ON THE ROAD WITH GUIDO

Guido Lucas is the South American South Area Humanitarian Services Project Manager and our manager. He works from the area office in Buenos Aires. Rarely does a day go by that we don’t communicate with him through email or through a video telephone call. We were finally able to meet him in person after more than a year. He came to spend a week with us in Chile.

MONDAY IN MOLINA

On Monday we drove two hours south to meet with Hospital Molina’s director. This hospital will be the center of our nationwide early diagnosis cancer project. We saw the room that is being renovated into an endoscopy lab.

Guido sampled some Chilean empanadas on the way back to Santiago.

GROUNDED WITH GUIDO ON TUESDAY

On Tuesday we met in person for our weekly meeting with our buyers Ricardo Gutierrez and Richard Costa. Our meeting continued over almuerzo.

After thirty years of steady growth and increasing prosperity, Chilean society was shaken by a massive wave of protests and riots starting on Oct 18, 2019, that left one-third of supermarkets in the country ransacked and the metro system in Santiago decimated. Anticipated unrest on the third anniversary of this incident caused us to cancel visits and work from the office on Tuesday.

WONDERFUL WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY WANDERINGS

On Wednesday we left Santiago at 7:00am to fly south to Puerto Montt. We then rented a car and drove four hours south, crossing by ferry first to Isla Chiloe and then to Isla Lemuy.

The invasive chacai plant has turned from yellow to gold during the last three weeks since we were here and blankets the islands.

We stopped in Castro to pick up the branch president, Carlo Sanchez, and stopped for almeruzo in a stilt house. Guido enjoyed trying the traditional island dish called curanto, a stew consisting of various seafood, meat, and vegetables.

The community of Puqueldón includes the entire island of Lemuy which is 100% rural and has a population of 4,199. Its population has been historically neglected, mainly due to its geographic isolation; from the mainland, one must take a ferry to the island of Chiloe and then another to the island of Lemuy. The roads on the island were only paved in the year 2000 because three historic wooden churches there were declared UNESCO world heritage sites. We were able to see another one on this trip: Jesus de Nazareno de Aldachildo.

Due to the lack of job opportunities, most of the population are older adults living off their government pensions. Most were previously agricultural workers which required physical labor for long periods of time. This, combined with excessive consumption of fried foods, has impacted their health. The donation of stationary bikes, treadmills, physical therapy tables, gynecological exam tables, hydraulic beds, and defibrillators will help healthcare workers deliver the quality care they desire to give. The equipment will be distributed between the family health center in Puqueldón plus four rural medical care posts and three rural medical stations on the island.

The ceremony took place in the rural posta in Aldachildo.

On Thursday we drove back to the mainland and visited the hospital in Frutillar. All the medical equipment has been received. We are waiting for the two containers to be fabricated and delivered. The hospital director showed us where the containers will be placed.