Dalton First UMC Medical Mission to Tarapoto, Peru 2/16 - 2/25 2007 Hosted by the Iveys

A team of 17 consisting of medical doctors, nurses, eyeglass specialists and lay workers from Dalton First United Methodist Church in Dalton, Georgia, left at noon on Friday, February 16 en route to Tarapoto, Peru.  The team traveled by DFUMC busses to Atlanta for a 6 1/2 hour flight to Lima.  The flight was almost due south to just south of the equator.  The Delta flight put us into Lima shortly after midnight where we were met by some of our on-site permanent missionaries from the Mission Society.  Due to unavoidable flight schedules, we remained in Lima until 9 pm on Saturday evening to make the final leg of our journey to Tarapoto.

Tarapoto is located in north central Peru in the Amazon Basin.  Tarapoto is a moderately sized city, but completely surrounded by jungle and isolated.  The roads are so bad that the trip by air of just over an hour takes over two days by road.  In Tarapoto, we set up our clinic at the Iglesia Esmirna (Smyrna Church) whose congregation is very active and has planted over 90 new churches in the past 5 years.  Pastor Jaime Gomez, and his son, Pastor David Gomez, do a wonderful work among the poor community.

Our team began seeing patients on Monday at 8 am (Tarapoto is on Eastern Standard Time as we in Dalton are).  Before our arrival that morning, there was a throng of people queued for several blocks.  The church supplied security comprised of members and we began seeing patients as soon as we organized the triage for screening of those already arrived.

The days began for the team with a team breakfast at our hotel at 6:30, followed by team devotional on the roof top and a trip by moto-cab (a Honda 125 cc motorcycle with a bench seat between tricycle rear wheels) to the church.  We then took "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride" through the streets of Tarapoto, and began our efforts.  Lunch was served to the team by church ladies at 1 pm each day, and we tried to see the last patient at 6 pm, although it was sometimes 7:30 before we could leave.  We took supper together as a team, twice with the Pastor's family and other church members his home, the rest at restaurants in Tarapoto.  During the dining hour, we held daily de-briefing sessions to allow the first-timers to ask questions and reflect on their new experiences.  We usually were able to get to bed around 10-11 pm and usually enjoyed hot water and sound sleep.

We served 4 1/2 days, winding up at noon on Friday.  That afternoon, the Pastors arranged a church bus to take the team into the jungle and visit the nearby foothills of the Andes to experience a jungle waterfall.  The "roads" were an experience for a lot of the team who had not before visited a third world rural scene.  The mountains were beautiful, cool and refreshing to the body and soul.  A LAN Peru flight at 10:30 put us back into Lima around mid-night and another night there.  Saturday was a day off, and some used it for sightseeing, guided tours, shopping or simply resting.  A 1:30 am Delta flight put us back into Atlanta at 8 am, and after an hour through security, immigration and customs, we once again boarded the DFUMC busses for the trip to Dalton and an ovation upon entering the sanctuary just before the noon benediction.

The week was an overwhelming success.  Seventeen people who took a week of their winter break, paid their own expenses, and served His calling were tired, but unbowed, knowing that their services had helped 2288 patients, and over 1,000 souls professing faith!  Thanks be to God.

Below are a few of the scenes of the trip.  I hope you may someday have such a rewarding experience as do we who make these trips.

The team at DFUMC ready to depart		Crowds waited overnight to visit our doctors
The necessarily gated entrance to the church compound		Patients awaiting triage
Dining at Pastor Jaimie's home		Doing a patient's hemoglobin test
Throngs entering the compound prior to triage		One of six triage stations
One of many malnourished infants that we treated		Preparing a blood test from the child at left
Ash Wednesday service at our morning devotional time		Ann & Abby care for patient's children.  Note the ash on Abby's forehead
Marcos, who has had an Elephantitis type disease for over 25 years		A closeup of the diseased foot and leg
Although we had no surgeons on this trip, we facilitated the patient's request to remove the leg in order to stop the spread of the disease		Jim Davis, team leader, visiting Marcos the day after his surgery.
Dr. Bill McDaniel addresses a patient's problems		Dr. John Church explains the need for surgery to a hernia sufferer.
Dr. Church with a child with a congenital vascular bundle on his upper lip.  We could find no plastic surgeon with necessary skills in Tarapoto, so we continue to follow the case with the hope of the surgery later in Lima		Rick Bell and Doug Cabe, Assistant Team Leader, reviewing eyeglass inventories.
Child who has just had a boil on his right shoulder lanced		Dr. Therese Church examining an infant
An Amazon waterfall, the subject of our after-work excursions		A typical jungle road with the ever present Moto Taxi evident
Dr. Church, Dr. Garcia and Arthur Ivey after a long day at the clinic.  Arthur and his family are Mission Society Missionaries and live in Huancayo, Peru, south of Tarapoto and 11,000 ft in the Andes.		Benjamin Ivey and Todd Weeks, Mission Society Intern, discuss the day upcoming over breakfast.
Mary Alice and Mary Beth Ivey both served as team interpreters.		Benjamin and Joshua Ivey also served the team and patients alike.