Back home....for now.

Poor Karis may need some Tylenol to help with her sore cheeks after our reunion last night! She has the most kissable cheeks ever:-) As happy as Jonathan and I are to see each other again he doesn't have quite as much patience to endure the pecking so I save that for Karis, 'til she's old enough to be annoyed herself. Ha!

There is so much to share about my week, I don't know where to start! Overall it was a wonderful, wonderful experience. Challenging in some ways that I didn't expect yet easier in others. I am completely exhausted but so encouraged, challenged and blessed that I thank the Lord for this opportunity and am so glad I didn't give into the temptation to cancel since I was overwhelmed with the move going on here! It may take two different blog posts to tell about everything (well, not everything since that would take up about 10...I'll try to weed out the non-essentials) but I'll go ahead and start.

The team arriving from the good ol' U.S. of A was made up of 30-40 Dr.'s, nurses, dentists, med students, and even some evangelists. Those of us participating in the interpreting department arrived at the hotel before anyone else (it was a 3 hour drive from where we live). The team was arriving from Alabama and Tennesse and they had missed their flight in Sao Paulo, which delayed their arrival at the hotel and didn't make it in 'til almost 10pm (almost 48 hours of traveling for them!). The hotel had an amazing supper ready for everybody (we had incredible food all week, as expected). After the amazing food it was only natural for everybody to hit the hay!

This picture is of the first morning after we had unpacked the many suitcases they had brought full of medicine, equipment, bandages, etc. and planned to use at the clinic. I'm not sure if this pictures accurately shows how much stuff there really was! We spent the entire morning organizing and dividing up pills into separate zip-lock baggies to be able to hand out to the patients at the clinic.

This picture is out of focus but it gives an idea on how organized the temporary pharmacy was after only a few hours of set-up! I was very impressed. It was run by one pharmacist from the U.S., one from Holland and several other med students from the U.S. They stayed incredibly busy as there was always a long line waiting outside and they had to make do with only 1 or 2 interpreters!

After that morning of organizing the medical supplies and setting up the clinic (I wasn't involved in the clinic set-up so I don't actually know what all took place in that dept.) we opened the clinic that same afternoon!

This is what it looked like outside the gate every morning or afternoon before the clinic opened! Brazilians are very accustomed to waiting so the long lines and time spent waiting didn't seem to bother them at all. They were so grateful for the services that were being provided!

When they came in the gate they were sent to waiting area #1 (I think they were given numbers and only let in so many people at a time so that things could stay organized and run smoothly).

When their number was called they were then sent to a table where there was a Dr. (or nurse) and an interpreter (hence the incredibly stylish and bright orange vests).

They were asked a series of questions regarding their health and had their blood pressure taken before they were taken to waiting area #2 (which would either be for dental, general medicine or eyes. In many cases patients needed to be attended to in all three areas!).

This is just outside the room where I interpreted for a med. student and my friend Kim interpreted for a different Dr. (the room was divided in half by a sheet). This was during a lull where only 5 or 6 patients were waiting to be attended to.

These are the familiar faces I was privileged to see for many days in a row! The four of us shared the room seen behind us.

Although not a flattering picture, this gives an idea on how things worked. I would go out to the door and call the next patient. He/she would come in and sit down in front of the dr. and begin to explain the many problems he/she were experiencing. Sometimes I thought a certain patient couldn't possibly have one more thing wrong with them, yet those thoughts only lasted for about a day as I soon realized how many of these people were desperate for any kind of medical attention (not all of them, but a good portion of them).

Here is a picture of the front of the room where my friend Kim and Dr. Riley were attending to patients. You would think that these older patients who have experienced incredibly difficult lives would be somewhat bitter from their circumstances, yet that definitely was not the case! They were for the most part cheerful people who were extremely grateful for the services we were providing. One really fun and animated man told me "In all my 60 years I've never seen a foreigner before. Now I get to see all of you foreigners! You all are wonderful...I love foreigners!"

I feel like I'm just barely getting into the basics of how everything went yet I have loads of laundry waiting for me as we prepare to travel on Saturday! I think the last thing I'll share for today is how humbled/encouraged I am by this experience. It is indescribable to tell you how thankful I am to have now experienced how the Holy Spirit works in our lives when we put ourselves in uncomfortable situations in order to serve Him. I was a little nervous before, wondering if I'd be able to love these people how Christ would want me to. Yet a higher power took over as I interacted with these people, who are so loved by Him. When a patient sat down and brought a rather strong body odor with them (probably can't afford soap or worked up a good sweat on their long walk to the clinic) it came natural to smile, touch, hug and encourage them. It was obvious that the love I felt for these people was nothing of my own. How can I express how awesome it is to be able to sit down and watch as the Father works through me? In many respects this was a first for me. Many more thoughts are running through my head yet I better attend to other non-bloggy things for now:-)