Brazil: The 'Lost' Blog: Ãlvaraes

Ãlvaraes

As promised last week, here is the blog entry that got 'lost' as a result of Peter's injury.

To recap where we are on the timeline of our trip, we have just finished our lectures in Tefé...


Friday 25th January

We awoke to news via text that Andrew's father had had a major stroke and was in hospital in Bristol. He'd had a minor one the week before we left but this seems to have been more serious as he is now unable to speak.

 

It took a number of hours before the details were clear, which was really difficult.

Andrew finally managed to speak to his wife and mum in a quick phone call. They all agreed it would be best for him to continue with our timetable for now. It is really difficult to make changes to flights from Brazil to the UK because it involves multiple flights. Add to that Brazilian administration and the only likely outcome would probably have been frustration.

 

It was a small window into one of the sacrifices missionaries and their families are called to make.

 

(Note: Andrew's father died 10 days later. He travelled back to the UK as planned and was able to be with him in his final days.)
 

We had a time of prayer together and then left the hotel, to catch a boat to Ãlvaraes, a village of just 8,000 on the other side of Lake Tefé, 15km into the jungle.  

Regular speed boats transport people across to the other side of lake Tefé, where there is a beautiful sandy beach, framed by the jungle. We clambered off the boat, paid our 5 reais each (about £1.75) and got a taxi into Ãlvaraes.

It was cheaper to share a taxi, so Andrew and I sat with our luggage in the open back of the pickup  and hung on for dear life!

   

Ãlvareas is what I always imagined life in the Amazon would be like. It is set right on the banks of the Amazon river surrounded by lush green foliage and fruit trees of all varieties: coconut, cocoa plants, tucuma trees, brazil nut trees, and a few other varieties I have never heard of before and would not even attempt to spell!

The roads are surprisingly well maintained, but the majority of houses are small wooden huts, many of them brightly coloured. Windows and doors are kept wide open, people sit on chairs outside watching the world go by, and as we walked past, children stuck put their heads to get a look at this strange sight: foreigners! Ãlvareas is well off the tourist trail, so we are seeing life in the Amazon as it really is.

  

It sounds idyllic, and while the pace of life is attractively slow here, and the sense of community is tangible, life is often hard here.

One of the first homes we visited was of a wood-worker who is a member of the evangelical church here. He showed us his workshop and also both his hands: he has lost a thumb, and two half fingers as a result of his trade.

 

Drugs is also a growing issue here, especially cocaine, because of it's proximity to the Columbian border.

In reality Ãlvaraes is really no different to any other community on earth: look beneath the surface and what you discover doesn't always match up.  

However in the midst of some tough stories, there are some jewels.

We met a deacon from church, who bakes bread for a living. His wife is at the seminary this month and only comes back on Sundays. He is so delighted that she is studying and growing in her faith.

  

We also popped in to see two older Christians, both are in their 70s and have known hardship in their lives, but were full of joy! They take weekly registers of who comes to Sunday services here (!) and he is one of the top attendees.

When we arrived the lady was preparing pacu fish for the evening dinner. When she opened her fridge I noticed an unusual meat in it. She proudly took it out to show me: alligator tail! She has promised to cook some for me when we visit her house for dinner tomorrow night!

There is apparently never a food problem in the Amazon. No one goes hungry, even the poorest people, because there is always fresh fruit to be picked and fresh fish to be caught.

 

The older man was very keen to show us the area of jungle he farms in order to make fanofa. Fanofa is the 'tasty sand' I've mentioned in a previous blog post.

 

So after a short taxi ride, we followed him as he left the road and headed into the jungle.

On the way to his patch we spotted some wild monkeys leaping from tree to tree. Sadly these were too difficult to catch on camera, but it was amazing to catch glimpses of them.   

He showed us the plants that are harvested to made fanofa. Then he showed us the huge pans in which the fanofa is tossed and toasted.

  

After a further walk we reached a popular beauty spot for locals. A cafe served cool drinks next to a sandy lagoon which is used for swimming. For a few minutes we cooled down: it was bliss!

  

When we got back into Ãlvaraes we changed and went to the evangelical church for their evening prayer meeting. This was the church that Andrew was Pastor of for 3 years when he and his family lived in Ãlvaraes. Pastor Deija is now continuing the work.

We had met Pastor Deija during the day, but it was great to properly talk with him. He is a graduate of the seminary in Tefé and his wife is doing the course now. Both are in their late 20s and have known great suffering. Andrew married them when he was Pstor here. However they lost their first child when he was just 15 days old and have not been able to have any children since.

