Jay in the Jungle

     After a few delays, Jay made his first flight into the jungle this week with Dr. Joe Martin. Here are some pictures to tell the story.

Preparing for takeoff.

Our town, Shell, from the air. We live above the green soccer field just left and below the center of the picture.

 
Jay and Dr. Joe who has worked here in Shell for several years.

Tonampari village - home to the Waorani tribe and main stage of the Nate Saint story (as featured in the movie: The End of the Spear and the book and documentary: Beyond the Gates of Splender by Elizabeth Elliot).

The docs flew in with Wings of Mercy, the Ecuadorian branch of Mission Aviation Fellowship.

Grass airstrip.

Homes and a covered outside meeting area on the right.

Jay seeing patients in the school house.

Average family size here is 5-9 children.

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Dr. Joe uses a common table to examine a Compassion child. Compassion is a Christian group that connects financial sponsors with children in third-world settings.

Emuengo Javier Wepe Tocari shows where a snake bit his foot two years ago. He had been deeper in the jungle visiting his grandparents. He and his father hiked for six hours to get medical help. He was hospitalized here in Shell for two weeks, then three weeks at the HCJB hospital in Quito.

A mother brings a gift of platanos (startchy cooking bananas) setting on the chair. 

Several boys stayed hoping to score a few cookies from the doctors. The middle boy sits between paintings on the school wall of traditional Waorani warriors. Before Christ's message came to the Waorani, they speared their enemies and revenge killings were a way of life. 70% of the tribe's death rate was attributed to homicide

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Community baths - a flowing pipe, a bar of soap and your swim trunks. After a sweltering day, Jay said it felt great.

Camping out inside the school. Less bugs but the overnight rain was deafening on the tin roof.

A boy using a banana leaf for an umbrella, stands near a walking bridge over a swampy area.

Another view of the village.

A marker for Rachel Saint's grave and behind it, the church that is a testimony to her years of sharing Christ's love with the Waorani tribe after it's members killed her brother and four other missionaries.

The marker for the five martyrs killed in 1956.

Satellite technology brings higher education to the jungle.

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Dr. Joe visiting with a boy who wanted to know more about Jesus.

Time to fly.

A tributary of the Amazon... snaking it's way to the Atlantic.

 Jay's home after the two-day trip. They saw 140 patients, most Compassion kids. Thanks for your prayers. Lynnelle

Chicken Soup for the Adventurous Soul

I’ve been looking forward to sharing the curiosities of cooking and eating at restaurants here with you. First, a few details about a unique bowl of soup: 

Jay and I had lunch in Puyo (Pooh – YO), a town the size of Norfolk, about 10 minutes away. Most city blocks have a small restaurant where almuerzo is served. Almuerzo (al-moo-err-zoe) is the feature meal of the lunch hour. Most customers order this however you can order off a menu, too.

At a simple restaurant it includes soup, rice w/meat and gravy and a glass of juice blended that morning for $1.75-2.50. A nicer restaurant would add a salad and something small for dessert for another dollar. The picture above was $3.50.

As we settled down to eat our soup, I dug in and brought up a spoon of … Well, what was it???

I asked Jay.

“Chicken trachea,” he said.

Hmm. I placed the item in question on my saucer.

Next spoonful, same question.

“Think that’s part of a chicken foot,” he responded with a growing smile.

            ****I know I took a picture of this culinary adventure.... sorry I can't find it!!!! ****

I think I fished out a couple more parts that aren’t usually eaten in the States… in anything other than hotdogs, that is. : ) But the broth and rice was good. Yes, I’m an adventurous soul when it comes to food. I am thankful that it is optional here to eat or not eat the chicken feet. That brings me to my first chicken purchase at the meat tienda…

I brought it home and had a surprise. The head and feet were intact, tucked into the body so that I didn’t notice it at the market. Jay happened home about then and took care of the extra carving on my bird. Since then I’ve learned to ask the butcher to keep the head and feet.

