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MISSION TRIP 2000
Group Journal Saturday, May 27, 2000 It's been such an exciting day! I can't thank God enough for all His care, for all His blessings. I've been looking forward to this experience so much, with a sense of excitement for all that the trip can be, for all the interactions with the Mexican community, for being immersed in a different culture. I've been praying all along, asking God to make this opportunity an important one for our lives, a time that we all can learn to appreciate how each of us can be an instrument for God. We are only spending a week in Reynosa, but my heart tells me that the impact of this trip will last a lifetime. Lord, thank you for bringing us to Reynosa safely! The airplane flights were pretty uneventful. Most of us spent the time either sleeping or getting to know each other.
After arriving in San Antonio, we went to meet a lady who welcomed us and presented the mission program to us. The church where we were was really beautiful. [It was John Calvin Presbyterian Church, where David Renwick was pastor prior to his coming to Second. - slp ] We took several pictures there before hitting the road to McAllen. Many of us admired the pretty flowers growing alongside the highway, as well as sorghum fields. As we neared McAllen, more palm trees started to appear, changing the landscape little by little. After some grocery shopping at Wal-Mart [and meeting Brice Rogers at the Puentes de Cristo office in Hidalgo, Texas], we crossed the border uneventfully.... We were finally in Mexico!! No more English!! Everyone was looking out the window trying to read the signs and murals. I was so happy! Reynosa was full of life and noise! It does not look like the U.S. nowadays. I was wondering when we would start to interact with the Mexican people. I thanked God again for the day, for that moment. Brice took us to our dorms and then to eat. I found the food very delicious and the dorm facilities very adequate. I remember reading in the mission handouts that the facilities were made such that we would experience similar living conditions as the people around us. Lord, I thank you again for this trip. What we have back in the U.S. is such luxury compared to the living conditions here in Reynosa. Please help us to humble ourselves, to look beyond our differences with the Mexican brothers and sisters and to serve you and to be a witness for you. - Amen.
Sunday, May 28, 2000 One of the first things I noticed about Reynosa was the music. Music seems to beat out the pulse of this culture. It seems to permeate all aspects of life. When I woke up this morning, I heard drums beating from blocks away. Life seems a little bit louder here. The outflow of culture from the United States is obvious. I've seen Americanized convenience stores, heard Top 20 Rap music, and seen American brand name clothes everywhere. I saw a computer chain store in downtown Reynosa yesterday. However, the true quality of life is very bleak compared to the U. S. I saw a horse-drawn cart ride down the street this morning. The surprising thing was that it had a Rugrats bumper sticker on its side. There are contrasts like that everywhere. The traffic laws down here are wonderful. The larger vehicle has the right of way. If I ever have to drive down here, I'll be sure to rent a tank. In church, the congregation is taught to memorize Bible verses in case one day the Bible is taken from them and they are not allowed to read. I was reminded of the days of the original missionaries, when the Bible was the only tool available to teach people to read. Perhaps it still serves a similar function.
