SUBJECT: Who said mission life was boring?

AUTHOR: Patricia Duerksen and husband Dale are retired and currently work with their two daughters and their families (Gates & Burgdorff), in a medical aviation program in the jungles of Guyana, South America.

DATE: Nov 23, l997

When I get through telling my story you will understand why I haven't written lately!

Let's start back with David in Trinidad. While he was gone things were fairly quiet until our neighbor Claude walked in from the mines looking terrible. He was staggering and had a high fever. I had treated him about 6 weeks before for severe malaria and was sure that this was a relapse. I started him on the Falciparum regimen which is Quinine. His temp climbed up to 105, so I gave him ASA to bring it down and sponged him off. About 9:00 p.m. his brother-in-law came and said that he was vomiting blood. I rushed

Amebic Abcess patient from Arau and his mother needing 6 teeth extracted

over and started an IV on him and gave him Phenergan I.M. He was cool and clammy which scared me, and he looked like death warmed over. The next morning he seemed better but was terribly weak. I gave him his dose of Quinine and left. About an hour later someone came running to tell me that he was vomiting blood again. And this time it was a rather large amount and bright red. I told him that he needed to go to Georgetown, but he refused stating that he would go to Venezuela by helicopter instead. But that posed a problem, because he was too weak to walk and then cross over the river by canoe. The Venezuelan helicopter is not allowed to land on our side of the river which is Guyana territory. I felt very frustrated. Now was when we needed David's help, and he was in Trinidad teaching! We finally managed to get special permission from the local police to let the helicopter land on our side since this was an emergency. This was all arranged on Friday, late afternoon. I really felt he would do better going to Georgetown, but he was adamant that he did not want to go. Now there was a regular flight from Georgetown due to arrive sometime in the early afternoon. Unbeknowns to me someone took it upon themselves to call and tell the pilot that there was a patient to go out. So when the plane arrived it waited around for a bit, and since we didn't show up he took off for Geo.Town. Then the captain of the police came down and started to scold me. "Why didn't you send him on that plane?" I responded that it is not my responsibility but the official village health care worker's responsibility to arrange for flights out for critical cases, and nobody told me that any arrangement had been made. Furthermore Claude did not want to go to Georgetown but to Venezuela. Well, I was informed that the patient's opinions don't count and that I was responsible to have gotten him on that plane! I reminded him that he had given me permission to have the helicopter land here. Well, in the end he agreed that since Claude was so ill that the permission was still valid.

This was Friday afternoon, and we knew that the helicopter wouldn't come that day. We called Venezuela helicopter service by radio, and they said they would be out Sabbath morning. Sabbath morning came and went, Sabbath aftertoon came and went, and no helicopter. In the meantime Claude had stopped vomiting and seemed to be improving a tiny bit. Nevertheless I kept IV's going on him but stopped the Quinine, as I felt sure that this plus the ASA were the cause of his gastric bleeding. I put him on Doxycycline in hopes that it would curb the disease enough to get outside help. His boss at the mines had heard that he was sick and sent word that he had chartered the helicopter for him and for Dale. Claude doesn't speak Spanish, so we wanted Dale to go along to help him and be his translator. We waited all afternoon but still no helicopter. That night I spent at Claude's house, because he was so very ill. Sunday morning still no helicopter! Finally in the afternoon we heard it coming. Claude was able to walk with some assistance to the site in our front yard where the chopper would land. Of course he couldn't walk fast, and by the time we got him to the chopper, 3 other men had hopped in! There was barely room to also squeeze Claude into the seat that was really made for just three! I was upset...this was a charter for Claude and Dale, but do you think those other men would give up their seats? No way. So poor Claude had to go by himself. The pilot said he had another flight scheduled for the next day, so Dale could fly out then.

The helicopter flights are almost always in the afternoons, so the next day Dale ate an early lunch and then hurried over to the store across the river to wait. (The chopper comes about every 10 days to pick up Jorge, the store owner, so that he can restock his store.) He waited all afternoon in vain, for it never showed up. It seemed like a terrible waste of time. We had no idea why it didn't come. Maybe it was down for repairs and wouldn't be back for a week. Dale decided to try once more the next day, and if it didn't come then, he would give up trying to get out to Claritas to find Claude. On Tuesday he had just finished eating lunch when we heard the helicopter coming, so he rushed to pick up his clothes bag, money, and passport, and then we all hurried out with him to the canoe. Oh, oh, we had forgotten about the padlock on the chain that secures the boat, so Kara ran back to the house to get the key. By the time she got back with the key, we could see the helicopter taking off already from Jorge's store. Well, it looked like he missed that flight. But the pilot saw him standing there on the river bank with his bag in hand, and he must have remembered that he wanted to fly out to Claritas, so he set down the chopper right in front of us, and Dale quickly climbed aboard. What a relief! But now WE were in trouble. The police had not given permission to land the second time on the Guyana side of the river. We apologized and tried to explain that we hadn't called the chopper over. That was purely the pilot's decision to land there. They reluctantly forgave us.