However Deija sees God's hand in all that happened, because his baby son's death was the catalyst for his call to ministry. He now feels he is equipped to pastor others who are struggling with trials in their lives.

It must have been so encouraging for Andrew to see the church growing and going on strong. While he and his family moved to Manaus a number of years ago, others have taken over the work in Ãlvaraes and continuing to build the church - sometimes quite literally!

Pastor Deija building a new wall at the church

The Evngelical Church in Tefé

(Next week: Watch out for an extended video interview with Pastor João, Senior Pastor of Dom Pedro Church in Manaus. The story of the church and their vision is inspirational!)

   

   

 

   

Brazil: Story of the Final Few Days

The 'Teatro Amazonas' Opera House in Manaus

 

I thought it was about time that I updated the blog with the story of Peter's final few days in Brazil. He is now home and the doctors here are really pleased with the surgery he had done. He is well on the road to recovery.

As you would expect, the days I missed were as action-packed and frustrating as the ones before it!

I left Brazil on the Saturday. On the Sunday morning, in one of the rare moments when Peter was on his own, a nurse brought him a form in Portuguese that she asked him to sign. Assuming it was something to do with his treatment, Peter signed it and was then left alone.

What Peter didn't know was that he had unwittingly signed his own discharge papers.

Perhaps realising that their patient hadn't grasped what he'd signed, one of the nurses tracked down an English speaker in the hospital and returned that afternoon with a piece of paper on which - to Peter's horror - was printed in bold capital letters the following message:

'YOU ARE FINISHED. PLEASE LEAVE'

By this point Peter hadn't even got out of bed, so the news that he had to leave the hospital was unsettling to say the least!

However at that very moment Pamela - the headteacher of the International School in Manaus (and the lady who had come up with the money to pay for our emergency flight out of Tefé) turned up with her Brazilian husband.

They clarified that Peter needed to leave that afternoon and were able to arange for some extra pain relief to help the transition. Brad and Melissa offered to put Peter up in their guest apartment and nurse him until he was ready to travel back to the UK. This was yet another example of God's complete control of the situation: Melissa is not only a qualified nurse, she had a hip replacement last year and so knew EXACTLY how to care for Peter!

The journey from the hospital bed to the car was complicated by the fact that hospitals in Brazil don't give walking aids to people in Peter's condition. However Pamela's husband seemed to know exactly where he could buy something (on a Sunday aftenoon!). Seeing  a gap in the market, an entreprenuerial Brazilian man had set up a small shop next to the hospital selling home-made zimmer frames!

And so Peter relocated to Brad and Melissa's guest apartment and  'Team Coggins' entered phase 2: getting Peter fit to fly.

At this point I'm going to let Andie - one of the missionaries who helped look after Peter when I had gone - finish off by recounting the adventures of the last few days in Brazil...

We were told that we had to get Peter’s post-op haemoglobin count, so that the airline (TAM) would allow him to fly.  So the first job was to track down a nurse to come out and draw blood. We then had to pick the results up from the clinic.

 

Then we had to track down a doctor to give Peter his ‘fit to fly’ document, which took a couple of visits to the hospital and much perseverance! The doctors who had treated Peter weren’t there when we visited and nobody would give us a document saying he could fly.

 

Just when we felt the situation was hopeless who should walk around the corner but the lovely lady who was Assistant to the Director of the hospital. She was the same lady who had visited Peter to apologise when his operation had had to be cancelled.

 

She came right up to us, grabbed me by the hand, and said ‘Is there anything I can help you with?’!!

 

We explained everything and she got straight on the phone and had a Doctor come down to see us. He wasn’t keen to write the ‘fit to fly’ document as he might have been liable if something had happened.  The hospital policy was to wait 10 days after surgery before a patient could fly, but amazingly Melissa had all Peter’s vital stats with her. She'd been keeping a record of them and she explained that she was a qualified nurse, Peter was mobile, she had been doing physio with him every day, and that he wasn't taking any medication apart from his current pain killers and had no heart issues.

 

It was great Melissa was there and had the presence of mind to have  Peter’s records with her. She convinced the doctor that Peter would be fine. So we left the hospital rejoicing, with Peter’s fit to fly document.

 

The next challenge was convincing the airline to let Peter fly!

