The Ayacucho Adventures of Dr D

Wednesday, September 15

It begins the same way! Get up and go! And that is what I did! I got up at 3:00 AM on Wednesday and journeyed to the Lima Airport, where I met Larry Cochrane and Larry Montgomery from Wilmore, Kentucky and Ismael Zubiandi from Venezuela. And that is where the event begins.

It was only a 40 minute flight from take off to touch down and we arrived in Ayacucho. It was certainly better than the 7 hour bus trip the medical team had to take from Lima. After going to the wrong bus station and then the wrong small buss transportation company, we finally met the team and piled into three 18 passenger vans loaded to the limits – including their top racks.

Now for the fun! YEAH! For the next six and one-half hours we turned left, back right, left, right – sometimes almost as soon as you got the wheels straight you turned again. That is bad enough, but then when you add the fact the road is gravel and drops for thousands of feet on one side or the other plus it is many – many times a one way road. Which means if another vehicle comes the opposite direction one of you has to pull completely over “if” there is room and if there isn’t then one has to back up so the other can pass.

And to complicate matters, you are crossing mountains 4,000 meters high (that is over 13,000 feet) and a passenger is also prone to car sickness it adds another dynamic – and we had two – one each in different vehicles.

Since we had no breakfast and there was a place about one hour out of Ayacucho – a tourist trap – we stopped to eat. Breakfast consisted of meat – “Cooie” (Guinea Pig) some lettuce and one of the 3,000 varieties of Peruvian potatoes and Inca Cola to drink. Not bad and I was hungry and YES the meat was delicious!

We departed at 8:20 AM and arrived in San Francisco - Kimbiri (twin cities across the river from each other) about 3:30 PM. Then waited on the fourth van to get there with our luggage by stretching out on my bed on the fourth floor. I wanted to take a shower but there was no water running in my room. So I got up and went downstairs and discovered the luggage had arrived and lugged it up stairs and prepared for the evening banquet.

My comments on it are this: It was a long time before we got to eat but all the officials of the city, the mayor and the educators were there and were honored. So we got things off the ground.

Thursday, September 16:

Morning arrived too early with the roosters, the neighbors and the dogs beating my alarm to the punch. I had water —COLD— water for the shower and shaving, but that’s life overseas. Breakfast was a fried egg, with a potato covered with the typical Peruvian yellow sauce. We got that only because we refused to eat chicken for breakfast.

But this was after we walked to the Christian radio station – we were told – which turned out to be a TV station where we were to be interviewed. We did and they did and in one hour we finished and headed to breakfast.

I guess I should tell you this was a medical outreach with services in the evening and teaching on Friday and Saturday. So the first thing on the agenda was to spend the majority of the day taking the Mayor’s Tour. We visited a water purification plant – it was very interesting – and it was just beginning the process. Then we went to the waste treatment operation to see how they sort the solid waste, sell the plastic and glass, and process all the other waste by converting it into fertilizer. Then to their fish farm for a fish dinner and speeches by the mayor and other leaders.

FINALLY we got back to the hotel to rest and prepare for the evening rally. It was outside on the street next to the city building with plastic chairs and a high platform with “flexing” boards that provide a thrill whenever someone walked by or decided to dance to the music. And lest I forget, THE BUGS! But the Lord protected me and even though we were warned about the mosquitoes – I never had even one attempt to bite me or fly close enough to hear it. My prayer was answered. And I was protected without getting a yellow fever shot – which I found out I should have had.

Ismael Zubiandi- was the speaker and for all I know it was good. It was in Spanish and the people enjoyed it but I somehow did not understand it. It makes it very difficult to have to minister at the altar to pray for sick and not be able to pray with knowledge about the problem, BUT THE HOLY SPIRIT KNOWS and so you just lay hands on them an pray.

Friday, September 17:
Unfortunately the day actually began with the end of the previous day. No water at night to get rid of the accumulated dust and perspiration so you crash waiting on the dawn of the new day. However, it began the same way the other ended – NO WATER! I had just enough in my water bottle to try to rinse off the shaving cream and wiped the rest off with the towel and departed for the day smelling just like I did the night before – but since I could not smell myself I figured I smelled okay!

I was the first speaker of the morning. The crowd filled about half of the college class room when we started and by the time I finished they had doubled the number of the chairs and there was “standing room only.” I had the next session free. People continued to come, so for the next session they had all those who had heard me to stay and the rest to pick up their chair and follow me to the next class room and I repeated the first teaching which was on leadership. Lunch came next and then I had the remaining part of the afternoon free and my next session was on Saturday morning.

Another open square rally with more in attendance than the first night filled the street beginning about 7:00 for an hour with some Quechuan music – the music of the mountain people. It is very distinguishable both in musical sound and in language. After some more contemporary music, Pastor Desiderio Escalante from Chincha who lived in Kimbiri from the age of two and found Christ while living there shared his testimony and the altar was filled with those coming to make a commitment to Christ. This was followed by a long prayer time for the sick.

Saturday, September 18:

I skipped breakfast as did several other pastors when we discovered “Cow-Cow Soup” was the special (only) offering of the day. If you can not figure out what “Cow-Cow” is it is “cow’s belly” and I am not against it, just against putting it in my stomach – I have one already!

While on my way to the Church for my teaching session I discovered that Larry and Larry (read paragraph one) were going to stay along with a doctor to minister to 200 who had walked for two days down river for medical attention, while the rest of us were to leave at 10:30 AM. But to our dismay, we discovered there was no more medicine available – it had all been used!

I will “NEVER” forget the sad look on the faces – no, the tears – of those who arr hospital in the arrived at the church and were told they would not be able to be seen by a doctor or receive any medical assistance. There is not even a hospital or medical clinic in the area to which we could refer them. So I stood to teach, looking back at the rear door filled with eyes filled with disappointment and did my best to teach my final session.

As we climbed into our vans for the seven hour return to Ayacucho, we were greeted by people bring their offering – huge pineapples, fresh ground home grown coffee, oranges and various other fruit. You could see the love and yet know the sacrifice they were making to bring their offering to us. With gladness of heart because of the spirit in which it was given we received their gifts and later passed them on to bless others because we knew we would not be able to get them back to Lima.

We departed, all of us, and endured the long journey, probably never getting above 40 miles per hour for over any time frame of 3-4 minutes, but turning and turning, going up the mountain in a serpentine method we finally arrived in Ayacucho and our hotel for the night and the flight back to Lima Sunday morning.

As I complete the blog for these four days, I am able to recognize this as an “encounter for the future.” I handed out all of my Spanish Business Cards for CLU – there was great interest. I met a pastor from Lima, it was another “open door”. I met Nino Martini, a captain of the National Police Department of Peru. I had watched him lay hands on the sick and believe God for their healing. As we departed, he grabbed me, kissed me on the cheek as an expression of special connection because I had shared my 20 year volunteer ministry with him as a chaplain of the Fort Myers Police Department – we were more than just acquaintance were of the same fraternity. He wants me to become the “priest” (as he said in his broken English) of the Lima National Police Department. That will not happen but I do believe I will here from him again and have an opportunity to speak to new recruits and even some of the high officers of the military.

Only God knows why the events scheduled did not materialize as I had been told, but the establishment of relationships because they were built upon the foundation of the Holy Spirit will have great dividends.