As I opened this page to start typing I was filled with joy, because I have so many wonderful things to say about Ryan. He is still gaining weight, and now he's even started to smile and laugh. He can sit up all by himself, when we first saw him he could barely even move. His skin no longer hangs off of his bones. He is really warming up to all of the staff and students, he's no longer afraid of white people and he is able to sleep peacefully now.
That joy has become mixed with sadness. Maria, the Mangyan caregiver had a stroke Sunday afternoon. Her grandfather was ill and she had gone home to see him when she collapsed .She just died in hospital. She was only 20 years old. She was such a sweet girl and was great with Ryan. We all got very close in the few days that she was with Mercy Link. The team here did everything they could for her, paid for all the medications and tests, and visited her a few times a day.
Please pray that Maria's family and tribe will not blame Mercy link for this. Death and illness is a punishment from the gods in Mangyan culture. They could think that Mercy Link is cursed and maybe even take Ryan away. Even though the stroke would have happened whether she had been with us or not, there is no way of proving that to the tribal leader. This is the second Mangyan woman since Mercy Link has started that has fallen seriously ill while working for at the base here.
Also pray for the students here. When things like this happen we are always left asking why. There has also been a lot of tenison in the house between some students. Just the regular frustrations of having roommates, being away from home and being sick. We have less than two weeks left, it would be a waste of the last five weeks if some of us left angry and unhappy.

HERE'S THE MISSING PICS

OUTREACH -- JULY 14

We had another great outreach yesterday. Nearly 200 patients. We had set up at the base of a mountain so that we would be more central and more tribes would be able to come seek help, but we ended up be swamped by the people from the nearest town. Many of them already had regular doctors and could afford their own medication. That was really frustrationg because it prevented us from seeing some of the people who really needed the help. We did our best, but we couldn't stay their all night. It got so crazy in the afternoon that Narelle and I were seeing patients without the supervision of any doctor. Aaaah! For the most part it went well, but there were quite a few problems that no one could do anything about. One women wanted medication to make her voice come back, she had lost it over 20 years ago. Another wanted sleeping pills but we don't give out anything that can become addictive.
We met another motherless family. This father was taking care of 6 children all under the age of 11. The grandmother tried to help but she was very ill. All the children had asthma. I patched up a 6yr old girl who had a nasty blister on her finger. It had popped and needed to be cleaned and bandaged. The poor little thing didn't shed a tear but was shaking when I put on hydrogen peroxide. It must have hurt so bad. We saw a 21yr old man who had had a stroke less than a year ago. He had the medications his mother could afford, but they were hoping we would have something that would bring back the function to his right side. He is pretty much destined for poverty because finding a job will be very difficult for him. The fun really started on the way home when the tire that was just repaired after last week had a bulge on it. We had no choice but to drive home in it, it was pretty dodgy driving through the rough terrain. Here we are all piled on the right side to relieve some of the pressure on the left tire...

The tire ended up blowing. It was the loudest sound ever. Some girls thought we were being shot at. It was pretty funny. It didn't blow until about five minutes away from where we live so it worked out quite well.
Here is the flat tire....

Here we are walking home...

After that we went to the local version of MacDonalds, called Jolly-Bee for icecream.

So I just sat here for 30 minutes and the pics didn't load so maybe next time.

I MEANT TO POST THIS LAST WESDNEDAY

Ryan, the malnurished boy from outreach, was brought to the hospital by his father on Saturday. We are so grateful they came. Most people don't come to the hospital because it is to expensive. Here you have to buy any medications, syringes, needles or sheets yourself and finding all these things is quite difficult. You even have to bring your own water. It's really sad but our director got the little guy everything he needed. The hospital did some tests, but nobody was around to care for Ryan or give Pauline (the director) the test results. So she brought him back to the base. It turns out he is actually two years old not 1. We are all really confused because we have recieved alot of contradicting information from some of the tribal women. The main thing is he is here now and will get help. The father was really upset and wanted to stay with ud for a little while, unfortunately he had to go back to work but he trusts the team here to make Ryan better.
He's still very unwell, when he first got here saturday night he was only 6kg, which is incredibly small for a 2 year old. But he has gained 1kg in the three days he has been here. He is much more awake then when we first got him and has started to eat on his own. The students are not allowed to get involved too much right now because white people are very scary and he will do better if as few people as possible are handling him and feeding him. The tribe chief came to check on the little guy and was shocked at the difference a few days of proper care had made.
Here is a picture of the little guy.

God totally had everything planned out before we got this little angel. Just a few weeks ago a girl from Sweden called Pauline saying she felt God wanted her to be a part of the staff here in Mindoro. Pauline didn't have a position for her but thought it would be the right thing to let her come. She arrived last wednesday, but had nothing to do here on the base. There was also a Mangyan caregiver(from a different tribe) who has been asking Pauline to join the staff for the last few months but she did not have the money to stay here. Pauline had kinda lost touch with her, but she was at the clinic we did on friday. When Pauline agreed to take Ryan she didn't know who would care for him but then remembered the Swedish girl. She was also able to get sponsors for the caregiver to come in so somebody from his own tribe could care for him. It was good for the students too because we had just learned how to diagnose and care for different kinds of malnutrition the day before outreach.

I also took pictures at some of the bible studies we have done the last few days. The kids were re-enacting the battle of Jehoshaphat. I think they got do wrapped up in the paper swords they missed the point of the story. Oh well, at least they had fun



How scared does this baby look. Us white folk get this look alot from the wee ones.

OOPS!

In the last post I wrote that the baby's mother died to years ago, which is impossible since the baby was 1 year old. What I meant was the mother died to months ago. Thanks for the correction Tina!