Well deserved pehaps, certainly appreciated time off!

How do we let off steam at Roca Blanca?

Well, of course there is the beach, I have only gone swimming once so far, it is not like I can just go out and jump in the ocean, although we have a few who do. The waves can be rough and I have a particular respect for places where people have drowned. It is better to drive to Roca Mar down the beach or go to Puerto Escondido.

Berta and I spend workdays with Drs. Dave and Mary Kay at the clinic when we have patients. Tuesday and Thursday are regular clinic days when people come to see the doctors. We have had some interesting, and challenging situations.

We see 20 to 40 patients on any such day. Of course we are always on call.

As often as were able this last week, we sat in on the Community Health Evangelism courses with Dr. Jody and the Elim students. Molly was overseeing the students course work through the week but had to go home Friday morning. Prior to her departure we all had some great times. The classes were full of skits and games and lots of laughter. We also got in a few movie nights complete with popcorn.

Molly modeling her very cool hairstyle, which I may try to copy when my hair gets longer

Thursday night before Molly left the moon was bright and just one day shy of total fullness. We built a fire on the beach and had one of the best salchiche roasts I can remember. Remember that Mexican hot dogs (salchiches) are served with mayo as well as mustard and ketsup. We didn't make S'mores, but enjoyed roasted strawberry flavored bon bons (marshmellows).

The best part I think was the music. Two guitars and one big jembe were passed around between several talented musicians. I stayed out for a long time, but if I had stayed a little longer I would have been able to join in on all the Veggie Tale songs....bummer.

Spanish language student Issac helped build the fire

Clinic director and language school director Laura and David with Eric, Issac's dad

Bethany, Angela and Susan roasting salchiches

Cafecito!
This morning we all got up before sunrise to get dressed and head on down to Cafecito to enjoy their fantastic breakfasts. Many enjoyed the Oaxacan Chocolate filled croissants....but I had the Pan Frances con tocino, as always! The occasion was Dr. Jody's departure from Roca Blanca. She is now on her way to Mexico City where she is going to try to find someone to give her a yellow fever vaccine, and to work on obtaining her visa to Ghana, where she heads to next.

oops, you can barely see Dr. Jody behind Susan!

From there we took to the beach to watch the waves and the surfers, then a little shopping on the Adoquin and then the public market.

I discovered how to avoid buying stuff that though I really want it, I really should not buy....don't carry more than $150 pesos on you! Still, there was one really nice dress I wish I could have...

I found the simple silver necklace to match these new earrings...just got to wait until I feel justified to pay the $200 pesos ($16 US)

Well, I thought a light-hearted blog would be nice. Some thing quick and pretty, so I hope you enjoyed it.

Dr. Alejandro and his wife/nurse Peggy arrived last night. He is a dentist and will be teaching the Elim students what to do when there is no dentist. I also found out that I have to have a medication shopping list done by Monday morning so we can take advantage of the Monday discount day at our regular pharmacy. Friday we head out on a medical-dental outreach to the Mixteco.

Parting words

Eddie says "hi"....I talk to him almost every day. He had a wonderful time babysitting our grandchildren last week. He played dolls (Tinkerbell and Rosey) with Kaitlyn (age 3) last night. He said she really was very verbal and seemed to have a good time with Grandpa. I talked to Amanda this morning and she said that 11 month old Damien is standing up on his own. I also talked to my Sarah and Grace....they are getting so big...I look forward to seeing them in March.

And finally,
I cannot close without telling you about Alyssa. Little Alyssa has been in many of your prayers. She was born in Oaxaca, her parents are Bible translators to the Mixtec people we work with in El Mosco. Her birth was traumatic, she suffered profound anoxia, and the last few years her survival has been a miracle, and a blessing to her family who love her deeply.

Today their home and arms are missing one little angel who has now gone to be with Jesus where she is healed and whole. Please pray for Kevin, Laurel, Kyle, Dani and Gaby as they realize a new meaning to "treasures in heaven", and as they live and survive through the next weeks and months.

Always something different

It is almost 10 PM as I sit here outside the wireless connection at Misión Victoria. I was going to do post this blog 2 hours ago, but as I was eating my cerviche tostados we got word of a patient arrival. It turned out that she needed a lot of care, so I just got away to post this.

Language School at Roca Blanca!

Eric, Timothy, Correen and Issac Anderson with Spanish Academy director Dave Nelson

Maestra Paulina and Joanne with Paulina and Dr. Eder's little girl, Nelly

This January David Nelson started the Spanish Language academy with 5 students. The Anderson’s are a family of four preparing to work in a children’s home north of here in Oaxaca. Joanne, the other student, is getting ready to start her Master’s work in ESL and wants to experience learning Spanish as an adult.