Here’s a nice surprise at the butcher's – lomo fina, a beef cut that includes filet minion, is $2.50 a pound. Ground beef is $1.50. Chickens are $4 or $7 by size.

 

 Jayson on bags of rice at the military commissary. It has the best prices in Shell.

  

Some of you know or perhaps remember how flour was sold in fabric bags during the depression which would be sewn into clothes. Flour is still sold that way here or in plastic bags. I don’t think paper bags would hold up in the humidity or with pests.

There are several more fruits here: maracuya (passion fruit), mora (very large raspberry), taxo, papaya, granadilla, mandarina, and boboka (bah-bay-KAH). 

In this picture I'm holding a boboka for juice. When it is soft to the touch, cube it, blend, add sugar and enjoy. The flavor is similar to, but better than, star fruit. Notice the sink full of water and produce... everything must be soaked in a germ-killing solution before we eat it.
 

Jayson and a tank of fresh tilapia for sale on the street.

Dane and Jayson at a roadside tienda selling local produce. Mandar

inas hang in bags in the upper right corner.

 
As for vegetables, there are several produce tiendas but I like to shop on Saturday at the small farmers market where there are often five vendors in one place. 

Farmers Market

Their offering includes:

yellow potatoes – These are grown higher in the mountains. It’s too wet here.        

radishes                               

tomates                      I’ve included a few Spanish spellings.

tree tomates for juice.  Not tasty in my opinion.

carrots – called zanahoria. That’s a mouthful. They are soooo large and so good here.

green beans – and several other larger beans. Some are toxic if you don’t soak them enough. No, I’m not that adventurous.

peas – large, very hard, only for soup

field corn - They grill it.

Swiss chard, garlic, onions,

fresh herbs: parsley, oregano, chamomile for tea, lemon grass

head lettuce (very wilted)

cucumbers

not as many peppers as you would think

turnips, beets, parsnips

platano (starch banana, used like potatoes)

cabbage, coliflor, brocoli

 yucca root – Very good when fried like potatoes.

Apples and pears are imported from Chile.

Limons, oranges, banano and grapefruit grow on our compound.

Bananas hanging in our carport.

There are more than 100 bananas in that bunch. Very heavy. Each banana comes from its own bloom. If you ever find a bit of brown shriveled stuff on the tip of a banana, that's the remainder of the bloom. The bunches are cut down while they are green to save them from the birds. Then the tree is cut down and the root sends up another shoot.

Turned the corner on main street to find two boxes of fresh - still moving - crabs.

Cubed sugar cane. Taste: pretty much just like sugar water. As you chew the juice out of the cane, you are left with a mouth full of fiber which has the consistency of dry cardboard. Sugar cane grows well here. .You can find many forms of sugar in the store including brown cylinders of it that you would have to cut to measure. I'm not sure how that is used.

That's a hodge-podge of Ecuadorian food and shopping info. Hope you enjoyed it. Want to sample it? Come visit!
 

The Gospel According to Angelyn

Out of the blue, Angelyn composed her own verse last week. So glad she knows this truth. Hope you do to.   ~Lynnelle

Update: $20 X-rays, Going bananas

It’s hard to type October and not feel that something is amiss. October means cool weather, changing leaves, pumpkins and football. Today its 90 degrees and everything is green and blooming. I keep looking for pumpkins at the market but all I’ve seen so far are some very big green squash.

Jayson and the flowers beside our house.

The other thing that’s off kilter is our sense of direction. Maybe it’s because we are in a different hemisphere, but Jay and I would bet some bananas that north is south and south is north. The sun keeps us straight but it still feels like true north is headed in the other direction.

Speaking of bananas – we have a bunch cut from a compound tree hanging in our carport. There are about 100 bananas in the cluster. Very heavy. Wish we could share with everyone.

Angelyn, Bella, Jayson and Luke ready to eat the bananas hanging in our carport.

Eric Fogg, full-time missionary from Michigan who works on water systems for villages, hacks down our bananas.