The helicopter landed at its base about 5 miles from the town of Claritas. Jorge had a little pickup parked there at the base which he uses in purchasing and transporting his supplies. He kindly invited Dale to ride into town with him. The town is little more than a wide spot in the road about a mile long, but still it seemed like a formidable challenge to find Claude. Dale felt very relieved when Jorge said he would do some inquiring to try to find out where Claude was.

In the meantime Dale had a dental problem that needed attention. He had broken one of his front teeth and needed to get it capped, and Jorge had said that there was a dentist in town. But instead of simply driving to the office and making an appointment, he asked a friend he met on the street to tell him where the dentist was. After receiving instructions they walked up a side street, through an abandoned building, and out into a large lot that had a small house over in one corner. Instead of walking up to the house, Jorge just started yelling, "Humberto! Humberto!" After a few minutes a woman stuck her head out the door and said, "He's not here. He went down town." So they walked back to Jorge's pickup and drove to the center of town. He stopped right in the street, stuck his head out the window, and started hollering, "Humberto! Humberto!" Dale thought that was ridiculous, for surely he would never find the man that way. But after about a minute Jorge said, "There he is," and sure enough, here came a mulatto man with a big grin walking across the street to the pickup. He must not have an office. After greetings Jorge introduced him to Dale who gave him a big smile to show off his broken tooth. "That will cost 12,000 bolivares," Humberto said (about $25). Then he hastened to explain that the price was just for a natural colored tooth, not a metal one. That was fine with Dale, who has no desire to have a flashy gold tooth in the front of his mouth. Humberto would have to order the tooth, and it would arrive on Saturday. They agreed to the arrangement, and as they drove away, Jorge said Dale could come back with him on his next trip for supplies, since it was rather doubtful that the tooth would actually arrive as soon as the dentist had said. We were of the same opinion. In fact, since every trip to Claritas costs us about $60, we decided he shouldn't go back until we received confirmation that the new tooth had actually arrived. The next time Jorge went to town he checked for us, and just as we anticipated, the tooth had not arrived yet. And the last time he went, the dentist was gone on a trip to another city. Maybe it never will work out to get the tooth repaired here. But we're getting ahead of our story.

Jorge dropped Dale off at a hotel and then went on about his own business. Just before sundown he returned and told Dale that he had found out that Claude was in the Amerindian village at the edge of town staying with a relative there. They drove over to the village and stopped at the entrance. Jorge said the Amerindians don't like him and have forbidden him to enter their village, but Dale could go in, so he gave instructions where to go and who to ask for. In a few minutes he was talking to Claude in the living room of his niece's home. The town medical center had done a blood smear and started an IV on him, and that was all they ever did for him. They told him to just rest up to gain his strength back again. He figured he could do that better at home, so he wanted to return to Kaikan on the next flight, and Dale promised to make the arrangements to fly back on Wednesday.

The weather turned nasty on Wednesday, and it was nearly sundown before the chopper could finally fly them back to Kaikan. The pilot took pity on the sick man aboard and decided to let him off where he had picked him up in our front yard. Unfortunately a policeman was nearby to see the helicopter land, and he was furious. In the morning Dale decided he had better go check in with the police. When he approached the police station, the first thing one of the policemen said was, "You're under arrest!" Dale thought he was joking--and he probably wasn't serious about the arrest, but he certainly wasn't laughing either. He told Dale to wait in the office for the chief, and they left him sitting there for about an hour. When the chief finally came, he really chewed Dale out thoroughly. When he could finally get a word in edgewise, he reminded the chief that he was just a passenger on the helicopter, someone else had chartered the flight, and it was the pilot's decision where to land. But the chief insisted that since Dale speaks Spanish, he should have told that Venezuelan pilot not to land in front of our house. Just before dismissing him, the chief said he wanted to see all of our passports to check when our visas expire. That disturbed us, because most of our visas have already expired. David had told us not to worry about it, because the conference had applied for work permits for all of us, so we could say that they were being processed. The police chief is now gone on