 

Peter Milsom – recently retired Director of UFM (the mission agency connected to much of what we went to see) – just happened to be visiting some missionaries in Sao Paulo. His background meant that he had extensive experience not just of Brazil, but of how to deal with airline beauracracy. He had agreed to accompany Peter back to the UK and arrived in Manaus on Tuesday morning.

He was to prove to be another important component in God’s plan to get Peter home.

 

The crunch day was Wednesday when two suitable flights – from Manaus to Sao Paulo and then Sao Paulo to Heathrow - were identified.  

 

The negotiations during the last two or three hours before the flight were frantic!

 

We were able to get clearance from TAM in Manaus, but not in Sao Paulo for the second flight back to the UK.

 

The insurance company then said Peter couldn’t fly because they needed two more hours in Sao Paulo to examine the medical documents (at this point the flight was leaving in 2½ hours!). They also said that the next available seats were on Saturday!

 

I told Peter Milsom that the flights were off, but he rang the insurance company and somehow managed to get them to agree to let him pay for the tickets on the understanding that medical clearance hadn't been given in Sao Paulo. He felt confident he could negotiate this when they arrived in Sao Paulo. (He said this in a quietly confident 007 kind of way!)

 

It was then action stations to get everyone packed and to the airport in time for the flight. Pastor João, the Senior Pastor from Dom Pedro, picked Peter up and I drove Peter Milsom back to his hotel to get his stuff.

 

We even had time at the airport for a quick photo!

 

Team Coggins! From left:Peter Milsom, Andie, Pastor João and Brad

 

All things considered, Peter was an excellent patient in a foreign country, without any family, in a strange hospital. He did so well getting through each day graciously with his sense of humour intact.

 

We have seen God provide around every twist and turn and it’s been thrilling to be involved in his work. It was a real blessing to be able to help. We have seen on many occasions this last week God’s bottomless store of grace.

(Next week: 'Brazil: the lost blog' - in all the excitement of Peter's accident I didn't include a report on our only day in Ãlvareas - the small village we visited where Peter had his fall. We met some lovely people there and very nearly got to eat an alligator!)

Brazil: Homeward Bound

Tonight I am packing to come home.

This is because Peter had his op this morning and is now in recovery mode.

The day started early at 6am, as every day has this week. Jason and Andrea picked me up from my digs in the guest apartment attached to Brad and Melissa's house. We arrived at the hospital to relieve Brad Jr who had spent the night sleeping in Peter's room. He told us Peter had been taken down to surgery at 6.30am.

We managed to find the corridor outside the operating theatre. Although we weren't allowed to get close, he was able to wave at us as he waited to be wheeled in.

We grabbed a coffee from the hospital cafe and then returned to the operating theatre corridor.

A nurse informed us that Peter had gone into surgery and that it would be several hours before we could see him again.

We therefore decided to get a bit of much needed fresh air and pop into the centre of Manaus to see the local artisans market and pick up a few souveneirs.

Our hearts were with Peter, so we got back to the hospital about the time we'd been told we might be able to see him.

As we arrived at the operating theatre corridor we saw the apparatus that had been used to keep Peter's leg in traction on the floor outside (see photo at the top of this post). We cheered for joy!

It was all the confirmation we needed that the op had been a success. A friendly nurse who had been helping with the operation confirmed that it had 'gone perfectly'.

We decided the most important thing was for Peter to have a translator and so Jason volunteed to scrub up and don a gown and funny hat to see Peter in post-op.

After an x-ray to confirm the success of the operation, Peter was wheeled upstairs to his old room and attended to by some really helpful nurses.

The sense of relief was palpable.

I felt like a burden had been lifted from my shoulders. There were smiles all round. We gathered around Peter's bed and gave thanks to God together.

To celebrate, Peter opened a packet of chocolate buttons we had been saving for the occasion.

6 days after he fell getting out of the shower at Ãlvaraes, Peter is now on the road to recovery.

After discussing it with Peter, I have therefore rescheduled my original return flights and will return to the UK tomorrow.

Part of the reason for this is because it has been almost impossible to arrange new or extended travel insurance for me now that we are in Brazil and have gone beyond our original return date.

However Peter also has a superb support network of Portuguese-speaking friends here now. Andrea and Jason, Brad and Melissa, supported by the leadership at Dom Pedro church, have been wonderful and have assured me that they will look after him when I go.

There are willing volunteers lined up to accompany Peter back to the UK, and Global Response (the medical insurance company) have assured me that they will fly Peter back business class with wheelchair transfers and transport to and from the airports at either end.

I am therefore packing with a great sense of excitement tonight.

