Gracias

Well. This Blogger is being uncooperative and user un-friendly!  So...here are photos without stories, and there is another story without photos!  Enjoy!  

Dr. bill injecting the hand of a lady. Another lady came back so happy with the results, that she wanted all her joints injected

Tenejapa man

Gerardo and Patricia

Penny and patients

Look carefully, Baby Edwin inside

A little soccer

Little girl eatin a hot roasted banana

Our small group devotions at dawn

Dina and Sebastian

The drive up up to Matzam, 8000 feet up.

Carolina and Rachel

Sebastian preaches and guitars play this day

Little girl in SAN Cristobal

Alfredo our driver and his family

Our Mexican team enjoys a day in the city, a rare occurrence for them

Boy with an apple

Dr. Bill shows young pt who cannot walk or talk that the hammer is not so bad!

Machine grinding corn

Harless shucking corn too!

View from our porch

Steep drive to our house

Our house. Our room, 3 of us

Twins Samy Seba

Church lady preparing chayote for lunch

Juanito

Miriam

Local kids

Church/clinic

Carolyn and baby

Girl with machete peeling an orange!

Our faithful Oculista

Baby Edwin gets lots of attention!

CARAVANA CHIXTONTIC

Day One, Week One.    Caravana Medica,  Ch'ixtontic

129 patients.  6 Medicos.  Any number of helpers!

We are situated in their church, on the side of the hill.  They built stairs last week for us, going down the side of the mount to the church and the kitchen.  They divided the church into 6 consultation rooms and a lab.  

We got organized, planned the patient flow, and set up the Oculista office.  They set up the pharmacy before we got here.  It is well stocked with the generous donations and support of so many people at home.  We hand carried tons...well, OK, not tons...and all arrived intact.  There are even 2 local dentists here who have come from another larger town.  

The day went smooth.  We saw some unusual things but a lot of manageable conditions.  No major URI s or terrible diabetics today.  The people are very shy, most having never taken a medication, or seen a physician before.  The women are all in their traditional dress.  They are not as urbanized as the people who live near the clinic in Ocosingo

We are getting a speck of a world view.  We are seeing life from another perspective.  We are IN   this culture.  It's a beautiful thing!

So here are some patients we have seen in 2 days:

  Lady with sky high Blood Pressure, literally ready to stroke out

  Man who has a headache, is dizzy, and has bad knees.  Says a flock of birds attacked him, pecking and beating at his head and that started his physical downfall....

  An 8 month old baby whose grand mal seizures started at 5 months and now she has them almost daily.  Really, really, really trying to convince her she must take the baby to be seen by a specialist

  A diabetic who has not taken his meds in many months, but whose blood,sugar today is 116!  Has been doing natural medicine, plants and herbs.  Hmmmm.  

  A 5 year old boy who wets his pants.  

  Several ladies with severe arthritis, and painful trigger fingers.  Dr. Bill injected them with cortisone and they should have good relief.

  Several ladies who work in the fields, wielding machetes, and carrying wood in a cargado sling on their head.  They have headaches....

  An 80 year old lady who lives alone and is having a hard time coping.

  A young man who spoke some English.  Lived in Ohio for 4 years before being deported.  Now he is anxious and afraid of everything, since an auto accident.

CH'IXTONTIC. OCTOBER, 2016

IT TAKES A VILLAGE,

Well, here we are!   A full, but uneventful day of travel.  We old Gringo friends met up in Mexico City.  Nice flights, but steady rain on arrival in Tuxtla and through the mountains on the narrow, winding road to the village of Ch'ixtontic.  

The name means rocks with points.  It is a Tzeltal village of a different tribe.  They are Tenejapa people, very different from the Bachajon Tzeltal people of Ocosingo.  

The dress, food, traditions, and dialect are distinct.  They are more conservative, most still wear their traditional dress.  They are shyer, and few speak Spanish.  

Juana washing clothes for her 5 children.  We stayed in their home

Alfredo's wife, Lucia and Eva.  Alfredo is Pablo's drive.  He is friend and part of the team.  He lives in this village.

