Por FIIIIIIIIN!!!!!!

Finally, she makes a new newsletter.

I didn't think she had it in her.

GB February Newsletter

Medical Campaigns and Frenectomies.

Whew....What a week!

This week, Peru Mission was very excited to host a team of 22 doctors, nurses, and assorted other people from Independent Presbyterian Church in Memphis, TN. The team from IPC came down for one full week to do a series of Medical campaigns in some of the more impoverished areas of Trujillo. This is the teams second year here with us, and after the success of last year's campaign, everyone was so excited to have them return. The team worked non stop 5 days straight by ministering, bringing down their own mobile pharmacy and consulting in the areas of general medicine, dentistry, nutrition, obstetrics, and even minor surgery to help out some of the severely underdeveloped parts of my wonderful city of Trujillo. Everyday the team saw well over 150 patients, and touched some communities in extraordinary ways. It's very difficult to explain the sort of poverty that is a reality here, but I stole a slide show from Allen Bradford (a missionary wife) to give you a glimpse of some of the areas we were working in- mostly in the really underdeveloped areas, including a few squatter towns that have only been established in the last few years.

Side note: I HAD more pictures of my own from the week, but one of the missionary kids asked to take a few pictures with my camera, and then I ended up with all my pictures erased,
Concept- Kids don't know how to work digital cameras.
Application- Don't ever give a kid your digital camera when you have 200 images that are important to you.

Anyway.

Click HERE to be taken the slideshow

I spent the last week translating for the doctors that came down here. I really enjoy medical translations. It's such a great privilege to meet so many more people in the Peruvian communities that I don't get to visit very often as well as to be able to spend some time with some really great doctors from the States at the same time. We were able to listen to the stories from the patients and after many exams, the doctors prayed with the patients as well. I met one lady- Rosa, a single mother who has anemia and about a million other problems that could very easily destroy a person's spirit, but Rosa continues on. She is outside of the church right now and seeking peace, seeking comfort, and seeking anyone to make her feel like she is not alone in this world. We talked for a while and I tried to share the light of the Gospel with her and give her passages so that she could see the hope she has in Christ alone. We prayed for awhile and I continue to pray for her as I ask you to do the same, for Rosa, and for everyone else that has similar stories. This week was tiring but filled with profound and abundant blessings!

OH! The Frenectomy. That probably could go under the heading of Blessing as well. I think. Ok so first of all, one thing that you should know about me is that I have always had a medically odd frenulum (you know that stringy part under your tongue?) Well. My frenulum was always attached too far up, which meant that I could literally only stick my tongue out maybe 1 or 2 centimeters farther than my lips. No problem, I thought, it was always like that, it just gave me a little random fact to make me unique. Well. Anyway, the last day of the medical campaign, I was asking the dentist for some help with my jaw (it often pops so I wanted to know some stretches I could do to maybe help with that). He told me one of the exercises to do which involved touching the tip of my tongue to the roof of my mouth and curling my tongue back, to which I replied "I can't!"

My tongue couldn't easily touch the roof of my mouth, so Dr. John (the dentist) said "What??" He looked at my tongue, and said "Gillian! You're frenulum is tethered, why didn't you tell me? I can take care of that for you right now."

Um. excuse me, what? How? Well, it turns out there is a minor corrective surgery that can be done to cut that part and free my tongue from the slavery of the frenulum. He told me he could do it that day after lunch. I was a little nervous, because I knew my entire life as I knew it would be changed. How would my life look after I could easily stick out my tongue? And now what would I tell people about myself in a conversation that involved medical oddities???

So I thought about it a little, and then the dentist told me that number one, this would allow me to do that jaw exercise that would help my jaw stop popping and the big seller was that a procedure like that would cost between $400-$500 in the states. So I went ahead and decided that having that procedure in a third world country for free beat the heck out of paying for it. So after a delicious lunch of delicious Peruvian food, I gathered my courage and Dr. John and Dr. Mel numbed me up, laughed as I struggled over saying the th sound with the medicine, and did the deed. Snip Snip. My first surgery ever. After 3 minutes, I was freed from my former handicap of an oppressive frenulum. I know can pronounce things clearly, although I was unaware that I talked funny beforehand, and good news, I can now Roll my R's faster in Spanish! So all in all, I think not paying a dime for this thing was worth the sacrifice of my conversation starter.

So there you have it. Medical Campaign and a free frenectomy. All in all, another great week in Peru!

