Christian and Edison

The mission is coming to an end and it’s time to pack up and go home.  We took the opportunity to visit some of the long time patients with Hands Across The World in the area of Latacunga.  Our first stop was at Christian’s house where we were greeted by Christian and his mother.  His mother broke out in tears because her daughter has left the house and her children and they are not sure where she has gone.  Christian gave us a tour of his house which is very modest.  They have a couple of pigs and a lama he found a few months ago.  The house has dirt floors and there are three rooms in one house and 2 rooms in the building next to the house.  In these 5 rooms live 9 people with a new baby on the way.  There were more people living with them but they just moved out.  Christian walked us down the hill from his house and told us of the day he was burned.  Fifteen years ago his father and mother were having a fight so his older brother took him away from the house.  The night was cold, so they wanted to start a fire.  Their neighbors were the people you see on the street blowing fire out of their mouth so the brothers thought they would keep themselves occupied by keeping warm and fire breathing.  Christian was holding the gas can and his brother was breathing fire and when the fire exploded, Christian, in his fear stepped back and tripped on a rock.  Because he was holding the can, he received severe burns and his brother was able to put the fire out on his cheek and hand quickly.  Christian’s mother wrapped Christian in a blanket and they took him to the hospital.  Because Christian was so severely burnt, he had to stay in the hospital for a month and his mother and father would take turns going to the hospital everyday which meant several hours on the bus.  Christian’s brother and sister were age 10 and 12 and left on their own while Christian was in the hospital.  Just last year, Christian’s father was mugged on the street and Christian and his mother found his father lying in the street.  When they went to lift him, his father complained that his neck hurt.  They took him to the hospital where they ran tests and sent him home.  Within a week and after very slow response from the doctors and hospitals, Christian’s father died of pneumonia and if he had lived, would probably have been complete vegetable. It was not depressing to be there with Christian’s family but while we were there, just like Coca, neighbors approached us to tell us of their child who had cleft palate.  (Im not sure if I mentioned that while we were in Coca looking for Matilda, the neighbors said they had a compadre who was burnt.  He set himself on fire out of anger and it turned out to be Matilda’s brother!)

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Our journey continued to Edison’s house.  The difference between traveling between the jungles of the Amazon and the Latacunga area is that the Amazonian’s were shy and distant and the Latacunga people were extremely friendly.  It made me feel like I was in a parade with all the smiles and waving!

Edison was not at home when we arrived because he was just released from the hospital and went straight to school to take a test he missed during his operation.  His mother ran out in the street to greet us and as we approached her, she had just cut off the head of a chicken and was getting ready to make soup.  The home was a sustainable farm but according to Edison it was small.  They had pigs, chicken, rabbit, cui and cow.  There were vegetables for all the animals and they had a dog and cat as pets.  Their home was a series of small concrete buildings with tile roofs.  The bathroom had a number on it and apparently all the bathrooms in the neighborhood were numbered.  There was a separate building for the kitchen that had one room with benches around the perimeter and a corn grinder and the other room had a fire stove and gas stove complete with flies everywhere and a dirt floor.  It was clean in a dirty sort of way.  The next building had a dark room that was used for studying, a living room that was all couches in a circle because there was a prayer group that came every week and two bedrooms.  One bedrooms had Edison’s mother and father and his two sisters were in another bed.  The other bedroom had one bed for Edison and his brother.  Very simple yet very clean and it felt as though they were rich compared to Christian.  Maybe it was because Edison’s family did not appear to have so many hardships and it seems as though Christian’s family has been through so much.

We missed a day in the OR and it seems as though we are all happy with what we have done here.  Tomorrow all the patients will return and we will see them for the last time, until next year…