Had no internet yesterday. The storms down in Los Cabos (#1 Odile and

now #2 Polo) are messing  up my internet connection thru the Hughes

/Starband system I have.

It’s a mess down there. I mean a true cluster-mug.  So far they have

evacuated 18,000

tourists/foreigners……the Army is in charge and they have such

antiquated equipment it is not even believable. Cell towers are down

all over and no-one can call relatives to verify they are okay or

where they are. The refugees are being transported in troop carriers

on that long long  2 lane highway 1, so  u can imagine. Hotels have

been commandeered in TJ , Rosarito and even some here in Ensenada.

I feel  bad for the folks but it still concerns me that people don’t

really understand that Mexico is really not all that advanced and they

don’t seem to get why they cant just pick up a phone or email somebody

and they get all worked out, which gets the Mexicans all worked out

and well it does no good. I am just praying that people have patience

and get home safe. I am growing weary of  hearing idgits on the telly,

in high-pitched voices with bad comb overs (which after 5 day trips in

troop carriers on Highway 1 look more like a porcupine than a comb

over and I am not sure which is worst.) But I am tired seeing them

filmed by news crews in those tinny fear laden voices how “they damn

well wont be treated like THIS! Why the Australian Consulate will have

someone’s hide.”

In my experience  threatening to call one’s Consulate (as if it is

their own mercenary group at beck and call 24/7) these threats really

piss Mexican authorities, especially the sort who carry guns,totally

off. Best just let it roll off your back like a duck or whatever rolls

off a duck . I forget.

So, Clinic went great. Dulce was out of town for like two weeks , so

I had another Doctora. come in. Her name is Delilah Kennedy Garcia

(and yes she is a Mexican) .

She is in her 50’s, not a

Christian (yet) and referred by Dr. Vasquez.  It worked out well,

although it’ll be better when Dulce returns because the people  really

have a relationship with her.

We had 10 patients. Two newborn (5 day old both) exams. Both were born

in a nearby camp, one I don’t think I’ve taken you to.it is down  in

the riverbed and pretty big.  50 or so families. We’ve been reaching

out to them with food. and were blessed to give away 6 solar power

mp-3 New Testaments that we were given by a Wycliff Translation couple

who has been down in Guerrerro for  40  or so years.  The mp-3’s are

neat because  they require no batteries, and they can reach people in

their own dialect  and  no reading is required. They are also sturdy

little things that seem to resist water. I saw one lady listening to

hers as she washed clothes on her washboard yesterday. Water was

being flung willy-nilly and the guy just kept on doing his best “Paul the Apostle” which I must say, was pretty good. I need to procure some

more of

these little jewels.

Back to Clinic…………we had those two new  babies in great shape,

we had 5 ear infections a PID in a younger girl (13) and one child

that just comes  every time , like clock work, for  vitamins. He is only  5, but

quite consumed with  those chewables, not those new fangled

gummi-vites either, he prefers the

old Flintstone kind. The ones that taste like a sugary dirt substance

and leave your chopppers  orange, purple or green with no apparent

correlation to whatever the color was of the little figure that you

ingested. (I am not big on vitamins for myself but part of the job as

pharmacy director requires that I  actually must consume at least one

of each thing prescribed to each patient, just so I can be POSITIVE

they “get it.” (I learned this the first time I ever gave out a bottle

of ear drops that the mama put in the childs mouth instead. She kept

coming back saying “It isn’t working. It isn’t working.” I finally

figured it out and there was born a new procedure. I guess there is in

fact a reason for  every little annoying thing we must learn in

elementary school afterall.

Back to VIta-muchacho (as I call the vitamin boy) I have to

practically scare the beejeezis out of him to make sure he

doesn’t just eat them like candy as soon as he is out of my sight.

He’s cute as a button  and healthy as a horse, but has a sneaky-gene.