The topic of the sermon today was el abogado. I was surprised when the pastor used a lawyer as a positive example of how God helps us. It makes me wonder if the legal system down here is corrupt. It is very strange to hear lawyers put on a pedestal instead of being villainized. It is very strange to be in a Christian church where the crucifix is absent. The cross is considered a Roman Catholic icon, and the Mexican Presbyterian Church wants nothing to do with Catholicism. For the same reason, dancing is prohibited. Another interesting thing is that they request the hymns during the service. Our worship services are very structured compared to theirs. There is much emphasis on the family. The second sermon was on the breakdown of family life and rebellion by children. I noticed an interesting emphasis on education. There was a strong message not to ditch education and marry young. Life down here is very hard. We talked today to a woman with four daughters who lives with two other families in one house. She and her daughters share one room. It is interesting to note that she named her first daughter America. She was very sad because (from what I understand) her teenage daughter wants to drop out of school and move out of the house. Perhaps she wants to get married, I don't know. We will be working on building this woman a house, so I pray that we will be able to help her with her problems. We met a family today. The young married couple had a family of four kids, ages 2 (F), 3 (M), 5 (M), and 11 (F). They are all beautiful, happy children. Their home is a two-room concrete building that previous missionaries helped build. [Louis drew a diagram of the family's home. Front room had two double beds, apparently on which the six of them slept. In one corner was a pile of clothing and stuff. Along one wall was a dresser and a radio on a shelf. In the passage between the front door and the second room were plastic chairs for us to sit on. There was a photo on the wall of Alonzo and Elvira at their wedding, all dressed up cutting a cake. The back room was a kitchen. It had other piles of stuff, a table and chairs for eating, a gas stove, a five-gallon pure water container in a dispenser, shelves. The refrigerator did not operate, but was used to store dishes. In the yard was assorted stuff scavenged from trash.] The whole family seems so happy and so close. I was amazed that they all slept in the same room. There is no privacy (makes on wonder how the couple had so many children). The father is an independent garbage collector, and owns two horses [which take turns pulling his garbage cart]. He is so proud of his home, his job, and especially his family. His youngest son, Isaac, was absolutely adorable. We went to another service in the evening. Afterwards we sang songs and the locals shared their wonderful food with us. Everyone seems so happy. I get the feeling that family bonds this community together. One father told us he moved up here because his children were here. His daughter works in a Maquiladora. He seemed very happy although he was unemployed and unsure he would be able to stay in Reynosa because of money. It continues to surprise me how open and how willing to share their lives with us these beautiful people are.
Monday, May 29, 2000 In the morning I got up and watched the sunrise through the windows of one of the unoccupied portions of the dormitory. There are enough roosters around Las Cumbres that it seems an alarm clock isn't really necessary. It was interesting to watch the city slowly come to life as the dawn grew into day. I watched workers cram onto already overcrowded buses, which came to the corner in a constant stream. I watched the children, in their white uniforms, wait for the school bus. I watched the people go by and the day begin.... Everyone ate breakfast, and afterwards we listened to an overview of Puentes de Cristo. Soon enough we found ourselves on our way visiting the church and clinic in Las Cumbres and in Lucio Blanco. We saw the lunch room, with its old, chipped, and yet serviceable colored chairs. The children each had a toothbrush, each in its spot, held by a large rack in the wall. The children, we were told, were so numerous that they had to eat in shifts....
We have people in this group that seem capable of reaching out and touching the lives of others. I feel like I have to write about it because I so admire it in them. I can only pray that I am, in some way, a part of that.... The most important thing we did today was to begin construction. I had been having feelings of misgiving while we had wandered around like tourists. I felt that I, at least, was playing when I should have been working. It may not have been the truth, but it felt good to finally get down in the earth and begin. We worked for only perhaps an hour and a half. Still, the sun beat down, the sand stung my eyes and caked on my arms, my sweat ran, and my blisters began to appear. We cleaned the foundation of sand, we filtered some gravel out of sand to be used to mix mortar, and moved the cement blocks and stacked them. From the looks of the foundation, the house will likely be the same style as Alonzo and Elvira's. The work was good. It took me back to the ideals of Berea College, one of which is the dignity of labor. I am glad that, although I am a part of the medical team, I will be able to work on the house in the afternoon.... In the evening we went to the supermarket on an educational activity. It was interesting to try to budget meals within the limits of a poor Mexican family. I closed the night in the same spot that I began the day. This time, I listened as the city fell asleep.
Tuesday, May 30, 2000 We started work on the house in earnest today. Today's task was to lay the lower courses of cement blocks for the walls of the house. Things went well, and I would like to say that we got this part about 3/4 done. More could have been done, but one of Puentes's construction folks didn't expect us to work this fast so we ran out of materials during the middle of the day. This actually worked out well. It gave us a chance to sit together and relax and get to know each other better. This was good today, because it was some down time, with no schedule to keep or chores to occupy us, so at least for me, it was the first chance to really relax.
