As I reflected upon the mid-adventures and mis-steps of the trek to Concepcion...I wondered about the other side of the story....the perspective of our sponsor...on that ill-fated day so the media team decided to interview Ron and Violet Firestone.
As our mission members were frustrated, so were the Firestones. Dr. Ron has spent most of his life in Bolivia and is a chiropractor by profession. He says that 45 percent of adult men and women suffer pains and strains of heavy work. He has conducted and led perhaps hundreds of mission clinics for years. His approach differs from that of our team. He believes in triage only for the extreme cases - parachuting in to treat the worst cases - and dispensing medication for the short-term - only until the patient can see his or her doctor. He does not believe in lengthy consultation during these clinics - nor in dispensing medication for the longer-term because he fears Bolivians may misunderstand the directions and consume it all at once or share it with their neighbours. He does however believe in preventative medicine such as teaching those who come to a clinic to brush their teeth. The Firestones call their way the "Bolivian way."
Then there is the "Canadian way." In some respects the two ways are similar. For example, our dental team instructs patients on how to brush as well. Then there are differences. Our medical and dental teams interview patients about their ailments, create a record for each patient and dispense medication for the longer-term as they deem appropriate. Dr. Trudy Poggemiller says the differences swirl around a disagreement over minimum versus maximum standards. Judith Mitchell adds that the Canadian team is always concerned about risk management.
The tensions between the "Bolivian way" and the "Canadian way" have been palatable. The media team is interested less in judgement and blame. More about what can we as a mission team learn. So we asked our team over dinner on the final night of our mission work. We discovered there are five lessons: the five C's.
#1 - COMMUNICATION
Team leader Dr. Evelyn Elsey believes the first lesson is about upfront communication. What does the sponsor expect? What do we as a mission team want to accomplish? How will we work in tandem?
#2 - CONTRACTING
The second lesson is a drilling down of the first and it comes from Dr.Trudy Poggemiller and Judith Mitchell: look beyond the personalities and create a contract or manifesto and checklist of questions for each clinic site:
a) What does the site access (travel) look like?
b) What are the logistical arrangements?
i. Toilets
ii. Food and water
iii. Sterilization and other medical facilities
iv. Interpreters
c) What support is required and what support are we offering?
d) Who are the contact people?
#3 - CONTEXT
The third lesson is about context. As Dr.Hardy Limeback asked for example, what are the political pressures under which the sponsor is working? What might be the personal pressures?
#4 - COLLABORATION
The fourth lesson says Dr Evelyn is having an openness to collaborate and she points to a positive working partnership she established with a sponsor on a mission to South Africa. Where is the honest exchange about the best of our approaches? What do we bring to the table? And what does the sponsor bring to the table? For example, Dr. Trudy was interested in learning about the benefit of sulfuric soap as a treatment for fungal infections.
#5 - COORDINATOR TO TROUBLE-SHOOT
The final lesson says Dr. Evelyn is about trouble-shooting. Who will represent our mission team's interests when things go wrong? Who will ensure that the logistics are in place? Who will be the single point of accountability? In this instance, we had no one assigned to that role locally.
As a wise person once told me, in every endeavor in life there is a blessin' and there is a lesson.
Some members of the team such as Dr. Trudy are not at peace with this mission. Others like Judith, are frustrated and are choosing not to follow-up on their concerns. Another team member, Janet Duff is circumspect: "there are incongruities between all societies. I think the important thing is not to reconcile them but to understand each other. Every time I see a new culture I learn new or different ways of doing things. I believe that understanding and respecting each other is the key to living in a global village."
As a final note, the media team has learned that perhaps part of our responsibility is to ask the questions that might lead to self-discovered leanings.
Here is a link that you can click to a see the mission photo gallery. http://gallery.me.com/davidhillock
Monday, July 13, 2009
Day-9, July 11, 2009
Not all days are rewarding. Not all partnerships with sponsors are smooth.
On Saturday the Santa Cruz teams departed at 0500 for a length journey into the hills to offer two clinics in remote villages outside of San Julian. Unfortunately our bus had missed a pick-up of our sponsors - Ron and Violet Firestone - and other volunteers and we had to return to fetch them. It was the begining of mis-steps and misadventures.
The next surprise came with a loud bang. We had a flat tire. While we waited at a nearby rest stop playing cards the bus suddenly departed with our valuables on board. We had no idea what was happening.As it turned out the driver was missing a wrench and had gone in search of the tool - flat tire and all. Eventually another bus retrieved us and we were told our valuables were safe.
