Project Ecuador

Project Ecuador
Giving Hope and a Future

Sunday 28 July 2013

Care in the Community



When I was attending in the health centre earlier this week I heard a sudden commotion outside.  The health promoters informed me an injured patient was coming in off the local bus.  The young woman came in very shaken, blood covering her face and her blouse.
   
“Did the bus crash?”  I asked.

“No, a mad man threw a stone at the bus.”  The woman´s companion informed me.  “He was wandering around in the undergrowth at the side of the road talking to himself, and then suddenly threw the stone.  It hit the window of the bus, shattering it.  The glass cut my friend´s face.”  

As I stitched up the woman´s nose, I reflected that I knew exactly who had done this.  A young man from a nearby village has been schizophrenic for many years now.  He is currently sleeping in my parents-in-law´s shed most nights.  They and several other villagers give him regular meals.  He wanders up and down the road incessantly all day gesticulating and talking to himself.  

My next patient was from our village and immediately commented on the incident.  “I see David has been giving you work.”  She said, “But he must have done it without intending to hit anyone.  He is not violent.  He is harmless.”  

He has certainly never caused anyone any harm that I know of before.  I hope this incident was a one off.  But it is alarming none-the-less.  What if the glass had entered the woman´s eye instead of her nose?  Would she have simply walked away then?  What if he does it again?  I must admit I now drive very warily when I pass him on the road.  

David’s family used to take care of him.  But after a time it became too much and they gave up trying to keep him home.  Since then he has walked miles and miles every day up and down the main road.  He came to see me once, but has refused to ever come again because he thinks I tried to poison him with the medicines I gave him. 
 
Here it is very difficult to help someone like David because someone has to take responsibility for paying for and carrying out his treatment.  The state does not.  There are no community psychiatric nurses.  There is no way of giving him treatment by force if his family do not ask for it and pay for it.  He is abandoned.  He is at the mercy of the villagers.  

Thankfully so far the villagers have been remarkably caring of him.  He does not want for food to eat, water to drink and a floor to sleep on.  Maybe we need to be more creative in finding a way to help him with medication as well. 

Tuesday 9 July 2013

Change and Transformation



There are some big fat stripy caterpillars clinging to the tree trunks on the farm.  Gradually the last couple of weeks we have seen them, one by one, transform into beautiful butterflies.  Their cocoons are left behind, strewn on the ground beneath the trees.  They have taken flight to visit the many flowers around us. 
The girls found some tadpoles in the river last week.  With great excitement and enjoyment they scooped them up into their little buckets.  Each day they run outside to see if they have turned into frogs yet. 
We also go to see the chicks every afternoon, to give them corn and refill their water trough.  Just a few weeks ago they were small and fluffy and it was easy for little girls to cuddle them.  Now, in such a short space of time they have grown fat and changed their feathers to adult ones.  It won´t be long before they are laying eggs.  
Today a Mum brought her little baby son for a check-up.  He was just 14 days old, the same age as my new little nephew.  He was so tiny and cute and brand new.  I wonder what the days, weeks and years ahead hold for him.  
All around us the world is brimming with new life, change and transformation.  When I feel weary, when my life seems full of changes I had not anticipated, when I wonder what on earth is going to happen next, it does me good to lift my eyes and look out of the window.  Looking at the butterflies reminds me that our God is a God of transformation.  The butterflies give me hope when things look bleak.  The frogs croaking in the evening remind me of the miracles of nature that God weaves every day in myriad ways, and the miracles He is weaving in the lives of those around me.  The chickens flapping and clucking show me change is a part of life, and an exciting part.  The tiny baby makes me stop and stare and wonder.   
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,” God tells Jeremiah (1V5).  More than any animal, each human baby is so precious and special to Father God.  
Each patient, whether young or old, fat or thin, attractive or smelly is infinitely precious to God. 
I am infinitely precious to God.  
May God grant me His love for all His children I come into contact with.  May He endow me with wisdom to know how to respond to the changes in life, and may He fill me with His peace, joy and hope.