Return to the Village

We started off Sunday morning with a plan to pick up Pawn's grandmother from the hospital, take her back to her village, and return in time for church services. It sounded like a really good plan, but our plans don't always turn out the way we think they will.

When we arrived at the hospital, we found out they wanted to check her blood one more time to make sure she didn't need any more. So we picked up some breakfast from the 7-11 and went home to wait for church services.

After church services and lunch we went to pick up Pawn's grandmother. We decided to take her to a private hospital to get a second opinion before we left the city since the government hospital basically said the family could bring her in in a few days to have more fluid removed. The second doctor prescribed some medication and also gave her a shot to help with the fluid retention. He thought the medicine from the hospital was not getting the expected results. All of this for about $16 was not too bad and worth every penny to us.

Here are some pics from our return to the village.

Pawn and her grandmother--They kept trying to get her to smile at Rusty all day. She did one time in the hospital.

When people found out that we were there and wanted to take some pictures of Pawn and her family, the women went to put on their traditional dress. I really like the imagination and creativity the women put into their blouses. They added their own touches of femininity and originality.

This village also has a church. I thought you might like to see a building in a village that's somewhere in between a typical village on the mountain and a small town. This village had concrete roads, electricity, city water, and more concrete houses than some we've visited.I'm guessing this lady was walking back from or going to work somewhere.
The fields and mountains are some of my favorite landscapes anywhere. This terraced land was absolutely beautiful, and the poor air quality at least makes for pretty sunsets.
These little yellow signs can be seen high on trees and electric poles all across the country. We've seen them in just about every part we've been to it seems. They always say something about Jesus being the way, everyone being a sinner, believing in heaven, etc. I've heard different stories about they got there. I've never actually heard anyone claiming credit for them.
We also saw a tobacco field. It made us think of our good friends from Brazil who are here because of the tobacco companies. He works for an American tobacco company here and does a lot of traveling in SEA.

As we continued home, we stopped at a roadside market to pick up some supper and a little bit of dessert. It was a very tiring day but a good opportunity to serve Pawn and her family and to be able to meet more of her aunts and cousins.

The latest report is that her grandmother is feeling some better although she doesn't seem to remember much about last weekend. I'm sure she was feeling pretty poorly and that doesn't help.