Dear Friends,

Last week, we worked the usual Monday morning at Centro de Salud. I gave 35 consults and Prairie's pharmacy served even more. We were just leaving to run our other errands, when we met up with Sor Leonarda and a gaggle of children. She said that she was looking for me. She had 13 kids who needed consults.

We had seen a lot of people with high fevers. I suspected that we were having an influenza epidemic. It looks a lot like dengue, but the eyes don't hurt and, thank God, it doesn't last as long (two weeks). Well, of course, I couldn't turn down our children.

Sor Leonarda loaned Prairie a teenage girl to help her with errands. I reminded her that we go "two by two" after all. We figure if it was good enough for the Master sending out the disciples, it's good enough for us. OK, easily done.

I returned to Centro de Salud, figuring that if Sor doesn't count as a Sor to be my companion, who would? In a few minutes, she showed up with 19 kids to be seen. I started registering them, then switched that task to a bright 14-year-old boy. I began seeing kids.

Sor brought a box of donated medicines. Since they all had English writing on them, they were of no use to her. But they were very useful. We had been all out of cough and runny nose medicines. Most of her kids had coughs and runny noses. One had lobar pneumonia, one had asthma, but most had the crud. Half a dozen had vomiting and diarrhea. One was very sick without good explanation. We could treat them with medicines from her box, medicines from our pharmacy, and two presciptions that she could have filled the next day.

Sor has 50 children. The 18 boys all sleep in the same room. Do we think that any of them will escape this respiratory crud?

Sor knows almost nothing about children. She is eager to learn and demonstrated how well she listened in the last consult with her new plan to de-worm the kids every 3 months. She is a living, breathing example of the old adage: "God doesn't call the qualified; God qualifies the called."

One of the fabulous things that she does because of her "ignorance" about children is that she treats them like adults in some of the best ways, like assuming that they can remember something important, that their observations and opinions are important. Sor's training is in economics, and her spiritual formation, monastic. I am so grateful to get to work with her from time to time. She is an encouragement. She doesn't need to say or do anything to be an encouragement; her life is an encouragement.

It was a profound spiritual practice to do those few hours of medical consults for her kids. Most are orphans, but some are abandoned. Many have had horrible experiences before coming to her. She talks about repairing the irreparable. Eyes wide open. I can't explain the powerful feelings that a pediatrician has while weighing a 38-pound 8-year-old child.

Prairie and her helper finished the errands and returned to Centro de Salud, filling prescriptions and administering nebulizer treatments to the asthmatic. We left about 4 pm. Just enough time to get home before dark. We caught a jalon and there was still enough light for us to do afternoon prayers outside before making our dinner. A very successful day, we thought. I was tired.

Maybe you will say a little prayer for Sor Leonarda and our children this week.

Be well,

Beth