Ventanilla, Machu Picchu, and BoMO

We are now back in Bolivar and are trying to get back into the swing of things with school, with finals next week. J Here is the recap of Friday’s happenings…


The Entire MMI Peru 2013 Team at Shalom

Friday morning was the greatest test of “flexibility” that we experienced all week. The bus driver that drove us M-T-W was not scheduled to drive us because he was having trouble with the contractor Jodee had been working with. So there was a different driver, with a much larger bus because we had a lot of equipment to take with us, scheduled to pick us up at 7am and drive us 2+ hours to Ventanilla, in the northern outskirts of Lima . By the time 8:30a rolled around, we had yet to see the scheduled bus. Jodee called and they assured us they were on the way. Thirty more minutes came and went and no bus had arrived. After much “friendly” discussion and a lot of entertaining ourselves at the convent, our original bus driver agreed to come get us if we paid him directly. Jodee, Bev, Carrie, and Nicole ended up calling a taxi so they could leave and get a head start on the patients. The rest of the team finally pulled out of the convent at 10:30, 2.5 hours late. A fabulous start to our last clinic day to say the least. We had devotions on the bus again and ended up eating our lunch on the bus so we could hit the ground running when we arrived. We ended up arriving at the clinic a little after noon and the patients were overflowing out the door. The “clinic” site was pretty much how they described it…a shed that they put sheets up in to create treatment rooms. What they forgot to say was it only had one window that received the breeze off the ocean…and it happened to be the only day where it was pure sunshine and humidity all day long! There wasn’t electricity in the building so Rich wasn’t able to hook up any power tools. We were low on supplies (shoes, AFOS, etc) so we modified whatever we could to make it work. It was frustrating because we felt like we couldn’t give them good enough care with the supplies we did have. There were also dogs coming in and out of the clinic (Note to self: Do not shooo away a dog with your foot as they might think you are going to kick it…and proceed to bite your shoe. Thankfully, the teeth did not puncture my shoe!)

The last patient of the day was a man with hemiplegia, meaning his right leg and hand did not have function. He told us that he had been working as a security guard and a drunk woman threw a rock at his head, causing the paralysis. He now works selling candy to cars stopped at the stoplights so he wanted braces for his foot and hands that would make him quicker, so he could make it to more cars in the same amount of time. We did not have any AFO’s that fit him and we were completely out of hand splints. Bev, Steph and Kalee “MacGyver’ed” a wrist splint out of some firm supports out of a back brace, a soft knee brace (his thumb went through the kneecap hole), and some Velcro off some other braces we hadn’t used. Although it was far from perfect, we were able to give him something that he could wear at night to prevent his fingers from getting stuck in a fist position.

After leaving the clinic, we had a little surprise. One of the nuns that was originally from Arequipa (where Jodee, Erin, and Sybil live), was catching a ride back into Lima with us. About 5 minutes from her drop-off, she stood up, cleared her throat, and said, “I would like to sing you a song.” Let me just tell you…you haven’t lived until a nun has sung a song to you on a packed bus in the middle of crazy Peru traffic. J It was delightful. And just like a scene out of “The Sound of Music”, we sang with her as she departed the bus into the abyss of the city of Lima.

After two long clinic and travel days on Thursday and Friday, the SBU team (except for Carrie who had to get back to the US for her clinical), got a chance to travel to the city of Cusco and see Machu Picchu.  There were many memorable moments from that excursion, but suffice it to say that witnessing a man fall from the top of the mountain, slide down 275 feet, and survive it, to travel back with us on our very train, had to be the biggest picture of God’s hand on this entire trip for us. He is good, all the time!

A Blessed Thanksgiving and Beyond

It is now Saturday evening.  We have made it to the end of the project and begun our excursion to Machu Picchu. We left Lima this morning on a plane to Cusco, and took two taxis from there to get to the train station.  Then we rode the Vistadome train through the Sacred Valley to the village at the base of the Machu Picchu Sanctuary.  It was a great travel day with many awe-inspiring views along the way.  We also saw llamas, alpacas, pigs, and all sorts of other creatures along the route. We can't wait to spend Sunday exploring one of the world's wonders.

Friday's clinic experience topped it all off. But we would like to blog about Friday later.  We haven't had time to write that one up.  You will have to wait a little longer to hear about it...

