today. There is no real competition with the pen project. I returned in the afternoon hoping to see the road improved but the stones we bought were still had not been delivered. By the time they arrive the rainy season will probably be over. We are having mild showers daily which keeps the dust down but even these small rains make the roads to the foster home very difficult and dangerous. Due to the recent scraping of the road, the camber is so great that it is easy to slip into the newly created ditches. On the road by the drainage canal, that could easily be fatal, either at that time or later from serious infectious diseases. I don’t even like to look at the septic looking brew in the canal let alone falling into it.

Dr. Rodenbeck went to Santa Cruz to teach dental techniques while the rest of us went to a showing of “The Hiding Place,” shown by Martha Rodenbeck at 8 PM. This was just after the second meeting of the micro-finance meeting. We scheduled the meeting at 6PM and no one was there but our group. I thought of the parable of the seeds, and I thought our seeds had fallen on the path of stones. However, at 6:30 both of the groups we had focused upon began to arrive, much to my relief. The program will probably work with a group from Santa Cruz who is coming to Montero this spring. They do education and have had success in other areas and, probably more importantly, they have much more money available. They work in groups of at least 15 women, their loans are short term, three to eight months, and they usually give only up to $2000 for the first loan to the whole group. If the group is successful, they can apply for larger loans. Since they have the experience and the money I thought we could help our two groups be more likely to prosper by giving our money to the two groups to help lower the interest rates (that can be as high as 30%). In spite of the high interest rates, over 90% of the loans are repaid on time. We will have another meeting Monday night. I think we were all quite tired with the heat and the work schedule. Nancy Main went to Santa Cruz in the morning to talk to the Bank, Pro-Mujer, the micro-finance organization, and her daughter has made herself busy at the local schools and orphanages. Mary Yoder will go to Santa Cruz for the first time tomorrow as Fred is gone for the next two days. This is a “mature” group of missionaries, meaning that they have been here many times. I don’t have to spend my time taking care of them. They know what they want to do which makes my job easier.

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Thursday, March 08, 2007

I went to the foster home in the morning as I had hoped to spend more time with the boys this year. This was the first time I was able to be there for more than a two hours and the extra time plus the experience the boys have gained making pens is beginning to show. My next plan is for one of the boys to show another how to make the pens. After lunch I went back to the home just in time to find the boys slogging through the mud. The house father had slid into the side of the road as I had predicted would happen to someone a few days ago in the journal. There were only two fifteen minute rains today but the road was nearly impassible even with four wheel drive. The mud forms over the harder almost brick-like dry mud making it like trying to walk or drive on jell-o. I turned around and took the boys to school and returned to get Pedro and take him to buy a steel pipe for the tether ball court. Later, when the mud had dried, we would try to extricate the truck. The students from Ole Miss can “plant” this pole when they come on Sunday. They usually like to go somewhere special, like the jungle or historical places, but they have little time this year and the rain has made travel nearly impossible. Unlike Tuesday, when everything seemed to go smoothly, today was just the opposite. Pedro and I ran over a board with nails in it and had to go to another tire shop to have it repaired. About ten motorcycles came in with flat tires while we were there, so I am not alone. Still, this is the third flat I have had in about ten days. They must be throwing out nails on the road to improve business. I was to meet Herman to check out the truck for the trip tomorrow to fish and when we finally got together, he decided buying the pole and related material would be more important. We bought the pole which had to be cut in half. The man who cut the pipe really didn’t know how replace the saw blade in the hack saw. With our help, he was able to complete the job and we went to the hardware store to purchase the eye bolt with which to attach the rope. There were none to be found. Here, you buy rings and have them welded to a bolt. We did find a “come along” apparatus that had an eye bolt in it. But the threads were left handed, so we couldn’t find a nut to fit on the bolt. We decided we could cut off the end of the “come along” bolt and use it for the nut. At the carpentry shop we drilled the hole in the pipe with the drill press. If we had not had the drill press we would still be there drilling. The drill bits here are not good. The eyebolt fit in the hole and the cut off end of the “come along” worked perfectly. We covered the sharp edges with epoxy and this part of the job was finished when the carpenters made a filial out of wood on the lathe to keep out the rain that would eventually fill the tube and rust it out. This was a lot of work for a little bit of benefit but the kids will love this apparatus, especially because the ball will always be there. The foster home parents have a habit of hiding the balls and other equipment for reasons I don’t understand. Perhaps they are worried that they might get lost, stolen or worn out, but that is the case everywhere.

In the evening, I attended Rotary where they celebrated the first of my birthday parties along with other business. I would be happy if this were the last party as well. Because I have to get up at 4:30AM to go fishing, I left fairly early to go to bed, but it was still 11PM.

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Friday, March 09, 2007

Afraid my alarm clock wouldn’t go off, I slept poorly and arose at 4:30 calling my friends to be sure they were awake. Herman answered on the first ring and Pancho called me before I could call him. It seemed to be a good start to what I knew would be a long day. Pancho is the sub-prefect of this area and the trip is part of an official visit on his part. He told me to bring the medicines as he wanted me to see some patients in the small town we were to visit; therefore, I brought the medicines and the microscope. This kind of laboratory equipment is basic even in a country like this. Even though I was with three locals who knew the roads, I drove the first leg of the journey in the dark. Basically we went north east from Montero. The sky began to lighten to my right which made me feel good as the roads are poorly lined with paint so the limits of the pavement are difficult to see. It became a beautiful day as the sunrise painted the sky with hues of red, pink, grey and blue. After about 100 Km, the asphalt ended and the dirt road began. It hadn’t rained here for a while making the road very dusty. Initially, this was no problem as we were the only car on the road. We passed several small towns where the plazas were occupied by pitched tents housing people whose homes had been destroyed by the floods. They were cooking their breakfasts over wood fires and gas stoves. Soon the traffic became worse as this is the harvest season for Soya beans. We passed large slowly rambling trucks carefully through the dust that was as thick as a dense fog. When a truck heavily laden with beans would pass in the other direction, we had to close the windows to prevent the dust from coming in the windows. Suddenly, it began to rain. It seemed only to be a small cloud over us but it had rained a lot in this place. The dust disappeared and was replaced by mud. With the heavy trucks using the road, several low areas became oceans of mud again. There had been a lot of work on this road recently as evidenced by the newly formed mounds of dirt at the edge of the road. This actually trapped the water at the sides of the road making driving at the edges of the road impossible, but necessary when two large trucks passed. Before long we encountered a huge line of trucks. Ahead, two trucks were stuck on opposite sides of the path creating a very difficult situation. There was no way to even get a large tractor in to extricate the large trucks. Fortunately for us this blockade happened in a small town and there was a private elevated narrow tract of land where we were able to pass the bottleneck. Since all the trucks were in this mess, there was practically no traffic for the rest of the journey. My main concern was whether this mess would be cleared by the time we returned. Obviously this was a very selfish thought, but I have to admit it went through my mind. The commerce of the whole region depends on this road being functional.

Acres of crops were ruined by water that still remained after the rains had stopped their daily deluge several weeks ago. Where the water was deepest, the road would be muddy even after the recent improvements had been made. As far as the eye could see there were crops of corn, Soya and sugar cane. We finally came to a small town called Colonia Piray. The river Piray actually comes very close to Montero, but, of course, the fishing is always better only after a long trip. It was about 8:30 when we arrived in the town and soon the sub-prefect had assembled the mayor of the town who just happened to be about 4’ 6” tall, chewing coca leaves from a small green plastic bag and a group of other town officials. The mayor removed the central vein of the coca leaves before he put them in his mouth, a practice I have never seen before. We visited the hospital which was poorly equipped, which was no surprise. I set up the microscope which needed to be reassembled as the journey had caused many of the lenses to come loose despite the new box. I put many of the medicines out in the small exam room, and the sub-prefect opened a box of medicine that had been donated to this hospital. The lab didn’t have a microscope which was hard to believe as this is essential to practice the basic type of medicine needed in a small town like this. It was soon apparent that the microscope had found a new home. I had planned to use it until I returned home at the remote clinics I wanted to set up, but then I had no idea where it would be donated after that. I had nearly $500 worth of medicine with me and I knew I would need much of it on Monday; therefore, I gave only some of it to the hospital although I can easily purchase more when I get back to Montero. Several photos were made and they were very excited to get the scope. What an amazing set of circumstances that had to take place for this scope to end up here, exactly where God wanted it to be. I was to return to the hospital at 4PM after fishing to see a few patients in consultation.

We were looking for a boat and a motor. No one here seemed to know of anyone who had one of these. I am used to going on adventures here that are usually, by the nature of the place, mostly unplanned. We were “given” a guide who would take us to our first destination where we might find a boat. I thought this would be a fairly short trip, but we drove for miles on private dirt roads through fields of neatly tended crops, finally reaching a grand plantation that reminded me of the Edna Ferber book, “Giant.” Right in the middle of this 60,000 acre farm of Soya and sugar cane was a beautiful house. There were no electrical lines so they ran a generator 24 hours a day. The tanks of diesel were larger than those at most gas stations. I can’t imagine what it cost to fill them. We sat down with the owner’s wife and a maid came with refreshments as we talked. Nothing happens quickly here. There is a culture of trust and benevolence here unknown in our country anymore. The woman said she had a battery and two paddles but a neighbor had a boat. About the time we were to depart for the next leg of the journey, her husband and son appeared and we began the process over again. It was 12:30 in the afternoon by the time we left, and she invited us to dinner when we returned to have a roasted pig. I felt like the prodigal son and she didn’t know any of us! We arrived at the adjacent farm which took almost an hour to reach. The private roads were well maintained as they were the life line of the farms and not much traveled. The owner of the former estate apparently had sent a message by a radio as we were greeted by several employees who knew what we were seeking. The motor was quickly placed in the truck and off we went with two more employees to guide us. We came to a small canal where the boat was tied up, and I expected us to all get in and go off to fish. One of the men lent to our group went off in the boat to meet us in another location as we left to go to the rendezvous. We waited there almost two hours for our boat. I wondered how far the boat would have to travel, thinking that we had gone the long way by land.  Finally at 3PM he came around the corner of the canal and we were off in two boats having by now collected four workers from the two estates. This is the harvest time of the year and the owners gave us their workers for the day to help show the strangers a good time. The motor had not been working well, which was the reason it took so long for the boat to arrive and now it had to tow another boat. We hadn’t gone far before the motor stopped altogether. “Another adventure,” I thought, but in a more remote location that ever before. It was apparent I would not be seeing any patients this day and, since we are nearing the fall equinox on this side of the equator, I knew that the sun would go down at about 6:30 as it arose at 6. The boatman was sucking gas out of the fuel tube that was stuck in a plastic gas container with his mouth and blowing the liquid into the engine. “No wonder it didn’t work,” I thought to myself. Finally our guide jumped into the other boat and removed the gas filter, removed the water and the dirt from the filter and reconnected it to the engine. The motor ran well from that time until we left. Soon we were leaving the dry land behind coursing through the wetlands that were normally dry land. Monkeys and birds of all kinds were everywhere. The most common bird I could recognize is a parrot. This bird comes in two sizes here and they seem to travel together. Hearing the chatter and the experience of seeing these animals one usually sees in a zoo was wonderful. Soon we were at the Rio Grande. The river is always murky with soil but the mixing of clearer water from the wetlands and the mainstream muddy water caused visible eddies to form creating interesting patterns of red and brown colors. Pancho caught a small fish immediately, and I thought our luck had changed having caught few fish in my many years in Bolivia. Unfortunately, the rest of the day was practically fishless. I had a few bites but all the nibbles came up empty. We did catch a skate like fish that our guide was frightened to touch as there was a possibility of a poison sting. At least that was interesting. It was the same color as the muddy water, and this fish would have been invisible lying on the bottom of the river.

Suddenly the wind came up at about 30 miles an hour as a harbinger of the rain that soon followed. There were two short but furious showers.  As the daylight dwindled down to the last half hour we headed back to our rendezvous spot just in time to see flock after flock of parrots fly over our heads. The fishing was not good but the sights and sounds were excellent. I was worried, however, about the state of the roads because of the rain, but the private roads were more covered with grass and not that muddy and certainly less traveled than the main roads. The sun set quickly and in the headlights were sights to be seen. As we hurried between the fields of sugar cane, millions of insects had come out along with bats and thousands of owls. The owls would sit in the road, their eyes reflecting the light from the headlights and suddenly would fly away at the last moment. I can’t believe we didn’t kill a few, but there were no telltale feathers in the grill when we stopped. I am sure I saw more owls this night than in the rest of my life combined. Overhead were flocks of ducks heading home to roost. I had seen more ducks before in the outer banks of North Carolina, but they were so dense they looked like clouds in the darkening sky. Soon I heard the flop, flop, flop sound of another flat tire. This noise had become all too common a sound in the last two weeks. The flat tire was the new tire I had just bought. With all the help we had, we changed the tire quickly and reached our first destination, reversing our course. This time there was little time wasted in returning the borrowed goods. The typical farewells were made and we eventually arrived in the town of Colonia Piray again, giving our regrets to the doctor for missing our appointments.

The town dignitaries and the hospital staff had arranged dinner for us of the fish we caught along with duck and chicken. This we ate as the tire was repaired. The new tire had an old inner tube with a bad patch job. The patch had come loose with all the bumpy roads. The spare was a bad tire but we didn’t want to spend the time changing it.

Since my birthday was close at hand, it was celebrated with greetings and blessings (plus the thanks for the microscope) with beer, hugs and confetti of all colors. This was a very friendly place. As we went to pick up the truck at about 10:30PM, I passed a group of children playing games in the street. Whenever a car would stop, they would run around the car several times, their bright white teeth reflecting the car lights through their smiles. The sound of laughter drowned out the poverty of this place. There were no TV’s or computer games to ruin the simplicity of their lives.

Off we went again after leaving this town of about 2500 people until we had another flat tire at 12:30 AM, this being the same old spare tire I was worried about. Surrounded by barking dogs, we changed the tire quickly as we were very experienced by this time. There were no places open at this hour to repair the spare so we finished the trip on faith. The place where the trucks were stuck was hard to determine as there were several areas that were quagmires of mud along the way, but the trucks were long gone. The half moon lit the sky and in the farthest reach of the heavens, in the east and west, flashes of lightning indicated localized showers. Fortunately, there was no rain near us. The cool temperature in the night was a blessing but also a harbinger of showers that would surely come later. Overhead of us now was a spectacular display of stars, and a line of planets from one horizon to the other. The Milky Way was as bright as I have ever seen it as there was no artificial light nearby and the dust had been cleared by the rain. The Southern Cross, only visible on this side of the equator, was showing the way south. We finally arrived in Montero at 2AM. Twenty two hours of excitement all stuffed into one day and now the prospect of several parties tomorrow for my birthday caused me to be even more tired. I have regretted all invitations except for the one at the foster home, but I know there will be more as the day progresses. I think I would rather rest the way I feel now.

