My time in Peru (part 2 of ?)

I've decided to reserve this post for a few stories I have from some of the patients I saw. Pretty remarkable people; some of these folks have been through so much. Unimaginable circumstances, but I saw the stamina and resilience of some of these folks just resonate with them. One I remember was this younger woman who had five children. I don't even remember what she came in for, but anyway she said her oldest child was a little over twenty years old. I was puzzled; this lady couldn't have been in her 40's. Apparently she grew up with 20 siblings and started having children at the age of 12. I was shocked; I couldn't believe it. Another patient I saw was a much older lady and had several children and grandchildren under her care. While I was praying for her, she was saying in Spanish "please forgive me of my sins. I need to take care of my children and I know I've done a lot of bad things." This was repeated over and over. This other story is a much happier one. I was talking to a young mom who had a one month old baby and an older child. There was nothing wrong with the baby; it was quite cute actually. When I was finished talking to them the mom said it was custom for the baby to be "sprinkled" with water as a blessing. She asked if I would do it. So I did. Just add baptizing a baby to my resume. If you look on my Facebook profile the baby pictured with me is the same one.

Being in Peru showed me how different the need is there. Like I mentioned before, most everyone is dehydrated or vitamin deficient. This one person ate flour only. That was it; just flour. It was all they could afford to eat. We addressed these needs with the pastor at one of the churches who told us some follow up would be done. The last story isn't from a patient, rather from someone we grew to care and love. She was the wife of one of the doctors we in the clinic we worked with. Her husband said she had some "heart problems" that were still being worked out, but it seemed like nothing serious at the time. We got everyone off the bus but things started getting really hectic. They got her across the street to hail a taxi to take her to the emergency room. The next thing I know I hear screaming, panicked Spanish yelling and one of the other nurses getting two aspirin. The taxi arrived, she was taken away and we were left to process what happened. There were lots of tears, terrified prayers and just waiting and wondering if she was even going to make it. The nurse said she had a heart attack; there was no doubt. Then she said "just pray. Just pray for her." So we went back to our hostel and waited.

At this point, I took a shower, since I was pretty rattled from what happened. The translators and the majority of our team was sitting in a common area, just waiting for any news. About 30 minutes passed, and her daughter called one of the translators. She had arrived to the hospital alive, still unconscious and waiting for news from the doctor. We thanked God that she was ok for the most part and waited some more. About another 20 minutes passed with another phone call. The hospital did an EKG, which showed no damage whatsoever and that she was being released to go home. There was whooping, hollering and cheering. It could have been so much worse! At the end of the night, my team and I were all smiling, happy and relieved, just marveling at the awesome power of God. Sorry, I don't mean to get all preachy, but I believe that God is good and can do anything!!! Including what happened that night. I don't think I'll ever forget that as long as I live. So there's a good story to end on; I think I'm almost done with my collective assortment of Peru trip write ups.