Thursday (Thanksgiving Day) we traveled 2+ hours to the north, rural area of Lima. After getting to the correct district, we realized that the bus driver (who had been 30 minutes late), didn’t actually know where the clinic was. Jodee tried calling the clinic contact but there was not enough service to get through. After stopping to ask people on the side of the road two times, we finally made it to the clinic (2 hours late). We ended up leaving the clinic late as well so although it was a long day, many hearts were touched. Here are a few of the stories from Thursday…

Ryan: “Ricky was my favorite patient of the day. He was 11yo and had Muscular Dystrophy. His brother passed away 3 months ago from the same disease at the age of 17, but Ricky was using his brother’s wheelchair. The wheelchair did not fit him and it wasn’t supportive enough at all. We didn’t have any kids wheelchairs left, so we used a standard adult wheelchair and made a lot of modifications. It took 2+ hours and 6+ people to raise the foot rest and cut a new foam cushion to lift him up. it wasn’t perfect, it was way better than the one he had before. He kept giving me high fives and didn’t whine once the entire time.”

Derek: “Most patients here have either low tone or very high tone. Lozia, a 7yo girl, came in and she was scared to death that we were going to give her a shot for the pain in her arm. Christin gave her a ball to play with and calm her down and I was able to get some pony stickers for her. We fit her with a wrist brace for her pain while lifting things. When we asked her to walk, she had a hip hike and knee hyperextension. There was exactly one AFO left that fit her and she was able to walk (not perfectly but much better). We also gave her new shoes and she left very excited.”

Rich: “I have been in and out between patients so while I don’t necessarily have a favorite. Our supply decreases everyday so we have been doing a lot more modifications to braces and wheelchairs. With the less options, we have to be more creative with what we have.”

Steph and Amanda: “Our favorite patient was a little girl with cerebral palsy. We fitted her with AFOs and then she wouldn’t stop running around after Pat. It was also really great to work with Rich and see how to modify all of the orthotics. We both feel a lot more confident in our knowledge of orthotics, which is a blessing in itself.

Kalee: “We had a lot of diagnoses that we don’t get to see as much in the US. I was working with Jodee and our first little girl had hydrocephaly. Jodee had seen her last year and while her head had gone down, it was still very large. The shunt that the doctors had put in has not worked liked it should. We fitted her for a wheelchair and her mother was very thankful that she wouldn’t have to carry her around anymore. Our second patient was a little girl and at first glance, you couldn’t really tell anything was wrong with her except for a slight limp. After taking her tights and 3 layers of socks off (all the people/children wear multiple layers all the time), we saw she was wearing an AFO on her right foot. It was obvious that her foot was deformed but we didn’t realize how badly until we took off the brace. Her sister said that she was born with a deformity and then fractured her leg and they didn’t have the money/resources to fix it properly. It was heartbreaking to see her leg/foot completely turned around but we were able to give her kids crutches so she didn’t have to put weight on her leg. Her timid smile was precious and we hope that she will travel to Arequipa to have free surgery where Jodee works.”

We arrived back to our ”home” at the Retiro at about 8pm where the nuns had prepared a marvelous Thanksgiving meal for us.  It was so nice to sit down together and share our Thanks after such a great day of service.

Wednesday - last day at Shalom

This is being typed Thanksgiving morning about Wednesday, on a “packed to the brim” bus, during our 2 hour trip to the outskirts of Lima for a clinic today. Please excuse typos as the bumps are challenging my typing skills J

  

Today was our last day at Shalom. We were thankful that we made it safely as traffic was out of control. We saw a wreck where they taxi driver actually got out of his car in the middle of traffic and punched the headlight out of the delivery truck. Our bus driver decided to go off road for a minute and we went through a sand pit…where the back of the bus spun out and it felt like we were going to fall right off the side of the small cliff. J

We had a wonderful day in the clinic. I’m going to write my paraphrases of everyone’s days  again:

Chrisitn: post polio patient 53 woman “We were able to see a patienit with Rich who has post-polio disease. She had braces from the stone age (Rich said that he has been working with braces for 20 years and has never seen them) and they were completely shot. Straps were missing, hinges were rusted, and yet she still cherished them because she would be completely sedentary if she didn’t wear them. We took new measurements and Rich will send them off to get new braces made for her. It’s not everyday that we get to work with post-polio patients so it was cool to be a part of the process for her new braces.”

