HVO Story of the Month - May 2007

By Florence Judd

Catching roosters in the Administrator's office is not an everyday occurrence in my life but it did happen recently.

Arthur passed the nurses' station looking nothing like his placid self. When asked the reason he said someone had given him a gift of a rooster and a hen and that the rooster was loose in his office and that he needed someone to catch it before it made more mess in the place. I valiantly offered but also remembered back to when our rooster in Australia had attacked my young daughter.

On the way to carry out the deed I saw Adela, the hospital's Social Worker, and told her to come along and help. In minutes the rooster was caught, but he and his mate did not end up as dinner on the Administrator's table that day. Before we could say "Jack Robinson," someone had bought the pair for $15 the pair. The money was deposited into the hospital's Charity Fund.

There are many ways in which a patient can pay their hospital bill at Vozandes-Shell. In the old days, Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) would bring in whole pigs' carcasses from our patients who had returned to their jungle homes. These carcasses would be butchered in a special area behind the hospital equipped with scales, saws, machetes, etc. Or we would be sent huge catfish, some well over a meter long, or smoked monkeys. The days of butchering meat and selling it for patients' bills have gone and now we mostly just accept live chickens or fruits and vegetables.

A few weeks' ago a man came in from the jungle with 200 pounds of peanuts and a very sick heart - he needed a pacemaker fast. We arranged the appointment in Quito, gave the man the money he needed and sent him on his way. The kitchen staff quickly had the peanuts weighed into two- and five-pound bags and on a table in outpatients. Some of the money given to the man was soon recouped as patients and missionaries alike bought the nuts. Next day, much to the dismay of people who still wanted to buy, not a peanut was left in the hospital.

Editor's note: a special thank you to those of you who generously give to the hospital's charity fund. You are helping us provide medical services to those who otherwise couldn't receive it.