Jay hustled back to the hospital after lunch today to get lab results to a patient so he could head home. The patient took a seven-hour bus ride from the coast to get here yesterday, stayed overnight and saw Jay this morning. Imagine making that trip for a clinic visit. It says a lot about the reputation of Hospital Vozandes del Oriente and a lot about the cost of treatment at the hospital. Prices are lower to benefit the many poor patients however the doors are open to everyone. Here are some charges:

ER visit                                  $30

X-Ray                                     $20

Clinic visit                             $6

Physical Therapy                   $5

Urine Test                              $.30

Blood count test (CBC)       $.50

Patient Update –

Kamlia - 2 year old with fever for four weeks. Keep praying. She is better this week but a diagnosis still has not been made.

Panuelo, 16 yrs – victim in motorcycle vs truck accident. He died Monday. Pray for his family. He was an orphan with one sister and extended family. One “good” God brought out of this sad situation was an attempt to donate organs – the first ever outside of Quito, the capital. All of the family members agreed except one so the donation did not go through however all the paperwork is done so this option is ready for the future. Organ donation outside of Quito, the capital, is unheard of.

         

Electric Saw Victim – His infection continues to heal. Thanks for praying.

Man with flesh-eating bacteria. He has lost most of the skin and much of the muscle on his left leg. Pray the infection will be stopped. A month ago he visited a tribal shaman who gave him poultices but he needed antibiotics. He will not be able to walk normally again.

This is my second week of helping at Jayson’s preschool. I help all morning on Tuesday and half the morning on Wednesday and Thursday. His teacher is Sharon, a long-time missionary here who is now watching some of her grandchildren grow up on the mission field however she has 20+ grandkids back in the states, too. I really enjoy working with her and learning from her. She just finished her master’s degree in teaching a few years ago – kudos to her! Jayson really enjoys preschool as well.

Picture – Jayson on his first day of preschool

We started Spanish lessons with our tutor, Teresa, last week. She comes three days a week from 2:30 to 7pm. I work with her the majority of the time but the children each work with her one hour per week and Jay takes a turn when he is home. She joins us for supper before going home. We are enjoying getting to know her.

For the last 10 days we have sponsored Christian, a pharmacy student working at the hospital. We really enjoy getting to know the short-term volunteers here. I helped Christian get settled in at her apartment and then walked her through the streets and shops of town for the first time. On Monday, after a hint from one of her new hospital friends, we celebrated her birthday with guests at dinner. Angelyn helped make her birthday cake and since she couldn’t imagine a birthday party without games, Angelyn talked us into playing musical chairs. Everyone joined in and the laughter was well worth it.  

Christian and nursing volunteer, Mariah, with Wauroni spears and face paint after flying into a jungle village

This week Dr. Ching, a cardiologist from California, came to volunteer at the hospital; always someone new to meet and extend a warm welcome to.

Sending warm greetings to everyone back home.

Lynnelle for the Allisons

Parenting Tip : )

How to Keep Your Children from Putting Germy Fingers in Their Mouths

 

Last night was a rough call night. Jay didn’t get much sleep. A two-month old baby on a ventilator coded. He did is first c-section here and there was a woman…. CAUTION: The Following Medical Content Is NOT for the Weak of Stomach ….who was throwing up worms. Grisly thought, I know. Her story is sad. Besides the worms, there are two masses in her abdomen. (Probably tuberculosis residing in her uterus. That is the #1 cause of female infertility in the developing world. No, TB is not limited to the lungs. It can settle in various parts of the body.)

Back to those awful worms. If you have read the book, Bruchko, you know the parasite involved.

At breakfast this morning, Jay shared some of these details. “How do you get worms like that?” someone asked. “From worm eggs in dirt that stays under your fingernails when you don’t wash your hands,” Dad responded, “So, keep your hands out of your mouth and wash under your fingernails.”

The whole Allison crew was convicted.

Germ prevention just went to a new level.

I’ll be praying for that lady. Better buy more soap, too.