January 8, 2012

What a crazy month! It all started when a man named Labas died. Labas fell from a coconut tree 15 years ago and crushed his pelvis. He lived in a village called Lup Lup, about and hour away from our clinic, and he depended on his family to care for him. He had slowly been declining and before he died he asked to be put in a tree house instead of being buried. I'm guessing this had some spiritual meaning to him because those who are not Christians are afraid of what will happen when they die. Even the way they normally bury the dead is different in that they make a bamboo covering over the body so that the dirt won't touch them. We didn't hear about his death until a few days after it happened. The village was told that they needed to bury the body in the ground but no one was willing to because they were afraid of his spirit. In fact, half the village had moved to another hillside because they were also scared. About 1 week later, a woman was carried by basket to our clinic. She had been sick for a few days and by the time she got to us she was severely dehydrated and had heart arrhythmia's. We started an IV and sent her down to the hospital. Soon after, two more people were carried in from the same village. More came by walking. Chris diagnosed it as Cholera and we started treatment. In all, we treated 16 people from Lup Lup in our 4 bed clinic. There were people sleeping on the back porch, the front porch, everywhere! We sent 2 of our missionaries to properly bury the body and to educate the village about cleanliness and the need to boil water before drinking. Once everyone was feeling better at the clinic, we had them all shower and wash their clothes. It was quite the social event with everyone eagerly waiting their turn. Some had never seen water come from a shower head before. One older man we treated was fiercely independent and when he needed to get up and use the bathroom , he would say, "Don't walk with me. By myself only," but he was so unsteady that we would have to walk with him anyway. Later on when he was feeling better, he told us, "If it wasn't for your clinic, there wouldn't be anyone left in our village, just chickens." We are so grateful to be able to help meet the needs of these Palawanos. We we are the only medical care that they have access to. The village of Lup Lup hasn't been very receptive to our clinic and school in the past, but this outbreak of Cholera has opened the door. The past few Sundays, market day, they have been the first ones at the clinic with smiling faces. A group of church members and high school students went last week to share Bible stories and hopefully they will all one day know and accept the love and salvation of Jesus Christ. Please pray for the village of Lup Lup.