Dreams Coming True!

The past few weeks have been very busy as we try to have everything ready for our 2 months in the UK.  It has been a time of completing tasks, and for me, that has been quite emotional. 
The eleventh and twelfth houses to be built by Project Ecuador are now complete.  I walked around this house, which we have built with 3 bedrooms for the family of 9, who until now have not had any house to call their own, and imagined them eating together in the spacious living area.  It brought tears to my eyes to think that this humble family have been helped in this way.  They now have solid walls, a safe house, hygienic bathroom and space to grow bananas and raise pigs.  They have been given a helping hand, a step up in life, and the little children will be healthier and, we hope, happier. 

In the health centre the majority of patients come for leg ulcer dressings.  It is such a delight to be going away knowing that some of these patients have healed limbs.  However, patients who have healed in the past are now returning, months or years later, with worse ulcers and injuries.  Diabetes destroys their limbs, kidneys and eye sight, and so many do not take their medicine regularly, eat as they should or do exercise.  One man came this week with a terrible foot infection.  I told the family to go to the hospital, which they did, and he had 2 toes and part of his foot amputated.  But the family then took him out of hospital because the surgeon told them he needed a foot amputation.  They had him at home without adequate medication or treatment, a raw wound in his foot.  They came back to me, hoping I could heal the foot, because we treated a hand wound successfully last year.  I told them he needed to be in the hospital, but I don´t know if they will take that advice. 

On the plus side, government health services have improved vastly in the past few years.  This is why I see fewer and fewer general patients.  They can obtain free treatment elsewhere now, and that is excellent.  I think I will be of more use in the area of prevention in coming days. 

Another task that has been completed this month is the giving out of sponsorship money to the sponsored children.  They began classes again at the beginning of this month and need to buy their shoes, stationary, art materials and PE kits.  It is wonderful to see their enthusiasm as they start back at school.  It is inspiring to see them having the opportunity for an education, when so many of their parents did not have this chance in life.

Jenny, a sixteen year old who has started a new school for her final, 3 year bacherillato programme, made me smile.  She bounded into my office to receive her sponsorship money with a huge grin on her face.  "I love my new school," she exclaimed. "I can specialise in accounting now, and I just love numbers!"  Jenny is from a very poor family and would not be able to study without the help of a sponsor.  We wish her all the best in her studies this year, and hope she will go on to achieve great things. 

Juan and Mishel graduated from secondary school last month.  Both have single mums who have raised them on a pittance.  Both have studied hard and resisted the temptation to give up.  So many boys go and work in the fields instead of sticking at their studies, and so many girls fall pregnant and drop out.  Juan and Mishel have achieved their dream of a full school education, and hope to now find work and save up to attend University.  We wish them all the best for the future. 

And finally, to show us that it can be done, Carla, Mishel´s big sister, who graduated from Secondary School a few years ago, also with the help of Project Ecuador, is starting her final year of University.  This year she has won a scholarship to help pay her fees.  She also works in an ice cream shop.  It is simply wonderful to see her going on to achieve her dreams.  Well done Carla! 

Ecuadorean Dogs...

I would have thought that after living in Ecuador for ten years my reactions were in tune with the locals by now.  When fear is involved, I definately revert to my instinctive British self. 

I had finished a busy afternoon´s work in the health centre and walked the short ten minutes down the road to the house where my girls were being looked after.  As I walked past the house next door, three fearsome looking dogs rushed out at me, chasing me into the middle of the busy main road.  I didn´t know whether to be more frightened of being bitten by one of the dogs, or run over by a car.  I screamed for help, and the owners ambled out to their gateway and threw stones at the dogs to make them run back into their garden.  I felt shaken, trembling and furious.  Why didn´t the owners keep the dogs under control?  I had the right to be able to walk down the road without being attacked by dogs. This was the second time these dogs had menanced me in this way.  "If the owners aren´t going to tie them up, then they shouldn´t have dogs," I muttered to myself.

