Spiders and Wasps and Ants, Oh No!

Talk about saving the action for the last day! Or is it the first day? Turns out both teams had their share of adventure today.

First, Team Two was due into Manaus midday. Unfortunately they were delayed leaving Atlanta (now there is a real surprise!) and missed their connection in Brasilia. They will be in Manaus at midnight. Ah well... 12 hours in the Brasilia airport can't be that bad, right? It's actually enough time to learn the language. They got their unexpected adventure over with on day one as opposed to Team Two, that waited til river day 5, after their last clinic, for their excitement.

Here is the scoop, understandably no photos to back up the tale:

After our last clinic we took a very narrow passage, trying to find a shortcut. We were told the route was open. It got narrower and narrower, till we were scraping big branches on both sides of the boat. One busted out a kitchen window. Several combined to rip the satellite dish off the roof. A huge branch broke and fell into the roof, releasing a cloud of nasty little black wasps. John and Kim got stung. Not hurting too badly now. We fled like maniacs into closed spaces to avoid the wasps. Millions (billions?) of ants and spiders and other bugs fell onto the boat. Many spiders immediately started to build webs, everywhere. It was exciting to say the least!

Yikes and Yuk. Fortunately, the day held much more.

Starting the day beautifully heading down river to the next spot.

Pulling up curbside

Wow. A Huge Rope

 Setting up Clinic in a Floating House
















First stop on Friday

John and Deb

This beautiful 15 year old girl is 3 months pregnant.

15 Year Old Girl

Teaching how to brush teeth properly.

Kate just before she melted.

Do you suppose this photo was taken before or after the jungle came crashing into the boat?

3 gatos bronzeando no sol acima o barco. Look it up.

OK. So this is Flat Liz. There are other (hilarious) photos of her during the trip. To Team One:  I include this one tonight to thank you for being a blessing to me on this final river day. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. Thank you each and all for the ways you have moved all of us over the past five days as we've watched your journey. I miss you and love you and am so glad to be part of your team. See you soon!


To Team Two - welcome to Brazil and we look forward to traveling with you over the next ten days.  

Have Your Cakes and Eat Them (Two)

June 11, 2013

Team one greets day 4 with this view of Lago do Guedes.

Lago do Guedes

First, an amazing breakfast spread:

Breakfast Buffet

Corn Cake in Coconut Milk

Boat Rules: have your cakes and eat them too! Here is Nathalia's chocolate covered carrot cake served up for breakfast.



Emma and Sierra are phenomenal with the waiting children.

Sierra and Emma

Emma and Jenn

Offering Fluoride Treatment

This is the yellow school bus. No kidding. Is there school in the summer or is it being used to bring families to the community for medical care? Inquiring minds wonder.

School Boat

Tim and Tiago

Tim and Tiago are taking a swim. Tim vaccinated 59 cats and dogs before lunch.












Team One - singing, laughing, praying, swimming, eating, teaching, playing, providing care down the Amazon.








Oh. And fishing.

Best Ever Fishing Photo of Tim

What will tomorrow bring? Well, for starters, tomorrow brings Team Two into Manaus. But that's a world away from Casabranca and Lago do Janauari, Team One's next (and final) stops on the Amazon.

Team One Itinerary

Wednesday's Top Thirteen

Sometime today Team One passed from the first half of their trip to the second. Here, then, are the team's highlights (so far):

Emma: taking off on the boat at midnight. 
Don: watching Sierra touch a dolphin and fulfilling a lifelong dream.
Kate: playing with the kids and being on the water.
Deb: winding through a narrow green passage, surrounded by jungle this morning. Close to the trees, birds, everything.
Kim: Judy's comment, "Note to self and others - hand sanitizer tastes terrible." 
Don again (he's the leader, he can go again): seeing the team come together, bonding, laughing, working. Watching them as they (unconsciously) develop their "Amazon swagger". The spontaneous joy between our people and the Brazilians in Augusto's church was also spectacular, exactly what I'd hoped for.
Sierra: touching a boto. While playing frisbee with kids today, saw a little boy pick up the frisbee and give it to a little girl when it fell short. This was a beautiful act of selfless sharing.
Dave: seeing very happy children even though they all need dental work and deworming.
Jenn: creeping thru the jungle on a tiny boat, hunting caimen while listening to a billion frogs under a trillion stars, helping people, practicing medicine.
John:at our last village we did our work in a tiny, open air, Catholic church. That felt special, like it was a good use for the church.
Judy: really enjoyed it when a very old woman (89 years old) came back to show us her new glasses. She reportedly put them on, looked at her husband and said, "Wow, you're really ugly. You used to be handsome. "
John: loved being able to give a picture of a group of school kids to the school, as a permanent record of 1 day in July, 2013.
Tim: traveling around in a small boat with the vet, going house to house and vaccinating dogs and cats.

This important note about the vet: he is wearing a T-shirt with a big picture of a bat, a dog, and a boy on it. Around the picture is the phrase: Worldwide Day for Rabies (in Portuguese). This is hilarious because the word for rabies is the very same one as their word for "extreme anger". So,  it could say "Worldwide Day of Extreme Anger", which apparently has everyone in stitches.