Whenever we have leftover tortillas after mealtime, he’ll get me by

myself and ask me for exactly 8 of them .’ OCHO, Hermana.  GRACIAS

HERMANA!GRACIAS YAHWEH!” (ALL RUN TOGETHER LIKE ONE BIG WORD.) Then if I don”t give him a bag fast enough, he’ll roll em up and place them in

a back pocket and off down the hill he goes, dragging a milk crate on

wheels with 5 2 liter plastic bottles of water and his little sister

who hangs on for dear life (she’s about 18 months and he  watches her

everyday) anyway she hangs on tight because he likes to push the milk

crate down the hill and let go and it goes pretty quick for an 18

month old. Not to mention it at times fails to make that sharp turn at

the bottom  and upends everything requiring him another gruelling trip

back up the hill for band aids (he likes those too, the more the

better.)

I’ll try to video it. It is really like something out of a

Peanuts cartoon, the brother  with that Pig-pen aura and the  baby

girls crooked and tangled pigtails flying out behind her. (I keep

expecting Snoopy too sweep down in his bi-plane and pluck her up but

it hasn’t happened thus far. And  I probably never will video it. It’s

one of those things you would have to set yourself up in the brush,

pestered by scorpions and snakes for hours only to find out he isn’t

coming that day. So maybe best just imagine it. It would probably be

more entertaining for you that way. Bosh that, “I picture paints a

thousand words, I’ve learned what you can imagine paints  a jillion

things that probably did not even happen.

Jose has a great new job now, praise God. They have a black and white

tv, too.  WE miss his help but he needs to support his family and I

think Theo is on baby # four , not SURE, but time will tell.

The playground is almost ready for me to send pictures. We have the

welder making the last two toys, a merry-go-round and two big teeter

totters. Things are being delivered and the kids  just think we can’t

move fast enough. The big metal stand  for clubhouse One is in the

front yard and has been for a while. When delivered it came wrapped in

plastic, well, somehow someone took it off. So yesterday evening I see

Ivan, age 7, but tiny and

Pablito same age but bigger. They have absconded from downstairs my

huge roll of saran wrap and in 35 mile an hour  hot sandy winds are

trying to wrap the stand back up. At first I was ticked off because

they had my saran wrap (of which I consume a lot of) and where

attempting to rewrap this 12 foot metal stand . It was hilarious. I

didn’t let on that I was watching  but just left them to their

methods.Now , see I have a fairly good idea of who unwrapped it in the

first place. Anyway, they went round and round that things with a

COSCO sized  box of Saran Wrap and by  twilight Pablito had enrolled

some help from his little friends and I HAD to go down their because

all they succeeded in doing was wrapping up Ivan in  quite a think

layer of plastic. NONE was stuck to the stand. I acted all mad, and

tried to simultaneously wave a broom around  in a menacing manner

while  tears of laughter oozed out of me– and put them on rock

gathering duty today.

Thankfully for them, it only took  two hours of brutal rock-searching

for the wheelbarrow tire to pop and they got off  easy  for now

anyway. Till Frank gets back today anyway. Wheelbarrow tires are super

expensivo  down here and also  pretty sturdy and also pretty

necessary right about now.

I’m sure they’ll get the moral of some story when  Frank arrives,

although they’ve been rather scarce since they turned in their busted

barrow and  about 8 medium sized  rocks,

What else? What else? Oh,tomorrow about 5 of the men  who work just

till noon on Sundays are coming to help  with landscaping the

playground perimeter. I am shocked and amazed by this. It will also

leave room for a message and prayer.

Carlos (guy with broken leg) is doing nicely. He’s coming to  spend

the night tonight. He is returning to his home,, he still can’t work

and so has no  place to live. He has to be at the bus depot at 5:15am

and Frank is taking him. Sad to see him go, but glad he got  some of

the Eternal Seed really implanted in him. I’ve held back one mp-3 New

Testament as a going away gift and  Theo will make him food  for the

3 day trip (at least) home.

For now, I’d better go. I am amazed the internet has stayed working

this long because the winds are  whipping  up dust devils and one of

my wicker chairs just got whisked off of the

porch……………………..

Love and Blessings  to all,

Sis Detra