Dear Friends,
I just thought I would share the low down of my experience here a Oasis of Hope. You may share with whomever you feel would be interested. Though the hospital is located in town, the streets are very quiet at night. I think the people actually sleep! I slept pretty good with the exception of needing to get up for the bathroom. The bath is located right beside the bed so it is a short jump to the bathroom. This morning, however, when I went to take a shower it took me awhile to figure out that the cold was hot and the hot, cold. I thought for a while that there was no hot! This is Mexico after all!!! Fortunately, I figured it out and got a hot shower. After the shower, nurse Judy came in and drew my blood for lab work. She did a very good job and I hardly felt the needle. Nice.
For breakfast they had a large plate of papaya and musk melon, oatmeal, beans, and an asparagus dish. I just had fruit. After breakfast they have a worship service especially for the companions. I went too, since I didn't know I had anything else to do. The chapel has a wall sized fountain with a pool and a statue depicting the man washing the clay from his eyes in the pool. Daniel Contreras Kennedy, the grandson of the founder of the clinic, had the worship service. He sang some songs in Spanish and translated for us. Then he led a wonderful discussion on the importance of faith in healing and how Jesus sometimes healed people who didn't have any faith at all. Jesus had the faith! We also talked about how God is both Holy and Love. He used the illustration that God's Holiness is like an apple tree and His love is like the apple on the tree.
After the worship I discovered Nurse Gigi had plans for me. Oh yes, a coffee enema! WOW! That definitely was an experience! I guess it gets repeated three more times before we are finished here! Oh fun! Following the colonic, which is part of the detoxification protocol, we went to the treatment room. Here all the patients are gathered with their assigned IV's and Daniel conducted a worship service for the patients. He uses a lot of humor in his talks and tells funny stories. It really takes your mind off the discomfort of the IV drip. He told about some kids who came for treatments and used the IV poles as skate boards up and down the hall. He told about one patient who rigged up a special carrier to carry his IV down to the beach. (The poles don't roll well in the sand!) Unfortunately, he tripped on the stairs going down to the beach and broke his leg! That was the only time the hospital had to do an emergency rescue!
Halfway through Daniels talk we had to go out to talk to the doctor. These doctors are very special. You can tell them what you are doing at home and they don't act like you lost your marbles! They actually understand why you are trying to boost your immune system. That understanding is so refreshing! We went back to the treatment room and listened to the rest of Daniels presentation. Then we stayed to fellowship with the Sabbath keeping couple we met last night.
At noon, I took my good buddy, Peter Pole, with us to lunch. (The IV drip takes about 3 hours) The beautiful sunshine enticed us to eat outside. A lovely way to get the Vitamin D3 for the day! After a short rest after lunch, to finish the drip, we took an hour walk down the street and to the beach. There are a lot of little shops along the beach front and most of them are selling green coconuts. A lot of dogs lounge around on the sidewalk, too, but they are very mannerly and don't bother people walking by.
When we got back we went to supper a little early to get some green drink down before taking solid food. There menu varies very little. Always they have a nice big salad. Then a tray of shredded fresh beets, carrots, cabbage, onions, radishes and cucumbers. They also have a couple hot or semi-hot dishes. Tonight it was a vegetable dish with chicken and a rice and broccoli dish. For us, the food tastes great, but one of our friends is having a really hard time with all the vegetables. So please pray especially for Andy, that his tastes will change and he can stomach the food. After supper and a short walk and worship, we are back in our room and I am waiting for Nurse Gigi again. Oh joy! She is really sweet, but....... (ya, pun intended. Ya gotta laugh sometimes!)
Thinking of you all and praying for you, too.
Love,
Brenda and David (he's looking for Gigi!)