The very next day I was walking home with the girls to our farm, when we passed the neighbour´s house.  Two big brown dogs ran out at us, barking fiercely.  The girls turned heel and ran for their lives, the dogs in hot pursuit.  I grabbed a handful of stones and threw them haphazardly in my panic towards the dogs, which slunk off back home. The owners were nowhere to be seen.

"They shouldn´t be allowed to own dogs," I raged later to my Ecuadorean husband.  "The girls were terrified.  It is a public road.  We have the right to be able to walk along it in peace."

"No, you didn´t handle it right," he replied.  "Whenever you´re walking along these country roads you should carry some stones in your hands.  You must teach the girls never to run away.  When you see a dog coming, just throw a stone in their direction and they won´t harm you.  People don´t keep these animals as pets. They don´t have them in their homes or take them for walks.  They are guard dogs.  They need them to bark and make a noise when someone approaches so that they can defend themselves against intruders.  People have a right to protect themselves." 

So I try to grit my teeth and "do as the Ecuadoreans do" and carry stones with me when I walk down the road.  I feed my own, rather soppy Cocker Spaniels soup, as is the custom around here, and smile when people tell me I have "luxury dogs", because they are blatantly not guard dogs.  I do understand people´s fear of theft and how having three of four fierce dogs around their house makes them feel safer.  But I fear I will never lose my feeling of indignation when I am attacked by a dog. 

Pinky, the soppy Spaniel

     

I walked into the post office to check for mail, only to find myself stepping over sacks full of school uniforms being delivered ready for the new school year.  The long holidays are coming to an end, and preparations are being made for the new start. 

Children sponsored through Project Ecuador

For some, that means doing resits.  These children have not had any holidays, but have been attending extra classes for the past two months.  They now have the chance to resit the subjects they failed to achieve 70% in last time around.  If they pass, they will move up a year.  If they fail they will repeat the year. 

For others, it has meant looking for a place in a new school. Some primary schools only go up to year 7, while others continue to year 10.  Pupils going into year 8 or year 11 have to find a place in a new school.  For some it has been straightforward.  They have been allocated a place in the secondary school nearest to them.  Others have higher ambitions and seek places in the more highly rated schools in town.  One fifteen year old (who is sponsored) came top in her year.  She has dreams of becoming an English teacher, and wanted to go to the best school in town for her final 3 years of schooling.  Despite her excellent grades, she was told there were no places available in all of the "good" schools.  She was extremely disappointed.  Finally, a friend told her that her cousin works in one of the schools, and that for a small fee they could get her a place...It´s not what you know, but who you know. 

Some are facing huge life changes.  At the beginning of the holidays a sixteen year old who is sponsored found herself a place in a new school to begin her final three years of study.  She was looking forward to gaining an education and a way out of the poverty she and her 7 siblings live in.  Now, she is pregnant and those dreams have come to an end.  Her mother and step-father are unable to give her much support, as they still have so many small children of their own to raise.  She will now have to transfer her ambitions to the child that is to be born. 

Others are going through traumas and yet are finding the way through.  Another sixteen year old failed the school year after her sister committed suicide.  What a tragic time it has been for that family.  Sonja (as we shall call her) lives with her grandmother, as she cannot live with her mother and stepfather.  They have now moved to live with an uncle and cousins, and Sonja will be starting again in the school her cousins attend.  We hope and pray she can find healing and the strength to move forward. 

Then there are Juan and Mishel who have graduated from secondary school this year, and are looking for work and further education.  They both come from extremely poor families and have done really well to get this far.  We wish them well for the future.  

Fifteen year old Carla has never had the chance to go to secondary school, and is so excited she now has a sponsor and is able to go.  Undeterred by being put in a class with the 12 year olds, she is determined to make the most of this opportunity.  

The government gives some uniform items and text books to the children at the start of each new school year.  Rumours abound that the stationary lists are going to be more expensive to purchase this year due to recent rises in taxes.  Nonetheless, the children are now eagerly discussing which school bag they want and hoping for a new, larger pair of shoes.

We, in Project Ecuador, are thankful for each sponsor who helps a child afford the items they need in order to study.  Every year of study helps equip these youngsters for work and parenthood in the future.  Thank you for being a part of changing lives. 

