It Was A Dark and Stormy Afternoon

It keeps raining here. Every day. Usually starting around 3pm, and lasting for 20 minutes to 8 hours. :) It´s the rainy season. I don´t mind. It makes crossing bridges exciting. We interens have had quite a few adventures this week due to the rain, as a matter of fact. Let me tell you more!

On Tuesday, all of the interns travelled to a village in the mountains with a church group that was here from Alabama. We held what they call a ¨medical brigade:¨ providing dental care, eyeglasses, medical care, and a mini-pharmacy for the locals for the day. Just before we finished, the rain began. By the time we got back to the ranch, one of the rivers bordering the ranch had flooded to about Level 4 rapids. The cars couldn´t cross. The church group was able to cross a swinging foot bridge and were picked up on the other side by some other Mission Lazarus workers, who took them to their cabins. We interns, on the other hand, were told that since our house is on the same side of the river as the village, we only needed to hike along the riverbank until we reached the house. It sounded easy enough, even though the rain made things a little - actually, a lot - muddy and slippery. So off we went. After walking 5 minutes along a fairly clear path, we found ourselves forging our way through trees and underbrush along the riverbank. Okay, we can handle that. Then the riverbank ended. The water had risen so much that it covered the remaining ground. We had a choice: to wade through the water until we reached more ground, to scale the sheer rock wall beside us, or to go back. We decided to wade to the next clear spot of riverbank. We prayed. Then we held hands and started into the water. Loren, who was in the lead, took about three steps before he was up to his waist and realized that it would only get deeper. We decided to turn back. We retraced our steps until we were no longer next to a sheer rock wall, but a 60% grade, slippery, vegetation-covered mountainside, and we began to climb. After several minutes of scampering almost on all fours, we reached the top. Yay! We were still in a forest as far as the eye could see, but we could see and hear the river raging down the slope to our left, so we continued to walk. We partly forged our own path, and partly followed the paths made by horses who had wandered through the forest before us. We felt like we were on the right track, as long as we kept encountering horse manure along the way. We walked and walked and hiked and climbed until we reached...a barbed wire fence. Ugh. After scanning for a break in the fence, to no avail, we decide to climb through. Loren and Kyle held apart the two center strings of wire for us ladies to pass through, then they followed. We continued on. We couldn´t see the river any longer, but we could still hear it close to our left. The forest started to get thicker. The ground began to descend. We passed a dozen little waterfalls, and encountered another stream. This one was only a foot or so deep, but the bank was high and slippery. Finally we found a good place to cross, and waded to the opposite bank. Now we needed to climb another small tree-covered hill. As we neared the top, we could see the roof of our house in the distance. We came down the other side of that hill, then up a grassy hill. To a waist-level stone wall. The house was in sight. With two footholds, we were over the wall. We traveled down that hill and up another rise, and found ourselves in the field beside our house. We walked to the end of the field, through the gate, and we were home. It had only taken us one hour. :)

In all seriousness, I think that Tuesday was my favorite day so far. We were able to provide medical care to the people of that village. I helped to fit people for eyeglasses. I made one gentleman laugh for five minutes straight because I told him that he looked handsome in his new sunglasses. Two little girls gave me hugs. And we interns experienced an adventure in survival and finding our way home. This is the best summer ever!

Haley