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Saturday, March 10, 2007

Fred, Mary and Eugenia left this morning. I got up and sent them off in Dardo’s truck. As predicted, the rain had come in as a soft shower. This would not last long, but the prospect of getting into the foster home for my birthday party, especially if there were many cars, was daunting. I went back to bed for another hour of sleep and took Martha, Nancy and Michelle to the home where we played with the children. I had Pablo show Martha how the pens were made and she bought one for her father whose name is Paul, “Pablo”, in English. She took pictures of the whole process to present with the pen so her father would know it was made just for him. With four wheel drive the trip in was not that bad for us as we were the first to come, but the others had made quite a sea of mud by the time we left.

The party was special as the boys did two dances followed by our dancing in a kind of square dance followed by a snake dance. A young boy of 12 sang for us. He has been singing for years and has even made a CD. I think he could easily do well in American Idol if he were to come to the US. He is handsome, had good stage presence, and he sings like a professional, which I guess he already is. We were well fed, as usual, and then the cake was presented. While taking a bite from the cake, which is a tradition, a person pushed my face into the cake, which is also traditional. I had removed my glasses before this happened taking a lesson from the past when this happened. Later I took the boys out to play football, doing a little practice before the game to let the food settle. Michelle Main, who is 21, played with the boys and did a good job of keeping up. She is remarkable in many ways. She also sings and has a heart of gold. After a while the heat got to me so I took Pablo and Freddy to the work shop to see if Pablo could teach Freddy the technique. Unfortunately, Pablo may be a good maker of pens, but he is not a good teacher, at least not yet. He hardly spoke a word to Freddy. I was disappointed as the boys teaching the other boys is the only way they will all learn the skill. Pablo is younger than Freddy and that may have been part of the problem. Despite the teaching deficit, the pen turned out good until the last step when the tube was bent. I was able to salvage the pen for use but not for sale, which was too bad as it was pretty good before the “accident.” It had gotten so hot that the safety glasses fogged up making it difficult to see. There is always a problem here with something. This is Bolivia!

A series of calls, visits and invitations followed in the afternoon, but I was able to rest and regret the invitations. Everyone is so kind and wants to be friendly and helpful, but a nice day of rest might be the best birthday present for which anyone could ever wish. For dinner, Martha Rodenbeck made soup to give Teresa, our cook and owner of the Pinocho, a rest. We had two cakes that were given during the course of the day and no one pushed my face into either one. Thank goodness! I took the group to a church to show the movie, “The Hiding Place,” again, and then I wrote the journal the rest of the night as I didn’t want to forget the sights, smells, and thoughts from today and the day before.

The University of Mississippi group comes tomorrow and another adventure is planned for our group at the foster home. It is raining again. This could be one of those all night showers which would really make the roads very bad again.

Sunday, March 11, 2007

I hate to be right about the weather but it rained the whole night. I am preparing to go to the airport to pick up the Ole Miss group and I hope they are able to fly in. The rain is not heavy right now, but it is persistent. I think I will have the Rotarians from Washington return as it didn’t rain the whole time they were here.

The rain stopped just as the flight from Miami arrived. I waited with the driver of the bus, but the group did not arrive. They had sent an e-mail at 8:45 last night that they had missed the flight. I had checked my email at 8PM. Oh, well! They apparently had tried to call me on the cell phone, as the group leader had kept my card from last year; however, if a cell phone is not used here for six months, the number becomes inactive. I have a new number which I had e-mailed to them. Unfortunately, they thought it was the same number and didn’t write it down. A comedy of errors. They will come tomorrow, but their time here, as short as it was to be, will now be a day shorter.

I have begun to feel pain in my joints and a mild nausea has developed. I think I will now begin to pay for eating in the campo two days ago. I had not eaten breakfast, leaving at 4 AM, and lunch passed us by. By the time we ate dinner at almost 11PM, I was really hungry. Gringo stomachs are not as strong as Bolivian ones.

I did feel well enough to play tennis in the evening but went to sleep immediately upon returning home. Perhaps the good Lord knew I was getting sick and gave me a day of rest.

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Monday, March 12, 2007

At 4AM the tourista hit me with vengeance. I refuse to vomit, but I felt like I would feel better if I did. I had to go to the airport at 8AM and as soon as I arrived the group from Mississippi came out of the building. The driver of the bus that I had hired yesterday had not arrived. I had left a message on his cell phone and I had tried to call him all morning, but his phone wouldn’t answer. Thankfully, another driver asked if he could drive the group to Montero, but his price was double the usual fare. We waited another fifteen minutes to see if our driver would arrive and finally used the new driver. The Ole Miss group had breakfast as I went to the clinic to set up. I had planned to do that yesterday but really didn’t feel up to it. I wish I had as I fell worse now. I paid a few bills and returned for a nap. I almost never take a nap, even at siesta, trying to cram as much as I can into 24 hours, but it felt good to take one today. With nothing planned other than my clinic, we all went to the Cruz Roja where we painted, grouted tile and saw a few patients. Only six came in over the two and a half hours due to all the rain yesterday and the day before. The students were covered by paint at the end of the work day, but they seemed to be having a good time by the laughter I could hear. They really accomplished a lot. As for me, I was so tired I could hardly work. I was having trouble understanding the patients which is not usually a problem for me. I thought I had forgotten all my Spanish. When I got back to the Pinocho I checked my blood pressure and it was only 89/51, which is really low. I had a bite to eat and retired to bed at 8PM and slept until dawn.

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Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Physically, I feel back to normal but my stomach is still a bit under the weather. My-Linh Ngo, one of the two leaders of the Mississippi group has organized the twelve students into three groups. This morning, one will go to the children’s hospital, another to the general hospital and the other will come with me and go to the boy’s home. Yesterday, before lunch, I had taken a few of the women from the group to see where the children’s hospital was (only two blocks from the Pinocho) and to bring a nebulizer for the asthmatics. The director of the hospital, Dr. Torico would be expecting the students this morning. Dr. Patzi arrived at 8 AM to take his group to the general hospital and I took my group to the boy’s home. Margaret Hines, the other leader, was already feeling sick. It is a bit unusual to get sick this early into the trip unless she brought her infection with her. If that is the case, she should be feeling better soon as our bugs seem to be more tame than the ones caught here.

The Mississippi group is an interesting collection of honor students and includes four that have been here before. There is a young woman from Bangladesh and one whose family recently came from India. One girl actually lived as a child in Santa Cruz, but doesn’t remember much about her life here. One of the men knows the son of the owner of the import company we have used in Santa Cruz. It is, indeed, a small world.

We had a grand time at the hogar for the boys. We began to play football, but the grass was too wet and everyone was falling, especially the students who were taking the game way too seriously despite the fact that the boys were beating them. We decided to “plant” the metal pole we were going to do on Sunday for the tether ball. I was surprised to find that the water line was not right under the surface as there was standing water only a few meters away from where we were digging. We plumbed the pole and filled the hole with cement. There was nothing to do except wait a few days for the cement to cure and we could finish the job and begin to play tether ball. While we were sitting around, each student had accumulated a few of the boys and was playing all sorts of made up games. I wonder which of these games will be played by the boys when we leave. Soon the soccer match was resumed as the field had dried and the boys were still beating the Ole Miss team. I took two of the best players to the carpentry shop to make pens and I am sure the game was more equal. Nestor, the oldest boy, can now do everything that is necessary to construct the pens. Now all he needs to do is do everything in the right order and with the right kits. There are three models of pens and two other projects, cork screws and letter openers. The last two are simple but the pens are more complicated. I have not introduced the most complicated model to the boys yet. That will be done when they show proficiency with the first two types. After what seemed to be a very long time, the energy level of the Ole Miss group began to wane. None had used sun screen despite my warnings, and a few were already showing the effects of the sun. These students were used to the sun in Mississippi, but this sun is fiercer, even with the cloudy sky. I hope they will be all right.

After lunch groups went to the little girl’s orphanage, the maternity ward and the medical clinic at the Cruz Roja with me. There were few patients again which is very surprising to me but those we did see were interesting. One had received an injection in her hip at a private doctor’s office that was clearly given in the wrong place. Perhaps, fortunately, it was given into the fat and not into the muscle, where it is supposed to be given, or it may have injured the sciatic nerve. The unfortunate aspect was that it formed a tender, hard and hot nodule about as big as a plum. It did not feel like it had pus or fluid in it. I treated her with antibiotics and ibuprofen and asked her to return in two weeks. I will operate on her then if it is still the same or larger. I brought equipment to do minor surgery this year so I hope to do some. Our students went from the clinic to the painting of the offices above. With no more patients I felt our time would be better spent at the orphanage. We stopped by the building project and the footers were almost finished. I told the head worker that he could expect a few more volunteers tomorrow morning. Unfortunately, building the foundation is the hardest part of the work. We spent about an hour at the little girl’s orphanage where we are always welcomed and we are glad to be there to share our love. Despite all the attention the girls get from the nuns and volunteers, the girls seem starved for affection. It is always a difficult task to leave as the children don’t want us to leave and we don’t want to go either. Those who were at the hospital got to see a Caesarean section and one delivery but the maternity ward was slow this day. The last time I visited the labor suite, every bed was occupied and there were women in labor in the halls. That is the way it is in obstetrics.

At 8PM I went to play tennis and the students went to the opening night of Expo Norte, a county fair like event. The first night is not well attended as many of the attractions are still setting up. I will go on Friday and Saturday when my wife arrives. The tennis was not good. In ten minutes my clothes were soaked with sweat. The humidity was so high that small droplets of rain fell the whole time without clouds in the sky. By the end of the second set I was ready for bed. Perhaps I am not completely over my illness. Still, I feel I am pacing myself better than in years past where I tried to do something every minute of every day. Also, since my heart attack here three years ago, there are less people trying to ask me for more help. I don’t feel pulled in four directions at once all the time.

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Wednesday, March 14, 2007

One group of students went to the building project today. They didn’t accomplish as much as they could have due to a lack of trowels and gloves. The gloves are still in my room and we forgot them again. I must have bought at least 100 trowels in the nine years we have been building, but none are still in my possession. They cost about one dollar and tomorrow we will purchase a few more. The foundation work is always slow and difficult as you are always in a hole. Needing to take care not to push dirt into the hole and trying to avoid the string lines makes it all the more hard. By the time they left, the builders were ready to pour a layer of cement reinforced with steel for the foundation. This is the first time I have seen this done in all our building projects as normally the foundation is done with bricks and mortar. This foundation will certainly be stronger but also more expensive. The students at the hospital got to examine pregnant women for cervical dilation but saw no deliveries. I guess all the babies were born last week. The other group went to the children’s hospital and got to watch one of the doctors do exams on the children and see a lot of sick babies. When the water rises up, sanitation is poor (it is bad in the best of times) and the children get pneumonia and diarrhea illnesses of all kinds. There is a separate ward for both illnesses and another for children with noninfectious problems. I remember that the hospital in Cincinnati where I trained was set up in a similar fashion with a different building for all infectious diseases in an attempt to prevent infections from affecting patients that were not infected. If the nurses don’t wash their hands after being in one room before they go to the next, separating the children will not help. Also several of these children have different types of infections causing the same problem such as diarrhea and these will be spread to the other children. No wonder the children have trouble getting well.

I went to the clinic alone as the population of patients was so low I thought the students could better spend their time doing something else. Naturally, I was busier, but still only ten patients were seen all total. Most had diabetes, in fact, they all did. I had seen many of these patients in years past and they all stopped their medicine when they felt better or ran out of money. I think one of the reasons we are seeing less patients, in all the dental, pediatric and medical clinics as well as the general hospital is that the economy is so bad. The people just can’t afford to go to the doctor or afford a taxi to come to the clinic. I provide most of the medicine for free, but I can’t give enough diabetes medicine for all these people for a year even though it would only cost about $12 to $50 each.

This afternoon we are taking our trip to Santa Cruz to see the big city, buy souvenirs and go to dinner. The weather is cool and cloudy but no rain yet. It promises to be a good evening.

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Thursday, March 15, 2007

Last night did prove to be a good evening. The students were given a choice of their restaurant and almost as a joke I mentioned the Suiza Restaurant where exotic meats are served. This is the most expensive restaurant I know in Santa Cruz. They decided to go there and I said I would take them if they paid their share. This would amount to $15 per person, or approximately three times the usual restaurant price. (Try that in Highlands) The Pinocho called and made the reservation at 7:30 PM and I was not surprised to find that they were able to accommodate us with such little advance notice, as most people here don’t eat until 10PM. We set out after lunch and went to my favorite shop, the Artecampo. The goods here are made by artisans in the campo all over Bolivia and the artisans get an honest pay for their goods. The things here are not souvenirs but well made goods from hammocks to wooden articles. At first the students didn’t seem to want to buy anything and I felt badly that I had told the bus driver to return in 40 minutes. I bought a few things for the auction and then, I think, the students realized how inexpensive all these wonderful things really were. Soon, the cashier was busy with their purchases and we left 20 minutes late. The next stop was the plaza. The bus cannot go there due to traffic rules so we were dropped off about three blocks away and we walked there. I left them alone and just sat and watched the people in and about the plaza. I am a people watcher and this was a nice experience for me. I usually have to take people to all the shops and I don’t get a chance to relax but this group has a number of people that have been here before and they knew where to go. We met up with the driver and drove to the restaurant. As expected, we were the first to arrive. This restaurant glistened with the reflection of light from the wine glasses neatly placed on each table which were all set with care for the evening’s guests. We has a table of 16 to accommodate a friend of Jim Delancy who he had met on a vacation in Mexico and is the son of the owner of the import company we use, and Maribelle, a student I have known since she was 12 when she was an orphan in the little girl’s hogar. As we were entering the city in our bus, I saw her getting on a public bus. She is one of a very few people that I would recognize in this city of more than one million inhabitants. Due to street repairs our two buses stopped adjacent to one another and I waved at her. She suddenly recognized me and jumped out of the bus and joined us. I invited her to dinner and she accepted, meeting us there at the restaurant after her English class. The meal was wonderful with excellent service and the food, as expected, was first class. None of these students drinks alcohol much and the two bottles of wine I had ordered still had a little in reserve as we left. The bill came to 1,700 Bolivianos or about $13 each for the dining experience. This group talked the whole night and really enjoyed the meal, including the decadent desserts. It is good to have a group where all the people get along as well as this group does. As diverse as this group is, they seem to love one another. That is very good.

I awoke to send off Michelle Main whose presence here has been a blessing for many and for Michelle and me as well. Even when she was sick she smiled and looked beautiful. She is a very pretty young lady and I use the term “lady” in all the purest sense of the word. Her mother is staying a week longer to finish the micro-finance project.

Yesterday I had an epiphany that I know came from God. We were to supply Bibles to the deaf mute church and spent the rest of the money we had to build houses to buy tarps for the homeless. All the relief societies have run out of money here and it is better to house many, if only for a short while, than to house one or two families for a long time. I will figure out how much money we have available and give it to an organization that has been staying in the Pinocho. Everyone that I have talked to about this change in direction of the money seems to agree. It has begun to rain again this morning and it looks like one of those days where it will rain all day. We couldn’t build anything today if we wanted to do so.