10 patients I will never forget

Time flies, and I find it hard to believe I have now been in Ecuador for ten years.  In these years I have met many patients I will never forget, and who have taught me valuable lessons.  Here are ten of them: 

1.       Maria`s dedicated nursing of her 46 year old sister-in-law, who had a fungating, stinking tumour covering her chest, showed me the acts of compassion people are capable of.  Maria had no training as a nurse, yet she dressed that nauseating wound every day with great kindness. 

2.       Señora Chuba had terminal ovarian cancer.  She demonstrated the inimitable Ecuadorean hospitality, receiving me with chicken and chips when I had waded through mud to reach her house to call in for a palliative care visit. 

3.       I learnt the privilege it is to have a patient put their trust in you as their doctor, when Felicita abandoned her herbal remedies in favour of conventional treatment for her diabetes.  She has been attending her check-ups faithfully, every month for many years now. 

4.       I was amazed at the body`s ability to heal itself when Don Dueñas` s pus-filled, condemned-to-amputation foot responded to being dressed with honey (along with some antibiotics).  This has given me the courage to try to help other seemingly hopeless cases. 

5.       The courage of Señora Guerrero, who lived life to the full, despite living with lymphoedema and pain from breast cancer, will forever stand out in my memory.  She never gave up.   

6.       I will never forget the peace and tranquillity of Laura, who despite suffering cord compression and therefore paralysis, as part of her terminal illness, never once complained.  She accepted the loving care of her son with gratitude and took strength from her faith.  

7.       I learnt the deep sadness of feeling utterly helpless as I watched a young mum die from AIDS, unable to access the antiretroviral medications she had needed. 

8.       I have had the joy of seeing fear turn to hope as a painful, threatening foot ulcer was reduced to an unthreatening scar.  The formerly tearful, shaking Amelia now attends full of joyful smiles.   

9.       I have been touched by the kindness of strangers who took in the emaciated little Erika, the victim of an accident who had been neglected to starvation.  Although her life could not be saved, her last days were filled with care and love. 

10.   It was the end of a long day, and I did not want to answer another knock at the gate.  Imagine my surprise when instead of finding another person coming to ask for help, I found an old lady coming to say “thank you”, with the gift of a cooked guinea-pig.  I will never forget her kindness.

