by Jacque Hill-Hulslander, RN, PhD- Medical Team
Gale Hulslander - Construction Crew
Our Joliet Diocesan Mission trip, April 1-15, 2000, to
Sucre, Bolivia, was a first time experience for both of us and the first
time a husband and wife went together with one on the Medical Team and
the other with the Construction Crew. We attended all the preparation
meetings, the Commissioning Ceremony with Bishop Imesch, and the packing
day, making it all so much a part of our sharing as husband wife.
The trips to and from these preparation times were filled with the voicing
of endless anxieties of anticipated roles and the excitement of meeting
Mission members. Everything seemed so planned and organized and “Here
We Are, Lord” was the theme in our prayers.
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Each day started with 7am Mass, side by side, one dressed ready to ‘move the Andes’ and the other in chinos’n shirt ready to change into scrubs at the new Cristo de las Americas Hospital. |
Then the day of departure came with the flights of our South American
adventure. Once we arrived at Hostel Sucre, we enjoyed some refreshments,
then we were off for our first Mass in Sucre. It was held in a beautiful
outdoor Grotto. What an experience to kneel on wooden kneelers beside
your spouse with the trees gently blowing, the stars beginning to twinkle,
and your heart filled with all the “newness” of what has taken place and
what is yet to come, plus receive communion together! We even sang
“Here I Am, Lord!”
Each day started with 7am Mass, side by side, one dressed ready to ‘move the Andes’ and the other in chinos’n shirt ready to change into scrubs at the new Cristo de las Americas Hospital. Breakfast, then quick kisses and exchanges of “Thanks for doing what you are going to do.” One would board a city bus with the Construction Crew to the barrios of the Andes and the other would walk 10 minutes to the hospital with another nurse. Late evening during dinner, the teams shared tables at La Huerta restaurant to hear about the day’s experiences. We got to know each Mission member and they got to know each Mission member and they got to Jacque and Gale. At night, on the hotel rooftop patio, we’d be with other Mission members pointing into the Southern sky to find the Milky Way, but we’d be holding hands as we viewed the heavens. When the Construction Crew invited “Gale’s wife, the Nurse” for pizza, they heard about the miracles that took place in surgery and post-anesthesia by listening to the highlights of various Medical Team members’ expertise. Before turning out the light each night in our room, we would share the day. Sometimes we cried about the wonderful people we had met each day and how they impacted our hearts and awakened our spirit. We talked about a new Bolvian Nurse graduate who told Jacque, in Spanish, not to worry, that the patients were safe in the older style hospital beds with no side rails, because these patients were “en la manas de la angeles” (in the hands of the angels.” We marveled at how hard the young, the retired, the men and the women worked to move rocks, wheel the heavy wheelbarrows, carry bricks...and did it all together. We fondly described how Sister Elizabeth worked physically in the Andes, and would go to the hospital to say the “Our Father” with patients waiting for surgery. These and so many more memories of the Sucre Mission are forever panted deep in our hearts and will be eternally a part of our sprits. Gracias and Amen. |