The rain did slack off enough for the students to finish the brick part of the foundation and lay the steel forms they made yesterday before the rain came. I picked them up just as the downpour began. I hope the concrete they poured will not be washed away. That actually happened the first year we built houses. I remember George Schmitt being so wet and angry and covered with mud. Then, four hours of work was literally washed away. This rain is not as fierce but the last thing we need is more rain.

The clinic was busier, but it was the same type of patient. I bought all these antibiotics and antiparasite medicines and I am not using them. I think I will go out to the campo and treat the people who have no access to medical care. Those are the people who really need the attention and the type of medicine that I bought. I had meetings at 4PM and another at 5PM. The clinic ended early due to the rain to accommodate my schedule. Several ministers came from Beni, the district to the north where the flooding is so bad. I had worked with one of them when he was in Montero several years ago. Beni is an area that is lower and the water there runs into the Amazon. They were asking for help for the people who have lost their homes. I had planned to send $10,000 of our money that we diverted from less needy projects to house people who have nothing left in Minero and Chane’. I thought we could buy tarps to use as temporary shelter in those towns that are nearby Montero and I had seen the tent cities on my journey to the Rio Grande last week. These pastors said that they are actually taking the tarps from the area that they service  and sending them to more remote areas of Beni where the flooding is much worse. Therefore, we are going to give some money to a church organization that is collecting money to build basic shelters for the poor that have lost their homes in the flood near Montero and some to these pastors for flood relief in Beni. Unfortunately the people in the most remote areas of Beni will have to wait for the water to subside before they can be helped. They will have a problem for many years, similar to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast after Katrina.

I have almost run out of clothes for the second time this year due to the constant rain. They have a dryer here at the Pinocho but they apparently don’t like to use it due to the cost of electricity. I was down to one pair of socks and no clean pants once. I am not that desperate yet but I am getting close. Usually the laundry service is so good that I don’t need to bring many clothes, allowing me to bring more supplies. I may have to purchase a few more pairs of underwear if the rain doesn’t stop.

Rotary was interesting tonight. We got there on time as the students were all ready before 8PM. I must have been upset with them for being late all the time. For Rotary meetings, you can be late. We were the only people there until past 8:30 and then the gringos still had a majority over the members due to the Exponorte. Many of these influential men and women had engagements at the fair to give and receive awards. The meal was a typical Camba dinner, served in pottery. It looked as good as the food tasted. There was rice and dried beef, tripe, tongue, chicken, potatoes and yucca. They prepared this especially for our students. The club here really tries to make all the groups feel special. After the meeting I thought the students would want to go to the fair, but none did. They are a very hard working group who would rather do serious things than party. I do not have to worry about this group.

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Friday, March 16, 2007

This is the Ole Miss students last day and they want to make the best of it. Unfortunately, Margaret Hines, one of the leaders, is sick. She had nausea two days ago and now feels and looks, sick. Her skin is usually very pale, but now it is white. If she is not better by noon I will take her to the clinic for an exam and blood work. I dropped some of the students off at the building project and some went to the children’s hospital with some toys we used as packing material and some supplies. The rest, including me, went to the boy’s home where we played with the boys and did some work. The seeds we planted last week have sprouted. The peas are four inches high and the beans are close behind. We will need to provide a fence for the peas and bamboo poles for the beans. The boys are always eager to help. The stone we had bought was dumped in big piles on the driveway and one of the projects was to distribute the rock to the ruts in the driveway.  With all the boys working and several of the students, the pile was soon leveled and a major portion of the driveway was repaired; unfortunately, we probably need another four loads of rock to complete the job. The road approaching the home has many piles of dirt obstructing the road and no one has come the spread it. While we were working, we heard the noise of a stuck car or truck. We immediately thought it was the house father and went to investigate. It was not he, but a truck was stuck on the other side of the drainage canal. The boys had their shovels and we had the know how and we got the truck out of the mud. The men had put bricks on the good part of the road hoping to get better traction, but all they accomplished was to raise that side of the truck and put more weight on the side that was stuck. We took those bricks and put them in the hole the wheels had made and soon they were on their way. One good deed for the day. I think the boys felt good about helping someone else.

I took Margaret to the office where I saw about five more patients. Her blood test did not indicate dengue fever which is good as she leaves tomorrow. She probably just has another virus and should be better tomorrow. Eight of the young adults went to a school that is attended by the orphan girls and helped the teachers. Afterwards we went to our boy’s school just in time to pick them up. They get driven to school but they walk home. The school was fairly new, but it was obvious that the teachers were overworked and tired. How much is learned here is difficult to determine, but the education is not good. The Mississippi group said their farewell to the boys and we were off to the Exponorte.

This event usually doesn’t get started until after 10PM, but I wanted to go early to see the art exhibition. Many of the artists we like and have bought their work for the auction in the past are featured at the show. I met several I knew and several I had never met before. The matron of the art community developed endometrial cancer and presently is living out her days in France. Perhaps the new leader of the art community will come out of this group. Several gave me their cards and we will visit their studios in Santa Cruz in the next few weeks. I got involved with a few ceremonies, including the presentation of awards to some sugar farmers and the art awards. I felt honored to be asked to be part of these gatherings. I did nothing to deserve the right to be there. When the ceremonies were finished, the group of students were no where to be found. I walked around the fair grounds three times and called them several times on the cell phone, but there was no answer. There was so much noise no one could hear the ring of the phone. I left, hoping they would get in at a normal time so they would not be late for the plane. I checked on Margaret and she seemed better, and I went to bed. I must have slept well as I didn’t hear the group come in. I was awakened by a group of Bolivians who did arrive at 3:30AM.

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Everyone was on time getting on the bus. We left the Pinocho at 6:30AM and arrived at the airport at 7. Their time here in Bolivia was short but we had accomplished a lot. I think everyone had a good to great experience and there was a lot of talk about next year’s trip. That is always a good sign. A new leader will emerge and hopefully another group will come next year.

The plane landed at 8AM and soon Joanna, my wife, Wayne Clark and Steve Hott came through the customs doors. Joanna was the only one that was checked for violations. No one looked at the visas we had to get, but if we hadn’t had them I am sure they would have checked. While they unpacked I went around town doing a few errands. I went to the jail with glucose strips for the monitor but the doctor had already left for the day. He is the only one who has a key for the medicine cabinet. One of the trustees, Hugo, that I have known for four years took the bag full of strips and took them to his room for safekeeping. He actually lives in a room outside of the locked jail. I hope they will be all right. I was greeted by many of the inmates who recognized me. They know what our mission does for them and they really appreciate our help. What is really remarkable is the dedication of Dr. Plata who has come to this jail to give medical care for seven years, never missing a Saturday, including the Saturday after his father died last year. I would call that dedication with a capital “D.” It is easy to give money to a cause that that has such a man in charge.

After lunch we visited the foster home and took the boys to the fair, Exponorte. At 3PM nothing was open but they played on some trampolines that were used under a bungee cord jump and finally they were able to play foosball, one of those table games with the men on metal rods that you turn with your hands. They used to have a foosball game at the hogar but it was ruined by the weather. One of our chores may be to fix that game as they really enjoyed playing foosball. Just as we had to leave, the Ferris wheel began to function and they all got to ride it once. There is no fear in these boys.

We returned the boys to the foster home and traveled to the fair for dinner by taxis. I parked at the fair earlier as there was no traffic when we were there with the boys, but the evening and night are a different matter. The food was good, but not as good as the food at the Pinocho. Also the cacophony of noise, far too loud for enjoyment was just too much. Maybe young people like this kind of noise, but I don’t. We walked around the grounds, meeting some of our friends coming in as we left. Bolivians can stay out longer than Gringos apparently. As we left, the line of cars waiting to get into the event stretched all the way back to the town of Montero which is a distance of at least three miles. I can’t believe that they will get into the grounds before midnight. Tonight, the fair will last way beyond 3AM. More power to them, as we are going to bed.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Everyone got a good night’s sleep and was ready for the morning of church jumping. We began the morning at a Pentecostal church. They had chairs, but I don’t know why they had them. We almost never sat down. The good part was that they had the hymn words projected on a screen so I could read them and understand the meaning. I have trouble hearing the words of songs in English let alone in Spanish. I will come back to this church. We then went to the Dios Es Amor church where we have so many good Christian friends. We got there at 11AM but the service began at 11:30 having just started a new schedule. We could have stayed at the other church another 30 minutes! I am able to understand to meaning of most of the sermons now. That obviously makes the experience more meaningful, but the love of the Lord is easy to feel in these churches where most of the people live on faith alone. That is the way God wants us to live. Here there is no other choice. In that regard, they are lucky. Both of these churches are involved in the micro-finance project.

After lunch we spent the afternoon at the boy’s home. Steve Hott looked at the musical instruments and saw what needed to be repaired or replaced and then gave some lessons to the boys who had an interest. I want to get a new music teacher for these boys. If one or two can begin to play some of these instruments, the rest will learn from them. I never had the gift of music but I surely enjoy listening to those who do. I hope some of our boys have the “gift.” The tether ball has never been left alone since we put it up. They kick the ball as often as they hit it with their hands. It is fun to watch them learn to play and some of them are getting good already. Freddie, who is 12 years old, and I went to the work shop and he completed a cork screw all by himself. It is a free style type of item so there is no wrong way or right way to make it, but he always has a plan in his head and his work is good. He is smart, but he is also one of the laziest of the boys in the home, but here he excels. Perhaps this will give him the confidence to change his life. I hope so. He is only 12 years old, but it is never too early to begin to change your life in a positive way. It is really fun and rewarding to see these boys grow. Freddie was a runaway, living in the Mercado when he was brought to the home. He ran away three times before he decided it was better to live here. We almost lost him. Now he realizes how close he was to becoming a street kid with no future. He has come a long way.

In the evening we went to the deaf church again but it was the children’s service. It was still interesting but the real characters we met the last time were not there. I gave a testimony about how lucky they were to live a life of faith but I think it went over their heads. After returning to the Dios Es Amor to pick up Nancy we left for home. The church is doing a series of lectures on the family. They have discussed child abuse and other matters and this week the talk is on finance. Just in time for the micro-finance program that Nancy was working on independent of the church program. This is just another example of the “coincidences” that happen here all the time. God really does have a plan and we are part of it. When life is simple, it is easy to see the hand of God working. In our complicated lives, it is often difficult to see God’s work and plan.

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Monday, March 19, 2007

It has not rained for several days but that has not kept the sink holes from developing in the streets. One large one is situated by the Internet café I use. The noise from the generator and the water pump is deafening when trying to concentrate. The hole they have dug totally by hand could easily consume a good sized truck if it were to fall into it. They have piled the dirt around the pit to get rid of the dirt and to form a protective barrier. Traffic has been reduced to only one lane on this very busy road. During a demonstration by students, several fell into the hole while marching and not looking where they were going. They were complaining about their university not getting accreditation, but at least every four to five minutes a student would fall into the hole indicating, perhaps, they should be studying more and protesting less.

Our mornings begin at the foster home. We work with the boys for a while as the boys are required to help with their laundry and other household chores, and then we split into several groups. Joanna is trying to help the boys with their pronunciation. The English teacher has never been to an English speaking country. His English is good in content, but his pronunciation is poor. Naturally, the boys speak like he does. Steve Hott is trying to help the boys with the key board and the guitars we had brought several years ago. We had a music teacher but he had to quit in order to care for his mother who was sick. Wayne and I worked with several of the boys in the pen project. There are three models of pens and today we introduced the last of the three. We also make letter openers and corkscrews. The last two are the easiest to make, but the kits cost the most. The cork- screws are free style which is good for the boys. They could make them badly, but they would not be wrong. I hope they will learn to make them nicely which they do most of the time.

Following lunch we went to the house building project and I was happily surprised in the progress made since last Friday. Unfortunately, due to the weather, we were only able to make the foundation while the Ole Miss group was here. They had to do a lot of work and had little to show for it. When the house is finished, you won’t even be able to see what they did! Now, after a few days of work, one can see the house rising out of the ground. We were able to lay a whole wall almost four feet tall. That is work you can measure and see. That kind of work is very satisfying to me.  We had to quit a little early to return to the foster home to celebrate Father’s Day which is always celebrated here on March 19, unlike our own Father’s Day which is always on a Sunday. The music teacher that used to be employed by the home was there to lead the boys in song. After the singing, we ate empanadas and drank hot chocolate. I taped the boys while they were singing and then I showed them the video on the TV after the ceremony. I also had some video of their playing tether ball which they seemed to like the best. They laughed the most when they kicked the ball with their feet. For the first time since I have been here, they didn’t ask to play football. They were more interested in the other projects we were providing.

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Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Again we went to the foster home to find the boys working in the garden hoeing around the beans, corn and peas. They don’t build a fence for the peas to climb on and perhaps we can show them how we do this back home. Here the peas just fall over and grow on the ground. I can’t believe the yield will be very good that way. Also, peas like cool nights and those nights almost never happen here. Perhaps they never have grown peas here due to a poor yield. We will see. We took several of the boys and spread the piles of rock that had been delivered over the driveway which by now was dry. On Friday when we tried to do this, the rock simply sank into the mud. We had the driveway nice and flat,
but even then, when stepped upon, one would sink ankle deep into the mix of mud and stone. Now that area is as hard as concrete. I am sure we will need to add layers of rock every year if we have rain like this in the future.

Following the aerobic exercise that spreading the stones provided, we split up into the same groups we had yesterday. We are producing three lathe projects each morning and I hope they will be making these items without my supervision soon. After all, we will be leaving in less than a month.

In the afternoon, due to scheduling conflicts, we went to Santa Cruz on a Tuesday rather than Wednesday for shopping and dinner. Even this turned out to be an adventure. The cab we got into first had trouble with the brakes and stopped in Warnes, about 1/3 the way to our destination. In Warnes we know no one and they don’t know us, but we found another cab and soon were on our way, at a considerable higher price as compared to the normal trip from Montero, even though the distance is much less. At about this time I wished I had called a taxi driver I know to take us all the way to and from shopping. When we reached our first destination, I called him and he agreed to meet us at 7:30PM. He was occupied prior to that time so everything turned out well for all of us. We bought several items for the auction and then walked to another store about a mile away. Following those purchases we walked to the plaza. If we walked around more I think I would soon know Santa Cruz quite well. Now I know where the shops are in the first ring of the seven rings of this city. Amazingly, as we walked around, we met Herman, our Rotarian friend from Montero who just happened to be driving by. Soon it was time to eat and we went to the Brazilian style restaurant we know and like. After a fine dining experience, we returned home. I fell asleep in the cab in Warnes and awoke at the Pinocho. That was the fastest trip I have ever made from Santa Cruz, or at least so it seemed.

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Wednesday, March 21, 2007

We more or less finished moving the piles of rock and sand to fill in the holes on the driveway this morning before splitting into the various groups. As much as Nestor had enjoyed the pen making, playing soccer, and all the other things we have offered, he is now engrossed with the music lesions, taught by Steve Hott and English, taught by Joanna. He apologizes to me for not being with me but I am happy that he is becoming a bit of a Renaissance man. That pleases me very much. I am teaching the pen project to some of the younger boys. A few of them surprise me with their skill, and a few just haven’t been watching or listening. For ten year olds, I really shouldn’t be surprised.

