A second piece of pie...

For some time now, Susanna, Jim and I have tossed about the idea of starting a monthly medical clinic up in Rio Blanco, much like the one we help with the first Saturday of each month in Jinotepe. When Susanna returned from her training in the States a while back, we discussed it again. She got in touch with Pastor Sergio, who pastors the church plant up there, and started the ball rolling on making this clinic happen.

About a month ago, Jim and I had an opportunity to meet with the Project Hope people here in Managua and in the course of our dinner conversation, we casually shared with them what we were thinking of trying to start. We received such positive feedback and support from them that we left the dinner that night, feeling very encouraged. Dr. Jose is a young man who is their legal liason here but he is also a dentist. The local administrator, Rebecca (who hails from Springfield!), happens to be a dental hygienist and they both volunteered to help us when we did our first clinic. We were so excited at the prospect.

Well, we held our first clinic in Rio Blanco this past weekend. But just like most things in life, it didn’t go off quite as we had planned. Some things fell short of expectations and some things went far better than we had hoped. But all in all, it was a great first time effort.

The original plan was that we would have an 8 member team. Susanna was to be the first contact person with each patient, taking vitals and recording necessary info and then directing the patient in to see either Dr. Shayla, the woman doctor who lives in Rio Blanco or to Dr. Jose and Rebecca for dental treatment. When the patients were through seeing the doctor(s), they were to give Rhonda (our friend from Jinotepe who has the clinic there each month), Jim or me their prescriptions. While we filled the prescriptions, the patients were to meet with Pastor Sergio for prayer and counseling. When the patients were ready, they then were to return to our area to pick up their medications with Rhonda explaining each medication’s instructions. Smooth as silk, right? It sounded so good and it actually went very well with one little hitch…we didn’t have Dr. Jose or Rebecca with us. Other than that, it worked pretty much as it should have.

We’re in the rainy season here which means just that…it rains a lot. But last week, we didn’t have just rains, we had a very slow moving tropical depression which was inundating us with torrential rainfall…for almost three days straight. I doubt if there was a single roof in all of Nicaragua that managed to escape some sort of leak somewhere. I know we had several here at Susanna’s. But heavy rains of that magnitude here don’t just mean leaky roofs…they often mean flash flooding which results in damaged roads and closed bridges. We were hearing of many communities in the north and northwestern part of the country which were basically cut off from any outside help due to the flooding that was happening. Naturally, we were beginning to question whether we could make it to Rio Blanco or not.

About mid-morning on Friday, (we were scheduled to leave Managua about 1:00 so that we could get up to R.B. before dark), we got a call from Rebecca. She and Dr. Jose were wondering whether the trip was still on or not as they had heard that there were problems with some of the roads going up. They didn’t want to load their dental equipment (which includes a portable dentist’s chair and a children’s chair) if we weren’t going. And they didn’t want to get ½ way up and have to turn around to come back. Neither did I. It’s not a leisurely trip even in good weather.

We called Susanna (she was working that morning at the Children’s Center) and asked her to get in touch with Pastor Sergio to see if he had heard anything re: the roads up that way. Of course, nothing moves swiftly when you want it to do so. Our time was running out re: letting Dr. Jose and Rebecca know whether they should load the equipment or not. It was pouring rain here and it didn’t look like it was going to be letting up anytime soon. Rhonda was also here with us and we discussed the pros and cons of going ahead and trying it. We didn’t want the dental truck to get stuck or for anything to happen to that equipment. So we made the decision to call it off and we let Rebecca know. They were disappointed and so were we. Jim and I had been so excited about having a dentist go up with us on this trip. We decided we would try for another time. It was the right decision but it was still a disappointing one. Rhonda and her husband went ahead and left and were going to do some errands in Managua before returning to Jinotepe. We were all a little down but resigned to the fact that safety needed to be our number one concern.