Amanda: “One of my favorite patients today was an elderly amputee, who came in for a wheelchair and crutches. We were able to fit him for a chair and as soon as he got in it, he started wheeling away. At the end of the appointment, I was able to walk him down the hill outside the clinic to the edge of the main street. He kissed me on the cheek and gave me a piece of candy, which was a really sweet gesture. We were also able to help a woman who had dwarfism. Her wheelchair seat was awful and it was putting pressure on her bad hip. When I went to look for a better seat cushion, I found one under a bench in the clinic that didn’t go to any other wheelchairs and it was literally perfect for her. Totally a God thing!”

After supper, we loaded up the bus and headed to the Fountain Park. Because it was rush hour at 8:30p, our bus driver wanted to take a “short cut.” As short cuts usually go, we weaved in and out of traffic and back roads for over an hour, which seems like forever when you are tired from a full day. The Fountain Park was actually pretty awesome. It is a bunch of fountains spread throughout at giant park…some of them are small and some are huge, some change colors, and one is even set up in a maze with water being the “walls.” Amanda and Ryan both made it to the middle of the maze and back without getting too wet! The grand finale was a water/lazer show on the biggest fountains, which we all really enjoyed. Afterwards, our bus driver took another “short cut” and we ended up drving through the ghetto of Lima…not exactly where a bus full of white people want to be at 10:30p, but we made it just fine. I’m sure all the Mom’s are worried by this point of the recap, so let me repeat, we are all fine, safe, healthy, and having the times of our lives J We love yall and hope you have a great Thanksgiving. We are grateful to be here loving on these Peruvians!

Ebenezer

Ebenezer: HE has been faithful before, and HE will continue to be faithful again. Today seemed to be more laid back in the clinic as everyone kind of knew the ropes and how things were going to run. We were still very busy seeing patients but it was nice to have a second to sit down and eat lunch together. We were reminded of HIS faithfulness as we saw some tough cases today, some that were beyond our power to change. HIS will is always best, even when we don’t understand it completely.

I asked a couple of the girls to give highlights of the day so here are my versions of their stories J

Steph: “My favorite patient was a little boy named  Miguel who had spina bifinda. He wasn’t able to move his feet at all so we were able to fit him with AFOs (ankle foot orthotics) and also gave him a new pair of shoes. He was so cute and he absolutely loved to play with the bubbles and throw the ball back and forth.”

Jordan: “The highlight of my day was actually playing with a patient’s sister. The patient was an 18 year old girl with cerebral palsy and required a lot of care. While we were working on attaching a chest harness to her wheelchair, I was able to play with her sister, who doesn’t get much attention at all. Sometimes in families that have a special needs child, the other siblings don’t get as much attention so it felt great to be able to give her my undivided attention for awhile. When we were done with the appointment, the sister and the mother both gave me kisses on the cheeks and the little girl took her picture with me. It was also cool to see how the girl with CP was able to sit up so much better in her chair with a simple chest harness. ”

Amanda: “Today was a rough emotional day. Our first patient, a young woman, was in tears less than a minute into the appointment because a car had run over her foot and now she was unable to work, even after being in the cast. She is the primary caregiver of her eldery mother who recently had a stroke and without her pay, they are unable to go to the doctor, pay the bills, and buy food. Our last patient of the day was a 7 year old boy who had been diagnosed with CP, which was clearly not correct. He was the size of a 2 year old and wasn’t able to stand/walk  with good balance. It broke our hearts because even the AFOs that were tried to fabricate weren’t going to be enough. We think he has a degenerative disease and probably won’t be living this time next year. It was a good reminder of what Pat said on Sunday…one day they will not be broken anymore when they meet our Savior…while here on Earth they are seen with less worth, we all have the same worth when standing in front of our King.”

Carrie: “My favorite patient of the day was a little old man who could barely walk into the clinic and up two steps. He had two mismatched canes and we ended up giving him a wheelchair and a walker. He was so excited and even helped us while we were fitting the wheelchair. He lives on a mango farm and wanted me to come out there to visit and take all of the fruit we wanted! He told me that he would remember me for always and I just wanted to keep him with us J”

These are just a few of the stories coming from the clinic today. This evening, we traveled by bus to the Inka Market to do a little shopping and to eat ice cream. It was fun to see everything and pick out gifts but we will definitely sleep well tonight. Please pray for our physical and emotional endurance as we start out the mid week slump. Wednesday will be our last day in the Shalom clinic, as we will be traveling to two other sites around Lima on Thursday and Friday. Buenos Noches!

