Medical Safari #1

Well, Here goes, Medical Safari #1. San Luis, Argentina. We headed out, the Jarvis, and us, in our van loaded with medical supplies, tool boxes, extension cords, cans of Raid, ironing boards, irons, curtains, the ever present black medical bag, and homemade brownies to bribe the most resistent Missionaries. One of my purposes in going was to identify medical facilities for the missionaries who become sick in this area, 4-5 hours from the mission office. What I found was that the facilites do not have brochures with all their information, so I took pictures of their boards so I could remember what they had. Two of the Sister missionaries accompanied me as translators. I can speak basic Spanish, but not enough to bargain and negotiate with hospital administrators.

I taught basic First Aide in all the zones that we went to. All the basics, bleeding, loss of breathing, CPR, etc. We had fun, and willing victims. The reward was ice cream ordered from their favorite ice cream store, Gridos.

Steve repaired and repaired. In this apartment he put up curtain rods so these lovely curtains could be hung. Notice the beautiful sunset.

It was of course fun to see some of the old cathedrals. Each town has a plaza and usually a beautiful old church right across the street.

We have been hearing since we arrived of the hail they have down here. Well, here is an example. Some of them were the size of golf balls.

He is still pretty spry, climbing on top of this apartment. Go Grandpa! At one of the apartments he fixed 10 electrical outlets.

Here is Steve on top of the roof putting a new lid on a water tank. All the water tanks down here are on top of the ground. That is how they get the water pressure to make their water run.

After 3 days of teaching first aid, visiting hospitals, and making repairs, we treated ourselves with a night at a resort on the lake. For some reason I have no pictures of the lake. The road around the lake is made so it can be a racetrack for car races. Quite a novel idea. They were going to have the big Carnival celebration here in March.


We did not make the reservations, the other couple did. The valet took us to our room, when I saw the sign on the door that said Brazil Suite, I became a bit nervous. When we went into our room, I knew a mistake had been made. I called the manager and said, this cannot be our room. It was beautiful. The most luxurious room I have ever been in. He just assured me there was no mistake, so we just pretended we were king and queen and enjoyed our royal suite.

We finished our trip with a visit to one of the wards there. The people were so wonderful. We bore our testimonies, and yes, Grandpa even did his in Spanish. The children were so darling, they all came up to shake our hands.

We went home tired, but knowing much, much had been accomplished. New hospitals were identified, new Dr.s found, apartments so much the better for us having been there.

Listen When Your Mom Gives Advice!

Who would think that I would need to rely on one of those motherly words of wisdom from my childhood to solve a mission medical problem. The phone rang. "Hermana Brown, you will never believe what I just did." I braced myself for the worst news. "I was at a member's home and they were eating prickly pear cactus." Now my interest was picking up . . ."I guess I wasn't very careful and I must not have scraped all the stickers out, because, now I have cactus stickers in my tongue and down my throat. What should I do?"
I tried not to laugh--or cry! What a predicament. But what to do? I could send him to the Dr's and have them pull the little prickles out with forceps . . .or . . .I remembered that my Mother used to tell me when I was a young child . . ."If you get any little fish bones stuck in your throat, try eating a piece of bread and it will gather up the little fish bones." Well, it was worth a try. I shared this with the missionary . . And it worked!!! It took three pieces of bread, but the little stickers are all gone.
Mom, thanks for looking out for me even down here in Argentina. I am so glad I listened once in a while to all those words of wisdom.