Susanna got home a little after 2:00 and said that Pastor Sergio had talked to someone up in R.B. and they thought the bridge had been opened back up and we should be fine going up. After some discussion, we made the decision to go ahead and go. I have to admit here that neither Jim nor I were in favor of trying to make the trip. I can come up with all sorts of valid reasons as to why we didn’t think it was a good idea but there were three other people who felt like it was worth a shot to go. And so we packed up all the medicines and loaded both Susanna’s car and ours and headed out.

I got hold of Rhonda and because they were still in Managua, she was game to go with us. Susanna went to pick her up from where she and her family were shopping and Jim and I left shortly after three and went on over to Pastor Sergio’s house to wait for the girls to join us. We finally left Managua at a few minutes past 4:00 with Jim and me in our car, loaded to the hilt with luggage and drugs (that kind of makes us sound like drug runners, doesn’t it???) and Susanna had Rhonda and Sergio riding with her. We obviously weren’t going to make Rio Blanco before dark.

The rains had let up quite a bit so that we were just driving with the wipers going sporadically as we started our climb in to the mountains. It is such a beautiful drive going up there but I think we were all a little apprehensive as to what we were going to find at our first point of concern. There’s a new bridge under construction a little over an hour outside of Managua. The detour is nothing more than going across the old bridge. It sits down low and the water is often across it but never very high at all when we’ve gone across it in the past. The route across that pass is horribly rocky and often very muddy. It’s definitely not a vehicle friendly “road” but it’s the only way to get across. It was this very point of concern that was the deciding factor against having Dr. Jose and Rebecca come. We weren’t comfortable with them having to navigate that detour with their equipment truck.

As we neared the bridge, we came upon traffic at a standstill. Nothing was moving with the exception of a few cars which had decided to turn around and return the way from which they had come. We still had some daylight at this point. We sat there for awhile and Susanna and Sergio decided to walk down to the bridge to see what was happening. The plan was for Rhonda to drive Susanna’s car in case traffic opened up and we started moving forward. We never did get a clear explanation of what was creating such a traffic jam but it was 2 hours before we began moving again. It was dark. That crossing was the roughest I had ever seen it. The big transport trucks and buses rocked so violently crossing it, even though they were creeping, that at one point, I was afraid one of the buses was going to tip over.

I have come to the conclusion that things that seem like great adventures when you’re young somehow lose some of their flavor by the time you’re in your fifties. Maybe it was the fact that we still had another hours’ worth of driving to do before we even got to the bad part of the trip. Maybe it was because I wasn’t feeling quite up to par. Whatever the reason, at that point in the trip, it wouldn’t have broken my heart to turn around and head back to Managua. But the decision had been made to go on and so we did. I wasn’t at all excited about continuing on…but, in less than 12 hours, I was going to be so glad we did.

Once past the bridge, we stopped at the next little town that we came to that had a restaurant that Sergio had recommended. We were able to use the restrooms and sat down for a quick bite to eat. Jim and I then went across the road to fill the car as we wanted to make sure we had enough fuel to get us through any other unexpected delays. We weren’t even halfway through the trip yet and I think we both felt we already had enough adventure for the night without adding running out of gas to the mix.

Again we headed north. That last two hour stretch of road is filled with crater-like holes in good weather…Jim was dreading navigating that stretch in the dark. And when I say “in the dark”, I mean it. There are no street lights, no billboards with lights and most of the houses on the roadside are without electricity…it is DARK! The only light that comes from any source other than your own car lights are the headlights coming right at you or the ones that are blinding you in your rearview mirror. Both are soon gone and the dark is even darker than before. Not only is it necessary to be watching for every pothole that is lurking just out of reach of the headlights but then to make things even more interesting, there are the occasional cows out for a late night stroll down the middle of the road or the more frequent drunks staggering along the roadside. I believe that all the years of playing video games culminated that night and enabled Jim to negotiate the holes, the cows and the drunks like a life-sized game of Frogger. Thankfully, he won.

