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Medical Tour to Remote Villages
By Daniel Adams
Hi again! There is so much going on around here that it's
hard to keep you all informed!
Until now I have told you very little about the work which I am doing down here or, so you may think. The truth is that I am here with three main goals in mind. To help where ever needed, to learn the fine art of medical mission life, and to learn how to share that which I do know. I hope you enjoy these next few pictures of some of my responsibilities and learning opportunities. 
Ever since I was a little kid, I dreamed of flying in the mission field. Now that dream is being realized as I spend time with Bob training on shorter and more difficult strips.
Here we are coming into the strip in Santa Elena. It’s a
VERY nice strip.
Since our group was too large to fly in the mission plane, some of us took an air taxi, flown by a local pilot. No seat belt, compass wasn't properly adjusted, and he didn't know how to use the GPS - until I explained it to him as I flew in the co-pilot's seat. He just flies "by the seat of his pants!"
Here's an AN-2. This is the kind of plane needed to do the work in this area. It’s cheap, slow, and can out-perform a Cessna 172 any day of the week! It can take off and land on very short airstrips, and has room for up to16 passengers. Somehow I would like to learn to fly one of these big bumblebees!
It looks like something from World War II!
This is the boring part that I never tell you about. Over the last few weeks I have been translating for some networking meetings in Santa Elena.
In these meetings we have met with officials in the community and important leaders from over six organizations. It took awhile to get official permission for the IRR team to provide medical treatment in the remote villages.
Another opportunity I’m taking advantage of is the visit of a film crew. Over the next few weeks I’ll be learning more about how to edit and work with video.
Ahh yes, the luxuries of mission life. Ants in my pants! I found this ant nest in my suitcase after returning from our medical tour.
Just after landing in Awarouka, a small village where we did some medical work.
As soon as we landed, the plane was swarmed by the villagers.
My job here is really quite simple, hang on and enjoy the ride. This is the 25’ dugout canoe we used to get to the next town of Aripichi. It was a 3 hour ride.
This is where my work really got interesting. One translator (me), two doctors, and two EMTs. Fortunately I enjoy talking! It's taking some time to learn
many of the medical
terms in Spanish.
This little girl had worms, as did most of the
other kids
in the village.
Dr. Brent Hildebrand checks one of the smaller patients. Translating here was harder than normal, as most only spoke Pemon, the local dialect.
While we were treating patients in Awarouka, a man arrived with his hand cut very badly. He'd been drinking, and apparently grabbed his machete from the wrong end before discovering his mistake. Ouch!
Fortunately the mission plane was in the area and was able to take him out on the next flight.
Here he's being helped to the airstrip, in the rain.
One of the doctors from the IRR group brought a satellite phone!
Student missionary Corrie Sample and professional videographer Gerhard Weiner from Austria worked with the medications and tried to translate on their own while I worked with the doctors.
This is Aripichi - the last community we visited on this trip. In two and a half days we saw about 150 patients. With only one translator too!
Here’s Dr. Duehrssen waiting for the boat to come. Leaving at 6:30 a.m.? Yeah, right! Rule number one in the mission field:
We ended up leaving at 7:30 a.m. instead. After that, the boat we were going to take didn’t work out. Because of the late boat we missed our flight the next day.
Since we missed our flight, we had some time to tour the clinic in Uriman. The doctor there was highly interested in our work, and will likely be training the jungle rescue course here for IRR in the next few years. So it all worked out in the end!
This was taken at about 6:25 a.m. while waiting for the boat. There is much more news but I’m out of time and have to go. God bless! ~ Daniel ~
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