Trip to Manta to help with the USS Comfort

We had a major change of pace for the last two weeks. We flew south to Manta which is on the coast. This is the plane we took. Manta is the self proclaimed "Tuna Capitol of the World". There may be a lot of truth to it. Check your cans of tuna fish.


We checked into our hotel and were a bit embarrassed that we had come to help the poor and were staying in such a nice hotel. We worked hard but we rested in comfort. Grandpa enjoyed the pool and we both enjoyed walking on the beach.

On Sunday we worked in the Health Center in Manta. The ship works seven days a week but they rotate people in and out. The Health Department in Ecuador had chosen people as candidates for surgery and the first task was to screen them and choose those that could be helped with a short enough recovery time that they could go back to their lives before the ship left. Lewis worked with a doctor from the Netherlands and I helped a medical tech who was screening for blood pressure, allergies and the usual stuff before seeing the doctors.

On Monday we waited at the "Capitania" for the buses to come along and pick up the translators. Two missionaries from Manta joined us along with lots of bilingual young people.


I was fascinated by the trees I saw along the road to Rocafuerte where we translated for a couple of days. See how the base of the tree has "legs" and the trunk and the branches widen and thin along their lengths. It reminds me of a cartoon tree that Disney might make to put in Disneyland. The trunks were green and a few of them had big white flowers breaking out of hard brown husks. None of them had leaves yet.


I learned on the internet that the blossoms on these big trees are packed in "kapok" which was used to make life jackets and stuff outdoor cushions because water doesn't affect it. The wood is light and not great for furniture but they used to hollow big trunks out and make boats.

Here are some photos from Rocafuerte. We both helped with the dental team on the first day. They had a big nice room at this school which was across from the town square.

This is the local church in the background. I took the photo from the second floor of the school. These buses carry the people from the ship and the translators to the sites in the small cities. There are many people gathered in the front of the school. They choose which type of medical help they most need and are sent to that area. They come in as fast as we can take care of the people already inside the building. Below is a photo of the people waiting for dental care on the left. There is another line of chairs for dental on the right side as well.




There was another clinic going on at Monticristi. It was also located in a school up on a hill. The ship provided shade and chairs for those inside the schools in each location. This area of the country is usually very hot and humid. We were very warm but lucky because the weather was overcast most of the days so the temperature was not as hot. The local people said it was cold at night but we thought the evenings were very pleasant.

This is a photo of Sister Crawford who is a dental hygienist and her husband is a dentist. They recently retired and volunteered for this five month "mission" on board ship to prepare themselves for serving a full time mission for the church. I worked with her for a couple of days and she was so kind and insisted on cleaning my teeth too!


One fun thing was that the local police brought their police dogs to entertain and educate the people while they were waiting for service. Here they had several children hold hoops for the dogs to jump through. Not all of the dogs fit my idea of a stereotypical police K-9. The last dog photo is the big black terrier upright on his trainer's back and holding the flag of Ecuador.






Monticristi has a small cathedral and is famous for making Panama hats. Elder Yost bought one here and his wife got a cute yellow one. Inside the shop the man below was blocking the hats just made. He had a little fire going in the black box on the far right. There was water to make steam and the round blocks of wood are used to shape the crown of the hat. The first photo shows him fitting the hat over the round block of wood. When he takes it off he finishes shaping by hand.





The third location we visited was Jaramijo with an accent on the last syllable. It was not a prosperous town although it has lots of beachfront property. I am taking photos from the second story of the school. Below you can see the shade that has been set up for the people who will be waiting in line. You can see the ocean in the background. It was a hazy day and the sea blends into the sky. I photographed the children from the other side of the school. One of the school desks is outside of the classroom.




Here are some of the special people we met. The first is a grandmother. Her husband had surgery for a hernia on the ship the first week. We met her there as she was waiting to speak with the doctor after the surgery. She came with her granddaughter to the clinic and was also concerned with her husband's recovery after the surgery. It took some doing but we found the right people for her to talk to about her husband's condition. Lewis translated between her and a nurse who called the doctor who did the surgery. The nurse was going to phone her again in the evening but we were so grateful to have been able to make the connections and get the needed answers for her. Her granddaughter is six years old but very small. She is adorable.

The grandfather below is Julio Navas. He responded to Elder Yost's call for church members to assist in translating. He went to college in New Jersey and lives in Guayaquil. He came for two weeks to help. He is staying in Ecuadorian Navy housing along with many others. This is his daughter and his granddaughter. The granddaughter is 3 months old and was born with the pulmonary artery abnormally small. They did a procedure to widen it and it has helped but she needs specialized surgery in order to correct the problem. He spoke with one doctor the first day and this day they were to talk with a specialist. It appears that she would need to go to Columbia to receive the surgery she needs. I do not know the outcome. I hope they were able to find a solution. The surgery is delicate and dangerous and they need a very experienced person if they want to try that option.

Another special person I spent time with for the second time is Sister Kartchner. She and her husband came to the Dominican Republic when we were there. Her husband is a short term specialist for Clean Water Projects. They are an amazing couple. They live what they preach - self sufficiency. Most specialists from Salt Lake stay in very nice hotels and go everywhere in a taxi. Brother Kartchner was here in January and he stayed in a hostel and went everywhere on a public bus. Sister Kartchner substitute teaches much of the year so she can fund her dental health project in Bolivia. She has been going back to the same small town for 20 years. I was able to spend a bus ride talking with her. She says it is so difficult to change people's habits for teeth brushing (or their habit of not brushing) by the time children are old enough to be in school. She is now working also with expectant mothers to try to teach them to teach their children from birth about dental hygiene. She says that 20 years experience has brought progress but not at the level she had hoped. It is hard to create change. I know that is true just for me in my own life. But she is never giving up and always looking for more effective ways to help people create a better life for themselves. Here she is teaching the captive audience of people waiting for the doctors.