By lunch we are hot and sweaty, as the temperature rises every day and so does the humidity. The mud has been replaced by dust and we are beginning to mention the “R” word but afraid to say it out loud for fear of another round of floods. As the rainy season comes to an end here, the rain usually comes in sporadic thunder storms instead of the day or week long soaking rains. We could do with a short but vigorous storm.

The building project has surprised us all. The three Bolivians on the job work all the time taking few breaks and work from 8AM to dark. The house has exploded from the ground. In just three working days the basic structure of the house is now eight to ten feet above the foundation laid by the Ole Miss group just last week. I need to send them a photo soon to see what they missed and I don’t want them to think that I am making this up. I have never seen a house go up this fast. I wouldn’t be surprised if the roof is ready to be constructed by this time next week. The three of us helped lay bricks, mix mortar and bring water and dry cement to the workers so they can lay bricks faster. Our help really speeds up their ability to work.

We went to dinner at Dr. Patzi’s house. He likes to serve us paella, a dish made of rice and seafood. He is happy that the price of seafood has come way down this year as a combination of good fishing due to El Nino, and the fact that few can afford to buy seafood also thanks to El Nino and the floods that this phenomenon has brought. The evening was blessed by good company, his wonderful family from the 18 month old grandson to all the adults who all live here under one roof and the excellent paella. This evening is always a treat every year.

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Thursday, March 22, 2007

Our work hour with the children lasted longer today as we set up some fences of chicken wire so the peas can climb instead of lying on the ground. I can see why the Bolivians don’t do this as the wire cost about $15, and several years of use will be necessary to begin to see a profit. We North Americans farm more for the enjoyment than the “profit” so such an investment is not considered in terms of money. The “profit” is seen in the yield and the enjoyment of eating fresh produce every day. Here with a yearlong growing season, new seeds could be planted every month and you might never need to move the fences. We will see.

I tried to let one of the least gifted boys do a simple project today. I was surprised by the ability of his brother, Freddy, who is twelve, two years older. He did everything wrong, not to my surprise. I had him watch another of the boys who is his age and doing a good job. Little by little he got better and produced a reasonable product in the end, but with much help and time. We only made two projects today instead of the usual three.

In the afternoon we returned to the home site and continued to lay bricks. The progress is somewhat slower as we need to use scaffolds due to the height of the walls. Steve made steel forms from rebar and Wayne and I helped with the cement, bricks and water. This is very satisfying work for me for many reasons. The most important, to me at least, is that this form of building has been around for more than two thousand years. When I was in Rome a few years ago, I went to the coliseum and where the marble had been removed to be used in the construction of the Vatican and other buildings, there were these same bricks, held together with mortar just like ours. No electrical tools were being used, nothing but hand labor. Of course, the addition of steel to the building is new and adds strength, but other than that, the house we are building now uses the same techniques as the Romans 20 centuries ago. I feel a connection with history when I help build houses like this one. The other obvious benefit to the psyche is the fact that you can see the progress from day to day. With this house the progress is phenomenal. After we worked, Steve Hott wanted to buy some gifts for the people who had supported his coming here and I suggested that he make a pen for them. We rushed off to the foster home and he completed a pen and a cork screw and we still made it back to the Pinocho in time to shower and go to Rotary.

Every time we arrive at the meeting on time at 8PM, we are the only ones there. Today we arrived at 8:30 and they were ready to sit down for dinner. It was the Father’s Day celebration at the club and apparently they changed the format of the meeting and everyone knew about it except for us. I guess they assumed that we would arrive at our usual time so they didn’t say anything to me. All the fathers received a bottle of red wine. I now have a collection of about five bottles of red wine from casual gifts and my birthday. I like red wine but it upsets my stomach so I drink it only on special occasions. I imagine I will give most of this away.

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Friday, March 23, 2007

We returned to the foster home where Steve continued his music lessons. Several of the children seem very interested. When the new home is finished at the foster home, I want the musical instruments available to the older boys all the time so the ones that have a gift for music, or at least a desire to play, will be able to practice when they want to. The house parents are afraid of the boys breaking the instruments and while that would be unfortunate, I would rather the instruments be broken by being used than rusting or rotting away unused. I went to the market to purchase some seeds as the ones we brought didn’t germinate well due to all the rain. I wanted to buy peas and corn, but all I could find were tomatoes, carrots, beets, radishes, lettuce, and squash seeds. We had planted some pumpkin seeds the Washington group had brought yesterday. I suppose the peas aren’t sold as they like a cool climate to grow and the corn only came in 20 Km bags, about 50 Lbs. I finally was able to buy a small bag of corn and some speckled red beans from a large bag in the mercado. The other seeds came in cans, like soup. I suppose this is due to the humidity. The seeds packed in our paper envelopes would soon sprout or get moldy and be soon ruined. This trip, unfortunately, took much more time than I had expected and left only an hour to complete projects at the wood shop. We did finish two letter openers which are the easiest and quickest of the projects.

The events of the afternoon helped to explain one of Steve Hott’s building sayings, “Sometimes it seems you complete a week’s worth of work in a day, and some times it seems like you complete a day’s worth of work in a week.” We put in a form for pouring a cement brace connecting an outer wall to an inner one. In this form we put the steel piece that Steve constructed yesterday. Naturally it didn’t fit exactly in the wooden form and the ends needed to be bent or cut. With the hand tools we had, this was a time consuming task. Finally all was ready for the mixing and pouring of the cement. No truck would come with a load. This would all be done by hand. I would have thought that a business that sold ready made concrete would be a real winner here, but the one that I know existed here several years ago went out of business. The builders here are used to working by hand, even when the jobs are big. This was a little job and would be completed in a few hours without our help as we needed to leave early to go to ExpoForest, a fair of forest products held every year in Santa Cruz. We are taking our carpentry shop workers for them to get new ideas for production in our shop.

The exhibition was bigger but not as good as before. There was a whole room of wood art work which was new and beautiful, but not the kind of thing we were interested in buying. Actually, in retrospect, it was the most interesting part of the show. Another showroom was full of machinery that we don’t need and couldn’t afford if we wanted it. One was mostly furniture and artisan work which was our main interest. Now I wish I had spent more time with the museum like wood articles, one of a kind art works on a grand scale. I didn’t even take photos of any. What a pity!

After the show we went to dinner at a restaurant across from Bolivia’s only five star hotel, Los Tojibos. It specialized in food cooked and smoked on a wood fire with the meat cooked with the animal intact, the legs and arms attached to a pole so the animal assumed a cross like figure. The meat was very salty. Wayne, Joanna and I all had the lamb while the rest had more traditional dishes. I began to feel nauseated and hoped it was just the salty meat that was upsetting me, but at 4AM it was obvious to me it was some illness. I hoped it was not the dengue.

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Saturday, March 24, 2007

This is the last day for Wayne, Steve and Martha. Normally we would go to the airport in the morning but beginning March 1, American Airlines initiated a new night flight leaving here at 10PM and arriving in Miami at about 6:30AM. Then a connecting flight gets us into Atlanta at about 11 and Highlands at three o’clock. That schedule allows for plenty of time to rest for work the next day. We will see how this works out. I am feeling lousy but I have some commitments. One I have to make and the other is not mandatory, but I would have liked to have gone to the jail. They are going to tear a part of it down and rebuild it quickly as the rain has destroyed the timbers. This has happened to the hospital as well. They are building a new jail outside of the city but it will not be finished for at least a year. This place will have to be repaired and be used for the interim period. The entire group went there except for me. I am trying to preserve my energy for the part of the day that only I can do. At 10 I finally rolled out of bed, showered and went to the main plaza where Jamie Weathers has assembled the shoe shine boys she has been working with for the past year. She is doing a research paper on them and how they interact with their families and each other. She is offering a program where a select few will be sent to private schools which are better than the public ones in hopes that a better education will break the cycle of poverty in which this group finds itself. Our group, having an interest in the betterment of young children, will fund the program for one year for $1200. That will send two boys to school with books and supplies for one year. If the nominees take drugs or get in trouble, they are immediately out of the program. Also they cannot work past 8PM and they must maintain good grades. We performed physicals on all the boys, and one man of 21 years. I was surprised to find that their teeth were in much better shape than the usual poor dentition I am used to seeing in the poorer children of this age. All were reasonably fit and in good physical condition except for a few cavities. I referred those boys to the free dental clinic where those teeth will probably be extracted. I almost passed out several times but finally Joanna announced that she had taken the last boy’s blood pressure and pulse oxymetry. I was very happy to know that the end was near. Finishing at nearly 12:30, lunch time, I went to bed and the rest went to lunch. What they all did in the afternoon, their last moments here, I do not know. We arranged for a driver to take the group to the airport as I was in no condition to do so myself.

Martha Rodenbeck works like a mad woman in the three weeks she is here. This year her main focus was sex education and she gave many lectures with a DVD and our projector. She had a Bolivian translator who has worked with us for at least four years. He is graduating from college in Santa Cruz this year and is undecided what he will do with his life after that. Martha thinks he would make a wonderful pastor with his speaking ability and his gift for music. He is thinking about that course in his life but preacher pay here is very low. If the spirit leads him in that direction he will know. One of the other ministers that Martha works with graduated from dental school and then decided to become a poorly paid disciple in the Campus Crusade for Christ organization. He also has an alcohol related program at the jail. We support his work through Martha. She goes to the high schools often receiving a lot of negative feelings especially from the young men in the schools. Clearly they don’t want to hear a message of sexual abstinence until marriage. Fortunately for Martha, many of the female students come up to her at the end of her program thanking Martha for her work as it give them the courage to say, “No!”

Martha is a real disciple of Christ in the true meaning of the word.

Sunday, March 25, 2007

This was a day of rest for the weary. As I awoke at 6:30AM I thought the group would be arriving in Miami about now. Having slept almost the whole day Saturday, I was surprised that I could sleep the whole night also. I felt almost normal. We ate breakfast and went to church and rested most of the day. Our friends are leaving us alone, which is unusual, but perhaps they all know by now that I have been sick. I wore my new red T-shirt which had the name of the local football team on it. I bought this at the Exponorte last week and later today I was told that this was the championship game for their division. The game was to be at 4:30PM and by then I felt I would be well. We went out to the boy’s home after lunch and asked if we could take all boys and the house father to the game. He had never been to a professional soccer match before. Admission was 5 Bolivanos for the boys and 10 for the adults. All totaled it cost about $15 to take the whole group including the 12 boys and the adults and we were in the best seats. Try that at a Braves game and see what it costs. The game was one sided with our side, Guabira scoring on two free kicks and another fine goal a few minutes later. The goalie had stopped no shots at that point although none of the goals were really his fault. Just before the first half came to a close, he did let in a shot I thought he could have saved and at the intermission, the score was 4-0 Guabira, in the lead. With a lead like that the second half was fairly boring and the boys lost interest, playing in the stands. As night fell, the lights were put on but only one rank of the four that were available were turned on, apparently to save money. Even with the sport games they try to save money. I wondered if the game had been tied if more lights would have been turned on. It seemed very dark to me, but then again, I was wearing my dark glasses. We stayed for the presentation of the trophy and left in the dark. The fact that I had on my dark glasses made driving a bit difficult, but we all made it home safely.

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Monday, March 26, 2007

Joanna and I are on our own at the hotel so the Pinocho doesn’t provide lunch or dinner; therefore, we have taken bread from breakfast and make sandwiches for the two meals. This is a welcome break for me as I never eat dessert at lunch and rarely at dinner, but if it is available as it has been here at the Pinocho, I will eat it. Joanna and I went to the hogar. Joanna met with the English teacher and taught the children as I continued the wood working projects. Several of the children can drill the holes in the wood as good as I can. This takes a good eye to center the hole in the pieces of wood. An off center hole makes for a difficult turning on the lathe. We inserted the brass tubes into the wood with epoxy glue and the boys learned first hand that they need to work fast. Normally the glue doesn’t set up for 10 minutes, but with the temperature in the 90’s here, we have only five minutes or less. Only one boy was able to insert more than one tube in that amount of time. At this rate, we will run out of glue in a few weeks, but I think they all learned a valuable lesson. It is important to know your work and do it quickly and well. What work was done was done well. Many of the younger boys tried to make pens and most were not up to the quality I would like. Selling these items is an important part of the boy’s educational fund. I don’t want them to feel that they are getting a free ride. I think they will be better students if they know that they contributed something to the fund. Last year over $1000 was raised from this project. Actually that basically was a breakeven number as the cost of the lathe and the pen sets cost about that amount. This year the pen sets cost only $400 and we have already sold $120 worth of pens to the visitors here in Montero.

In the afternoon I had several deliveries to make and pick ups as well. I tried to organize all the visits to save time. One of the workers in the carpentry shop had chest pain. I took him the clinic where I delivered some information to Dr. Chavez, collected some medicines for the clinic tomorrow, and did an EGK on the man. That being normal, I took him to the hospital to do a chest X-ray which was also normal. He probably has a problem with his esophagus, but a cardiac problem is still a possibility, as an EKG is not always diagnostic. Returning to the shop, I prepared some more projects for the future.

An evening at the Internet café finished off the day filled with much busy work.

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Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Earlier last week the leaders of the Etta Turner center asked me if the boys could come and get haircuts free from the ladies that are trying to learn in their beauty salon. Since we have the boys and they need the experience, we were glad to accept the offer. We came at the appointed hour of 9AM and quickly five of the boys were in the chairs and the women began working on them. At first the women worked very slowly and carefully, especially with all the other boys watching. I took a few pictures and the boys wanted to do the same. Finally the women seemed to gain confidence, as I think this was their first experience with cutting men’s hair. The first group finished and the second group of five sat for their haircut. By this time the first group’s interest in taking pictures and watching the other boys was waning. A few found a bottle cap and began to kick it around more like hockey than football, the slick tile floor outside the parlor acting much like ice. Soon goals were established and the game commenced. No sides were chosen but as the boys entered the game they seemed to know which side they were on so the game was even. As the boys finished their haircuts and entered the fray, the teams remained even. The final score was 2-1. It was amazing how they invented a game and had fun passing the time without bothering anyone else.

We arrived at the hogar to a surprise. I had been told there was a family that needed help several weeks ago. Four children, two boys and two girls, had been abandoned by their mother who is an alcoholic. Perhaps it is better that she left as she had been abusing them. The father could not support them as he could not leave them at home to work and earn a living. The two boys were brought to the home today. They were thin, small and their faces scarred. Small scars from multiple minor injuries covered their faces. I thought these might improve with age but the scars on the psyche may never heal. At lunch the boys sat with three other boys at each table. The house mother, Irma, gently helped the five year old eat, feeding him at first and cutting his meat. He might just have been afraid, but he looked like he had never used a spoon or fork to eat before. His nine year old brother actually had good eating manners. Neither said a word or smiled. I returned to the carpentry shop just before 6PM to find the two new boys hoeing the garden, as they were not yet enrolled in the school, doing a good job raking up the grass, laughing and having a good time. It looked like they had done this kind of work before. One of their sisters is twelve and the children may well have gardened to provide food for the family. I hope they soon find that they have landed in a secure happy place where they can grow healthy and be at peace. I hope their mother never returns.