'Home' is a wonderful word. I am really looking forward to seeing Carolyn and the children again. They have been incredibly selfless and understanding while I have been away, but I am conscious that the stress of the last few days and the uncertainty surrounding my return has not been easy for them. I'm looking forward to a few hugs!

But the book will only be closed on this trip when Peter is safely home as well.

It will be much easier for me to coordinate that from the UK. I will continue to liaise with Global Response and the hope is that he will be ready to travel by the middle of next week.

Thank you for your prayers, keep praying!

Brazil: Singing in the Pain

The view from Peter's window on the 5th floor.

You really couldn't make it up.

At 6.30am Peter was prepped for surgery and wheeled down to wait in the corridor outside the operating theatre.

There were 3 other people in line in front of him for a similar op, involving inserting pins into broken bones.

On person number 3 the tool they needed in order to do this broke.

And so after 5 hours of waiting, Peter was wheeled back up to his room.

We immediately hit the phones, calling those we knew could influence things and get in contact with the Secretary of Health. Pastor Paulo from Dom Pedro came to visit and he started making calls as well.

And then we settled down to wait.

You would think that this would have made for a bleak afternoon, but quite the opposite was true. I don't think we have laughed more on any previous day in Brazil than we have today.

When we were in Tefè Peter and I got to know Jason and Andrea Murfitt and their 9 year old daughter Lucy.

Jason works among the Indian tribes further up the Amazon. He travels to the most remote places in order to help these tribes and tell them about Jesus. As you can imagine he has some amazing stories!

Jason travelled up the Amazon last week on one of his mission trips, leaving Andrea and Lucy in Tefè staying in the same hotel as us. Andrea came to all our lectures at the seminary and as a result we got to know her well.

They live 3 hours from Manaus, as part of a river community. The only way to get to their house is by canoe. However Lucy attends the International School in the city two days per week and so they also have a base here.

When they heard what had happenned to Peter, they immediately offered to come and stay in Manaus and help translate. In the event that I returned home earlier than Peter, Andrea also offered to accompany him back to the UK because it would also enable her to catch up with her family.

They are a wonderfully servant-hearted couple who are completely committed to sharing Jesus. I have lost count of the number of hospital staff Jason has given gospel booklets to while we have been here. He even ended up speaking with the gang members in Peter's old ward. He is a natural evangelist.

As a result they are also great company. I am convinced that to be a successful missionary you've got to have a really healthy sense of humour.

Those of you who know Peter will know that he also has a really good sense of humour. As a result, there were times this afternoon when we were almost doubled over with laughter!

One particular source of hilarity was the symbol on the side of the cleaner's bucket:

Our spirits were lifted even further when a very well dressed English speaking Brazilian lady appeared to offer the sincere apologies of the Director of the Hospital that Peter's op had not happened this morning. We were assured that the Secretary of Health and the Director of the Hospital were now personally involved and that a replacement tool would be delivered to the hospital tomorrow morning. She also assured us that Peter was now first in line to be operated on tomorrow.

Brother Silvio (I discovered today that he isn't actually a pastor in the church, although he should be!) had been at work behind the scenes again.

Jason, Silvio and me

Later in the day Peter had a visit from two Christian doctors who had heard he was in hospital and wanted to convey their concern for him.

One of these is the daughter of a Northern Irish missionary called Fred Orr who is something of a legend in Manaus. He arrived in the Amazon in 1954 with his new bride. However after eating contaminated meat on the journey upriver, his wife died and so the very first thing he did when he set foot on Amazonas soil was to bury his wife.

He later married a Brazilian lady and they had children. When he died a few years ago he left a vibrant church led by a Brazilian pastor, a seminary for training pastors, and a powerful testimony to God's grace.

On Tuesday night Andrew and I spoke at the midweek meeting at Fred Orr's old church. We met his daughter Florence there, who is a doctor at the hospital. She had heard that the op had not gone ahead as planned and had come to see how she could help. Peter was told he could ask for any food he wanted for dinner and he would be given it.

This marked a good end to a mixed day.

While the fat lady may not have sung today, our big God proved once again that he is faithful.

Accepting and joyfully submitting to God's will in our lives is often the hardest thing to do. However accept and submit to him we must, because this is the only way to know peace of heart. Peter has been given grace to do that with joy today.

We covet your continued prayers. Be assured that they are being answered: not always in the way we would choose, but always in the way that is best.

We ended the day by praying together and reading Zephaniah 3:17, something we had felt today together:

'The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.'