We arrived late at the first clinic site - a church under construction - to find chaos. As team leader Dr. Trudy Poggemiller described the scene "terrible infection control; no coordination; no place to see people - one patient for example needs a pelvic exam." Tensions were building and one team member lashed out. The dental team leader Dr. Evelyn Elsey and Dr.Hardy Limeback were dismayed at the lack of sterilization facilities so the dental team decided to pack up and move to the next site with Violet Firestone. Shortly after Ron announced "(medical) consultations are closed." And after a mere half hour visit, the medical team also packed up.
Rain from the previous night was to blame for the next mis-adventure. The dental team's bus became stuck in mud. Twice. It proved to be the dirtiest extraction of their mission.
The voyage to our second clinic was a rollercoaster ride through deep muddy grooves. We survived that - some would say barely - but we nearly didn't survive the tarantula. It popped out of the dental equipment. A villager captured it in a container and I was given the container to dispose of our threat. (My Spanglish is lacking so when I delegated the disposal to a Bolivian he promptly put the container in our bus thinking this "loco gringo" intended to keep the tarantula as a pet. I still wonder what happened to that tarantula because it had disappeared by the time I later took my seat on the bus).
The tarantula threat eradicated, our dental team was at the ready. Unfortunately the patients were not. As we would later learn, a mandatory community meeting had drawn some of them elsewhere. As well, word had somehow travelled that we had experienced vehicle trouble and might not arrive. We rang the village bell several times to attract attention and finally some villagers came. All in we treated a little more than a dozen dental patients and two dozen or so medical patients. It was the lowest turnout so far.
Again we boarded the bus - with nary a sign of the tarantula. However the last of the nasty surprises came with another big bang. A second tire was flat.The bus limped along the last half hour of the trek into Concepcion - a beautiful community established by the Jesuits.
Finally our mis-adventures came to an end. Gran Hotel Concepcion is an oasis. An open concept with beautiful ceramic tile floors, white walls, ceiling fans, brimming with tropical plants and spiral wooden columns typical of the area. A good dinner to end the day. And a good night's sleep...
...for those of us with rooms away from the disco....
Here is a link that you can click to a see the mission photo gallery. http://gallery.me.com/davidhillock
On Saturday the Santa Cruz teams departed at 0500 for a length journey into the hills to offer two clinics in remote villages outside of San Julian. Unfortunately our bus had missed a pick-up of our sponsors - Ron and Violet Firestone - and other volunteers and we had to return to fetch them. It was the begining of mis-steps and misadventures.
The next surprise came with a loud bang. We had a flat tire. While we waited at a nearby rest stop playing cards the bus suddenly departed with our valuables on board. We had no idea what was happening.As it turned out the driver was missing a wrench and had gone in search of the tool - flat tire and all. Eventually another bus retrieved us and we were told our valuables were safe.
We arrived late at the first clinic site - a church under construction - to find chaos. As team leader Dr. Trudy Poggemiller described the scene "terrible infection control; no coordination; no place to see people - one patient for example needs a pelvic exam." Tensions were building and one team member lashed out. The dental team leader Dr. Evelyn Elsey and Dr.Hardy Limeback were dismayed at the lack of sterilization facilities so the dental team decided to pack up and move to the next site with Violet Firestone. Shortly after Ron announced "(medical) consultations are closed." And after a mere half hour visit, the medical team also packed up.
Rain from the previous night was to blame for the next mis-adventure. The dental team's bus became stuck in mud. Twice. It proved to be the dirtiest extraction of their mission.
The voyage to our second clinic was a rollercoaster ride through deep muddy grooves. We survived that - some would say barely - but we nearly didn't survive the tarantula. It popped out of the dental equipment. A villager captured it in a container and I was given the container to dispose of our threat. (My Spanglish is lacking so when I delegated the disposal to a Bolivian he promptly put the container in our bus thinking this "loco gringo" intended to keep the tarantula as a pet. I still wonder what happened to that tarantula because it had disappeared by the time I later took my seat on the bus).
The tarantula threat eradicated, our dental team was at the ready. Unfortunately the patients were not. As we would later learn, a mandatory community meeting had drawn some of them elsewhere. As well, word had somehow travelled that we had experienced vehicle trouble and might not arrive. We rang the village bell several times to attract attention and finally some villagers came. All in we treated a little more than a dozen dental patients and two dozen or so medical patients. It was the lowest turnout so far.
Again we boarded the bus - with nary a sign of the tarantula. However the last of the nasty surprises came with another big bang. A second tire was flat.The bus limped along the last half hour of the trek into Concepcion - a beautiful community established by the Jesuits.
Finally our mis-adventures came to an end. Gran Hotel Concepcion is an oasis. An open concept with beautiful ceramic tile floors, white walls, ceiling fans, brimming with tropical plants and spiral wooden columns typical of the area. A good dinner to end the day. And a good night's sleep...
...for those of us with rooms away from the disco....
Here is a link that you can click to a see the mission photo gallery. http://gallery.me.com/davidhillock
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