We finally pulled in to our hotel at about 20 minutes before midnight. Jim was exhausted from trying to keep our car on the road and out of the short-cuts to China. And we both were suffering from some major eyestrain. We were ready for bed. Morning was going to come early as we were supposed to start clinic at 8:30 and because we arrived so late, we weren’t going to be able to set up that night. Because they were doing some construction on the hotel, we were put in a back section, walking a foot path, ducking under low-slung clotheslines and finally arriving at our brand-new rooms. They were much larger than in the old section and looked to be nicer.

We had a fan, a television and even two nightstands and a headboard. We were uptown! What more could we ask for? A bit thicker mattress would have been nice as we were laying right on the planks, but as tired as we were, it didn’t really matter. We fell asleep immediately and for the most part, slept soundly. At least Jim did. He slept so soundly, he didn’t even feel the bedbugs feasting on his back throughout the night. The poor guy was one giant welt the next day! He’s better now although it’s been an uncomfortable few days for him. The only thing that saved me is that I took pajamas with me to sleep in as it’s often cool at night in the mountains. I had a few bites around my ankles but because Jim just wore his old camping shorts, his legs and back were exposed to the hungry little varmints. I hate to be critical but I think this 1 star hotel is slipping a bit. Too bad it’s the only place to stay in Rio Blanco.

Susanna and Sergio went to the church early the next morning to get things set up. That’s where we were holding the clinic. The church is upstairs above a store on one of the two main streets in town. We weren’t at all sure what kind of turnout we would have. Sergio said they had put signs around town announcing the clinic and the prices – 20 cords for an adult ($1.02) and 10 cords (.51) for a child. This included the visit with the doctor and all prescribed medications. Of course, we had the same policy we have in Jinotepe. No one is refused treatment or medications due to the inability to pay. By 8:30 our waiting room area was filled and the people kept coming.

We took a 30 minute break at 1:00 to eat some beans and rice provided by Sergio’s family and then we were back at it again. By the time we closed the clinic at 4:30, we had seen 101 people! It was amazing! Jim and I had bought a nebulizer and a dozen extra tubes and mouthpieces along with some infant masks to take up with us. We didn’t know if there would be a use for one or not, but we thought it was a good idea. The very first patient we had was a little girl who was having some serious respiratory problems. Dr. Shayla immediately put her in a corner and got the nebulizer going and the child was breathing much easier ½ hour later. We left the nebulizer with Dr. Shayla as a gift to her practice so that she could continue to give treatments to that child and anyone else who might need it. She will bring it back with her to any future clinics we hold up there. Along with the all the medications used to fill the prescriptions, which were purchased by Susanna’s ministry and ours, we also gave away every pair of reading glasses we had taken with us. It was such a great day!

We had originally planned on staying the night and coming back Sunday but instead opted to go ahead and leave that evening. It was still a long trip home but nothing like the trip up. Once again, we fell in to bed exhausted, but very happy. We had a rocky beginning and we certainly wished we could have had Dr. Jose and Rebecca with us, but nevertheless, we felt the clinic was a success. We know medical needs had been met that day but honestly, the part that to us was the most exciting was that Pastor Sergio had been able to pray with 101 people, most of whom he had never met. Even the roughest looking men came out of the prayer room with a much softer look to them than when they went in. Many clutched tracts (of course in Spanish) in their hands and more than one wiped a tear from their eye as the curtain was pulled back for them to leave. It was such a touching site – so personal and so intimate.

I love food but I hate having to eat humble pie. And it seems like sometimes, I am presented with a second helping of that pie. That's how I felt about this trip up to Rio Blanco. I was really concerned about the weather and the road conditions. So much so that I advised our dentist not to go and was not very happy that we had decided to go after all. I felt like we were taking some unnecessary chances. I made that judgement call before we ever left the city. I was wrong. Going to Rio Blanco was absolutely the right thing to do. Not so much for the medical needs that we met...although those were very important. But there was a far more greater reason to make that trip. Because of the records we kept, we know that 101 people met with Dr. Shayla last Saturday. But it's much more important how many met Saturday with the Great Physician. That’s the appointment that really mattered. You know...I've noticed the more of that pie I have to eat, the easier it becomes to swallow.