Joanna and I did our first clinic at the Etta Turner Center in the afternoon. I had done one with the podiatrist, Mort Altman from Washington, but I had no medicine to dispense. I am sure none of them filled the prescriptions I gave them for lack of money. Today they would get free medicine as well as exams. I had bought some quite expensive medicine, ivermectin, for the creeping eruption which was so common the last lime I was here and I was anxious to pass out the free medicine. One pill is all you need to cure the infection but it costs $5 a pill. That is cheap for the whole treatment to us, but a week’s pay for these people. I did see one case today, but I saw at least six the last time I was here right after the horrible rains in February. Then the children needed to slog through the mud allowing the parasite to enter the skin. Now there is only dust, and in this area, the ground is very sandy. It is as difficult to drive on these roads now as it was in the mud. I relate this to driving in the sand dunes of Indiana when I was young. I checked three people for diabetes and none had that problem. The first patient weighed only 29 Kg, or about 70 Lbs. I was sure she had diabetes. That disease would have explained all of her symptoms, but she apparently had something else. She mentioned cancer, but the exam externally was all normal, and she was thin enough to feel even a small tumor in her abdomen. She looked like she was in her 80’s but she was only 63 years old. It is frustrating to see someone like this patient, know something very bad is wrong, and not having the diagnostic equipment to come to a conclusion. Quite likely, whatever we found would not be able to be treated which gives me some comfort, at least. We saw about 40 patients all with minor infections including urine, skin and bronchitis and a few with arthritis and headaches. I feel we did much at this clinic and if the volume of patients does not increase at the Cruz Roja, I will cancel a few of those clinic days and do this again. Also, as the rain stays away, I would like to do another clinic at the Guarani community where we have built houses the last four years. It is difficult to enter that place even during the dry season as the roads are so bad. We spent a lot of time trying to repair those roads last year and I am sure all the work we did was washed away by all the rains.

In the evening Joanna and I took the staff and owners of the Pinocho to dinner at a restaurant in Montero that specializes in quail. The food was delicious and different from the beef and chicken usually served at other restaurants and the Pinocho. This evening gave the staff a break from their work at the Pinocho. There is a lull in occupancy right now as there are no other occupants save ourselves and business in general is very slow at this time of year in Montero. I think that is one of the reasons why the owners of the Pinocho appreciate our business so much, but over the years we have really become good friends. Our friendship has become much more than a business relationship.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Today we finally had a shower of rain. (I never thought I would say that in February) At this time of year the rains usually are fierce but last only fifteen to thirty minutes. These two rains were no exception. Within minutes the streets were flooded and an hour later, the streets were almost dry. Tomorrow it will be as dusty as usual if there is no more rain. I welcomed the rain as I could test if the rock we added to the roads actually worked. I was favorably impressed with the ease with which I was able to navigate the usually muddy roads. It will be interesting to see how long the roads will show signs of improvement. We did the usual morning English lessons and pen projects, the boys alternating between the two. The rain stopped the soccer game but I was happy to see the two new boys getting involved in all the aspects that the home provides. They have transformed from scared children to seemingly normal boys in one day. That seems to be the rule rather than the exception in this fine place. I am amazed how fast the new boys adjust to the peace and tranquility that exists in this foster home. The deeper mental aspects of the change will take a long time to improve, if they ever do.

At lunch Joanna and I are taking a lecture course on the Times of Henry VIII. The last two years we have found that spending time at siesta learning history is a satisfactory way to spend some restful time.  

In the afternoon I had a meeting with the leaders of the church which are influential in the Christian microfinance project. This program will charge no interest and loans will be forgiven for just cause. We will have the last organizational meeting Sunday, after our trip to Tarjita, one of the parts of Bolivia I have never seen. Later we joined the incoming president of Rotary for dinner and discussions. He is a gynecologist, and is the doctor who has provided the care for the inmates at the jail. He has been concerned that much of what we have done through the Rotary Club has benefited the members’ friends and not the truly poor. While I have known that the patients we operated upon were often friends, relatives, or employees of the Rotarians, many were not. He mentioned the houses we built and these were not built for the indigent. He agreed that they were built for the poor and I explained that I had two demands that had to be met before we would build a house. First, the family had to own the land, and second, they had to help build the house. Both of these clauses probably excluded the very poor or indigent people. We have found that the extremely poor probably have learned to live that way and have become accustomed to life in poverty. Many of our friends have told us that, even the head priest, Padre Panni has told us that some people seem to feel that there is no reason to try to elevate their position in the world. He explained this to us during the early meetings for the microfinance. The group that can be helped is the working poor. I agreed that the indigent need our help with medical care, but our focus in housing and microfinance would be on the harder working group of poor people. I think he agreed but I am happy to have such a humanitarian as an accomplice for the next year’s work with the club. This club has made it possible for us to be successful here and now we know so many other groups and people that can help us and partner with us so we can branch out to other areas with confidence.

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Sunday, April 01, 2007
TARIJA

We left for Tarija at 9:00AM Thursday morning. Traveling in Bolivia is always interesting and sometimes trying and this trip was no exception. On arriving at the airport there were crowds of Bolivians trying to leave the country as Europe, Spain especially, will demand a visa on April first. LAB, the national airline, has been in bankruptcy for several years and the crows are finally beginning to come to roost. Several of the airline executives were recently arrested. To add to all the commotion, several of the immigration officials have also been arrested on charges of corruption in issuing passports. The combination of all these factors has left these people here in the airport with worthless tickets in hand, demanding either a flight out of the country or their money returned. Neither will happen, I suspect. Savings and money borrowed in many cases, lost and the wages expected in Europe to repay the loans, never to be earned. In reality, the prospects here are in many ways better if people would look beyond the end of their noses. Bolivia has plenty of natural gas, petroleum, and has plenty of jobs available due to the exodus of people from the country. When the effects of the floods are past, the economy should be good. Besides, due to the influx of so many immigrants, Europe has a huge problem with unemployment. Five years ago, when we visited Spain, many of the prostitutes we saw on the streets of Madrid were Andean in appearance. I don’t think that kind of job is what these people are thinking about when they are going abroad to find work.

Our flight was delayed. From 9:20 to 11:40, and then to 1:30PM. This is Bolivia. Normally, national flights are really easy. You get to the airport a few minutes before the flight and you leave. No checking in two to three hours before the flight. There are no long lines checking the hand luggage. The travel is a lot like it used to be before 9/11 in small airports. Finally we taxied down the runway at about 2:30 and arrived, leaving the almost riotous crowd in Santa Cruz, behind. Arriving in Tarija, the major city in the district of Tarija, the most southern district of Bolivia, at about 3:30 left only three hours of sunlight to explore the city. Tarija is in the mountains at an elevation of 2000 meters, or about the same elevation as Highlands. (1700 meters). It is drier than the rest of the country leaving it in a semi desert like climate. There are few trees, although they tell me that walnuts and Brazil nuts are grown here. The area is also famous for its grape production and wines. As we walked and drove around the city we found it very clean and the architecture more Spanish than the other areas we have visited. Most of the homes and businesses had little balconies jutting out over the sidewalks and the streets were narrow, accommodating only one lane of traffic. All the streets were originally made for horse travel and due to the terrain, were not set up like a normal Spanish village, that is to say, square with a central plaza with a cathedral. This is the only major city in Bolivia where the central plaza has no church. The buildings are built with the ubiquitous rocks rather than bricks. Everything is different here except for one thing- the weather. We were told that it would be cool here and it is as hot as Santa Cruz! We drove around the city and ended our journey at a restaurant owned by the brother of our guide, Dr. Osvaldo Antelo, vice president of Rotary and former resident of Tarija. We found that almost everyone is related to him and his family. The restaurant was beautiful but we were the only customers. We had the specialty of the house which consisted of four meats: chicken, beef, tongue and the fourth part of the cow’s stomach. I had to admit that this was the best tripe I have eaten, but that still ranked that meat near the bottom of things I like to eat. At least it didn’t taste like hay. The rest of the food was very good, the tongue being very tender and tasty. Even though we didn’t do very much this day, traveling is very tiring and we went to bed right after dinner. The hotel was nice but there was no cross ventilation in the room. The hall was cool but the room was too hot. I opened the door to the balcony for some relief, but insects bit Joanna in the night. There was no air-conditioning in this hotel as the nights are usually cool.

The next morning we set out for the wine country, just a few miles from the city center. I was surprised to see how small the vineyards were. Apparently they import a lot of the grapes. They make a liquor here called Singani which is made from the muscatel grape and is manufactured in the same manner as cognac except for the final aging in oak barrels. The finest of the Singani’s sells for only $5 a bottle. If they aged it they might get ten times as much. The red wines are fairly famous in South America but none of these is aged either. The most expensive sells for only $12 a bottle and while I am not an oenophile, they are very good to my tongue. We visited several of the wineries which were all quite small. On the way back from the vineyards we stopped at the house of Moto Mendez, the equivalent, in this area, to Simon Bolivar, the leader of independence of South America from the Spanish. The guide of the house was a sister of Osvaldo and apparently a distant relative of the hero himself. After that interesting visit we went across the street to sample vino patero, basically a home made new wine. The room where the brew was made in open vats was filled with fruit flies which made it hard to breathe, and the aroma reminded me of my father’s wine. If anyone has ever drunk some of his wine you would know that this smell was not that pleasant. A tradition had to be fulfilled and we drank some of the new wine from a bowl made from a nut shell that is bigger than a cocoanut. One is supposed to drink the whole cup, but we had been told stories about this stuff and we only drank a few sips. The wine was thick and sweet and not to my liking. The last part of the day trip was concerned with eating some foods that are unique to this area. One was a ring of a cookie like substance surrounded by a white meringue, the name of which I don’t remember, and the last delicacy was eating crabs. These small animals are found under rocks in the rivers here. They are the size of a nickel to a quarter, and look exactly like a very small lobster. These are fried and served over a bed of corn. They were quite crunchy and had the flavor of nuts. They might have been better if we had not been eating and drinking wine samples all day. Certainly this was another food first for me. In the evening there was a cheese and wine exhibition in the lobby of the hotel. We were invited to join in the festivities even though we were not part of the group of local businessmen for whom the festival was organized. The presentation of the foods and wines was spectacular, and many of the winery’s we visited earlier in the day were featured. We went to dinner in another restaurant that featured meat cooked a la lena, the same method as in the restaurant we ate at after the ExpoForest. Since I got sick after eating there, I had the chicken as did Joanna, rather than the pork and lamb that was roasting next to the open fire. The music was to begin at 9PM but it finally commenced at 10:30 and while the music was excellent we left at about 11:30 while the flood of people entering the restaurant was still moving in the opposite direction. We noticed several of the businesspeople we had met at the wine and cheese party coming in as we left.

We were to leave Saturday morning at 10AM, but with our experience coming, we went by the office of the airline and found the flight was delayed until 1:30PM allowing us to shop for items different from the things we have bought before for the auction. We were disappointed to find most of the items were just like the things we had bought before. The silk items we were told were here were actually made of synthetic material. Still there were many things that were very nice and several items were purchased for the auction. Finally we returned to the airport with plenty of time to spare as the plane didn’t arrive until 2:30. This is Bolivia. No one seems to care or be upset. We finally arrived in Montero in time to eat some sandwiches made from some German style ham we bought at the wine and cheese festival last night. It was nice to eat lightly after all the eating we did on the trip.

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Sunday, April 01, 2007

Kate Cochran-Smith arrived today. Her flight was an hour late but we have become accustomed to such delays. I have spent many hours in this airport. At least the angry crowd of Bolivians had left, leaving the facility practically empty. It was a cool morning but the temperature quickly rose to the mid-eighties and the nice day allowed us to take the boys to the resort, Las Lagunas. The boys love going to this place and we like them to learn to swim. The two new boys swam like fish apparently learning to swim in the local rivers near to where they lived. It was a perfect day with few clouds and no wind. With 12 boys, it kept us busy watching all of them, but finding the two new ones were excellent swimmers took some of the pressure off us.

In the evening Kate and I went to a meeting of the Christian women hoping to begin the microfinance project. We discussed the final points needed before the money can be transferred to their account. I am happy to say that all the issues were discussed and resolved. The government takes 1.5% of all funds on deposit in the bank every year and interest is only 0.03% a year. Of course, we hope to lend most of the money all of the time so very little will be in the account at year’s end. With all the issues resolved the money will be transferred tomorrow and their project will begin soon thereafter. It is unlikely that any loans will be actually made before August. If the program is successful, more money can be given next year. This is the program run on Christian principles meaning no interest and loans will be forgiven if there is a good reason for nonpayment. I hope the recipients don’t feel that these are gifts as the program will not last long if people don’t repay the loans.

Monday, April 2, 2007

Joanna went to the airport to pick up Dwight Bryant while Kate and I went to the boy’s home. Dwight was raised in an orphanage, and is very interested in seeing the boy’s hogar. Kate played football with the older boys while I continued the pen project teaching. As Kate is a very beautiful 17 year old girl, I have basically lost the two older boys to whom I was hoping to teach the whole process. Wilder who is 12 worked with me today. He has done some work before and today he showed me that he is the best so far. He made three pens that were very good. Also, one of my friends from last year who worked in the carpentry shop came by with what looked like a bag of scrap wood. I had the craftsmen cut up some of this and the pieces of what looked like junk turned out to be some of the most magnificent pieces of wood I have seen so far in several years of working in the wood shop. I paid Jorge 50 Bolivianos, which was a lot more than he wanted, but if one of these pieces makes a good pen, that money was well spent and I think there will be several hundred good pens from this group of scrap wood. Dwight and Joanna came by, the plane being on time for once and they helped with the English lessons while Kate played football. She is quite an athlete so the boys won’t wear her out.
When Dwight came in the foster home, he was overcome with emotion by the sheer beauty of the place. Having been raised in an orphanage he must have had some flashbacks. I can’t even begin to imagine what was going through his mind.

We had lunch at the Pinocho and I went to the clinic with Kate who learned how to take blood pressures, do finger stick glucose tests, and oxygen levels of the blood. We were quite busy with a few return patients and mostly new ones. Many have chest pains and think they have heart problems. The youngest patient was 18 but we did a cardiogram on her as her grandmother had just died of a heart attack and she was frightened. I wish my Spanish were better to help this kind of patient work through their pain of loss and anxiety. We did see two older patients that did have heart problems and they were referred to the cardiologist.

In the evening we all went to the hogar to have dinner and show a movie. We project the movie on a wall of the living room and the experience is very much like going to the movies. The kids loved the movie, “Open Season,” a movie about a bear and a deer who organize the forest animals to fight back against the hunters. It was quite funny both for the children and for the adults. As we left Joanna became ill followed the next morning by Kate suffering the same fate. It was certainly not the food we ate at the home as the illness came on too fast, but this kind of sickness makes you feel like you want to die. I have had it three times already and I hope this is one I have had before so I don’t get it again.

