August 28, 2008
- The rain started to fall harder as the sun was setting over the Orinoco delta in western Venezuela. Swerving continuously to miss the large masses of floating hyacinth, our small fishing boat picked up speed in an attempt to make it to the camp before the light had completely fled the day…
The adventure had started in October of 2007 when Dr. Mathes had an opportunity to speak at our church in Lincoln, Nebraska. Since my wife had invited him to come, we were able to take him to breakfast early that Sunday morning before he spoke. When he found out that I had connections in Venezuela, his eyes lit up and said that ROW had always wanted to explore the possibilities in the area. As always, God had worked his magic and brought us together - many months and over 2000 miles later, a group of five (including two paramedics) boarded a small fishing boat in the pouring rain headed to our camp in the Orinoco delta.
As we settled in that first night in our small cabins and crawled under the mosquito nets, we were uncertain of what we would find or even how we would be received.
Striking out early the next morning (after being awaked by nature’s alarm clocks –
parrots, toucans, and howler monkeys), we quickly came upon our first Warao indian settlement nestled into the jungle on the banks of the delta river. As soon as word spread that some medically trained personnel had come, all the wives and small children started to gather around to see what help could be had. Many of the men had already left to go fishing or farming deep in the jungle.
Our routine was quickly established – the two paramedics would examine the children and mothers, I would help translate with the help of our guide that could speak the local dialect, and my wife would take notes about the ailments we found and the number of people we saw. To put the children at ease, we had brought small trinkets of plastic beads and whistles and we soon discovered the only way we could keep track of who we had seen was to find the ones playing with these toys as they all clustered around for attention.
The conditions we found were truly heartbreaking. Health issues that we consider easy to cure in more developed parts of the world were truly debilitating here in the remote delta so far away from hospitals and other medical treatments. It appeared that many of the villages had been infected with a flu-like cold and were suffering from fevers and body aches as well as severe chest congestion. We also found many cases of a type of ear-mite that caused open sores in the ears of many the children. Luckily, we had medicine that would help treat many of the symptoms we found, although in several of the sickest people (including two small babies), the best we could do is advise that they get to the nearest hospital (easily over an hour by boat) as soon as possible because their needs were beyond our limited cache of medicine. As we wrapped up and packed our things to go, we were surprised at the insistence of the tribe leader to say a prayer for us before we would go.
Over the coming days, we found this pattern repeated itself in many of the villages we visited, and amidst the wonderful beauty of the mangrove jungle in eastern Venezuela, we knew that God would need us to continue this work here if we expected to make a lasting difference in the lives of these peaceful and friendly people.
David
August 25, 2008
- We did clinic in 3 villages today and saw close to 60 patients. Since it is their winter, everyone has bad colds and congested
chests - so the docs gave out lots of meds for fevers and such. We saw several
very sick folks on this first outing. The goal is to do a health survey to ascertain the basic needs of the folks in the river basins. From our first day, it is apparent that there are plenty of
opportunities for teams to join us in this area.
Elizabeth will have a detailed report for you once we get
back - right
now - please keep us on your prayers and continue to listen to ROW
Radio and watch for photos on the website
I am typing this with a flashlight tucked under my chin - not too
comfortable - but it works! We have been praying with folks in every village and remain humbled that they pray for us at the close of each
clinic! Its so nice to know that the love of Christ binds us around the world!
God bless you there, God bless us here
The ROW Team
August,
2008 -
We made it! 5 hour flight - 11 hour bus ride
- hour and a half down the Canya de Buja River- in the driving rain - open boat of course- and we are here! What beautiful jungle! Wairaoi Indians - lots of birds and monkeys and new friends - we'll do a health survey
- share Mega Voice Bibles - baby caps and do our first visit to a
village in the AM
Everyone is healthy and we are so pleased to have made it through an incredible lightning storm - reminded me of Congo.
We are in Venezuela off to Canya de Buja
River - I am swarmed with mosquitoes as I write - there are parrots and tucans in the trees above us and it is breath taking! It rained on us as we
traveled in an open boat last night for an hour and half - we are wet - bugged and happy! Great team of 5 of us- Bryan and Chris are medicos, David and Elizabeth are newly weds and then there's me....