1st Day at Shalom

Today was our first day working in the Shalom Clinic and it was an exciting one for all of us! Kari, Amanda, and I (Kalee) started out with a little boy named Angelo and he was so full of life. He was having foot pain in a particular spot because of the way he stood, so Kari and Rich fitted him with 2 SMOs (foot orthotics) and he was ecstatic! He face lit up and he said that his foot didn’t hurt anymore which is exactly what you long to hear as a PT. He even showed off his dancing skills and wouldn’t leave until he ran to give everyone hugs…twice. J Meanwhile, Erin, Jordan, and Steph were working with a girl who needed to trade in her wheelchair for a better fitting one. Jordan and Steph were our go-to foam/hammers/box cutter girls today and they ended up making her a new seat cushion to keep her properly aligned in her chair.

One “God Moment” that happened today was a boy coming in with one leg longer than the other and our SBU team had happened to bring the perfect sized chair. The chair had foot plates that were already set to a leg length discrepancy. We couldn’t have planned it even if we tried, but we have no doubt that HE gave us exactly what we needed. Jodee, Derek, and Christin worked with a 5 year old girl, Mary Kate, who has Cerebral Palsy. They got to fit her with a new wheelchair (a purple one at that!) and she couldn’t stop smiling. I think time and time again we were the ones blessed by the simple fact that a little bit of our time, knowledge, and a donated wheelchair can completely change not just their quality of life, but the quality of life of their parents and family. One family brought their son in, who clearly need a wheelchair for proper positioning, to get a stroller. After talking with them more, we learned that they needed to be able to push him down a gravel/dirt road to their house as well as use the bus system (aka they wanted something that folded) because they were unable to afford taxis. So even though it wasn’t our first choice, a stroller was the most practical choice for the family in their situation. Once again, they were overjoyed and the mother wouldn’t stop thanking us for listening to her concerns and for giving them a mode of transportation that she could handle. It was amazing.

Bev and Carrie worked with most of the adults that came to the clinic today. They worked with a 40 year old woman who had a huge leg length discrepancy with really bad weakness of her buttock muscles, causing her to walk with one leg completely straight and the other one bent to a 30 degree angle. She had arthritis in the knee that was bent due to overuse and the lack of control on the other lower extremity. They were able to take a random assortment of supplies to Rich and Ryan and within ten minutes, they were able to put together a 2 inch heel lift that completely helped her walk better and with more control.

One of the most exciting things that we experienced today, most of us for the very first time, was….AN EARTHQUAKE!!! It was crazy. I think we all felt it the first time but it went away quickly and we didn’t think much of it (Amanda commented that the wheelchair that was being pushed down the hall must be awfully heavy haha). Then another one came it was very noticeable that the ground was moving, so we got all of our patients picked up and took them outside where it was safer. It was so surreal and we joked afterwards that earthquakes were not mentioned in the trip brochure (and neither was earthquake training!).  The center of the earthquake was actually 4 hours south of us and it was a 5.8 quake. When we were getting ready to load up for the day, a man selling bread/rolls/pretzels was walking by so after we mustered up the courage, we ran and caught up with him and bought 2 bags of pretzels to eat on the way home. Day 2 and we are already living like locals J Supper was a delicious mixture of Peruvian food that our bus driver’s wife had made us and the planned meal cooked by the nuns. Needless to say, we were stuffed. We also had our first social excursion tonight...traveling by the “harmonic bus” to Lima’s downtown plaza. It was so much fun and we were blown away by the architecture everywhere. To cap the night off right, we had our first taste of Peruvian ice cream. 

We can’t thank you enough for continuing to pray for us as we are here.  We know that we may be here physically, but we have an army of people who are lifting us up back home. Please pray that we will continue to rest well and have the needed supplies, time, and knowledge for the patients coming in to the clinic. Buenos Noches!

The first 36 hours of our Peru Trip!

Blogged by Kalee

*Disclaimer: It is 9p on Sunday evening and we are getting a little delusional so please excuse anything that doesn’t make perfect senseJ

We met at the school Saturday at 10:30 to load everything up and head to the airport (Shout out to Dr. Sneed and Amanda’s fiancé Brian for driving us all to the airport!).  After we unloaded, Dr. Layman, Dr. Cox, and Marsha came by the airport with the rest of our luggage. {This is the part where we add in a funny story that we think is hilarious and worth telling but you may have had to have been there to get the humor…} As Dr. Layman and Dr. Cox were pulling away, we realized that we didn’t have Marsha’s number…thinking on our toes, I started running down the sidewalk after Dr. Cox…to the point where I was right beside their window trying to flag them down. Apparently they thought I was just being overly emotional and not wanting them to leave so they just waved back and kept on driving! J

