The medical/construction mission to the Sucre, Bolivia is fading into the past. We hope to find spring when we get back home later tonight. Yet, it is the stories we remember that brings back our time in Bolivia.
This years mission expanded on the clinic side on the mission. Our clinic team doubled the number of people seen to over a 1000 patients. The clinic team was busy in Hospital Cristo de las Americas and in and around schools in Sucre. We have found working through schools and day care centers we can attract more families to participate in the clinic program. Many vitamins and other essential meds were passed out to families to help improve their lives.
The surgical mission was typical in many ways. Gall bladder and hernia repairs were at the top of the surgical procedures. There were also some thyroid cases. One woman came in from the countryside for a gall blabber operation. Normally people are sent out after a short recovery time. She was kept an extra day for recovery because she had to walk home 11km. She lived in the mountains and didn't any other form of transportation to get back home.
The construction/outreach team was busy with a painting job at a local orphanage. We were originally asked to work on raising the outside wall, it was just a little to high for the team to work on. We were fortunate to find a young man, Juan Carlos, who is just finishing his engineering degree and is willing to work with us on future missions. We hired him for the wall job and the contacts are being signed. Work will begin shortly. Blessings with Water was in full swing this year. The team delivered approximately 50 filters and trained the women who accepted the responsibility for the ministry. Each women will provide clean filtered water to families.
There's much more that can be said, but this is enough for now. We will be returning to Sucre, Bolivia next year. We leave on April 11th and return on the 25th. Interested in coming? Drop me a note.
Bruce Carlson
Mission Coordinator
[email protected]
815 221-6256 
