One of the interesting things about being a nurse practitioner on the mission field is that you never what kind of “clinic” you're gonna be in. This week was the first time I'd ever seen patients on a boat. One day I was in a clinic, but the second two days I saw patients on the boat. At one point I felt the boat start moving and I was told we were moving offshore for a few minutes because of a thunderstorm... but I just kept seeing patients. One afternoon they brought a man who had been bitten by a piranha. They just rowed him right up to the back of the boat in a canoe. Janette, the Bolivian doctor who worked was with us, sutured him up and cauterized it with a match and gauze (Yes, this is tropical medicine!). One of my patients thanked me so much and told me that next time I come back he will bring me a fish and some bananas! :) I loved the week!!
The health care in the Amazon region is definitely lacking. Some communities have government health clinics but they often are lacking basic medicines. And other communities don't even have any basic healthcare professionals. They were so grateful for the help that we could give them. One man kept talking about how they lived “at the ends of the earth” and not many people come all the way out to help them. It took us 13 hours by boat from Manaus to get to the area where the 3 communities were. But it was important to show these people that we had not forgotten them and more importantly that God had not forgotten them!
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