Today's Letter from Karen
We’re spending a rainy day at home today, catching up on schoolwork, laundry and sleep. Yesterday we took a 45 minute boat ride to the Miskito village of Cocotá. It was wonderful to be on the water and we traveled through some very interesting natural canal systems. Cocotá is a large village and looks just like something you’d see in National Geographic. As we came to shore there was a newly carved dug-out canoe on the bank. It was a beautiful work of art.
We had to lug all the medical equipment, water, bible school materials, etc., quite a ways from shore to the schoolhouse. This school had two rooms and you could climb the stairs without fear of falling (unlike Tapanmylia –I misspelled it on the last blogspot entry). The medical clinic was set up in one room while Katrina and our family was in the other teaching the children. It was such a different experience than Friday. It was so loud because of the sheer numbers of people and it was hard for Katrina to be heard and keep their attention. It was also oppressively HOT and HUMID. We know though, that the Word of God does not return onto Him void (Is.55:11).
When bible school was over, Ed and I were given the job of disseminating old prescription eyeglasses to the adults. It was great fun. Many of the men had on women’s glasses and visa-versa. Not one of them brought or requested a mirror to see how they looked in them. It simply didn’t matter. They were just thrilled to have their vision improved. One woman brought a rusty (EVERYTHING rusts here) needle and tested each pair of glasses to see if she could thread it with a piece of grass or not. When all the glasses were gone we went to see how the clinic was going.
Ed took charge of crowd control. Bethany and Michaela got some hands-on medical experience at the clinic Bethany helped with and even gave an injection in a woman’s hip. Gabrielle was recovering from almost fainting. We had just been asked if we wanted to see Dr. Naphtali (from Guatemala) give a man stitches. The man had a deep machete wound on his upper arm. The Dr. gave him an injection directly into the gash to numb the area when Gabrielle turned to me and said, “Mom, I’m going to faint.” I sat her down. Her lips were whitish-purple. Thankfully, we were surrounded by medical people. Beverly, the nurse, helped me get her outside the stifling room and onto the end of the porch where there was a faint breeze. We pushed liquids on her and wiped her down with cool water. Thank the Lord, she was herself again in short order.
There was a 13 year old boy that hung around the girls and me for most of the day (much to Chaela’s dismay). He explained to me that he was the only one in the area who spoke English (his mother is dead, his father lives in Chicago, and he lives with his uncle there), so whenever Americans came to the village he stuck to them like glue and talked to his heart’s content. When we walked down to the boat to eat lunch, he came with us because two other young boys decided to accompany us as well. He said he was concerned about us because one of the boys would “thief” us. Gabrielle told him not to worry, she had taken some self-defense classes and could handle the situation. Ed came down shortly after and told the would- be thiefs to split-literally.
At the shore, many women were washing clothes. I watched them to pick up some helpful hints. They’ve been doing it a lot longer than I have. Keeping the wet clothing on a rock by the shore they would beat it with a small log. I don’t think I’ll adopt this technique. Our clothing is already showing tremendous signs of wear and tear due to the ever-present dirt and the intense sun.
While we ate lunch, we watched little boys shimmy up a bent palm tree hanging over the water. They would then grab a palm frond and swing up in the air and let go. It sure looked like fun. One of the boys was only 4 yrs. old and hadn’t a stitch of clothing on. Before we left the village, Ed and Chaela (with her clothes on), along with Katrina’s family all went swimming. They didn’t try the palm tree frond routine because the water was only a couple feet deep there. I just waded in and splashed around a bit. The thought of traveling back to Puerto Lempira in wet clothing was not appealing. It turned out not to make any difference, as the ride home was very rough and we got soaked anyhow!
When we got home we were wet, hungry and exhausted. Ed had made plans to get together with an American, Tom, and his son for dinner. Tom came here with the Peace Corps in the late seventies. He married a Moskito woman and has three children by her. He’s only been to the States for three years since he first came. When talking, he often would say, ”I don’t remember how to say it in English”. He came to know Christ as his Savior and Lord in 1987. We had a wonderful evening of fellowship and sharing testimonies. We definitely want to spend more time with him because he’s very knowledgeable about the Miskito culture. We’re just beginning to learn about their ways, customs and folklore.
We got home and fell into bed. Life in the fast lane, as Ed would say.
