Working daily in the Hospital Del Sureste in the town of Villahermosa, Southern Mexico, we slowly learned the language. We worked very hard putting in 70-88 hours of nursing into each week. Living right in the hospital, we really never could rest unless we drove out of the city in our own car and got a motel. Since were were volunteer workers, we did not have the luxury of such rest. However when any birthday money gifts came from our parents, that is just what we did. We had about 5 of these pleasant experiences which we will never forget.  How we longed to be alone. We were tired of our "bedroom" door opening at all hours day or night and curious eyes watching us in our little hospital beds. We felt like caged birds and were so much in need of a chance to fly away and rest.

The rustic little motels out by Palanque were our "resort". We would go there to rest even if we had only 12 hours. It is a pity we did not have more money and could have done this more. We could have given even more to the hospital if we had been refreshed. They required 6 days a week of work from us.  Funny thing, our exhaustion lifted as soon as we got away. We chased blue shiny Morpho butterflies, and would look for moths and beetles at midnight like little children starved for a chance to play.  We found the street lamps attracted many interesting creatures from the jungles. Being a tourist spot, no one really stared at our white skin. We just got lost in the beauties of the jungle and savored every minute of our time alone. We also used every drop of hot water in the shower for we missed that so much while getting only cold water at the hospital for bathing.

I will never forget the fun we had together discovering God's creation like two excited little kids. The flowers were such a delight to me. I loved the orchids growing naturally. One time we even got away up above Linda Vista into the rain forest for a Sabbath. WE enjoyed the Chamula Indian church and Sabbath school with Mrs. Adams. The little children were a delight to watch and listen to them sing. One little boy was translating from the Spanish into the local dialect "Sitzu". We met some really special student missionaries up there. Gary Lewis, Roger Wooden, and Ingrid Hann. Our hearts were instant brothers and sisters at first sight. WE felt such great soothing of our exhausted nerves. We all loved mission work yet loved to share our struggles in culture differences. We all loved to hear English for a change, and we loved nature. We made a great team for exploring the jungle above Linda Vista.   WE stayed over night in the home of one of the teachers at Linda Vista. The evening rain pounded on the tin roof. When I went to use the toilet, I screamed for a huge crab was waiting in the bowl with his pinchers up in the air. It brought laughter from the hosts for it was a common occurrence and was funny it brought such a reaction out of me.  I discovered one's attitude makes the difference in how you survive. After such a great time of 12-36 hours, we went back to the hospital with our love cups filled and ready to give loving health care again.

Back at the hospital one day I was terrified to see that my husband did not wake up. He was babbling strange things. I felt his forehead and thought over what could possibly be the problem. His fever did not go away with my care. It got worse. While I was sobbing and so frightened that my big tall precious husband was so sick, our friends Nicko and Leony came to check on us. Immediately she flew into action. She ran for her blood drawing kit. She did blood cultures and exams under the microscope. She came back with Dr. Martinez. He was such a Godly doctor. How he loved us. He told me that Ron had typhoid. Having never seen a case of typhoid in my nursing I opened up the books to study about it. All I saw made me cry. I was so worried my fun loving husband with the fantastic deep base singing voice would never wake up. He would never play the guitar and sing to me again. It said that the intestines would perforate. That is all I can remember about the complications. Dr. Martinez came with very strong antibiotics and the treatment began. I wondered how it could be typhoid when we had had the first two of a series of 3 vaccines before departure. Well, he responded slowly and after days and much weight loss, he pulled through just fine. It took a long time to get his strength back because black beans was all we had to eat three times a day.

Never again to this day will he accept black beans as food. For fun, I have bought a few and teased him that I was going to cook up a nice stew for old times sake. He always gives his funny old groan when he even hears the words "black beans".