Rob and Tami Pohle, ADRA's video production team, heading back to town after a busy week of filming

vacation, so we are just kind of lying low, and the others don't seem to be eager to pursue the matter, so we'll probably make it through the next 6 weeks, at which time we will be leaving Kaikan anyway. Well, Claude's episode was just the beginning of a rash of excitement. It was time for David to return from Trinidad. When he arrived in Georgetown the new doctor, Faye Whiting, had arrived, and the physician who was holding down the fort was invited by David to come visit the interior before his flight back to the USA. Also there were some ADRA representatives that had come to initiate the new ADRA program that is getting started here in Guyana under the leadership of David. Now a week of marathon flying was in store for David and a marathon of cooking, washing sheets, etc. here in Kaikan. David made two flights the first day (8 hours), slept in Kaikan, and early the next morning went to Arau, picked up a sick boy and his mother and dropped them off for us to take care of, then he was off to Geo.Town again for 2 more of the ADRA people...another 8 hours of flying. When he arrived here and was getting ready for bed he asked why the boys were sleeping on the floor. "Well, you brought us patients, and there is no one here to take care of them, so we had to put them in the boys' room." We really didn't have a choice except to make them sleep outside. So we prepared beds and fed them. The boy was totally incapacitated with what appeared to be an amebic abcess. His mother informed me that she needed all of her teeth out (what was left of them!) So in the morning while trying to get ready for company, Becky and I rushed around washing sheets so the visitors could at least feel welcome. I pulled 6 teeth from mama. Her gums

Fueling up at sunup for another 9 hours of flight

were so diseased that the teeth came out without much trouble. But then I had trouble with bleeding. I packed her gums with gel-foam and then sutured them. In the meantime David was on his way back from Geo. town with the visiting doctor. David was going to transfer the boy and mother to Kamarang after Dr. James, the visiting doctor, had a look at him. So our next problem was to get this boy up the hill before David arrived. We had 20 minutes. Neither he nor his mother understood English. He understood some Spanish, and of course Becky and I couldn't speak their native dialect. Well, with much shoving, pushing and signing we finally got them walking up the hill and arrived just as David was landing. Dr. James looked him over and decided that it was probably amebic abcess or possibly a duodenal ulcer. We gave him Flagyl for the abcess, for we were sure he wouldn't get any medicines in Kamarang. David reluctantly took a few minutes to eat a bite and then was off with mom and son. Becky went on down the hill to the house to take off the sheets from the patient's bed and get them washed while I encouraged a few men to come and talk with Dr. James. His primary purpose for visiting the interior was to get as many family men to get a vasectomy as possible. About a dozen interested men came, and Dr. James gave a very nice lecture, and I added my two cents worth about the virtures of not having a worn-out wife. Some of these women have 8 to 10 children before they are 40! Well, as can be expected there were a lot of shy looks, chuckling and general embarrassment about the whole issue. It looked for all the world like a "No-Go situation", so Dr. James and I went down the hill to our place, and we got him settled in a bedroom in Ted and Betsy's

Dr. James Flood and myself--Ready for Surgery

house. (They have been in Georgetown working on the adoption and have essentially left Kaikan for good.) After about an hour one of the men came timidly to the door and asked if Dr. James would do the surgery on him! What a breakthrough! This man has 3 children, but the last one is a microcephalic and is severely retarded and paralyzed. They have been afraid to have any more children, so for 4 years have not had much of a marriage. Now he saw a way out. I set up the kitchen table as our surgery table and sterilized the few pitiful instruments I have and scratched around for all the other supplies Dr. James would need. I had expected him to bring his own instruments and supplies, but he thought we were set up for surgery! By this time there were several men outside talking in low tones and looking anxiously towards the kitchen door. About 45 minutes later Nash walked out as if nothing had happened. You should have seen the stunned faces of those men. I'm sure they expected to have to carry him up the hill in his hammock, pale, bleeding and in excruciating pain! But to see him walk out as if he had just been visiting?? The next morning at 7:30 there was another timid knock at the kitchen door. I looked out to see another brave soul. I was so pleased, because, you see, his wife has had 8 children in as many years, and she is only in her mid thirties. I grabbed him by the arm and pulled him in before he could back out. Quicker than a wink we had him up on the "surgery" table and began our work. Would you believe we did 6 men that day? I was about as amazed by this turnout as the men themselves. It just seemed to be like a fire going through the brush! One prospect we had to send away. He had a large hernia and we didn't dare take any chances out here in the bush with complications. He has 7 children and his wife is 29! I have put her on Depo-Provera injections until he can get his hernia repaired. With the success we had we are hoping another visiting physician will take up where Dr. James left off. In the village of Paruima there were 7 men waiting for Dr. James, but they had no supplies or instruments, and I had nothing left to spare. So they will have to wait. Both Dr. James and I were exhausted by the end of our day.

In the meantime David was putting in 9 hours flying the ADRA team around to different villages to film and discuss the needs of each individual village. He spent the night with them in the village of Arau which is only 7 minutes flying time from here. He stopped by to pick up 5 sleeping bags, and off he went for the night. The next day David flew the union ADRA director back to Georgetown. He had had all the interior he could stand and was visibly miserable. While he waited for David to do some more transfering of bodies he asked me if he could lie down somewhere.

