CELEBRATORY CEREMONIES, CITAS, & CENAS

Our week was bookended with two wonderful ceremonies.

TRANQUIL TRANQUI

Last Sunday we flew south to Puerto Montt and then drove three hours further south crossing by ferry to the Island of Chiloe.

The advantage of leaving our hotel the next morning at 6:00am to drive an hour further south to take another ferry was witnessing a beautiful sunrise. Only seven cars fit on the ferry to Isla Tranqui, and we had to back onto it. We drove with the branch President Carlos Sanchez and his wife Andrea and their two sweet daughters.

We drove straight to the home of Sarai Donoso Vidal, the woman who took us on a tour of the island eight months ago when we came for our initial visit. She had a delicious breakfast waiting for us. We were able to meet her husband and her adorable baby boy.

Then off to the ceremony which was held on the seashore in a school shaped like a ship. How fun is that for the six children that attend school here! One of the historic churches was right next door.

The municipality of Queilén has 3,611 attributed lives in their healthcare network, most of them elderly people. 51% are indigenous; 60% live in the rural sector, 2000 of which live on the Island of Tranqui. The 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 Tranqui. Healthcare is provided in eight rural posts and seven rural medical stations. These facilities do not have adequate clinical tools to serve the population efficiently and effectively. The donation of EKG machines, sphygmomanometers, autoclaves, otoscopes, defibrillators, an exam table, an ultrasound machine, and a centrifuge will improve conditions of safety and quality of primary healthcare on the remote islands of Chiloe and Tranqui.

The ceremony was made even more special with a song performed by a local vaquero and then a typical island almuerzo called Curanto was served. Shellfish, meat, potatoes, and sausages are steamed in netting. Traditionally it is cooked using heated rocks in an earth oven that is covered with pangue leaves but ours was steamed in the school kitchen.

SAN BERNARDO SCHOOL KITS

We spent Saturday morning in a suburb of Santiago where the left-over school kits supply from last week was assembled into 61 school kits and donated to refugee children who live in temporary camps. Our local church congregation organized a wonderful morning for these sweet children.

CITAS

HOSPITAL TIL TIL

On Friday we made two visits to organizations. In the morning we traveled an hour north of Santiago to the rural town of Til Til, known for its olive production.

We met at a small 14-bed hospital with the hospital director, a primary care physician, Senator Agustin Romero Leiva, and his deputy, Alfredo Vergara Catalan. We discussed a project that has been brewing for over a year- donating a mobile mammography unit to a group of rural communities. Clinics could be held in each town square on a rotating basis. Women from these areas typically skip a mammogram because public transportation into Santiago is sporadic and they cannot afford a taxi ride. Most do not own their own vehicles. Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in females in Chile.

ESPERANZA NUESTRA

That afternoon we traveled south to Maipu to make a follow-up visit to our wheelchair project at Fundacion Esperanza Nuestra. Since the donation in November employees have prescribed 65 mobility devices. We made this quarterly visit with the Salgado’s who will do 50 follow-up interviews with recipients this year. Patricio and Rosanna are doing a great job as partners, and we have high hopes that this will be a perpetual project, meaning that when the original 350 mobility devices have been distributed, more will be donated.

CENAS

Friday dinner date with Salgados

COSTAS

On Thursday evening the senior missionaries in the Santiago East mission were invited by President and Sister Bohn to have dinner with Elder and Hermana Costa who were visiting from Argentina. Elder Costa is a counselor in the South American South Area Presidency. We had a special evening as each couple introduced themselves to the Costa’s and shared a recent miracle in our lives. Truly one of the joys of our mission is getting to know these wonderful senior missionary couples. It was Hermana Child’s birthday, and we were happy to enjoy some chocolate birthday cake with her.

FAMILIA RAMIREZ/MAUNA

Benjamin was accepted to BYU and the Ramirez family invited us to their home for a celebratory lunch!

ALASKA AMIGOS

Some friends from Alaska (Nobles, Parrish’s, and Bennions) spent the week hiking in Torres del Paine National Park. We were able to have dinner with them in Santiago before they flew home.