Desert Medic

Hello from Guatemala,

It is Sunday night and I just got in from four days in the desert doing medical clinics with a friend of mine, Dr. Bill Schnurr, a surgeon who will be coming down here in the future to help us. I have to share a few things with you that I hope will let you know what we have been up to here in January.

After Beto (Our Guatemalan son) graduated from 6th grade, he did not have many options for school. But last week we found a new Christian School in a town about 1 hour away. It is fantastic and is truly as good as any Private Christian school in the States. Three wonderful ladies from Charlotte teamed up and are paying for Beto to have the opportunity to further his education and he is elated.

Gaby started public school here two weeks ago and her teacher has not shown up for class one single day yet! So, Dr. Bill and his wife Julie, volunteered to pay for Gaby to go also to this great Christian school.

Here is Gaby beaming with Dr Bill

Here are Gaby and Deborah in their school uniforms.

Deborah is now in Kindergarten. She is so excited that she is up at 6:00 telling me she is ready. I said, "Deborah school is not ready until 8:00". She said, "Oh no, Papa Bryan, my teacher is there and ready". Then she won't stop chattering until I look at all of her school supplies. Then I walk her to school. I love it. I just have to show you how cute they are in their school uniforms. Deborah loves having me walk her to school and everyone sees us together and says "Buenos Dias Doc..tor Bryan". I’m in heaven! Riechelle and I took them to school the first day all together, even the dog went along. Oh brother, talk about the typical American family, Huh?

I want to share with you a bit about my recent time in El Jicaro (Pronounced El Hickarow). Guatemala has to be one of the most diverse countries on earth. You can be in Coban, a place in the mountains where it is so cold you can see your breath and have the car heater on and within a half an hour, be down in the desert of Zacopa and have your AC on. Then, two hours later, be in our tropical rain forest here in Rio Dulce or 6 hours later be on the Pacific coast with black volcanic sand and 80 degrees again.

I have to show you a few pictures of where I have been over the past four days. The area is known as Zacopa and it is as I said, our desert area. I have a friend, Carlos, who is a lawyer. He along with David Alvarez has helped us to get our residency for Guatemala. We have become friends. Carlos and his father pastor a church in this desert area. They asked if I would come and do a medical clinic in these villages because they have never had anyone help them with medicine before. When Dr. Bill got here, he said, "Hey let's go for it." So, we took off in the bus and drove 3 hours to the desert.

We set up the bus with folks from the church and treated between 900 and 1000 people in four days. We are still counting the numbers. But what is important is that we took care of folks who had never been helped with there medical problems and had no where to go. It was incredible, the sickness and illnesses these people just live with. Dr. Bill and I were talking and we said the things we saw we would not live with for an hour and these people live their whole life in pain or with disease.

We saw some weird things there..

Dr. Bill did a minor surgery on a man that is 104 years old. He is a Christian and his mind was sharper than mine! (I heard you! "So what's new Bryan?") He was blind but he kept saying "thank you" over and over and asking God to bless us. It is very humbling. The 3rd village we went to was named Esiritu Santos, "Holy Spirit".

One man was 106 years old! He walked with his cane 5 kilometers to ask us for medical attention. I was honored to help and get to know him. This is not normal in Guatemala.

This man walked with his cane 5 kilometers in the heat to ask us for medical attention.

(The guy on the left is the 106 year old OK?)

I won't go into all the details because I'm tired and have to go to bed but man, Bill and I had a wonderful experience with these people. They could not do enough for us and thanked us over and over for coming. We were both humbled and blown away.

Since I have had a lot of folks ask me about Daniel, I will go ahead and share with you the latest information. As you may remember, I was asked by the government health department to see if I could help this little boy as they had no resources. So, I took my family and we went to the village deep in the jungle to find Daniel. We found his family but his father had left to try and find work and had not returned. The family had owned a small house on a small piece of land a year ago but then they had to take Daniel to the hospital. They were told he needed medicines long term and so they sold their house, probably for about $200.00. Soon the money was gone and they had no where to live. A man in the village let them use his extra house and they have lived there for the past year.

This is their home.

This is the inside where Daniels mother and older sister cook.


They cook tortillas three times a day 7 days a week to live on. They cook them over a wood fire.

Daniel's little sister.

Daniels family

Well, it was time to take them to the city for tests where David Alvarez had gotten a small private hospital to take them so we could find out exactly what was wrong with Daniel. Danial was so excited to go and he put on his only good shirt and his mother ran and put on her best clothes, a skirt and old T-shirt. They only have two changes of clothes so they put them in a small plastic black bag and that was their suitcase. We took them to our home over night before driving to the city. They had never slept in a real bed before, so they were excited. After we got home, Debora took Daniel under her wing and decided he really needed a friend to play with. She showed him how to do a puzzle. Then she showed him a way he could play ball even though he could not run. He loved it! She said Papa Bryan, "I think I need to tuck him in so he knows I love him." I said, "Good idea Deborah." She has a good heart huh?

We took them to the City and stayed at David's. The next morning we went to the hospital. They kept him for 5 days and did a lot of tests. Unfortunately the results are that Daniel has Cirrhosis of the liver from when he got Hepatitis at 3 years old. His liver is not functioning at all. His only hope medically is a transplant and he of course is not a candidate for that. The anti-rejection medicine for the rest of his life and poor conditions would not make him a candidate. He has about one year to live if we can keep him on lasix that may help some reduce the fluid buildup in his stomach. I’ll keep an eye on him and his family.

So if you would just please keep Daniel in your prayers, because it would only be through God he would be healed. You may choose not to believe God can heal people today but I know He has and can if it is in His perfect will. I don’t know the future for Daniel but God does.

Please pray for me and Daniel's family tomorrow. I have to go out to their home in the village and take them some medicine and somehow explain to his mother that Daniel has about a year left to live. I have done all I can do. I hate this part of my job because I weep to easily. I have to go now, the ambulance is pulling up....

God Bless,
In His Service,

Bryan & Riechelle & the kids

Junglemedic Missions
Rio Dulce, Izabal
Guatemala Central America

E-Mail: Bryan@JungleMedicMissions.org
Web Site: http://www.junglemedicmissions.org/

This page was last updated 01/23/07