Life at the beach

Saturday, May 19, 2012

CHILDREN`S HOSPITAL

I have to report what has been going on the last few days. First of all, we attended church on Thursday. We had a good group and Penny sang two songs. They were so appreciative of her singing! Two other girls sang solos Thursday night, so Penny (so nice of her) is going to sing with them on Sunday! They are having a baptismal service on the beach on Sunday. Eight people from all three groups will be baptized, so there is only going to be just one service Sunday on the beach.

Now for the little boy: after seeing how everybody in town is so upset about the boy and how everybody wanted to make sure that we knew about it, we decided that we had to go visit him and be with his parents for a couple of hours. The boy's uncle and his wife, Paola, are Christians and attend the little church in town, so Thursday night we talked to them about the situation. The uncle had just been there to see him and told us how devastated the parents are. By the way, in the midst of all his grief, the boy's father remembered to ask his brother-in-law to go to his house to get our cellular phone, which they keep at their house while we are not here, and give it to us. We asked the uncle and his wife who would be willing to drive with us to the capital because we had no idea where Children Hospital was. There are no street names and numbers anywhere in this country. You just have to know certain landmarks and get directions from there. So, Paola said that she would go. This would mean that their little six-year-old girl would also be coming with us. They wanted to leave at 3:00 am because that is normally when they leave to go to the capital, but we settled for 5:00 am; therefore, yesterday we all (including Bob and Penny who went with us) got up at 4:00 am, picked up Paola and her daughter and started for the capital. It is a five hour drive on a two lane highway.

Paola always travels by bus to the capital, so we had a couple of times when by the time she realized that we needed to turn, it was too late, but we found the hospital and found parking after driving around the hospital for a while. Paola had phoned ahead, and they were waiting for us.The boy's mom, Arleth, was having something to eat across the street from the hospital in a little restaurant whose owner used to work here at the Hacienda. He knows them and lets them stay there all day. Only one person can be with the boy at the time. They are doing three eight hour shifts. Arleth was coming off her shift and trying to get some food down. She has no appetite whatsoever. A skinny girl to begin with, she is looking tired and malnourished. Dad was in the hospital with the boy. There are also two great-aunts who take turns for the third shift, but it is Arleth who spends the whole night at his bedside, sitting on a very hard wooden chair. They are renting a room with three beds near the hospital where they can go and rest between shifts.

We hugged and cried, and we tried to give her some comfort. It is very hard when people donĀ“t have the Lord. She says she has faith, but she is talking about rosaries being prayed, amulets and idols, as well as faith in God. The boy was having lunch, so we had to wait to go up to see him. They have socialized medicine in this country. This is what it looks like: there are bars around the hospital much like a prison., and there are guards. You have to have a pass to enter. They had already talked to the guard to let us in, but Randall, the father, had to come down with his pass and talk to the guard again. He asked how long I was going to be up there, etc., and let me enter with the parents' pass. Since I had to go by myself, I was instructed how to get to his room on the 4th floor. I went straight to it. The nurse told me that I had to wash my hands before entering. Hospitals are not pleasant places, but I find children's hospitals especially depressing. Yirardi's bed was next to the window, which is good. I could face the window and talk to him and did not have to see the other patients. He is such a smart boy. He knows what is going on and is afraid. Somebody gave him an amulet that he is wearing around his neck. He showed it to me; it is a blue stone, but I have never seen anything like it. I don't know what it means. They shaved his head, so he is upset about that. I told him that his hair will be more beautiful when it grows back, and he laughed. What bothers him the most of the hospital stay is that time goes by so slowly. I told him that is the reason they are call "patients." He needs to be patient. We talked for a long time. He really wanted to talk, but I knew John was outside in the sun waiting for his turn, so we prayed and I left. John had to repeat all I did to get to his bed. He also stayed and talked for a long time. Yirardi told John that he now looked like an old man with his head shaved. John had to laugh about that. We promised him that he could come to John's birthday party on June 16 because we knew that he really wanted to come.

The tumor is small. They will operate at 7:30 am on Monday, which is 6:30 am California time. Please remember this brave little boy and his devastated parents on Monday. They don't know how long the surgery will be. It all depends of what they find when they get there. Since this is socialized medicine, I am sure he will go home as soon as possible after that. The problem will be the post-op visits, since they live so far from the hospital. After visiting with the parents for a while longer, we left and drove all the way home again. We got home at about 8:00 pm, a long day. By 9:00 we were all in bed and sound asleep.

Today we got up at about 6:30 am, well rested. John and Bob went fishing with a local guy. Penny and I went for a short walk and then started cooking. Penny is making chocolate chip cookies and I am making lasagna for the couples' meeting tonight. While we were gone yesterday, maintenance came and unplugged our thermostat upstairs because it is not working properly, but we did not know about it, not a good thing when we are baking and cooking all morning. Soon it was 85 degrees upstairs.  I made a few phone calls, and they came with a one that we can use until the new one arrives. I gave the guys fresh baked cookies. Penny says that they are going to find excuses to come back, so they can get some more.

Tonight is the first couples' meeting. We will have lasagna, chocolate chip cookies and will pray for Yirardi. John is preparing some short talk about the hope we have in the Lord. Pray for open hearts. Pray that the Lord will use all this for His glory.

Until next time...from the beach...

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