An update on my cataract patient. We did go back to the hospital in Milagro on the Monday, and there was power, and she had her surgery. And it seems to have been successful, she has some lingering cloudiness which will be dealt with by laser next week. It means yet another jaunt to Milagro, but the outlook seems good for greatly improved vision for her.
And an update on another patient who I was also feeling a bit discouraged over. My old friend Julian. I first met him soon after I arrived here 2 1/2 years ago. He had a big leg ulcer that he'd had for a very long time. With daily visits for 3 months, it finally closed. Then when I got back from Canada last year, there he was with another smaller one, which proved to be remarkably stubborn, just didn't want to heal, but we won in the end, and got it closed. Then, wouldn't you know it, a couple of months ago, I discovered he had 2 more new ones!! So, there we were back to the same old routine, but they've been very nasty ones, and after caring for them every day for 3 or 4 weeks, we just didn't seem to be making any progress. I had to put in an SOS request to Janna's mom, who is a wound care nurse in Canada, to send me more supplies that I can't get here. But I'm so pleased to report that this week, all of a sudden, he's beginnning to heal. I can see it progressing each visit.
I've had a small army of people praying for these 2 patients of mine, and I feel so encouraged to see the results.
The big excitement of the last month was the visit of my brother Don and his friend Caleb. They were here for just one week, but what a week it was! We packed a lot of activity into that week, I look back at the time now, and wonder if it was all a dream! We saw the required sights of most of downtown Guayaquil - the Malecon, Las Penas, the artisan market, the iguana park, the Central market, had a great $2 Ecuadorian "almuerzo" or lunch. And all that was on the first day! We spent time in Bastion, toured the school, visited my patients' homes, were fed by my faithful friends whose mission it is to fatten me up. I lost the 2 men one morning, they decided to go exploring Bastion on their own while I was doing a dressing, and got so far away that I began to worry. It's not the best idea for 2 prosperous looking gringos to go wandering these areas alone! But we found them, and all was well.
One day we visited camp, out in Playas, so they could see the new house that was built last year and has been named "Casa Heather Berry", in memory of Don's wife. When she passed away last year memorial funds in her name went into that house, which houses the infirmary, the cooks' quarters and the tuck shop, all downstairs, and a guest house upstairs.
We did all that in just 3 days, and then.....we set out on an adventure - to the Amazonian rainforest. What a trip that was. We flew to Quito, then to the town of Coca, where we were met and taken down the Napo River by motorized canoe. Then a 1/2 hour walk through the forest, to another landing, where we were paddled in little canoes across a beautiful peaceful little lake to our final stop, Sacha Lodge, where we spent the next couple of days soaking up the sights,sounds and smells of the rainforest. It was a wonderful place, and a fabulous time. We were assigned a couple of guides, and taken out on trails through the forest and on canoe rides up silent little creeks, where we saw all kinds of 
fascinating things - monkeys, frogs, spiders, a boa (!) and many exotic birds. And such plant life! On the property is a "canopy walk", 3 towers that rise up above the forest, joined by suspension walkways. You climb up many stairs, and when you arrive at the top, you're above the canopy and can see way across the jungle, the sea of green just stretches out in every direction as far as you can see. What a place and what an experience. It was the one big area of Ecuador that I had never visited and always hoped I'd be able to some day. Never thought I'd get to do it in such style!We came back to Guayaquil via Quito and were able to spend a few hours there, we went to the Old Town, the historic part of the city, and once again managed to fit rather a lot into a short time. But it was fun and they got to see a city that is quite different to Guayaquil.
And then they were gone, and life returned to normal, or what passes as normal! This house has been strangely quiet since they left.....