Time is not money: learning to value relationships

 
Life as a missionary doctor certainly has its unique challenges, and one of those is trying to fit into and understand different cultures. Today, I find myself in the strange situation of knowing where I will be every day during June and July, while I am visiting the UK, but not knowing what I will end up doing this afternoon, tomorrow or next week. The two cultures I live between have vastly different attitudes to time.
I was brought up by a British businessman who taught me that efficiency and organisation are paramount to a successful life. Now, I am married to an Ecuadorean who literally plans his life and work one day at a time. I am surrounded by a culture where people are habitually late, invite me to their wedding on the day, and believe it is perfectly fine not to turn up to our meeting because ‘something came up’.
At first, I was aghast at the lackadaisical attitudes I encountered and was determined to teach the locals about long-term planning, appointment systems and punctuality. After all, time is money, is it not? All around me, people were throwing away time (and therefore money) with abandon – and seemed not to care about either.
Then, I began to take notice of the events happening around me. I realised that when someone was sick, they needed family members free to go with them to the hospital to help them find a doctor who was actually present and attending, buy their medicines and nurse them. When a man went bankrupt and was wanted by the authorities, his brother-in-law drove eight hours, at a moment‘s notice, to take him to his house and feed him for the foreseeable future. When my car broke down on an unmade road, I needed a family member free to come and rescue me. I began to appreciate that in the unpredictable circumstances of life in Ecuador, the ability to be flexible and spontaneous was actually a necessity.
As I stood back and began to try to understand the local culture better, I observed that people truly value time with each other. If they were having a conversation with someone, and had not yet finished what they had to say, they would stay and converse and be late to their next appointment. I understood this was telling me about the values underlying their seemingly laid-back attitude to time. Ecuadoreans do not believe time is money. They believe time is to be used to develop relationships. If investing their time in friendships means they have less money, they are happy to live with that.
I chatted to my local greengrocer. She had just had a baby. ‘I used to live in Spain,’ she told me, ‘I had to work all hours of the day, and had no time for my daughter, so I could not have more family. So, I decided to come back to Ecuador. Now, I have had three sons in the past four years. I have time to spend with them. I am happy’.
Her aim was not to have as many possessions or foreign holidays as she could in her lifetime. She simply wanted to have enough to bring up her children. Her contentment challenged me and my values.
I began to see that my determination to achieve A, B, C and D in a day could be detrimental to my relationships, if sticking to my schedule meant ignoring someone whose need was now. I observed my husband working on the premise that if A took all morning, instead of the planned hour, and then his sister phoned, having come off her motorbike, then B, C and D would simply wait until mañana. I was surprised by how many things could wait very happily, or perhaps did not need to happen at all.
I learnt to have a mental list of things to do, then each day I would see which tasks could fit into the circumstances that presented themselves. This left time and space to respond to those who encountered need that particular day. I learnt to adapt to being invited to a family birthday party on the day, and having my four- and six-year-olds up until 10pm on a school night. I enjoy the fact I can drop in on any of my friends, neighbours or family in Ecuador unannounced and know I will receive a warm welcome and plate of whatever is on the stove. I love the fact we can wake up on Saturday and go to the beach on the spur of the moment.
But more than that, serving in Ecuador has made me question the values of my own culture. I do not find the belief that ‘time is money’ in the pages of Scripture. I do find the instruction to, ‘Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven’ (Matthew 6:20) and to ‘fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal’ (2 Corinthians 4:18). The fruits of our lives that will last for eternity are love, kindness, goodness and faithfulness. Our relationships with Jesus and our brothers and sisters in Christ are eternal. Let’s use the finite time we have in this world to invest in each other and in sharing the gospel. The challenge is working out how we do that as individuals living in different cultures.

Posted on CMF Blog 13/3/2015 

10 lessons God has taught me during 10 years in Ecuador

1.       Patience, patience, patience…. For paperwork, bureaucracy, & more paperwork….

2.       Be kind – I have no idea what the person next to me is going through.

3.       Humility – those who have nothing give so much more than I do from my plenty.

4.       Be generous.  Do not fear.  God always provides for our needs.

5.       What it is to be misunderstood.  What it is to feel helpless. Living in a culture different to my own has created many opportunities to learn these lessons!

6.       The joy of thanking God for the simple gift of another day to live and to love.  Having seen so many patients and neighbours die young, I no longer take life for granted.

7.       Our lives are like a breath, here today and gone tomorrow.  Live each day to the full and for His glory.

8.       God is with us, no matter what tragedies befall us. 

9.       I need to forgive and to be forgiven.

10.   God loves me profoundly and eternally.  

Alausi, Ecuador

My 10 favourite places in Ecuador

I arrived in Ecuador 10 years ago.  Here are 10 of my favourite places in Ecuador...
1. Baños - the bustling tourist town with stunning waterfalls and zip-wires.
2. Cuicocha lake near Otavalo, the extinct volcano which offers walks and boat rides, and the chance to see volcanic gases bubbling up to the surface of the water. 
3.  Mitad del Mundo - the equator monument just north of Quito.  A great place to take visitors so they can stand on the line between North and South. 
4.  Ingapirca Inca ruins  - a fabulous chance to look back into history. 

5.  Cotopaxi Volcano - the majestic snow-capped peak with llamas wandering in the National Park.
6.   Chimborazo Volcano - another spectacular summit with freezing winds and wild views. 

7.  The Pacific Ocean - wonderful, warm water to swim in, and crashing waves to catch.
8.  Mindo - home of exotic birds, fluttering butterflies, a chocolate tour and spectacular humming birds.

9.  The Galapagos Islands - there is nothing to compare with walking amongst giant turtles, iguanas, penguins and blue-footed boobies.
10. My home amongst the anthuriums and the orchids, the colourful birds and the iguanas, with bananas ever on hand and a beautful river to swim in.