Well, it's only been a couple of weeks since I updated this blog, it felt like much longer - now I don't have to feel so bad!
(as I write this I'm listening to CBC radio over the internet. A little weird to hear familiar cbc voices and programs against the background of noisy buses, honking horns, and all the other Guayaquil sounds!)
It's been a full couple of weeks, with lots going on. Kathryn has been here, just went back on Sunday, and we traveled a bit, saw the sights here in G., and amongst that I carried on with my daily life.
We spent a few days in Cuenca, a beautiful old city in the mountains, about 4 hours south of G. by bus. We stayed right in the old city center, all cobblestoned streets, interesting buildings, markets, MANY churches, some quite lovely and huge, a river running through town, and a big square where I was happy to sit and watch life go by. we had a visit with Daniel who has gone to live there to go to university. And we went one day to visit Ecuador's Inca ruins, tiny by Peru's standards, but I like ruins and I may never get to Machu Pichu, so I was happy. It was cold though, 3180 feet up in the Andes, and there are clouds up there, cold damp ones! As we arrived we could hear sirens approaching, and it turned out that a couple who lived just down the hillside from the ruins had been attacked by their bull, and these were ambulances arriving. I have no idea how serious it was, but in due course, they were carried up a steep hill on stretchers, the man with his hat over his face, put into the ambulances, and off they went, sirens and all, to wherever the nearest hospital might have been. I wish I had the end to that story, but I guess I'll never know it.
link to photos of our time away - http://picasaweb.google.ca/heathermoore21/CuencaJune2008?authkey=_ia_yq4reCQ
And in the meantime, life here has gone on, with its ups and downs. Last week, a crisis hit us that has set us all back a bit. A little girl in the school, 7 year old Michelle, was diagnosed with leukemia and sent straight to the cancer hospital where she has been ever since. It's Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia, and she has already begun the first stage of what will be a long course of treatment. I've been in to the hospital twice now, the first time was just as they were making the diagnosis, and there she was in a little bed on the pediatric ward, attached to an IV, scared, not eating, having been through some unpleasant tests all on her own, no parents allowed to be with her for those. It was a heartbreaking visit, seeing her and her parents, who were looking as though they didn't know what had hit them - she is their only child. And it was also hard to see the other kids on that ward, knowing that they were all there with some kind of malignancy. Cancer is a difficult diagnosis to deal with anywhere, but here, especially if you're poor, it's worse. Not only do these people have to worry about the illness, but also how they are going to find the money to pay for everything. And can it ever add up fast. Before anything is done, they are given a list of supplies that will be needed, and how much they will cost, and they have to go and pay for it all. If you're poor you can go and talk to social services, and you may be given a discount. But always - those bills, wads of them. We are so thankful that in Michelle's case we can help with that, and remove that part of the burden from her parents. This has been a blow for everyone at the school, I believe that this is the first really serious illness they've had to deal with. So they are praying for her, and sending her cards, it will be a good support system for the family as they face the long road ahead.
And then yesterday, some good news - I went to see the man with the leg ulcer who I've been seeing for 2 months now, and many dressings and many prayers later...the ulcer is completely closed!! And great was the rejoicing!! He told us recently that he had had it for 10 months before I arrived on the scene, and 3 different doctors had told him he needed to have the leg amputated! And now he's out and about, and working a bit, able to earn some much needed money. So how's that for rewarding!! How blessed I feel to have been able to be a part of that, to be used by God to help that one little family. And I have got some new friends now, too, people I feel pivileged to spend time with. Such are the blessings of working in this community.