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Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Kate felt well enough to tough out the morning and played again with the boys. She is quite a trooper, while Dwight and I went to the carpentry shop together to resume the pen work. Dwight cut up many of the new wood pieces to the proper length while Wilder continued his fine work. He really pays attention to the detail which is of great importance if we are going to sell these pens for $25. They need to be almost perfect. Last year, after I left, the pens that were brought back were not sale worthy. These definitely are, but I am still here to supervise. Tomorrow they will be on their own as Dwight and I put pen parts in separate bags so they can make the contents of each bag into a pen when we are gone next week.

Kate was running out of energy so we left early and Dwight and I ate lunch alone. Kate and Joanna slept in the afternoon and Dwight and I went to the clinic which was very busy. More complaints of heart pain in young people with normal exams, but also some pathology. A man came in from the cardiologist with aortic valve trouble. It was a leaky valve allowing most of the blood just pumped from the heart to return into the heart. His blood pressure was 60/40 but in spite of the low pressure, he appeared quite normal. I checked his pressure three times not believing it. He needed a valve replacement costing a minimum of $3000. Since he was 69 years old, he would not be at the top of the list of people we would like to help, giving priority to children. I will talk to his cardiologist Thursday at Rotary and see what we can do to help. There are too many people needing help to care for them all. Two older women came in with bad cardiograms and heart symptoms. All there would be in the cath lab in two or three days in the US. Here, medicine would have to do. Actually, studies show that medical therapy works just as well if death is the only endpoint; however, taking into account how the patients feel, the ones who have operations and stents feel better, if not normal afterwards. As for me I can assure you I feel better off the beta blockers that were given to me after my heart attack.

I met with some members of the professional football league here in Montero who want to set up a football league for youngsters from 12 to 18. I am interested in the development of children in all aspects of their lives. Sport is one of those things that may keep boys off the streets and develop good healthy habits at the same time. I told them to find other sponsors to support the league, but our mission would sponsor one age division. The total cost of the six month program was about $24,000 so 20% would be about $5,000. I think we can afford this and still do all the other projects we have designated money to.

Dinner was light as Joanna felt well enough to eat some soup and Katelin was able to eat a little also. Dwight and I went out to the little girl’s orphanage to get some swings that needed repair and took them to the carpentry shop. They asked if I needed them for tomorrow. I can’t imagine them asking me that but they were willing to work most of the night if I had said, “Yes!” I told them it could wait until the end of the week. Then, they will probably work all night to complete the job, leaving everything to the last minute, which is a Bolivian tradition. A few more chores were completed, schedules for the next week were made and we all went to bed.
Wednesday, April 4, 2007

It rained all night and there were several downpours during the day, causing the roads to flood in front of the Pinocho and the road to the hogar was again mud. The places where we put the stones are fine but there are other areas where I wanted to put rocks but they didn’t and those areas were difficult to pass. Our English teacher who has a very old car with bad tires got stuck on the road where we did no repairs. Why he went that way is beyond me. The boys and we pushed him for several hundred meters and he finally hit high ground and was able to extricate himself. Helping him cut short the pen making and only one was made. I am concerned that the whole process is beyond them as they continue to make mistakes when I am not standing over them. I have only one more week to go and then they are on their own. I can only hope that they will try harder when I am not here.

The afternoon clinic had a few interesting patients. Most had diabetes and high blood pressure or both and there seemed to be less anxious patients today. This is a more wealthy area and the problems are different from the places that are really poor. More wealthy means that they can afford some of their medicines and they don’t need to rely on folk remedies. One of the popular folk remedies is drinking lemon juice to neutralize the sugar or sweetness of diabetes. In one sense that sounds logical, but in reality the sugar in the juice actually makes the diabetes worse. Another misconception common in this clinic is that a headache is caused by high blood pressure. Several people take their blood pressure medicines only when they have a headache. High blood pressure can cause a headache, but usually only when it is very high. Low blood pressure is actually more likely to cause a headache, and this was the case in several of the patients we saw this week. They complained of fatigue and their pressure was often less than 100/ systolic. Since you can buy most prescriptions without a doctor’s prescription this practice is quite wide spread. The other fallacy in taking the medicine when the symptoms are present is that most of the medicines take several days to work and don’t work well unless they are taken daily. Misconceptions are hard to overcome even in the US where medical knowledge is more widely known. Most of my patients still think stress and pressure cause hypertension. I wish they would get rid of that word “Hypertension,” which originally meant the pressure in the blood vessel, but people think it is too much tension, or stress. High blood pressure is almost always a hereditary disease and stress has very little to do with it.

After the clinic I went to the Rotary Club to get some checks to help the people in Beni who have lost everything. A church there will supply tarps for some families and food for the poor. $2500 is not much but that much money will go a long way here. I am surprised that the other group from nearby Minero and Chane’ has not come to get their $10,000. I am insisting on getting official letters of request before we give money. All these groups are led by pastors but there are good apples and bad even in God’s bag of fruit.

Later I visited a lady in the sugar hospital who developed rectal bleeding after I gave her a shot of cortisone in the free clinic last week. The blood was bright red which would be unusual for a stomach ulcer, which can develop after a shot of cortisone, as the blood is usually dark red or black after traversing the many feet of the intestines. Also she had right lower quadrant pain. Ulcers are usually painless or cause pain in the pit of the stomach, the epigastrium. She could have an ulcer but they need to be sure she doesn’t have bowel cancer or some other problem. Her family was angry with me and the Etta Center for the care she got even though the care was given for free blaming us for the illness which began almost too soon for it to be related to the injection. She fortunately had insurance to go to the sugar hospital as her husband used to work there, so her care was free. I gave her my card as I have O+ blood if she needs a transfusion. I can’t give blood anymore in the US as they ask if you have been to South America in the past year. Since I come every year, I am always excluded from donation. Fear of malaria is the reason, but I have seen none of that disease in Montero in the ten years I have been here. I don’t want to give the Etta Center a black eye or our group either so I hope the family was placated by my visit.

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Thursday, April 05, 2007

Today was a disaster with the pen project. The mandrel, the metal shaft that turns the wood was ruined by Nestor. I don’t know what he did but the nut that secures the pieces of wood was so tight that it stripped the threads of the mandrel and rendered it useless. I had another mandrel that I bought last year just for that reason, but it didn’t fit on this model of lathe. We finally were able to make it work Bolivian style, but the motor was making funny noises. We stopped before something else went wrong and the men in the shop would try to grease the bearings to see it that would make the noise go away. We have been working for two days and we only have two pens to show for it, and there may be no more pens made if the lathe doesn’t work. I have faith that they can fix almost anything here, so the problem may be only temporary.

The children all were doing home work as I think they were falling behind due to our visits and their desire to interact with us while they can instead of working on their school work in the morning. In a week we will be going home until next year. I have to say that my heart is here in this place. I see the smiles on the faces of the boys and I think of the lives they might have had if they had not come to this place. There are so many opportunities open to them in the future that would not have been available if they were not here. We are starting a program to find sponsors for each of the children. One thousand dollars a year will support a child for the year including food, shelter, clothing, books and education. We are thinking of sending the older boys to a private school when they move up to the other house when it is finished next week (they are working day and night to have the opening before we leave) giving them a better chance in college when the time comes. We have some very bright students and a few that will probably be happy working in the wood shop when they graduate from school. Not everyone is college material. It is funny that the boys that are good at sports are also the best students, but everyone seems to have some talent in certain areas. One of the boys that seems hopeless in school work and sports is a fine artist. I am glad that we are offering a full range of extra learning opportunities to find the skills that the boys do possess.

Joanna went to Santa Cruz to buy more things for the auction and I went to the office with Kate. She really helps a lot even though she is only a high school student. She is interested in medicine, and everyone who comes to Bolivia who wants to go to medical school seems to get in. Shannon Shea, our first translator, is graduating from Johns Hopkins this year, Marc Walker is a freshman at Harvard Medical School and was just elected class president, and another student from the Ole Miss group, Dustin LeBlanc will be a junior next year at the University of Mississippi Medical School. Both of the last two students want to come back to Montero to enrich their medical knowledge in tropical medicine. Also, they know that they will be able to do many things here that they would never be able to do until a much later time in their medical training. Also learning a little Spanish is quite valuable with the influx of Hispanic patients that has hit the US.

On the way home I found out that there would be no Rotary meeting due to Holy Week and I had told the fine people at the Pinocho that we would not be there for dinner. We all went to the plaza and had a small dinner at an ice cream parlor on the corner of the plaza. It was a great place to watch the people coming and going to the Catholic Church and the plaza in general. The plaza is the center of social life in cities in Latin America and Montero is no exception. It was a beautiful evening if not a bit too hot and humid. On the way home walking to the Pinocho, the Southern Cross, a constellation not visible on our side of the equator, led us home.

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Good Friday, April 6, 2007

The last group of volunteers arrived today. I went to the airport in a minibus with Dwight and saw the American Airline plane land as we arrived. It is always a good sign to see the plane as we approach the airport. So many times I have wasted time when the flight was delayed or, as it happened two times this year, the people missed their flight. Linsey Wisdom is a reporter with The Highlander Newspaper and is here to a series of articles on the mission for the paper and one for the magazine monthly, Legacy. A bit more publicity might help with fundraising and getting people interested in the mission as supporters or members of the mission team. Henry DeGrazia, a teacher in Atlanta, was a late addition. Fred Motz of the Methodist Church told Henry of our mission as Henry wanted to find a place to take a mission group from his school this summer and he wanted to check out the place first to see if it would be suitable for his students. I have never met him, but if things go as usual, he will probably be sitting next to someone in our group on the plane.

Rachel Powers and her mother Leticia, who was raised in Mexico, are coming for the first time. Rachel was an exchange student in Chile last year so she should be quite fluent in Spanish. Joining them are Josh Hendricks and J T Schandolph. Josh has been here three times and J T is coming for the first time. Josh, Rachel, and J T are all high school students at Highlands School. Since there is no school today due to the holiday, there was little traffic on the road from the airport and we arrived for breakfast at the Pinocho at 9:30 AM. Following our meal we went to the foster home and we organized a football game with the new arrivals and me as the referee. It was very evenly matched and everyone was tired when the final goal was scored gaining victory for one side, 4-3. We had brought the last of the Highlands/Montero T-shirts and one team wore the shirts on the right way and the other team wore them backwards. All the volunteers entered in as well with several having experience in football. It was fun to see the young boys steal the ball from the adults and high school students. Football is their life here. No baseball, basketball, tennis, or other sports are played here.

Soon we were back at the Pinocho to eat lunch. The food is always excellent, well prepared and presented in a beautiful fashion. Normally the food is healthy with lots of vegetables and mostly chicken as a meat. Today, for the Good Friday meal, fish was prepared for the first time since we have been here. Due to the difficulty of getting fresh fish to this land locked nation, seafood is not a common dish here. I eat mostly fish when I am home so the diet here is a real change for me.

The clinic was closed as was everything else so we prepared for Easter Sunday making baskets for the children and walking around the city, the new arrivals getting the lay of the land. In the evening we all walked to the plaza to join in the procession of the Stations of the Cross. We were lucky to be in a very good position to see and take pictures of all the groups that left the main Catholic Church before the casket with the effigy of Jesus within was paraded around the town with a pause at each station. The casket was obviously heavy as the older men carrying it were struggling even in this, the first stage of the procession. I hope they have reserves to help out later in the procession. Being a pall bearer in this situation is a real honor. Songs and scripture were featured at each stop where families take great pride preparing their station with flowers, candles and the family Bible.

After walking long enough for some to get blisters, we settled back in the hotel and had another fine dinner. Everyone was tired from the trip, the football and the procession and an early bedtime was enjoyed by all.

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Saturday, April 7, 2007

It seems like the new group has been here several days as we have already done so much. We awoke early to visit the jail where Dr. Jesus Plata has visited every Saturday for the last seven years, making me feel bad that this is my first visit in the two months I have been here. As I have mentioned, our mission pays the total medical bills for this place. In the news I have read that the ceiling fell in due to all the rain in December through March and the Catholic Church helped with a donation of 1000 Bolivanos to repair the roof. No other organization helped including the government or any of the other churches or service clubs. The whole group was there and several were uncomfortable during their first visit. I remember my first visit and the anxiety I had until I found the prisoners were just different here. Surely there are violent people here as several show scars from knife fights and gun shot wounds, but the inmates once here are just peaceful. This is important as there are potential weapons everywhere, especially now as the repairs are being made. Bricks, broken pieces of the roof, bottles, rebar and other things could easily be transformed into weapons. The first patient we saw had an abscess in his left breast that I lanced. The equipment was sterilized with iodine which is pretty good, but we would never use instruments cleaned in such a way. Still, I was happy to see the suture tray that I had left here several years ago was there with all the instruments in place. The patient had been shot several years ago in the same area as the abscess. He probably has some remnants of the bullet or some other foreign object in his chest causing the recurrent abscess. He was placed on antibiotics but the drainage should be all he needs. The next patient had been shot and cut with a knife last March. He had several draining wounds in his abdomen. Despite the violent nature of these injuries, these men are placid. I am sure alcohol was involved with all these injuries. We are supporting alcohol rehabilitation at this place also. The rest of the patients were suffering from the usual things people get in a crowded place like this, including fungal infections, colds ear infections and scabies. Afterwards I was given a tour of the jail and the repairs being made by the inmates. While the repairs are being made, the inmates must find other places to sleep. The other cells are filled with men so tight that some must stand while the others sleep. In a room smaller than most people’s kitchen in the US there are 30 to 45 prisoners. The area being repaired holds 45. I pledged $1000 to improve ventilation and make repairs on the other cells as well. The conditions here are inhumane, but in spite of the conditions the inmates seem satisfied, if not happy. It is incredible. A new jail is being constructed, but it is on the low side of importance as seen by the lack of financial help for the repairs in this one. Ironically, on the other side of the wall where the inmates are working is the location of the government offices in the town. They cannot be ignorant of the conditions here.

We were ready for the boys to arrive to go to the mercado to buy clothes for school and shoes for sports when the sky opened with a violent shower. It only lasted 30 minutes and felt good as it has been very hot. Most of our group went to the plaza to see if the sloths were there. They seem to show up on weekends making me think someone plants them there for the tourists. They were soaked but didn’t seem to care. It was cool. The boys arrived in the foster home pick-up truck and the rest of us went to the mercado for the experience of shopping for the boys. We had 1200 eggs delivered from the farm of my friend Herman Landivar and kept 100 for us to decorate, and the rest were taken to the little girl’s orphanage near the market. They were thrilled to receive such a gift as 1100 eggs. Eggs are the main source of protein in this place, and most of the rest of the homes in Bolivia. Chicken is the next main source. If the bird flu ever comes here, I fear most of the people will be malnourished as the price of beef and pork would rise to such levels that only the rich could afford such meats, and fish is not a staple here. Generally, taking 12 boys shopping would be a chaotic event in most places but the boys are very well behaved and they don’t get to go to the market often. Perhaps they are so well behaved because they are afraid that they will miss out on a new pair of shoes if they run off or misbehave. New shirts for school and church, two different colors of shirts and shorts for soccer, sport shoes and a free pair of socks were all packed into the truck and we were off to the Pinocho for our annual lunch with the boys. The foster home family joined us along with a few of our friends from Montero. As usual the food was excellent and the meal was enjoyed by all.

