Radio Speak

Tuesday morning we loaded up 5 four wheel drive vehicles and drove to a little village about 20 minutes away from the ranch. The trip was beautiful! The roads were muddy from the rain the night before, but nothing the 4x4s couldn't handle. As we drove through little streams and up mountain sides, I thought to myself, "It would be so peaceful to live out here."

We arrived at the school in Guanijiquil (pronounced wanna-he-kill)and began to set up for the medical brigade. Twenty or so people were were milling about, waiting for our arrival, and sixty or so more people started to show up when they saw the vehicles pass by.

We got settled in rather quickly and started to see patients right off the bat. We took a break around noon and ate some lunch. As the clock neared 2 pm it started to sprinkle. As I watched the dark clouds move in, I was reminded of Jarrod's parting words, "If it starts to rain, you better get out of there quick or you are going to be stuck!" Well we started to see patients more quickly, but I reasoned that it was ONLY sprinkling, not raining, so we would probably be ok to leave a little late.

After 30 minutes of sprinkling the rain turned into a downpour. Within minutes our cars were in, what looked to be, Lake Guanijiquil! As we started to load up our equipment and supplies it started to rain even harder! We waded out to the cars and loaded them up, waved goodbye to the sweet people of Guanijiquil and drove as quickly as Low 4 will permit. We all slipped around a bit, and dug some deep ruts in the mud, but were making it out slowly. As we crossed stream number one I breathed a sigh of relief. One down, two to go. As we went through stream number two I was thankful to have made it back to the ranch property, but began to get apprehensive about crossing stream number three.

I was driving the second car in our caravan and as we neared stream number three I knew we were done for! Stream number three had now turned into a river. Not just any river, but a raging river! As I watched a tree (trunk, roots and all) being carried down the muddy white water of "stream" number three I knew there was NO chance of crossing it. I reached for my cell phone to reluctantly alert Jarrod of our status, only to find it without a signal!

Fortunately, the engineering dept of Lipscomb University had just been down three weeks before to install a radio communications system. The car that I just happended to be driving that day had been one of the lucky ones outfitted with a mobile unit. I picked up the radio and began to talk. Having never used a radio before, I had no idea what to say... I just started saying names to see if anyone was there. Finally Jarrod answered and came down to check out the situation. As I was becoming more and more comfortable communicating via radio I began to feel the inner spy in me escape. I found myself saying things like, "Copy that" and "10-4." If only I had a radio name... After pointing out that he had warned us, Jarrod eventually decided that the the river was in fact too high to cross. We were instructed to back the cars up onto the high bank and too cross the river on the suspension foot bridge.

We ended up having to leave the cars there over night as we waited for the river to come down, but thanks to the awesome radio system we didn't have to stay the night with the cars!

I have now altered my view of Guanijiquil, yes it would be nice to live in a place that is so beautiful and peaceful, but I think I will have to find one that doesn't necesitate three stream crossings to get there!

Welcome to the rainy season folks!