A friendly welcome at Chinowieng

Poor man looked so pitiful that I took him upstairs and put him down on my bed where he stayed until David could take him back to Georgetown. Then David returned and took Dr. James back to Georgetown. Another 9 hour day.. The next day David flew to Paruima, to Waramadan, to Arau and finally to the military base to extract some teeth. One soldier said, "Pull this one," as he pointed to the offending tooth. David extracted it, and then the man announced that David had pulled the wrong one! I had that happen at Maranatha one time. Ever after if there is a question about which one, I give them a mirror to make sure! Anyway, David then pulled the right one as well. In the meantime Becky and I were flying around getting ready for 4 visitors that night. Again we washed all extra sheets and got the beds made up just in the nick of time. We even managed to put on a decent supper for them...fresh bread and a noodle soup that Katia made. It was very good, and after visiting we all dropped into bed. This had been another 9 hours of flying for David. Next day he had to make 2 trips to Georgetown to get part of the ADRA team back for their flights to the States. He brought Betsy back so she could finish her packing. She and I celebrated our birthdays amidst cooking, washing and entertaining! But she finished all her sorting and was ready now to return for good to Georgetown. It was good to have her here for Sabbath. Sunday was another 9 hour day for David as he finished getting the rest of the ADRA team out, and then he brought in another visitor. This one is a young man who is staying for a couple of months to help out in Paruima on the school. Then David

A group of children at Chinowieng

flew to all the villages to let them know that he was going on vacation. He and Becky went to Chinawing and took the generator and video player and showed the film JESUS. The people were thrilled by it. Becky and David spent the night there. Then he had to fly to Georgetown for another visitor. Jeff is a pilot and student nurse and is considering plans to replace David if and when he has to leave. So Becky and I washed sheets again and set him up and got busy cooking while David flew and flew and flew! Now the exit started. First it was Betsy, then Jeff, then Katia, then Kris and Carlos. With bad weather, and the gas pump at Georgetown off because of some problem, David ran out of time to return to get Becky. In the meantime I came down with malaria, vomiting, diarrhea, fever, the whole picture. I felt so sorry for Becky, for here she was trying to pack for the States, taking care of a sick mother, tending the patients and monitoring that radio (the blight and blessing of our lives!) She was running up and down stairs all day. Finally last Sunday afternoon she and David were able to fly out to Georgetown. They had no sooner taken off and were flying over the house when it started to rain. Within 2 minutes we were in the midst of a terrible storm. David called on the radio and I could hardly hear him above the roar of the rain. But he was calm and said that it was clear and beautiful where he was. What a relief! Sabbath when we talked on the radio, Becky said that Carlos looked very yellow, and she suspected hepatitis, and Katia was vomiting and had fever, and she herself ached all over. Sunday we confirmed that Carlos did have hepatitis. His stool was whitish. Katia and Becky had malaria! What a way to start a vacation! In spite of sickness they managed to get all their business done and get Becky's passport renewed. This morning they left for the States and hopefully are on their way up to see the girls this afternoon.

Now to add to all this tension of the last few weeks David had the added burden of not knowing if the government would allow him to continue with his aviation program. The DCA kept extending him a few days (10 here, another 10 days to get his family out). It seems that there are a few people that are uncertain about what David is doing out there in the jungle. Besides, this is election year and the whole country is nervous it seems. As you can imagine we have prayed earnestly about this, and just before David left it sounded like the problem will be solved by the time he returns. I'm sure he will be writing all about this on his web page on the internet.

As quickly as the whirlwind came it left, and Dale and I find ourselves around a very large table huddled to one end. It is quiet, and life has almost ground to a halt. I have about 5-10 patients a day, and the house stays clean. After the rash of visitors (10 in all) that came and went, it seems very, very tranquil...can't say that I mind it. We continue to have radio contact twice a day with Ted and Betsy. Please pray that the adoption will be completed before December 29 (they have tickets to fly out on that date). We serve a big, miracle working God who delights in taking on our mountains of trials and troubles. But I am claiming Matt 21:21-22 and thanking Jesus for answering my prayer even before it has come to pass.

This will be my last general news letter, as we have reservations to fly to the States on January 14, and we are not planning on returning to Guyana. We are finally having to admit that at 63 and 65 we are getting a bit old to handle the rigors of foreign mission life. We have given many, many years to overseas work, and now we are entrusting the work to our children to carry on, and hopefully on to the grandchildren if time should last that long. We are planning on settling at Bonnie and Bill's home up in Washington. There is a lot of unfinished work on the house, and the landscaping hasn't even been started, so we will give our time and energy to making the place livable for our kids when they have to return to educate their children.

Thank you all for your prayers and letters and support while we were here in Guyana. It has been a good year for us, and we are so thankful for the opportunity to have helped get the aviation program off to a good start, and most of all to get better acquainted with our precious grandchildren.

Love, Patti

You may write to Pati at: gates@andrews.edu

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