Short.

I have slowly regressed into the world's worst updater.

Soooorry. I'd like to tell you that I have already rectified this situation by making a giant 6 page newsletter. But it's just not the truth. I don't even know that I can promise to have a new newsletter out in February. But I should try to get working on it at least.

But for the record. Life in Peru is Fantastic.

I'm trying to relish these last short months I have here in Peru, knowing full well that in July, my life will be changing drastically once more as I readjust to a former culture. Oh, and the fact that I have no idea what I'll do when I get back makes the element of surprise all the more fun. Or something...

The future holds alot of unknowns, but God holds the future, so...one step at a time, no?

Theme of the Week: Pizza

From the www.theonion.com

Pizza Hut's New Pizza Lover's Pizza Topped With Smaller Pizzas

I realized something last night about this week that made me seriously question my better judgment about food this week; but then to throw better nutritional judgment out the window in appreciation of the more important things in life- The people I care about.

Are you ready for my realization? Here it comes:

I have eaten pizza every single Day this week. No joke. Everyday.

No skipping days, no additional nutritional supplements.

Only Pizza for lunch or Dinner every day this week, Monday through Thursday.

(Today is still Friday, and the chance of pizza still is looming)

Ok first of all....I have no excuse. I didn't even realize it until last night exactly how much pizza I had consumed. It wasn't necessarily my idea to get pizza all those times, but I will give you a run down about why I ate so much pizza, and why the people I ate the pizza with are much more imporant that the fact that pizza is now it's own food group in Gillian's Food Pyramid.

Monday- 9pm Pizza Hut (at the restaurant) When I first came to Trujillo, one of the families that I was closest with was the pastors family of my church. Pastor Ricardo, and his wife Dany and two daughters Dorothy and Martita and I plus a few other people always ate lunch together on Fridays in their home. I call them my Peruvian parents and they treated me like a daughter. Really incredible people, and it was hard to say goodbye to them when they moved to a small mountain community last year to help with the church there. But it was a very special treat monday to eat dinner with Dany, Dorothy, and Martita again when they came to visit Trujillo for few days. I loved every second.

Tuesday- 12:00pm Papa Johns (at SALI). Every Tuesday for lunch, all of the interns that work for Peru mission gather to have lunch and to share a time of discussion about different topics of ministry and spend some time in the Word. This week, we were talking about many different topics related to world views and our role in our culture today. Much too philosophical for this blogger to re-hash, but a fun a...lively discussion in any case.

Wednesday- 9pm Pizza Hut (my house). After rehearsing for a wedding that I and a few friends are playing for tonight, we got the phone call from the roomies that pizza was on it's way to our house and to hurry home so we could hang out with everyone. It. Was. So. Fun. We had about 10 of us or so and while we were waiting for the pizza, a few people, grabbed the guitar to give us a little background noise and our friend Ivan started up an alphabet game. In a circle, one person names a song or singer or band, and the next person has to think of a new song or singer or band that begins with the last letter of the first person's word. So for example I say Stevie Wonder- and then next person must think of someone or a song that begins with R. It's a lot of fun, and as we were playing with Peruvians and Gringos, that left a lot of room for accusations about who was making up names and songs and was just a lot of fun all the way around. We didn't even hear when the pizza actually arrived. But arrive it did, and eaten it was.

Thursday- 9pm Papa Johns (Ronald's House) I can't tell you exactly how much the Serrano Moreno family means to me. Ronald is the violinist I work with in Porvenir, and his family means the world to me. His wife Tatiana is amazing and quite pregnant with their fourth child. Branco, the oldest son at 16 is just a cool kid altogether and was my student for at least 4 or 5 months in SALI. Giacomo, 11, was named for Puccini and is always the life of the party, and is one of my cello students as well who has an amazing ear for music. Elsie Michaela is 2 years old and 4 months, and has a sense of rhythm that some people never have. she owns the worlds smallest violin and can play different rhythms on it. Ronald also made her a cello by taking an old full size violin, putting in an end pin, and changing the strings. She is currently enamored with her cello. In my opinion, she could be a prodigy. I try to go to their house alot...usually once a week, and we always have a great time laughing, playing music, and generally just being a family. Last night, one of our new interns Patty who is also a violinist came with us too, and was immediately adopted into this wonderful home.

So you see, Pizza everyday is gross, but pizza everyday with people you love is irreplaceable.