I try to check in with them to see how they are doing often. Eddie and I both remember what a challenge it was to study this intensive language curriculum. We fixed dinner together Wednesday night, fried chicken and baked potatoes! On the weekend I showed them how to use the micro to go to Puerto Escondido, and I introduced Joanne to her first Tlayuda! They seem to be doing good. They are smiling a lot more this week than last week. I cannot think of a better place to study Spanish than Roca Blanca!

Bethany from Lancaster, PA experiencing her first Tlayuda!

...and more students

Vernessa with little David Solomon

Last Friday we received a group of student from Elim Bible Institute, Lima, New York. Elim is a missionary training school that is over a century old.

Drs. Dave and Mary Kay, and Clinica Corban are hosting a Community Health Assessment and Development course for medical missionary students. Today we started classes with Dr. Jody, a pediatrician and missionary who lives north of here in Zihuatanejo. Jody works with CHE (Community Health Evangelism), a global community health mission organization. She is with us for a week teaching a effective, holistic model for improving community health and sharing the gospel.

I will be attending as many of the class hours as my clinic responsibilities will allow. We began today by looking at the scriptural imperatives of living in the Kingdom of God; God’s plan for His people to live in the fear of the Lord and worship Him, as well as be stewards to nurture His creation. God’s word directs us to act “justly, love mercy and to walk humbly with God” (Micah 6:8). And we spent a lot of time discussing what that meant.

Dr. Jody helping us consider how to involve community involvement and ownership of their own health projects

We considered what many have called “the social gospel” which seeks to meet the social and physical needs with little recognition of the individual’s need for a Savior. One of the students said that was like getting them all cleaned up and nice and pretty for hell.

And also we recognized that to just preach the gospel of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ without obeying his mandate to be stewards and to stand strong for justice was ignoring the whole gospel.

Rosie and Angela show how the community's solutions to their own problems can be more sustainable and effective than those solutions brought in by outsiders

It was a stimulating time, including thoughts on how to utilize community health models including missionaries, health care professionals and individual members of the community.

If you have read any of my blogs or heard me share about the indigenous group we work with in the mountains of Oaxaca, you are aware of the darkness and the emotional and physical health issues we deal with. This afternoon we looked at the beliefs that were the roots of the values that lead to the behaviors (domestic violence, witchcraft, drunkenness, kidnapping young girls to make them wives) that result in the consequences of poverty, depression, illness, illiteracy and hopelessness that dominates the Mixteco people that come to our mountain clinics.

Katlyn and Katie assessing and assigning care to patients!

We agreed that their belief that God doesn’t love them results is no hope and no vision. We believe that this is key to understanding the health problems of the Mixteco. Recognizing this we talked about how we can bring in hope and model the love of God, and how evangelism can be relevant to the needs of a community. Medicines, sanitation and clean water is just the tip of the iceberg.

And today was just the first day!

Dr. Jody cited Multiplying Light and Truth Through Community Health Evangelism by Stan Rowlands. I hope to obtain this book when I return to the States.

Finding ways to make Community health evangelism practical

As I listen to Jody’s teaching I am inspired to consider what God would have me do with this information. When I left Seattle 3 weeks ago, I told Eddie that I thought God had something to say to me while I was here alone without him. Hopefully many of you know what it is to have an experience or hear a message that gets your attention, and you go to the Lord and say “is this going to change my life?”

So if any of you out there are still thinking that you want to get involved with our work in medical missions, or community health outreach…keep your ears open. We may be getting together latter this year to begin considering what God may have us do.

Life without Eddie

Well, I am grateful for a good phone connection (when I walk 4 stories up to the top of the guest house) and I talk to him every other day, at least.

Just a little info on my life here without Eddie. God has blessed us with such wonderful friends here. Berta (Bertha) comes from upstate New York with Drs. Dave and Mary Kay. She has become a close friend, and my partner in crime. We can get rather silly, and she goes right along when I make up words to some old Mexican ballad about the guacamole.

Berta came to the U.S. from Colombia when she was 16. My grandmother’s mother was born in Colombia, and Berta sounds, and acts…and tells stories like my grandma used to do. Sometimes I hear her down the hall telling one of her stories, and it sounds just like my grandma with all the exaggerated expressions, with the same vocal cadence and the same accent. Perhaps my family will even look at her picture and see a little resemblance! She is a great comfort to me.

I have moved into a tiny room in our bodega (storeroom) but as my air-conditioner is still in route, I am using Dr. Eder and his wife Paulina’s room (they are not using it this week!) Their air-conditioner works and I have been enjoy comfortable nights of sleep!