The whole village sits along a ridge winding along a pitted, dirt road, with houses on the edge, going straight up on one side and straight down on the other.   As you walk along the road, the rooftops are even with the road.  Most houses are cement.  Some are 3 story, built into the side of the mountain.  There is electricity, but no cell towers or WiFi.  There is a primary grade school, to 6 th grade.  Beyond this, the children WALK 40 minutes to a secondary school in a larger community, for 7th,8th, and 9th grade.  That's about all there is.  School is back in session after being on hiatus, government shut down, strike, whatever, for 5 months.  What a travesty.   As we played with the children at our house, the mom said that Belinda, 7, used to write her name but after being out of school for so long, now she cannot.  

Juana and the children, twins, Seba and Samy, 3, Baby Edwin, Belinda, 5, and MariSulema, 7.  Guadalupe is our friend and para- medico, who joins every caravan.

The view over the ridges and onto the other peaks is spectacular.  There are limes, avocados, mandarinas, guyabas, bananas, coffee, and corn going up and down the mounts. 

Sunday was a day of church and joyful and happy reunions.  

Our team is a melting pot of Gringos and Chiapanecans, nurses, doctors, oculistas, pastors, dish washers, drivers, and cooks.  

Indeed, it takes a village!  Caravana Medica, Ch'ixtontic, is underway!

A BEAUTIFUL WAY TO END MY TIME IN CHIAPAS....

SIBAL.  MARCH, 2016

Sibal is the village where Pablo is the official Pastor for a 5 year period.  Pastors often have many churches and small congregations to pastor, and must travel from place to place.  He and Jan spend time there, especially for holidays, like Easter.  We spent the last 3 days there for some Holy Week activities.

Sibal is 3 hours from Ocosingo,

up,

and then down,

down a winding, narrow, 2 lane highway where the brush over grows the road and people drive On the wrong side of the road in order to straighten out the curves.  The last 2 hours is on a one lane gravel, bone jarring, head whipping road.  

It is in the lowland, in the selva, and is usually hot country.  However, it rained and was very cold for 2 of the days!   We hunkered down, read, watched TV and wrapped ourselves in blankets, trying to stay warm.  We did not bring anything for the cold.  

But Sibal now has a satellite for WiFi, amazingly!  However, there is no cell service, and only one phone in town, at the one and only little tienda.  If a person receives a call, a loud speaker announces the persons name and they come from their home to the store.  There are chickens and pigs

and horses and cows in everyone's yard and strolling the dirt paths.

Other idiosyncrasies about Sibal:  there is hot water in the outdoor shower, but the water to all faucets, toilets, and shower is only turned on in the morning and evening for a few hours.  Other times of day, there is NO water. My bed was a wood frame and the slats did Not conform to my body.  

There were plenty of blankets!  And there were lots of mosquitoes!  I prayed that none carried dengue, Chikunguna, malaria, or Zika!  

The church brothers (there are no women elders) are very polite, and take good care of us.  They enjoy Pablo's company and his counsel.  They plan and talk in Tzeltal and laugh heartily, hooting all the while.

Music plays over the loud speaker to call the people to church.  Nice touch.  

We made a campfire right outside our door

and we laughed and talked some more.  I didn't understand a thing, but the intent, along with peace and beauty of the place and the moment, was evident.   The moon came out and gave us hope that the new day would be clear for the all church event early in the morning.

This morning the sun came up brilliantly, and the day was exquisite!  The event was on!  The whole church, maybe 100 people, piled into the back of trucks for the 15 minute ride thru the jungle to a lagoon,

newly accessible by a gravel road laid just last year.  Prior to that this whole area and the lagoon was on,y accessible by foot or horseback, or canoe on some small waterways opening to the lake.  The road ended at the lake, a stunning beauty surrounded by trees and brush, with islands that are un developed ruins.  

They had made a small clearing, built long benches, and carried chairs.  

We had a wonderful devotional service with prayer,

songs, and a message by Pablo.

 The sun, the surroundings and the worship was overwhelming,

especially knowing this was my final place for this visit.  I cried.  It is very hard to leave.  One of the brothers has a row boat

and paddled several of us around the lake and onto the islands.  Really nice.  I really wanted to swim, but none of the Tzeltal people were swimming, so I refrained.  

The event ended with everyone bringing lunch and eating there in the woods:  tamales, empanadas, chicken, etc.  

An unbelievable, stirring day.   I'll be heading home tomorrow.  I have slept in 7 different locations, making a move 11 times while in Chiapas.  Tomorrow I will sleep in one more bed before heading "home", first to sleep at my daughter's and then to sleep in my bed at Joy's house!   I am still homeless.....    Thank God for friends and family.