The Last Day in Bolivia

It is hard to believe that today is our last day in Bolivia. The work team took a vote and decided that we would not work today, as we needed to pack and have some rest time since most of us are not used to hard physical labor every day. Mary, our fabulous boss, was willing to work today but her team was not so able. The medical team has a half day today with no surgeries, but many post ops. Over 80 surgeries were performed here in Montero including three corneal transplants, many cataract removals, and one or two very interesting traumas and or unexpected findings during surgery.
Last night was the Lions´appreciation dinner. The food was excellent and the people appreciative. The new mayor of Montero was there as well as other dignitaries. One spoke beautiful English, but did not think he did. Our translator Daniel was there last night with a cast from hip to toes. He has some type of motorcycle accident this week and dislocated his patella. He was in a great mood, even though he probably did not feel very well.
Our plane leaves Santa Cruz at 1 20 am tomorrow morning and we arrive in Charlotte at 3 15 pm if all goes well. On the way down we had very few delays. Everyone is anxious to get home, see friends, take a hot shower with NC water pressure, and rest without the sound of taxi horns.
The trip was great and getting home with be even better.
Via la Bolivia

Work Week Two is off to a good start

Hello to all at home in Hickory, Lumberton, Asheville, Scotland county, and all points beyond

The Hickory First United Methodist church group is all here and working and remarkably in good health. We have had one sprained ankle in the basketball game against the girls orphanage team - and yes the girls won again this year with their second string. The player with the sprained ankle also has developed intestinal issues, but has been very well cared for by the medical team and worked half a day today.
The weekend trip to Santa Cruz was very fun. FIFA has taken over and the there was a HUGE screen set up on a square. We saw a parade of sorts of fans of Paraguay or Uraguay - the one that won their game. The sound track is all that is played right now.
We took a tour of the worksites this weekend. The village house that was built and underwritten by Eric Lane and his faith community was great. The lovely older couple expressed their gratitude to our group during our visit. The children was so happy to see the work team and the gift of soccer balls. Richard has some great pictures and I will post them when we return.
The work teams are now combined and are working on the wall in Urkupina (last spelling was completely wrong). Many courses were laid today and many more need to be done, but we can see the results on a daily basis. The children are out of school this week for a two week winter break so there are a lot more children on the streets and the soccer field next door.
The weather has turned cold and we all wore jackets today - not so in North Carolina as we understand it!
Take care and we will see you all at the end of the week.

It is the end of work week ONE

Hello to all from Bolivia. The first week flew by, obviously I did not have much time to come to the internet cafe and post to the blog. Mostly, I was just too tired. Our work team is working on what I believe is a daycare center across the street from District 2 clinic in the area known at Urkopena - so far only Mary Griffin has the pronunciation down correctly. The other work team is out in the compos and will have the house built today. Eric Lane has worked so hard on the house for a 75 year old couple with no home. Yesterday there were gale force winds of approximately 60 miles an hour and during their lunch break the top five courses of brick blew off because the cement was still wet. So far the Urkopena team has been laying brick under ground for the foundation. I think walls were being started today with the assistance of Eder, our site boss, and Jamie his cousin. Eder and his wife Lora live in the house in front of what we are builing and they take care of the clinic maintenance also. They have a beautiful little girl, Geraldina, who is in kindergarten and six month old Leonardo. Lora´s parents are visiting from the compos for a couple of days - so if my math is correct that is 6 people staying in a one room house.
The medical team has accomplished great things this week. Dr. Alexander sees about 80 patients a day and Dr. Fleming just about that many. They fit glasses and send the more problematic patients to Dr. Griffin who in turn sends the surgical patients to Dr. Chang. There were three cornea transplants done this week with the aforementioned problematic ´¨human eye tissue¨´. There are a lot less cataracts in Montero this weekend than there were on Monday. Dr. Griffin in removing some pterygium this afternoon and fixing a closed tear duct. Dr. Chang and Amy were getting ready to leave for a little sight seeing in Santa Cruz before they leave tomorrow and a patient came in with a chainsaw cut to his forehead, eyelid and upper cheek. From Dr. Chang´s description, it was best that I missed seeing that. He sewed it up and off they went.
The Changs, Davis, and Eric are on their way to the states tomorrow and we will pick up Karen and James Harris from the airport. Dr. Harris will be doing surgery next week.
I spent today with Daniel in the clinic learning about their record keeping and statistical processes. In many ways they are a bit further ahead - no physicians write on paper at the clinics, they chart directly into the computer. It was facinating the way they store the paper records that they have. I think I am going to write an article for my state newsletter on this experience. I am glad I was able to go and experience the clinic that I have heard so much about for so many years. Thanks to Amy Chang the supply closet is now clean, clear and ready for next week and next year.
Love to all back home and we will see you on July 3.

