Another very hot day today and we are happy that night has finally fallen and things are cooling off. I throw our shutters open to allow for some airflow into the house here at night…but with the lights inside you get plenty of different types of bugs coming in, too.
Monday things were hopping around here. In the morning an Ash couple from New Dwelling village showed up and the lady was complaining about all kinds of different pain here and there. Reb decided that what would be best is a female exam. When Reb is doing these consults, I kind of work as part-time translator and part-time advisor. When Reb started talking about a female exam I was convinced that this Ash woman would not go for that. We weren’t even sure if she knew what we were talking about. But both she and her husband followed us over to the clinic and the whole thing went like a breeze. Reb later said that the Ash woman, while Reb was poking around inside, was halfway sitting up and was pointing at the outside of her body, trying to tell Reb where to be checking inside! Apparently, all was normal but the poor lady did have an awful sounding lung infection of some sort so got antibiotics for that.
Around 1 p.m. Joe Snake showed up at our door and said that there was an emergency for the “doutora.” Reb thought it would be good if I went over to the clinic with her, so we locked up the house and went. When we were approaching the clinic we could see a good-sized crowd outside so knew something major was up. When we got there, we found out that there had been a high school kid coming to class (they have classes in the afternoon) and he was attacked by another kid with a piece of wood of some sort. Anyhow, the kid got beat across the head and apparently when he got hit he was knocked to the ground, then was finally able to get up and ran off for home, which is a ways downriver. People who witnessed the entire thing said that the poor kid that got hit was bleeding profusely. The other boy that did the hitting also ran off for home. He lives in one of the houses across the river. So we all waited for the kid that took the blow to come back for treatment. In the meantime Reb prepared the suturing stuff in the clinic as we were all pretty sure the kid would need stitches.
Almost a half-hour passed and he didn’t show, so finally I told Joe Snake that we would head for home and when the kid shows up to come get us. Joe Snake was sure that the his mom would end up bringing him to the clinic for treatment.
Not long after we got back to the house here someone did come and say that the kid had arrived at the clinic. Sure enough, he took a good wallop to the head and Reb set about at cleaning the wound and doing the stitches.
While the boy was being treated his dad showed up at the clinic. When he walked in he seemed just fine. Even smiled at me some and sat down in one of the chairs out in the waiting area of the clinic. It wasn’t long, though, before I was hearing Joe Snake telling someone to just take it easy, to drink some more water, etc. I peered out and saw it was the dad and he was breathing deeply and moaning and groaning. Pretty soon they had him lying on the cot in the next room and were wanting Reb to check his blood pressure. Reb left her stitching and did a quick check on the dad and everything seemed to look alright. He was kind of writhing around on the cot and moaning about how he was going to die, etc. I didn’t know if I should be in trying to help Reb with the kid or trying to do something to help the dad. The entire family was in there and I noticed that someone came in with garlic cloves and they were rubbing garlic all over the dad. Boy, if that didn’t get pungent in that little enclosed room! A bunch of sweaty bodies with a bunch of garlic! I fumbled around with the shutters on the windows and finally got them open.
Finally, the stitching was done on the boy and at about the same time the dad seemed to calm down enough to where he was just lying still on the cot. Reb, Joe Snake and I were all pretty much convinced that the dad was just working himself into a panic of some sort because of what had happened to his son. I kind of think that he was just so angry over what that other kid had done to his boy that he had worked himself into a frenzy. Both the kid and the dad just kept talking about how they were going to get revenge and so forth. Joe Snake, though, did talk them into going down to Thama and reporting what happened to the police instead of taking the law into their own hands. Hopefully, no more violence comes out of that situation!
As soon as Reb finished stitching up the kid that took it on the head, another kid walked in with a huge cut on the side of his foot. He apparently had stepped on a stump while getting a cow from upriver. This kid is the night watchman over at the school. He got his stitches and antibiotics to take and left.
Somewhere in there on Monday Reb checked a couple of kids with fever. It seems everybody has fever and cough. I always try to joke around with the kids so that they won’t be as scared of the stethoscope or otoscope to look in the ears. One of my standard jokes when Reb would start looking in the ears with the otoscope was that she was wanting to see if there were any monkeys in there. I went with that joke a couple of times but was noticing that the kids were taking that all too seriously so thought I would give that one up. Who knows what their worldview is regarding the possibility of wildlife living within one’s head!
Tuesday we had a Brazilian man here with a badly infected stingray wound on his foot. There was quite a bit of completely rotten flesh right where the critter got him. He had this string tied pretty tightly around his calf and Reb asked him what it was for. He just laughed and said that a tribal man had tied that there when the tribal man did a prayer for his foot. Reb told him that it would be better for his wound if he took that string off as it was so tight. He didn’t end up taking the string off but did move it down his leg some to where it wasn’t so tight. The local Brazilians up here are just as much into the witchdoctors and all as the tribal people are.
Wednesday there was more medical action. José brought an Ash couple from the village. The wife had a badly swollen arm and claimed that there was a piece of wood stuck up inside her arm. I asked José if it was an accident and he just kind of smiled and said that he was still trying to determine that. I think he was suspicious that the husband was beating his wife when this happened. Anyway, we got over to the clinic and Reb started doing exploratory surgery on this lady’s arm. She kept cutting and cutting and now and again would have to give more numbing shots as the lady would start to groan a little. Finally, the wood was found and Reb removed a good 2-inch piece of palm wood from deep within the muscle. With all the cutting the lady needed stitches, too.
A little later another Ash man showed up and complained of a bad itch in the nether regions. He ended up walking out with some pills for fungal problems. One funny about him was when we were trying to explain to him about the medication he was to take. He didn’t speak very much Portuguese at all so we kept reiterating things to him. Reb told him that it would be best if he did not drink any rum or potato beer while taking the medication. He didn’t seem to understand at first so I asked, “Do you drink sugar cane rum?” He looked at me and quickly said, “Only when I have it.” That struck me pretty funny.
Last night for the Wednesday night meeting I spoke on angels. Maia’s kids were there and they really interacted well with some of the questions that I would throw out. I don’t think the regulars here at the church are used to the speaker actually asking questions that he wants someone to answer. I guess I teach more than preach but am enjoying The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus lessons as I benefit by preparing to teach the material.
OK, this has really gotten long so will quit. We’re up to date!
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