After lunch we joined in another football game with the new shoes and outfits making the game more special than ever. While everyone else played, I went to the shop to see if the lathe had been repaired. It had not but I worked with it for a while and made a few pens to ascertain if the lathe still worked and it seemed to work fine despite the noise. In the shop two of the employees were working overtime to make two chairs for Dwight, and working on a project for Martha Rodenbeck. I had placed the plans on the lathe table to be sure I wouldn’t forget about it on Monday. Apparently they had read the note and were already working on the project. Incredible! The plans were in English and no one here reads or speaks English.

Tired and sweaty we returned to the hotel to prepare the eggs for tomorrow, Easter Sunday. The eggs were decorated and colored with food dye we bought last year. Since colored eggs are not a tradition here, food dye is hard to find and expensive. We have enough dye to last for several more years if it does not get lost or evaporate. This year it worked just fine. The only other place where an Easter Egg hunt is celebrated here is at the girl’s orphanage where the Polish traditions were transplanted. In Poland decorating eggs is an art surpassed nowhere in the world that I know of.

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Easter Sunday, April 8, 2007

As incredible as Good Friday was, Easter Sunday is a disappointment in Montero. We first went to an Evangelical church where the music was, and always is, incredible. The sermon, however, contained nothing about Easter and was very judgmental against the government and Catholics. It was very disappointing to hear this kind of sermon in a church and especially on Easter. Jesus loved us all and the parable about rendering unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s is, to me, a call for separation of church and state. The Resurrection to me is the most important aspect of our faith, and to hear nothing of it today on Easter Sunday was very upsetting. Following the sermon we went to the Dios Es Amor Church where we were received in our usual friendly fashion. The members were completely different from the other church. They are poorer and almost all Colla, as compared the Cambas in the other church. I feel more at home here although the music was better at the former church. Also they had the words to the songs projected on a screen at the other church making it a Spanish lesson as well as a spiritual event.

We went to the foster home for lunch and to celebrate Easter with the boys, bringing with us the custom of the Easter egg hunt. Several years ago we did this for the first time but now they know what is going on. We had the two older boys, Nestor and Oliver help hide the eggs along with the group of volunteers. This was done for two reasons: first, two new boys arrived after we had bought ten baskets in which to put the found eggs. Second, they are old enough to begin a role with more responsibility and that of a teacher. The eggs were hidden after lunch and the hunt was repeated one time with a few eggs broken each time and the broken ones were relegated to the kitchen for future meals. In the end there were seven eggs missing. Those that were not eaten, found or completely destroyed will be found by the dogs or the lizards that come into the property at night to scavenge. Nothing here will be wasted.

Returning home at dusk we had a late siesta preparing for dinner. Joanna and Dwight leave tomorrow and we were invited to share dinner with some friends who were celebrating both Easter and a birthday. About 40 persons from one year old to 77 years old were present. Family is an important part of life here and I have no doubt that this gathering was repeated nearly every weekend even when there was no birthday. An extra three persons was not a problem as there was enough food left over for another ten people. One never knows who will show up for dinner and there is always enough to accommodate more. Food is equated with love here and there is plenty of both to go around. It feels very comfortable to be in a group of relatives here. We are family to them, at least for today. Joanna is packed and ready to go as she needs to be at the airport at 7:00 AM.

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Monday, April 09, 2007

Joanna and Dwight left on schedule and the rest of the day proceeded like the others. The lathe was fixed enough to produce four pens today, but I fear none of the boys will be able to work without supervision. Not for their safety as there is little that could happen to harm them, but they don’t remember all the steps. One day one boy is great, and the next he can’t remember anything. Perhaps together they can get it right. I have been trying to give individual training to the older boys.

The high school boys and Henry went to the building project to help and the women came to the home with me to work with the boys. Linsey and Leticia Power talked to the boys about their lives before the hogar. How much of what they said is true, I do not know. I don’t know if the boys even remember what life was like before they came here. By the end of the week we should have a better idea of what went on in their lives. A social worker has been working with the boys since they all came but no one knows exactly what happened to bring them here. Almost half of the boys are bed wetters even at fourteen years old. Normally everyone is better in this regard by five. I am sure there were a lot of psychological problems in their lives with which we will have to deal before they become adults.

Henry, Josh and J T went to the construction site to work on the house. They helped level the floor which will eventually be covered with bricks and then cement. The walls will also be covered by a thin layer of cement giving the walls a finished look. They also chipped away bricks that had been laid incorrectly not allowing enough room for the window and door frames. I thankfully had not laid any of those bricks as my wall had no windows or other openings. While they were doing that work, the men were finishing the tile roof. Soon this house will be done and ready for the family to move in.

In the afternoon we split up the group into two groups, one going the clinic with me and the other to the little girl’s orphanage. We have nearly 100 stuffed animals and some other toys for the girls. We did have some interesting patients in the clinic, but the ones that got to go to the orphanage were the lucky ones. They put the beanie babies on the beds of the little girls so there would not be chaos like the last time we distributed the toys in person to the girls. I can only imagine the looks on their faces when they discover the stuffed animals while having to go to bed. The group also helped them with their homework and was very busy when I arrived with the clinic group. Unlike past years, the girls don’t hang on us and follow us to the car when we left. I hope this indicates that the girls are receiving enough love from the staff, for the girls don’t seem to be starved for affection like they were before. This makes it a lot easier to leave both for them and us. This is a wonderful place too. I had Henry come to the orphanage today as he has to leave Thursday morning and I want him to see as much as he can before he leaves so he can decide if he wants to bring a group here this summer. There is so much to do and see here.

They have been setting up something in the plaza for a few days, and we investigated what was happening in the evening. It was a fair for local builders and architects actually bidding on city projects, like the library and schools. Examples of the builders crafts from metal work to tile was present and there were places where I think competition for building fast and well will be done later in the week. I hope this fair will bring an end to the graft and corruption usually seen in the bidding process. One can hope.

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Tuesday, April 10, 2007

We all went to the foster home this morning. Football was played and only Josh and J T were still playing when I arrived from the shop. The rest were exhausted from the heat and activity. The boys, on the other hand, were still going strong, and didn’t want to stop for lunch. Still playing as we left, they might miss lunch, but it will not be our fault. I took a different approach to the pen project. I had a group of four work together. They were able to set up correctly, but as only one can do the lathe at a time, the other three quickly left to play soccer. My dream of the boys doing this to help their college fund is slipping away. I got an e-mail from the Washington State group today letting me know that Matthew Paul’s letter opener was confiscated as he went on the plane. That was not surprising as it could be used as a weapon, but they also took the pen he bought. I guess the inspector wanted the complete set. I can see no reason to take a pen! The good side is that he will want to buy another set to replace the one he lost. Also, I will pack all of the sets in the checked in luggage, which I would have done anyway.

In the afternoon all the group did house calls set up by Joanna before she left. I got to do a minor operation for the first time this year. This was one of my main objectives when I came to do the clinics this year. The doctors here can do what I have been doing seeing medical problems, but no one does minor surgery. I was almost giddy as I prepared to remove a lesion from a woman’s leg. This suture kit will be sterilized correctly before it is used again, but this is my last week here. I hope other doctors will be able to use this equipment in the months to come, and I look forward to do more operations next year.

Every year, near the end of our time here, we show a movie and make pizza and popcorn for all the friends that have helped us on our mission. We do this at the house of Herman and his wife Gringa. They have a nice patio where 30 people can watch the movie and enjoy a near theater like experience. The visitors began making pizzas at 6 PM and I showed the movie, “The Devil Wears Prada,” mostly to our group as the festivities didn’t start until 8:30. By the time the guests arrived, we had eaten most of the pizzas and had to make more crusts. In the end we had enough. The main attraction was, “The DiVinci Code,” which was as controversial here as it was in the US and around the rest of the world. In the end we all agreed that it was just a movie and not fact. It was an excellent evening and a chance to give back a little for all the help we receive here from our friends. This night usually signifies the beginning of the end of our trip and that is both sad and happy at the same time. Thoughts of my lawn and garden are beginning to creep into my mind signifying that I need to get back home.

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Wednesday, April 11, 2007

The time is getting short. On one hand it seems like I have been here for a long time, and on the other, it seems like I just got here. There are things I wanted to do and now these things must be compressed into a very short period of time, and there are those things we did we didn’t plan to do and, finally there are those things we have accomplished as planned. As I work with the children in the shop, I see the employees working hard, many on projects I have ordered. One project is the swings for the little girl’s orphanage, and another is the wine bottle holders made of fine Bolivian wood. The shop will be well paid for these projects, but considering as much work that is done, they are not making a profit despite having no overhead as we pay for the electricity and all the machines were provided at no cost to the shop. Unfortunately there is no one with real marketing experience overlooking the work here. I would like to build a showroom in the city of Montero to display the beautiful furniture and other things they build here. The process is fun to see, starting with pieces of raw wood one day and producing a finished product the next. Of course, many projects take much longer to complete, but they do fine work here and I would like to see the shop become profitable. The biggest reason for which is the support of the home after I, and the rest of our group are no longer able to come here. I hope the mission will carry on without me, but one never knows.

Wilder and Freddy make the only products today. The older boys are busy playing football in their new uniforms. I think they would sleep in them if the house mother would let them.

In the afternoon we went to Santa Cruz with the last group so they could buy souvenirs and other things to take home. I have been here so many times but I have to pick up some things Joanna has bought for the auction but were not ready when she was here. These I get and the rest of the time I have to myself. I took the time to visit some of the art galleries of the artists I met at the Exponorte. If I hadn’t had the addresses, I would have walked right past them without knowing they were there. I saw nothing that I thought I should buy. Paintings have not sold well in the past few auctions. Perhaps my tastes are not to the liking of our patrons, or the art is just too different. I don’t know. I wandered about the center of the city which is really quite beautiful. I finally met up with Linsey Wisdom, a writer at the Highlander Newspaper and we spent the remaining time in the plaza until the rest of the group met us there. We went to the bus and went to dinner at The Casa Camba where the youth like to eat. There is entertainment and dancing. We enjoyed the ambience and the food and returned back to Montero at about midnight.

Thursday, April 12, 2007.

It began as a cloudy cool day but soon the temperature rose and black clouds began to collect to our east. By the time we left it looked like dusk even though it was the middle of the day. We have been planning to go to the Guarani Community tomorrow so I hope it won’t rain too much. The wood project has diminished to a few of the volunteers making cork screws. All the boys are playing soccer in their new uniforms. Since the two eldest boys dominate the game, I am considering having them do pens tomorrow and let the other boys have fun playing without Nestor and Oliver taking all the glory and hogging the ball all the time. The younger players feed the ball to them all the time so they are complicit, but they will have more fun if the young ones finally get to do the scoring.

This is the “Day of the Child” in Bolivia and at 10 we had saltanas, a meat and vegetable filled fried pastry with the boys. This was furnished by the Damas Rotarias, the wives of the Rotarians. We finished the fence around a fairly large garden in which the dogs dig upsetting the vegetables growing there. The rest of the garden is, apparently, left in peace to grow. The peas are already producing pods, albeit small. Peas like cool wet weather, so one out of two isn’t bad, but these peas are just small. They are climbing the fences very nicely, however. As for the pole beans, they are about a yard long but clinging to the weeds on the ground as there are still no poles. I suspect these, too, are unknown to the Bolivians. Still Irma and Pedro, the house parents, say that they will get some poles soon.

We left the hogar to visit the Etta Turner Center Two, hoping to help serve the children. They, too, were celebrating the “Day of the Child” and there were balloons with the children’s names on them on the walls. The food looked good and each child was well fed. Chicken and rice with vegetables was the fare. Soup is the usual meal and for dessert there were ice cream bars and fruit. Certainly the children were full today. As we left, I thought I would show the group the Etta Turner One Center, only four blocks from the Pinocho. We were in luck as this center serves the children one half hour later, so we were able to celebrate with the children again. Here many of the volunteers were dressed like clowns and the clowns gave out toys from a bag. Each child put their hand in the bag and pulled out a doll or toy. Unfortunately, I frightened an older girl by saying there was a snake in the bag as a joke. It took a while for her to be able to put her hand in to grasp a toy. Everyone laughed, including the girl, so everything ended well. Finally we returned to the Pinocho for our lunch having been offered food, but politely refusing. I suspect the eating conditions are quite safe in there places, but no one is willing to take a chance. However, all the plates and silverware are washed in the tap water here. As careful as we try to be, it is impossible to avoid all contamination.

It was the last day in the clinic, and most of the patients were returning for check ups for problems found in the first visits. Many, unfortunately, have not returned for follow up exams. All the patients were improved, either their symptoms or their blood sugars. How many will be able to afford their medicines I do not know. Most of the patients we had seen before in past years stopped their medicines when they felt better. Certainly this happens everywhere, as it is human nature to wish you are cured when you feel better. Alas, most diseases are chronic and require long term treatment.

Rotary was back to its normal schedule. We arrived at about 8:30 to a practically empty room. The rain was continuing and that may have slowed down a few people.  By 9, however, the room was filled. We had discussed several matters before the meeting, from the solar wood dryer for the carpentry shop to the showroom for the products from the shop. Also the dedication of the new house was announced at 10 AM on Saturday morning, our last day. The house is not finished but I want to be here for the dedication and the house will be functional soon. They have been working day and night after hardly working the first six weeks of our mission. Another team of North Carolinians was present featuring the ophthalmologist, David Markoff of Waynesville. He performs about 25 eye surgeries a day. I hope some of the patients I sent to the clinic were among the ones lucky enough to receive the operations.

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Friday, April 13, 2007

The rain apparently continued through the night making the trip to the campo a risky affair. If there is no more rain, we might be able to get there this afternoon. We dropped by the house that now has a full roof and most of the inside walls are already covered by the final layer of cement. I picked up the gloves that have been there since the University of Mississippi group came on March 11. It seems like a year ago. I asked the men when the house would be finished and they stated that it would be ready in about two weeks, or less. At the rate they are progressing, I have no doubt that they will finish by that time.  We arrived to find the boys in their English class. I gathered up many of the items made in the shop for our volunteers including some wine bottle holders, two chairs (I don’t know how I am going to get these back to Highlands) and the swings for the girls orphanage. I will deliver these sometime on Saturday afternoon. Our flight doesn’t leave until almost 11 PM so we have almost a full day more here. The three oldest boys were able to make four pens with minimal help. I feel a bit better about the project continuing in my absence. Unfortunately, there was no football game. What the other boys did during this time, I do not know. Linsey did finish her interviews with the boys asking what life was like before they came to the home. She has only told me a little of her interviews, but what she has told me makes me glad this place is here.

