About 6 days after I got back down here, Father Hazelton had an accident with his gas burning stove. He left a burner turned on, without a flame burning in it, for about 20 minutes before trying to light it. The result was an explosion which blew the ceiling out of his house, broke windows and left him with 1st and 2nd degree burns on his arms and face. He spent about a week and a half recovering here before being medevac-ed to an LA burn center. He´s not in Helena staying with his sister, apparently recuperating well.
A week after he was burned, a group of visitors from Montana came down. They spent 10 days checking out the area and learning about the mission. The group included our director Mark, two other people from the Diocese and four doctors. The doctors saw patients and took care of Hazy, eventually making the decision to have him sent to the US. Through all of the time they were here I was essentially chief guide and translator, since the nuns and Sheila were totally consumed with taking care of Hazy, who was beginning to develop a rather serious infection in one of the burn wounds. This was in addition to teaching at the school, so I had my hands full.
The doctors left of Saturday, and that afternoon I went to spend the night at my friend Ruth Pamela´s house in Mazate. She´s the medical student who I met through working at the hospital. This week I started going to the hospital in the mornings and teaching in the afternoons. It´s a schedule which includes a ton of running around, but I´m happiest when I´m busy, so I don´t mind. However, it does mean I have much less time to sit down and write, which is why it´s taken me so long just to finish one story.
That´s not about to change, either, because today the eye doctors are arriving for another week-long medical brigade. I’m supposed to translate for them in the exam rooms in the mornings and go up to the school for my afternoon classes. I anticipate exhaustion.
I haven´t put up pictures in a very long time, and I´ve got a few I´d like to show. There are a few new impressive additions to the ¨Bugs¨ picasa folder, and I´ve got an assortment of photos from when the Montana visitors were here. I wanted to share some of the beauty of the scenery here, and I´m afraid the pictures don’t do it any sort of justice, but they’re better than nothing. Enjoy!
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| January 2009 |
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| Bugs |
1 comment:
I just saw the picture of the giant spider. Reminds me of the tarantulas I came across when I was living in Houston. They were HUGE!
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