We are here and working HARD

Hello to all. We finally made it. Only 24 hours of travel, a bus, a plane, a plane, and a bus. The pinocho is great and everyone was right the food is fabulous. There are so many new and different fruits and vegetables. We are eating well. The work in the clinic started well, after Richard and Amy Chang finally made it through airport security in Miami with the human eye tissue, corneas. The TSA was not so sure they wanted to allow them through, three supervisors later and the corneas were on their way to Montero. We almost did not get out of Charlotte with th most important piece of medical equipment, the phaco machine was left on the bus and the driver was hard to reach on his cell phone. Emergency everted and he answered, turned around, and we were off.
The work teams are busy, busy and tired and sore and doing great things. Today was mixing concrete day for our team in Orkupina. Four big holes dug and then filled in with concrete and the rebar forms we made.
Tonight is basketball at the orphanage so I must go shower before dinner. Will post again soon. Love to all at home and keep the thoughts and prayers coming. All are needed here.
Posted by Patty

June 16, 2010

The Hickory First United Methodist mission to Montero, Bolivia is just about to get underway. There are 29 team members this year. Everyone should be almost packed and ready to go on Friday. Almost is the operative word. I have made bags of candy and gum for the girls at the orphanage and have my passport and shots. The suitcase sits waiting to be packed. Thanks to CVMC for the t-shirts. The mission team will be a sea of pink CVMC t-shirts and they will get much more use when we pack up for home and they stay behind to be put to good use. I will post a picture of work team in our shirts.

The team will all have the opportunity to post to the blog, so look for other, better authors in the days to come.

Next stop, bus, plane, plane, bus and finally pinocho!

Patty

Pictures and Stuff

Wonderful welcome to the country!


The ice cream was awesome!!



The pigeons were huge!


Those orange fruits they look like oranges, smell like tangarenes, but they're lemons.

So much cement!


Taxi's and chickens all in one place.

The last day for the awesome ice cream.

This took a lot longer than I thought it would to get up and with only a couple of my pictures. I tried to pick some of the good ones. There are more pictures if I get them fixed up a little, the ones at night didn't turn out right, then I'll put some more up.

¡Mary! ¡En Vivo de Bolivia¡

¡Hola! ¡Hola! Mary here, reporting live from Bolivia. i´ve had another great trip here in Montero. We´ve been working with great gusto at the Cruz Roja (Red Cross) Clinic performing incredible feats of manual labor. You may have to see the pictures to believe what all has been accomplished in just a couple of weeks. Sand, bricks, cement, rebar, mountains -- you name it, we moved it.

As always, the food is fantastic. My favorite has been the fried piña.... mmmm.... so good!

It is also a joy to see old friends from the trips in the past. Esneida and Franklin are well and living in Santa Cruz. Esneida had another little boy, Jose, in December and he is muy guapo. and little Daniel is also good looking and loves to play paper, rock, scissors. His uncle Daniel is done with school and working at Villa Cochabamba full-time. He and Armando have been translators at the Clinic and have been a great help there. Olga came to our farewell dinner last night and says hello to Olivia.

The time here has flown by again for me, and we´ll be leaving tonight for Miami. Goodbye fried piña, motorcycle taxis, and buckets of sand!