It also gave us a chance to get to know Juan, the construction boss, a lot better. Julia spent a lot of time talking with him in Spanish. And he and John seemed to hit it off well, talking about construction. Patricia and her family came by to look at the house right before lunch. We also got a chance to meet the family whose house is being built right across the street (Juan doesn't think that house is being built right). What really came across from both these families was the sense of pride of ownership and expectation waiting for their new homes (just the same as we are when we have houses being built). I can't say that this made me try to do better work, being an obsessive compulsive I have to do the best I can anyway, but it did affect my motivation. I wasn't working, and trying to do a good job, just because of pride in the job. In fact this was no longer even my primary motivation. Rather, now I needed to do a good job for them. I needed to make sure that they had a good house in which to also have a good home. I pray that I (and we) can do this.
Tuesday, May 30
Today was the first real day of medical work for the medical crew. Four of us stayed at Las Cumbres [the neighborhood where the Puentes de Cristo dormitory and office is located - slp] and two of us went to Lucio Blanco. I stayed. Jacob and I split off and basically did screening exams for children ages 9-12, mostly girls. The children were from the Girls Club and boys from the nutrition program. I felt kind of inadequate in my knowledge as we were going through our exams. It is easy to recognize that something is aberrant but it is hard to know whether it was something to worry about or not. We heard a girl with a heart murmur and another with noises in her lungs. We decided that neither one was a big deal but neither of us really knew. There was also the issue of what they really needed from us -- Are we here to try to make a diagnosis of something obscure or are we needed to screen for their major health problems? I guess a little of both, but with our limited knowledge and experience it is difficult. Mainly they wanted us to look for lice and fungal infections, both very prevalent and we saw some of both. Overall it was a good beginning to our work and I hope we are really helping.
Wednesday afternoon, May 31 I'm writing for the work team today. We put in a good day of work in our hours at the site, and still we finished early the work they had for us to do. We completed the foundation and back-filled in and around it. John and Juan put the forms up on 3 sides, leaving one side open so we could continue to wheel in loads of dirt in the carretilla. We worked hard -- mixing mortar, mixing concrete, shoveling dirt, laying block, going with Rayvid for supplies. I was able to help some nailing forms together for the corners. The plan for tomorrow is to finish preparing to pour the floor, which we will do on Friday. Work for tomorrow is -- water and compact the dirt/sand inside the foundation, finish the form, put reinforcing wire inside the forms to strengthen the concrete, and probably haul sand gravel and cement to be ready for mixing and pouring. [This was not true -- sand and gravel and bags of cement were delivered by truck and were waiting for us on Friday morning.]
On the one hand it does not seem like much -- to complete only the foundation and floor of this house. But on the other, it is a large amount of work to accomplish by hand! So we will have done our part in a larger process, and others will come along after us and finish the house. It's a good metaphor for the nature of the whole situation, I guess, that one approaches the problems one step at a time. Otherwise it would all be too overwhelming, like it was for Patty when she was talking to us on Sunday afternoon. Sometimes when it seems to much, it helps to look at what small steps have been accomplished. Even though we will have pictures only of a foundation and floor, we will have memories of our work and of the people whose lives have enriched ours, and we will have hope that through this process more than what is immediately apparent will have happened. It was a strange contrast to our work site to come back here to the dorm. It seemed so clean and comfortable in comparison to the place where Patty's house is being built. The biggest challenge seems to me to be the dust and grit blowing constantly. It wears me out to be so assaulted by the elements. I wonder how long it will be before there is enough vegetation to cut the wind and the dust. This trip has been very satisfying in many ways -- we have a group with many strengths and gifts; flexible enough to get along with each other and to adapt to our situation; to keep each other cared for; we've been able to communicate about common concerns and take time to do a little group problem solving. Also, I appreciate the way Brice and other Puentes staff have organized our learning opportunities so that we encounter this place and its people from different perspectives.