Since we planned to go to the campo today, we skipped lunch at the Pinocho and they prepared a picnic type lunch for us to eat on the way to the Guarani. Before that I picked up some things we bought at a local artist’s studio and then changed clothes. By the time we left, we could have had lunch at the Pinocho. As we turned off the main paved road on the way to the Guarani Community, we immediately hit puddles of mud. Actually this road was in much better shape than the one to Santa Martha or the route to fishing at the Rio Grande. We moved so fast that the top to one of the coolers was lost, blowing off in the wind unnoticed by the students holding on for dear life in the back of the pickup truck. The students thought the trip was fun. They should have been present for our other trips. The roads were twice as bad and many times longer. We finally came to a washed out bridge about half a mile from our destination. We forded the river by foot and walked unannounced to the plaza of the Guarani Community carrying our medical supplies. Electrical wires hovered above us bringing power to this place for the first time. When we got to the final river it became apparent what had happened to the other bridge. The final river was always fun as it was deep and about 20 feet across and needed to be forded in the truck. Now there was barely a trickle of water indicating that the course of the river had been changed by all the rain. The new course could not handle the flow of the water and washed out the bridge. From the pattern of the tire tracks, I suspect this happened last week, as there were still tire tracks on the far side that had to have been made before the bridge was washed out. Actually hiking in with all the medical supplies made us feel like real pioneers. Arriving in the plaza at siesta, we found only a few children playing on the new cement multipurpose playground. The school classroom we started last year was finished as was the clinic building we built. The clinic was unfortunately filled with bags of cement rather than exam tables but I hope that will change with time. Soon, as in all the other areas where we have had a clinic, many people were assembled to be seen. Several students did blood sugars, having learned at the Cruz Roja, and others did blood pressures. No one had diabetes! Only a few older people had high blood pressure indicating to me that the hard life here, with little or no processed food helps to prevent diabetes and hypertension, two of the most common chronic diseases here and in the world. I saw a lot of children who all seemed to get sick three days ago with the same viral cold. A few had bronchitis and those were given antibiotics, but most didn’t need that kind of medicine. A few were treated for parasites but most were healthy looking. Several men were quite old with symptoms of coronary artery disease. These were almost 80 years old and they were told to reduce their activity. There is no medicine available for them.

It was comforting to me to see many of the same old faces here as in past years. The chief looks just as he did when I first met him eight years ago. One of the eight year old boys was not born yet when we first came. I remembered his mother as the most beautiful woman in the community and she had unforgettable green eyes. Now she is overweight and most of her teeth have fallen out. Time has not been kind to her with this hard life but she still has a beautiful smile. Everyone here seems to be so happy all the time and now they have electricity! I asked several people how long it had been here and one said it was put in on Monday, although the poles looked older than that, and one just said it was last year. I think the people have a different concept of what time is and how it affects them and their lives. Practically no one wears a watch. In this area, daylight is time to work, and night is time to rest. Now with electricity, I wonder how long it will be before TV’s are in every house and that will change everything. Questions like, “Why don’t we have a car?” and “Why can’t we travel to that place?” will be asked all the time and ruin the peaceful character of this magical place. As we leave, carrying a good bit less than we did when we arrived, the sun was low in the sky and the birds were more active searching out that last bit of food before retiring for the night. This is one of my favorite times of the day here as flocks of parrots fly over, chattering as they do, flying in pairs as they mate for life. Our truck was where we left it and undisturbed. I wasn’t expecting vandalism in this place and there was none. We went back a bit slower trying to look for the top of the cooler that flew off in the wind. The Pinocho is very good at preparing boxed lunches for us. Crusts are cut off the bread like a tea party. They had made vegetable sandwiches in a sub roll, and provided plates and bowls for our fruit which we ate with our fingers before we discovered the bowls and utensils. This is one of the reasons I love this place, but tomorrow is our last day, and I am becoming sad to leave. I have become so close to some of the boys. I know the ceremony tomorrow will be difficult.

We arrived in Montero early enough to quickly buy a new cooler for the Pinocho to replace the topless one. Taking the group to the hotel I said to Letty and Linsey that we had just enough time to visit Portachuelo to buy wrinkle cream that some of the women in previous groups said worked wonderfully, and they wanted to buy more. We rushed across the Eisenhower Bridge, now called the Amistad de Japon y Bolivia Bridge due to repairs paid for buy Japan. I will bring a big United States flag next year and tie it to the bridge with duck tape. Politics is one thing, but changing the name of the bridge is another. Perhaps they could call it the bridge formally know as the Eisenhower Bridge. I could live with that. The X-ray machine in Portachuelo is no closer to being released for captivity. They now want $3000 to release it from customs. Who does the government think is going to benefit form this machine? It is their own people; no one else. They are punishing them now by holding the machine. It may well be worthless when it is finally released.

We went to the plaza and went to the corner drug store that sells all the honey products. There are soaps, shampoo, pure honey and a honey with pollen sold as “Levante Muerte,” literally, “Raising the Dead.” The Bolivian version of Viagra. We bought every bottle of the antiwrinkle cream they had, which was not hard to do as they had so little. This firm advertises all over in the ExpoNorte and ExpoForest expositions, and in the newspaper, and they only had 20 jars of the product. If this stuff works as well as Martha Rodenbeck says it does, we will sell it all in a few days as we have more than they have now in Bolivia. Returning home we passed the car wash. I got complaints from the ladies who would only have one hour to prepare for our dinner at the social worker’s house, but I ignored them as this would be the last opportunity to wash the truck before returning it to Dardo tomorrow night. This truck gives our group freedom here in Montero. We go places where I would not like to take these old taxis for fear of breakdown. After all, this truck is only 20 years old. It was interesting to see the men wash the truck quickly as the sun was beginning to set. We had almost an hour to change for dinner. I spent half of my allotted time to pack another bag.

We had dinner at Margo Molina’s home. She was the social worker at the General Hospital when we had the three children receive their heart operations, but now works at the children’s hospital. She was the last to arrive. The home was directly across the street from where the two girls were staying at Senora Irma’s house. The house was small but neat, and Carmen, the girl who had the heart operation was there and another very thin woman who had had a tracheostomy recently, having a healed hole in her neck. She later told us that she had been afflicted with Guillian-Barre Syndrome, a mysterious disease that often follows a viral infection or a vaccination, like a flu shot. She apparently had none of these things but she started with weakness in her left arm, then couldn’t walk, and within one day couldn’t speak or breathe. She was on a respirator for four months and still uses a wheel chair, thankfully received from the Wheelchair Foundation. Carmen was first seen by me in 2003 when three children were presented to me needing heart operations. I was helping Margot work with another Rotary project that receives the children at different hospitals in the US and repairs the hearts, while the family stays at a home of a Rotarian for up to three months while the child recovers. The only cost is the transportation of the child and a relative. Carmen had a stroke and was in the intensive care room when we were being interviewed for medical supplies we brought. I suggested that we interview the child to see if we could get some support from Montero instead of asking Gringos for money. During the interview, the doctor (the same one who cared for my heart attack the next year) said if the girl doesn’t get an operation in the next week, she would die. Fear crossed her face and I will never forget her blood pressure and pulse going sky high for a few minutes. I thought we were going to loose her right then. It did, however, make for good advertising as the whole episode was caught on tape and was broadcast that night. The children in several schools went on the streets with cups to collect money for her cause. I said I would double whatever was collected. I was proud to see in the newspaper that the children earned over $300 in this manner, and our mission donated $1000, and members of the mission put in another $500. A very generous person donated $3000 and the operation was done the next week. Carmen is an example of what can be done if the local community gets involved. The other two children came to the US for their operations and are also doing fine. Carmen has grown into a very fine young woman.

The meal was interesting. Different meats were offered, I thought, to give us a full experience of the variety of Bolivian meats. We had ubre, udder, which I had had before and didn’t like, beef, and heart. Prior to this time I had only used heart as fish bait. Heart is quite bland and not as tough as the usual muscle meat and it had an almost metallic, liver flavor. It wasn’t bad, but I will probably never order it if I were in a restaurant. Following dinner we played some parlor games. It was a fun and interesting day. As I left I realized that this family inviting us to dinner was a real sacrifice to their budget. Heart and other organ meats was probably what they could afford. I appreciated the experience to eat in the house of a middle class person, something I had not done before.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Our last day was not going to be a relaxing one. First there was a ceremony at “the new jail.” With an infusion of a few dollars the entire place was painted and the finishing touches on the lettering of the cells and other rooms were being completed as we arrived. After seeing a few patients, and them knowing that we needed to be at the hogar at 10 AM, they had my ceremony at 9:30. It was a moving experience to hear the trustee, Hugo, give his thanks for all our mission had done for the jail. We provide all the medicine and now the money to repair the roof, make minor repairs as the need arises, and provide ventilation for the cramped quarters. I don’t think the inmates need to be coddled, but the conditions here are appalling. They are treating all the prisoners again with the scabiecide medication again today. Scabies, a mite that burrows under the skin, flourishes in this kind of environment of close quarters. I gave a short speech followed by Dr. Plata, who is the real hero in this place. My speech was written up in the newspaper much better than I remember giving it, but it had the basic meaning of what I wanted to say.

Back to the foster home we went and the Rotarians arrived in a trickle. Freddy made three cork screws in front of the Rotarians and he immediately sold every one. He made $36 for his college education in about an hour. We sold these to the local people for 100 Bolivanos or about $12 each. If that doesn’t help him learn about commerce, nothing will. He is really proud of himself now, and Freddy needed some self confidence. He is fatter than the rest and doesn’t play sports as well, although he is our best goalie. Finally we got around to having a ceremony of dedication of the new house for the older boys. It is nearly done needing windows and screens and a little touch up work. The new cork screws were used to open the ceremonial bottle of wine and Freddy was given credit for making it. You should have seen the look on his face. Another infusion of pride. Finally, lunch was served followed by tearful good-byes. Working so close with the boys this year and really getting to know them better made it harder than ever to leave. I am so proud of this place and the caliber of young men it seems to be producing. With the knowledge of the interviews Linsey has done, I know we have been a force for good. This is the real tangible measure of our mission. Who knows what other things have been changed by our efforts. The micro-finance project is another possibility for making great changes.

We went to pack and when finished, we called the airport to see if the plane was on time. Much to our surprise, the flight had been cancelled, as the same flight was cancelled last night. We knew this because one of the members of Dr. Markoff’s group was on that flight and this one as well. I was upset and somewhat angry. After all the emotion involved in saying “farewell,” I was ready to go and the extra time here was not on my schedule. I was physically and emotionally exhausted. The youth, and some of the younger adults decided that this was a chance to visit one of the local discos. Returning at about 2 AM, I was concerned if they would be ready to leave at 6 AM in the morning for our flight. We were lucky to be able to get on the next flight out, making me think that the night flights were cancelled due to empty seats. Being cancelled two nights in a row and all finding seats on the next available flight makes me think the mechanical failure was really a lack of passengers. It will be good to get back in spite of the delay. I went to bed but, as usual before a flight, I didn’t sleep, worrying about not getting up and missing the plane. That is the reason I booked the night flight so getting a good night’s sleep is not a problem.

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Overview:
April, 2007

The flight home was uneventful but we would have missed the flight to Atlanta if the flight to Atlanta had not been delayed. We lost only one suitcase and that was delivered the next day. I feel the mission was a success this year although many of the planned projects were not completed and the money diverted to more meaningful areas due to the flooding. The economy will take months if not years to get back to normal, and that assumes that there will not be more flooding next year during the rainy season. By our visit next year, the sink holes should be all repaired and additional stones on the road to the foster home yearly should make it possible to get to the home in any weather. It was very frustrating not to be able to visit the home when it rained a lot, and I can’t even begin to know how it must have felt to be isolated from the rest of the world during those spells, unable to go to school, or the hospital in an emergency.

The funds for many of our projects were diverted to flood relief, which I hope never happens again. Our budget for miscellaneous was $5,000 and the final expenses for that category was nearly $22,000. Fortunately we had enough donations to cover those costs and we were able to divert funds from projects that didn’t seem as worthy when viewing the tragedy of the floods.

Usually there is a thread that courses through the mission that is often only discovered near or at the end of the trip. I really can’t see an obvious thread this year unless it is the floods or the foster home. It had been said to me in the past that I personally did not spend enough time with the boys. After all, they all call me “father.” This year I spent at least half a day at the home and often more. I can tell you that I felt a lot better for that time spent with “my boys” and I hope they felt the same. Also the teams spent more time there and they had more free time as we were not building houses like we usually do. The one house we did build had such a fantastic crew that we hardly had anything to do. The University of Mississippi group laid the foundation, Steve Hott, Wayne Clark and I worked several afternoons on walls and the youth worked one morning on the door jams and that was it. The house was finished at the end of April. As for the floods, only time will tell if our donations have had any effect. The problem is so great and our donations so small it is hard to imagine that our help will be noticeable in the grand picture of events. Still, a few families that we did touch will feel the loving presence of our work. In the end, that is the only thing that matters.

Surely the most satisfying time spent for me and several of the volunteers were the mobile clinics and next year we will plan to do many more of these. It was fun riding through the mud, fording streams and hiking in to the areas with the medical supplies. It made us all feel a little like Dr. Livingston. Treating 50 to 100 people in a day really made me feel good and I hope the patients had a similar response. Next year I hope to have a group from both Harvard University Medical School and a group from the University of Mississippi Medical School. Both of these will be led by former Ole Miss students who came on mission trips in the past. It is amazing how the mission grows. Several in the group of Rotarians from Washington State have voiced a desire to return even if there are no wheel chairs to distribute.

The pen project that occupied so much of my time may or may not be successful, but I almost sold out of the pens, cork screws and letter openers that I brought back in only one day. I sold $975 worth in just one day and all that money will go into the boy’s educational fund. The foster home is functioning well and the second home is finished and will be operational as soon as the Rotarians find a suitable couple to be the house parents.

The carpentry shop continues to break even. This needs to become profitable to be able to support the foster home. They spend too much time making simple furniture that sells cheaply when they have the experience and talent to make fine furniture. They need a marketing person to expand sales of the more profitable items. One of our projects will be to build a showroom at the Rotary house which has a corner that would be perfect for that purpose. After construction, the showroom would be rent free.

All the volunteers seemed to like the fact that they were able to have more free time to do the projects they were called to do. Most of the members of the team have been to Montero many times and had a good idea of the needs. Perhaps the floods and the lack of construction projects let us do more in the way of hands on projects like AA meetings and evangelical projects. The micro-finance divided into two groups, one faith based and the other more secular. The Etta Turner Center group may well become more faith based when they determine that the “coincidences” that brought their micro-finance program together may not be really be “coincidences.” As I have said many times before, the hand of God is much easier to see here. The last of the “coincidences” was a donation for the microfinance project that I just received. We “owe” $5000 to the Etta Turner Foundation, and guess what the recent check was written for? Exactly $5000! What a coincidence!

The wheelchair project was a lot more work than I had anticipated. We traveled all over the area but I could not have had a more meaningful experience. As I give a slide show of the project at the local Rotary Clubs, I hope there will be an interest to do this again and members of the various clubs will hopefully come to help with the distribution. That is where the real satisfaction comes from.

Lastly I would like to thank our contributors who have made this all possible. There are so many people both here and in Bolivia, all working together, making our work possible and enjoyable. I look forward to next year’s mission trip and all the fundraisers which make the mission possible. If you are moved to make a donation or need to get more information about the mission, or any of our fundraisers, feel free to call me or write to:

Highlands Bolivian Mission
171 Hospital Drive
Highlands, NC  28741

I am also happy to make a slide show presentation to churches or groups of any size.

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