Life here in Ecuador is to be enjoyed each day. That is what I have learned from my
experience here this last month.
In church I sat next to a woman and her 18 month old
son during one of the nine nights of prayers before the town fiesta. The service finished at 9:00 and I heard the
next morning that the child had died later that evening. He choked on a piece of hard candy. The mother has been widowed twice already and
the child who died was born within weeks of the death of her second husband in
a mining accident.
The same week a 14 year old girl was laughing with her
friends at school, went home, took the food out to the pigs, and then hung
herself from the roof of the pig pen.
The following week was the funeral of an elderly
neighbor and the one month memorial mass for my friend and neighbor’s
mother.
The town only has 500 families so this is a lot of
tragedy for one month. Nothing in life
is for sure or guaranteed. Living here has taught me that every day should be
lived to the fullest and one should do all one can each day to serve
others. Today could be your last
opportunity.
We are in the middle of changing the clinic to a new
status. Thus soon more people working
here, more services offered, surgery offered again so things will be
different. We may have a laboratory or
maybe not. We may turn into a specialty
clinic or a day hospital. We may have a new nurse and lab worker. We have started the reconstruction, which is
hard to see the nice exam rooms divided into small cubicles asked for by the
health department. By April we should
know which of these changes will be coming about. We should confirm plans
following the health department inspections.
Thus lots of changes, but lots of hope too, to be able to help more
people with added services.
