Reflections on Recent Days

Having married a woman 12 years my junior and of far greater intellect, as well as in far better physical condition means she can ply her skills as an incredible wordsmith late at night while I meet with the congregation at the corner of Sheets and Bedside. So, instead of trying to share with you more info than a single post could carry, or try to catch up and make sense of what is happening here I am just going to throw out a few reflections of what I have been up to lately:

My kingdom for a horse: The bottom line of the matter is that that we successfully handed out parasite medication to about 60 children, screened the vision of about 50 people, read books, blew soap bubbles and enjoyed a community of extremely poor who are so isolated that medical care is rare, fresh food is what is raised in the community. If you read in Sheila’s post (Los Chaguites, Part 3) where I paid a kid to let me ride his horse back to the military truck the cost was about $5US. Truth be told I would have paid a lot more. Either way, I knew I was going back on the horse, either sitting up as tall as my short body can sit, or draped over saddle with buzzards circling overhead.

Monkeys and Interns: Lately I have made several visits to Chimboraso, home to several troops of howler monkeys. They banter back and forth across the valley where the community sits with this deep, ominous, howl. We distributed about 20 pairs of glasses to the 50 or so folks we screened, treated for intestinal parasites and shared books, much as we did in Los Chaguites. As we returned to Jinotega, the truck carrying the interns stopped ahead of me in the road and they got out, pointing into the trees. We pulled up behind them where we stopped to see what excitement was ensuing. High above us there were howler monkeys flying from branch to branch, stopping occasionally to point back at the interns. The interns would make low growling noises and the monkeys would respond. At one point I even spotted one of the interns picking nits out of the hair of another. Our interns are incredibly talented and very intelligent. Generally, they are hard workers. We are blessed that, in their own special, charming way, they reflect the monkeys of the canopy. Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil.

Grace in Numbers: God is good, all the time. After three weeks of guest workers that ranged in number from 35 to almost 70, God set a respite as we have only had 3 ladies from Johnson City, TN and 3 educators from New York State here to work and learn. It has been a chance to have a few days of shorter hours, more intimate conversations, and a more relaxed feel to getting people in place for the work to be accomplished that day. When we have large groups I rarely get the chance to visit with any of their members. This week has afforded me the opportunity to chat…and sleep. God is good all the time.

Kids with Cameras: My adopted school, Santa Ines, is a small school of about 30 children. Next week I plan to take my two pawn shop cameras to loan for a week to two students recommended by their teacher. It will be part reward for behavior, part social experiment, and part “A week in the life of…” This should prove interesting results, or maybe a lesson learned about technology in hands of children in a developing nation. The children you see in the top left-hand corner of the blog page are Santa Ines children sporting the glasses they received last October.