Yes it is hot! The students keep saying, “I cannot believe it is January”. But this is a normal January for me since I have spent every January in Mexico since 2004. As usual I am covered with mosquito bites, I think my repellent must be out of date. But all the same, this is still the most beautiful of places. Sunrises and sunsets, palm trees, water lilies, beautiful white herons, dramatic magpie jays, funny little geckos, and the crashing surf…and in the evening a cool breeze off the water, yes I am glad to be here.

Just wish Eddie was here too.

Roca Blanca Again! with a difference (sigh)

Well, here I am again listening to the sound of waves with the sticky feeling of sweat and bug repellant on my arms and legs. I am sitting outside the mission office grateful to have internet service and also grateful that the air is cooling down. The heat is pretty constant here year round, it is either hot and humid, or hotter and miserable. But right now it is pretty nice.


We saw the Oklahoma Baptist University nursing students off this morning, and I took it easy most of the day. Dr. Eder, Dr. Mary Kay and I just now saw one of our old diabetic patients, dressed his new wound, and gave him a big injection of Rocephin, then I rushed over to the comedor to eat a couple cow's liver tacos.

I arrived a week ago at Roca Blanca. When I arrived the nursing students had already been here for a week. I arrived on Friday night and on Sunday morning we left for two day medical outreach. I also filled the roll that both Eddie and I usually perform together, showing the team around Puerto Escondido on their off days. I took them shopping and showed them where to find the various gifts and goods they were looking for. Then we went to El Jardin for Franco's fantastic pizza.

the team purchased kilos of fresh coffee at "La Casita"

Playa Manzanilla

Yesterday Laura, our clinic director, took them snorkeling while my partner in crime, Berta, helped me do the rest of their shopping. Juggling their money and their lists was a real feat. We ran all over the Benito Juarez Public Market looking for tortilla presses and lime squeezers. But I finished in time to join them at the beach and have some tacos dorados and limonada con aqua mineral!

Yucucha'a

Two days after I arrived at the base we left for the Mixteco town of Yucucha’a, about two hours up the coast in the foothills.

We saw about 100 patients and enjoyed good fellowship with the Mixtec Christians of Pastor Baltezar’s church. We enjoyed their hospitality and even got to join in on a birthday party. The most memorable part of the outreach, beside some very interesting cases, was dancing with Adina and her husband.

The birthday girl dancing with her husband

Dr. Mary Kay and OBU Master's student Brenda get down!

I interpreted Spanish to English for Dr. Dave Ness for a day and a half. We did use a Mixtec interpreter, but many of these villagers spoke a lot of Spanish. We saw many interesting cases. One 15 year old girl presented with what Dr. Dave said would be diagnosed “tuberculosis until proven otherwise”. She was cachectic (skeletally thin), had a chronic cough, blood tinged sputum, night sweats and fever (102.1). We saw a woman with uncontrolled diabetes who needed to be on insulin, a man with emphysema and one with alcohol induced hepatitis and a woman with a possible mild bowel obstruction.

With emphysema, this patient gave the students the opportunity to hear many kinds of abnormal lung sounds

There are times the mobile clinic setting is limiting. We found ourselves having to refer many of those we saw to the hospital. Some had already been to the hospital but had not received sufficient care and treatment, so Dr. David and Laura had to write letters to the hospitals to make recommendations which we hope will be heeded.

We also saw a thin, lethargic young mother with the most doleful expression, who brought us her one year old. She said he wouldn’t eat. Indeed, he wasn’t quite 20 pounds, his skin was dry, his hair was dull and patchy on his head, and he was fretful as his mother held him. She said he didn’t eat more than a little tortilla, and some atole (gruel made with milk and cereal). She admitted that he drank refrescos (sodapop) and dulces (candy), but he refused to eat beans or other foods, and refused to drink milk.

We did some teaching and I tried to encourage the mother to take the child to the public heath center where they could register her children in a program for malnutrition, and maybe assist and teach her. After she left, our interpreter said she knew the family, that the husband smoked marijuana and mistreated the young mother, and that they could not afford good food. She was so depressed, I pray that she has the motivation to take advantage of what the government has to offer them.

Where's Eddie?

Well, as you may realize, Eddie did not accompany me to Oaxaca this year. He is busy working on getting Riverclay Studio completed. Hopefully he will start working in the clay by the time I get back in March.

We have many friends here at Roca Blanca. Everyone I see wants to know where Eddie is. They all miss him, he is such an important part of our work here. It has been one week, and though I do miss him, I more regret his absence because of how others value his presence,. He brings such encouragement and laughter to everyone, and he has made so many friends.

Well It is getting late, and my battery is running low so I will say good night.