Right now Louis is underneath a pick-up truck topper which is perched on the edges of two tree wells in the courtyard of the dorm. He is talking to and playing with a little boy who is here (I think he is the son of one of the cooks). In the neighborhood we can hear what sounds like a marching band playing. The birds are singing overhead. The sunlight through the trees (which appear to be some sort of locust) is making patterns on the concrete mixer which is stored here in the courtyard, and on the walls of the dorm. I hear a loudspeaker on a truck passing slowly through the streets, making claims for one of the candidates in the upcoming election. Tonight we will have a program of some sort on the maquiladoras. Maybe I will write about it later. For now I am too focused on just being here and absorbing the environment to be able to detach and be very philosophical or analytical. I've enjoyed Brice's morning Bible studies too.
Thursday morning, June 1 Members of the medical team described their observations from Wednesday Jacob said, "All the kids are willing and eager to be seen, though nervous. It was easy to establish rapport. When I tested their reflexes, they were excited to see them; you should have seen the look on their faces when they listened to their heart. Two had ear infections, one had pharyngitis. It's difficult to practice medicine in a place like this without access to diagnosis equipment and tests. One child might have had a significant disease and we had to refer her to a hospital (had enlarged lymph nodes). I was surprised by the strength and stoicism of the kids. All in all, I feel I accomplished what I wanted in coming. Maybe I couldn't help much, but I do know that I want to do medical mission work in the future."
Ricky: "I was shocked by many things. So many people have such big needs. I saw about nine patients, and Destiny saw many, too. We could have worked all day and still have had patients to see. It showed me how blessed we are in our society and how much we take for granted. If my sister who just had surgery had lived here in this way, she would have died or been in bad shape. People are so content with little things. Most houses are about the size of my garage. I was amazed to learn that the doctors make [at Puentes de Cristo] $5 an hour (twice as much as the hospital pays) or $100 a week for 20 hours (9 a.m. - 1 p.m.). The average doctor here makes $10,000 a year. We felt like we were emptying the ocean with a teaspoon and not getting to the problem. We are operating as medical personnel but with limited training. We saw some very sick kids and couldn't do any labs. We had to make do and make educated guesses. I am not used to thinking of diagnostic tests as a luxury. I can make a phone call to the pharmacy at home for any medication. Here, there is no Ampicillin in stock, a very basic necessity. The need is so great here, and the quantity of care limited. We went to the third site yesterday. It was clean, a little run down. There were 80 - 90 kids there, happy and smiling. The average meal for a child costs 40¢. Puentes relies 100% on donations. Administrative fees comprise only 15%. The staff is very dedicated, very godly. What they don't have in material things they have in spiritual gifts. I came here to replenish -- would not be here but for certain obstacles presented to me. All things work together for those who love the Lord." Berry: "We saw a small child who might have a viral infection or leukemia; there were enlarged lymph nodes, problem gaining weight. We saw 6 - 7 children from age 1 ½ to 11. The brother and sister of the sick child were also malnourished. Maria said that the noon day meal at the nutrition program may be the children's only meal. Maria sends food for the children home for the weekend, but the mother gives it to everyone, not just the children. None had gained weight in the last ½ year. The baby had lost weight. Maria was worried about her. Most children came with their mothers. They also saw one child with a little scoliosis." Patricia: "It's so good to see the children are happy, well-behaved. It was an experience to spot a child with Hepatitis A, and learning to rely on diagnostic skills rather than reports. One three-year-old presented orthopedic concerns, a cute little one (who enjoyed watching her sister's exam the next day). I did not see many parents, but got the impression that they were told to wait outside. I wished I had brought more instruments and reference books. Brice's letter said the most frequent diagnosis was gastroenteritis, but I have seen none yet. Can't think how to prepare others for a different season but I wish I could get sample meds. That would be a tremendous asset to have access to especially pediatric as they do physical exams next year. Other might wish to bone up on pediatric assessments." Destiny: "I think the most important thing is that when I'm talking to the patient, it's not just to focus on the medical need, but the patient needs someone to talk to, someone who is interested in them. The exchange is therapeutic, more than height and weight . When you ask, 'How are you doing at home? How are you getting along.' the patient has a chance to talk about himself. I perceive this as an important part of the interview to develop rapport. 'What classes do you take? What are your favorites? What do you want to do in the future?' vs. 'Have you had chicken pox, yes or no.' I look forward to having more medical experiences in the future." Anne: "I enjoyed working with the medical team to see what they do, seeing one patient after another, each one having a different story, and different needs. The children were clean and surprisingly well-dressed considering the deprivation under which they live. A number were lively, happy & friendly; a few too quiet and withdrawn, especially one who lives in a house where they burn coal without a chimney or window. One told us she lived with her grandmother and cousins. We learned later that her mother had been a prostitute and was murdered by a client. Another apparently had Hepatitis A, which was quite startling. Another said, in front of her mother, that her mother beat her or hit her the night before, and her mother quickly said, 'Oh, that was a game.' Maria, fortunately, knew all this and serves as guardian angel to the colonia. I'll never forget who is hungry again, I hope -- these little ones are very special."
