Finishing strong…..

What a difference a week makes.
The clinic yesterday went much smoother than the one on the first day of our trip. Everyone did a great job, and we saw the very last patient right as the last important drugs were running out and the pharmacy was being packed up. Serving in this capacity (medical missions) is a bit difficult for me because I don’t normally have to encounter so many people and children that are suffering all in a steady stream of need, pain, and often fear. I feel that I owe the readers of this blog the reality of the tough side of this trip as well as the “we all love each other and are having so much fun!” side. The fact is that we are working with people so far below the poverty line that along with the parasites and other regular issues in these communities, we were also seeing malnutrition. We spoke with mothers who couldn’t feed their children and were watching them waste away….all while plagued with anxiety and desperation. Tending to the needs of the sick (often people whose conditions have deteriorated to the point that they are beyond our help) is a difficult job emotionally and the physical conditions were very difficult wight the heat and humidity. The crew in the pharmacy never complained once about working for hours and hours soaked in sweat without so much as a water break. Jason and Alfred saw a nonstop flow of patients from the second we started to the late afternoon…..also in a room that felt like a hundred degrees. Don’t get me wrong, people…we DO have a great time and we DO consider it an honor to be in LaPerla serving together…but these people work so hard day in and day out while we are down here, and I just couldn’t be more proud of them.
OK, if this is my one “tooting our own horn” entry, then I must mention the project that many of you as supporters helped fund. When you think of the money it takes to send us down here you might wonder what else it pays for besides our airfare, food, and lodging. Well, for one, it obviously pays for the medicine for the clinics and our in-country administration and transportations costs. But it also paid for an absolutely community-changing project this year. At the closing ceremonies in the town square (under a brilliant full moon and huge bonfire, no less) we dedicated an entire lighting system for LaPerla’s small sport court area. Imagine your local park. Imagine the entire lighting system with concrete poles, giant lights, the electrical needed to run everything…..that was what we were able to provide for LaPerla. The cost was over $7,000 and this project more than any we have done really helps meet the specific problems this community is starting to experience. Violence is rising in LaPerla, and it is a community that is virtually in the dark when the sun goes down. They will now have a safe place to have youth meetings and activities at night, and the lights will help illuminate the whole area. My sponsor child’s father is in the Peruvian version of our D.E.A. And he said it best when he told Alfred and I “Darkness is bad. Spiritually and also in areas where people live. Bad things are born and bred in the darkness. This area of light will bring safety and joy and laughter to my neighborhood. This is a great thing.”
There was a very official ceremony during the farewell where our team was called up in front of the community (hundreds of people showed up….the most by FAR of any of the years) and they had me sign a bunch of papers. They LOVE papers. Oh – and stamps! Every official has a stamp that they simply MUST put over every signature. It makes it look very official……I’ll have to budget in an extra $10 into the team budget next year so I’m not the only guy in the gang without a stamp. With the official stuff done and out of the way, the celebration commenced. Jenn’s sponsor child Paquita came out with her friends and sang a song, the teens all danced and did choreography for us, and Marcial (a local teen leader and amazing young man who we were able to help medically last year) gave an amazingly thoughtful and profound speech about what our last four years of service have meant to him and his community. Photos and tearful goodbyes and hopeful handshakes for next year followed, and off we went into the night. It was the fourth time for Jenn and I to experience that nighttime ride on the last night….and I can say for certain it was the best among the bunch.
The team got to Lima safely and said our farewells late Thursday night. It is now Friday morning at 730am. I’m on a plane with Jenn, Alfred, Kim and Jason and we are just about to land in Cusco, Peru for 2 days of recovery and fun at 12,000 feet in the Andes. Christi and Shelli are off to Chile for an adventure of their own, and Pam has one more week with her host family in Lima before she returns to her wonderful mother and family in Florida.
Thanks for your prayers. Thanks for your amazing support. God bless you all, and hey – have a great weekend!
-steve

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~ by welovelaperla on October 14, 2011.