An exciting day in Chuchuca

In yesterday's blog, I mentioned that I felt today was going to be a real adventure..............and I was not disappointed.

Gaspar and I left Chichi at 0650 and met everyone in Santa Cruz. It took us 2.5 hours and the driving conditions were less (did I say less?) than good. We had heard there was a new road and that the drive would be better........since we have had to cancel a few clinics due to the rain............let's just say, we were glad when we arrived.

Gaspar had to hang his hands out the window because they were perspiring so much. The guys were taking photos with their phones as Manuel and his truck ahead of us were sliding in the mud.

It was a beautiful drive and we were thankful we did not have any more rain!

This is the new church building in Chuchuca. Agostin told me today that they have 65 baptized members and about 150 children. We had a clinic today of 40 patients and it was a good day!

We now have the ABC program in this area. This is Catarina with a gift that her sponsor set to her.

This is Hilaria and some gifts sent to her by her sponsor.

This is Estela and her sponsor is Hettie, that lives in Morganton, NC

If you follow the blog, you may remember Pedro from February 2008. He is a young man that Katie and I went to visit. From the best of my memory, he had been working in a field and developed severe muscular weakness. When we visited him, he was unable to sit, stand or walk.

Today, he road a horse to clinic and he showed us how much he has improved. Juan asked about showing him some physical therapy exercises and I thought it was a great idea! This is Pedro and Juan working on some leg strengthening activities.

These children waited for us as we packed up the truck and prepared for our journey home.

I was very optimistic about the road conditions returning to Santa Cruz. We had had about 5 hours of sunshine and a light breeze through the day to help dry the mud. We started out real well and then we ran into a difficult hill.

Manuel tried a few times to make it, with little success. Each time he would back down the hill a little farther. Then it was our turn.......I tried twice with no success. I knew I needed firmer ground. On the third attempt, the guys hopped in the back end to give me some more weight. I stayed to the far left of the turn and we made it!! I kept thinking........I do not want to spend the night on this hill...........

Whew..........we are all home safe, the trucks are parked and and everyone is well.............gracias a Dios.