We plan to get some photos to Eric by next week so he can put them on this web site. I hope they help give some context to what we’ve tried to describe to you about life here.
Hope all is well with everyone! We miss you and love you.
God bless you richly-
Karen and family
We had to lug all the medical equipment, water, bible school materials, etc., quite a ways from shore to the schoolhouse. This school had two rooms and you could climb the stairs without fear of falling (unlike Tapanmylia –I misspelled it on the last blogspot entry). The medical clinic was set up in one room while Katrina and our family was in the other teaching the children. It was such a different experience than Friday. It was so loud because of the sheer numbers of people and it was hard for Katrina to be heard and keep their attention. It was also oppressively HOT and HUMID. We know though, that the Word of God does not return onto Him void (Is.55:11).
When bible school was over, Ed and I were given the job of disseminating old prescription eyeglasses to the adults. It was great fun. Many of the men had on women’s glasses and visa-versa. Not one of them brought or requested a mirror to see how they looked in them. It simply didn’t matter. They were just thrilled to have their vision improved. One woman brought a rusty (EVERYTHING rusts here) needle and tested each pair of glasses to see if she could thread it with a piece of grass or not. When all the glasses were gone we went to see how the clinic was going.
Ed took charge of crowd control. Bethany and Michaela got some hands-on medical experience at the clinic Bethany helped with and even gave an injection in a woman’s hip. Gabrielle was recovering from almost fainting. We had just been asked if we wanted to see Dr. Naphtali (from Guatemala) give a man stitches. The man had a deep machete wound on his upper arm. The Dr. gave him an injection directly into the gash to numb the area when Gabrielle turned to me and said, “Mom, I’m going to faint.” I sat her down. Her lips were whitish-purple. Thankfully, we were surrounded by medical people. Beverly, the nurse, helped me get her outside the stifling room and onto the end of the porch where there was a faint breeze. We pushed liquids on her and wiped her down with cool water. Thank the Lord, she was herself again in short order.
There was a 13 year old boy that hung around the girls and me for most of the day (much to Chaela’s dismay). He explained to me that he was the only one in the area who spoke English (his mother is dead, his father lives in Chicago, and he lives with his uncle there), so whenever Americans came to the village he stuck to them like glue and talked to his heart’s content. When we walked down to the boat to eat lunch, he came with us because two other young boys decided to accompany us as well. He said he was concerned about us because one of the boys would “thief” us. Gabrielle told him not to worry, she had taken some self-defense classes and could handle the situation. Ed came down shortly after and told the would- be thiefs to split-literally.
At the shore, many women were washing clothes. I watched them to pick up some helpful hints. They’ve been doing it a lot longer than I have. Keeping the wet clothing on a rock by the shore they would beat it with a small log. I don’t think I’ll adopt this technique. Our clothing is already showing tremendous signs of wear and tear due to the ever-present dirt and the intense sun.
While we ate lunch, we watched little boys shimmy up a bent palm tree hanging over the water. They would then grab a palm frond and swing up in the air and let go. It sure looked like fun. One of the boys was only 4 yrs. old and hadn’t a stitch of clothing on. Before we left the village, Ed and Chaela (with her clothes on), along with Katrina’s family all went swimming. They didn’t try the palm tree frond routine because the water was only a couple feet deep there. I just waded in and splashed around a bit. The thought of traveling back to Puerto Lempira in wet clothing was not appealing. It turned out not to make any difference, as the ride home was very rough and we got soaked anyhow!
When we got home we were wet, hungry and exhausted. Ed had made plans to get together with an American, Tom, and his son for dinner. Tom came here with the Peace Corps in the late seventies. He married a Moskito woman and has three children by her. He’s only been to the States for three years since he first came. When talking, he often would say, ”I don’t remember how to say it in English”. He came to know Christ as his Savior and Lord in 1987. We had a wonderful evening of fellowship and sharing testimonies. We definitely want to spend more time with him because he’s very knowledgeable about the Miskito culture. We’re just beginning to learn about their ways, customs and folklore.
We got home and fell into bed. Life in the fast lane, as Ed would say.
We plan to get some photos to Eric by next week so he can put them on this web site. I hope they help give some context to what we’ve tried to describe to you about life here.
Hope all is well with everyone! We miss you and love you.
God bless you richly-
Karen and family
posted by Eric Stephens at 18:47
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