Once we arrived, Amanda took on the task of getting everyone checked in. The guy behind the counter was taking his sweet time and the people behind us were annoyed at our 7 check-ins, including 14 bags and 7 wheelchair packs…All in all, a great start to our trip. As we proceeded through security, Christin was chosen for an overly friendly pat down, but we made it through without any other eventful happenings. As some of you may know, this was Jordan’s first time flying. She did fabulous and was grinning ear to ear from the time we took off to the time we landed in Dallas. Our layover in Dallas was 4 hours long so we had just enough time to roam a bit, grab a bite to eat at Chilli’s, and meet our final teammate, Carrie, who had flown in from Arkansas. Our only excitement in the Dallas airport was a heroic act by one of our own, Derek. We had plans to get on the Skywalk (the train that goes around to the different terminals) and the front of our group decided to step on at the last second. As the doors were closing before the final 2 of us could get on the train, Derek heroicly used his arms and body to block not just one door, but two! And when I say block, I mean they might have given him some bruising. BUT, the good news is, he saved the day and we all scrunched in an already full train car. Next, we flew from Dallas to Miami. Our wonderful Christin had her shining moment as she couldn’t get her carry on suitcase into a bin…resulting in a delayed flight…no joke yall, we held up an entire plane for one suitcase. We got into Miami about 10:30p and it was a ghost town. After a soothing stroll around the main terminals, we realized that we had read the wrong Lima flight and actually needed to go to the International terminal. So we continued our leisurely stroll for another 20 minutes to our gate. The plan was to get some rest on the overnight flight to Lima and while some of us thoroughly enjoyed our sleep, others forgot to partake of anything but quick and broken up cat naps.

We got into the Lima airport on time and head to pick up our bags. As you can imagine, a group of 8 “white American college students” stand out anyways, let alone adding in 32 bags, a couple pillows, and 8 plastic wrapped wheelchairs! A security guy outside of customs found his way to us rather quickly and started asking us who we were, what we were doing, and who all of this “stuff” was for. He wanted to take one of our identification papers off the wheelchair and after us explaining multiple times that he couldn’t take the paper without 2 of us going with him (more specifically, not letting that paper out of our sight), Carrie found a copy and gave it to him. Don’t worry, Derek and I still followed him and that paper to the manager’s office, who came out to “take a glance” at our belongings. He finally let us through and we made it through the rest of customs without a problem! Praise the Lord and thank you so much for your prayers on that specific account! After customs we took our small parade through the glorious doors and met Bev, Sybil (one translator), and 2 of the drivers for MMI. What a relief to see friendly and familiar faces and know we were finally here!

We packed the bus and van to the brim and headed to the convent. PS: Just in case you didn’t know, because we didn’t fully comprehend ourselves, but the place we are staying is on top of a cliff…overlooking the beach and ocean…like we can walk down to the beach...I know, I know, we are experiencing some tough living this week J We showered, unpacked, ate breakfast, and had a meeting with the Physical Therapists (Jodee, Erin, Kari), Orthotist (Rich), Peruvian PT student (Leydi), and Pat, the pastor of the church who runs the Shalom clinic. It was wonderful to meet the people that we have been praying for and put names with faces! Pat led us in singing and a short sermon before we left for the clinic. It took us about 45 minutes to travel to the clinic and we almost lost our lives 45 times (45 might be a little bit of an embellishment but it really was crazy to be close enough to touch the people. We got to the clinic (actually a rented building while they are renovating a new 4 story clinic down the street) and started to unpack all of our donations. The rented building has a main waiting room, and 4 treatment rooms, so we split up the donations by pediatrics, adults, and orthotic equipment. A couple of us walked 3 blocks over to Louisa’s (a friend of Pat) to pick up wheelchairs that they have been collecting for patients coming in this week. Minus being chased/barked at my 3 dogs while wheeling 9 wheelchairs down a hilly dirt road, we made it safely back to the clinic J After getting everything organized, we headed back to the convent (just in time for the gorgeous sunset!) and Bev blessed us with some scrumptious PHD, known in the United States as Pizza Hut Delivery.  All in all, we are doing well and will sleep like babies tonight. We appreciate your prayers as we head to the clinic tomorrow morning. Pray for the families coming in, not only that we can help them with their physical needs, but also share the love of Jesus with them. Buenas Noches!