Thank you teammates for cherishing these best moments and sharing them with us. Blessings.

Day Two. Whew.

Yesterday (day one on the river) the crew was in Tiririca.

     Here's how day two began: 

Sunrise July 9

Today the team traveled to two villages. Well, two communities. Village would be an overstatement. Here's the update:

"It is great. Beavers ran the toothbrush and art/craft show. Angela and Tim helped vaccinate dozens of animals. Judy is my nurse. Kim runs the glasses point with Augusto. Emma and Sierra are drug runners. (I think that means they go get prescriptions filled.) Jenn and Dave are water police and do-it-all people."

Santa Maria School House

This afternoon in Santa Maria the team saw 35 patients in 2.5 hours in a small school-turned-clinic. The assistance of Judy (retired nurse), Emma (middle schooler), and Sierra (college student) made it all work.

Much loved dentist is Tiago. Nathali,his girlfriend is a 3rd year dental student

Apparently Team One got a soccer lesson from a group of young guys this afternoon. No photos of that. Also no photos of the two fish Tim caught - much to his delight. They were small (6") but sounds like he will have a shot at some bigger fish with one of the crewmen on the boat. He doesn't speak English; Tim doesn't speak Brazilian. But they communicate very well in fish. You can take the guy out of Montana. . . 

Diagonal Parking

End of the day. 

Patients are exiting the  clinic parking lot.
John, Emma and Kate are relaxing.


A good day.

End of a good day's work.

Potatoes. But first a Baptism.

Last night the team took to the boat and river right at three minutes after midnight. This was preceded by a remarkable event - as told by Don in his e-mail to Debbie:

We are having a wonderful time. The team is clearly loving each and every moment. We had communion at church and I simul-translated the sermon. The Brazilians are loving our members, laughing and hugging incessantly. Hudson (Augusto’s baby) left the house for the very first time in his 4-month life today. He spent 65 days in the hospital and 40 days in quarantine at home. I got to translate his baptism and introduce communion. It was a very special time. 

Tim checked in tonight (thank you Pastor Augusto!) Today (Monday) the team set out to their first village via Rio Negro. Deb Beaver and family did crafts with school children. The eyes of God. Anyone know that one? When the overcast sky gave way to a full furnace blast of sun, a jump into the river saved the day. Tim spent time working in the pharmacy and then "grunt work; whatever was needed." He sounded pleased and full. In the same way Don's email was full with the baptism of Hudson and introducing communion.

I was reminded of my friend Win who learned how to be in the moment by peeling potatoes. (Actually, potatoes once saved her. ) "You just peel one potato, and then you peel the next potato. That's what you're doing - peeling potatoes." On our rare sacramental days, we encounter holiness in the baptism of a beautiful premie baby - his first look out at a world beyond his parents. The rest of the time we enter holiness through potatoes - doing what the moment calls for with satisfaction and fullness. And then doing some more. Every member of Team One is peeling potatoes: running scripts, filling scripts, moving stuff, entertaining kids, looking into adult's ears and children's' mouths.   Ordinary work done with full and willing spirits, holy hands,  in this very special time.

Tourist with a Mission

I can only speak for Tim - because I haven't talked with anyone else - but he is ready for the boat! He's touring - but he's also waiting. The prelude of strolling through the market, taking a van ride over the Rio Negro to see the dolphins, gathering with a wonderful group from the church in Manaus is good, but I'm hearing Tim say "let's launch!"

How rich to be a tourist with a mission, to experience another culture as a member of a team, Americans and Brazilians, coming together to serve from a common faith. On the one hand, every moment can be a teacher, and enjoying the journey is important (etc.)  On the other hand - you know what? Go for it! Love the launch. You're into the mission and I for one can't wait to hear more.

Manaus Opera House

Echoes

As the disappointed member of Team 1 who had to cancel at the last minute, I am delighted to post the first blog following tonight's surprise FaceTime conversation with Tim.

Other than one missing bag, Team 1 is in Manaus! According to Tim the heat is unbelievable. He is a polar bear so this will be interesting!  The group arrived by 12:30 and spent the afternoon downtown. They met Pastor Augusto and will enjoy gathering with folks from the church tomorrow evening. Or is it folks from the boat? Hmmm, I was so surprised  by technology I missed the detail.

The briefest glance at the hotel - via FaceTime of course - left an impression of sound more than picture. The echo in our conversation was persistent and stuck with me after saying goodnight. So in the spirit of noticing, I looked up the word echo: a reflection or a reverberation. Not a bad way to think about a band of United Methodists landing on the Amazon to serve our brothers and sisters who are already there, have been there all along.  Speaking for the teammates I've met, we all have so much. In that sense we aren't doing anything big, really. Except for what we're reflecting. That's the big deal - the echo.

So thank you to my team mates for extending yourselves on behalf of all of us that have so much, bringing generosity of care and resources to what amounts to a minute strand of water, a few winding miles in the midst of a vast creation.  In the long run will it matter? Absolutely. That's what reverb is all about. It's what persists after we do our thing and then get out of the way.

So go in love, bless and be blessed. Let the echoes fly!!