Thursday evening, June 1 After listening to discussion of today's work, these are some thoughts. We are impressed with the children we are seeing, some for school exams and others because the parent (usually mother) brings them in. Some have specific complaints. All are clean, dressed adequately and quiet. No crying, kicking and screaming as I have experienced in other state-side pediatric clinics. I've never experienced two-year-olds who sit alone, open their mouths and allow examinations.
There are limited kinds of medications and limited amounts of those choices. We've all seen many enlarged tonsils, head lice, ear infections, cavities and several other diagnoses. One child was advised to be seen at the hospital -- a 15 minute bus ride from the Las Cumbres clinics, 1 hour for those from Lucio Blanco clinic. The buses are crowded and the wait once there is long. Maternity clinic this morning was interesting. I wanted to get into the high tech mode calculating weeks of pregnancy, abdominal growth, etc. None of that happened. Listening to baby's heart beat was about the extent of the exam. Baby's are delivered at the hospital. Took a tour around the upper income neighborhood -- beautiful $1/2 million houses. Such a contrast. It's the same everywhere. As our scripture reading says, "It's harder to get the rich into heaven than to put a camel through the eye of a needle."
Friday, June 2, 2000
Today was the grand finale of our construction efforts -- slab pouring day. The day began as usual, with birds singing and the sun rising. As I rolled out of bed onto the sandy floor I hoped that Ken's coffee was brewing -- it was! I enjoyed cereal with good milk and mango -- delicious! Our devotional was about the woman who anointed Jesus' feet with nard. May we always be at work helping the poor while appreciating extravagant acts of worship toward Jesus. We again packed the pick-up. This time we hitched up the concrete mixer. A twisted piece of heavy wire held the hitch in place. After another drive down the dirt road to the house site, we found that Patty's father had already been there for a while. He had completed another long section of pallet fence. We prepared a simple float and made a screed out of two semi-straight boards. We set the 5 gallon can of gas on the top of the mixer, a few pulls of the yellow nylon rope, and the mixer was mixing. Some filled 5 gallon buckets with gravel and sand. Sam got the recipe from Juan and added water and cement. Two wheel barrows shuttled concrete to the house. Soon the floor was taking shape. We were moving along well when we ran out of water. Rayvid (our source of materials) was gone and so we waited and rested for two hours. Meanwhile, Juan finished the half we had poured with cement and water. Eventually Rayvid returned and we went again for water. An hour later the floor was fully poured and we were finishing and cleaning up. In a weeks time we went from a footing covered with sand, to a slab ready for walls to go up. Although I'm looking forward to heading home tomorrow, I'm starting to feel sad about leaving. Reynosa is seeming more and more familiar and more and more like home. The sun will be low when we cross the Rio Grande in the morning. I'll be sad. We have received much more than we have given. |
