Hello and Goodbye Guadeloupe

From North Carolina's Autumn Leaves to the Blue Caribbean's Swaying  Trees 

We were unexpectedly home for three months from our mission, during which time Elder Booth 'got' to have lots and lots of medical tests (including a late night visit to the ER) to find out why he had all the symptoms of a heart attack and blacked-out while we were serving on the island of Saint Vincent back in late July.  The tests all came back negative... apparently...he is just fine!  The  next thing we knew, we were back at our mission office in Barbados.  We had just enough time to take a photo of the beach from our overnight hotel,  and then we returned to the airport for our flight to Guadeloupe.

A Happy Three Months

                                     

In spite of the doctor appointments and worrying about them each week, we had a wonderful time being in our own home where our youngest daughter, her husband, and excrutiatingly cute grand daughter are living while we are on our mission.  Sadie Mai just celebrated her six month birthday. 

She and I hung out A LOT together.  She would only nap if she was held and rocked. ( I confess I might have had a tiny bit to do with that.) We were also  able to go  to NY for a quick visit to see our eldest daughter, her husband, and excrutiatingly cute twin grand daughters there, who just turned one.

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Getting Back to Guadeloupe 

I have to confess that it was a struggle the first week, getting back into the senior couple missionary groove.  This was the third time to start this mission and I think I was suffering from reverse reverse culture shock - sort of an emotional whiplash.  Once we were back working with our island missionaries, though, things started to click.  As always, there was lots of paperwork to do- there had been a few car accidents to get updated on, bikes stolen, apartments to open and close, phones that had gone missing, bills to pay, insurance to straighten out, immigration paperwork to complete, receipts to sort through, Elders to drive here and there, and cookies to be made.  Just when we were getting settled in again, our Mission President confirmed we were going to be transferred to another island.  He had indicated, by phone, before we left NC that this might happen.  We were hopeful that it wouldn't, and we are still having a hard time getting our minds around it.  It is unusual for a couple to be transferred.  The island we are going to?  The "scene of the crime" where Wally ended up in the scary hospital... St. Vincent! 

Almost Christmas at the airport in Guadeloupe with our zone leaders

Sometimes, I'm a Matthew 21:29 Kind of Person

I really thought I would never have to set foot on that island again after what happened - and now we are going to spend the rest of our mission there ( almost a year)!  I couldn't hide my disappointment from our mission president.  But, he feels strongly that we need to be in SV.  Of course, after my initial "please no!", I came around.  I  wish I was always a 1 Nephi 3:17 kind of person ( I will go and do... no problem), but sometimes I'm a Matthew 21:29 kind of person.  That's the verse about the son that told his father he didn't want to do what he was asked, but then he did it.  So, it is with a heavy heart ( un cœur brisé) that we bid farewell to Guadeloupe. 

Au revoir to all things French ( this is a grocery store ad for Christmas.) I have managed to handle shopping, conversations with real estate and insurance agents,  phone calls,  discussions with church members, sorting out medical problems with doctors,  teaching on a few occasions with the missionaries, writing letters and emails, and even did a role play at a zone meeting with our Area Seventy ( Elder Gamiette) all  in my four decades old French.  It has been nerve wracking at times - but joyful as well. 

       Au revoir to our Guadeloupian church members ( this is President Bargot of Lamentin Branch)

Au revoir Guadeloupian friends and food

 Au revoir to our apartment 

Au revoir to our volcano, palm trees, and banana trees

( Well, technically they have all this on St Vincent, but still...)

Au revoir to my best friend here.

Time to make new memories on St. Vincent!    

Hello and Goodbye Guadeloupe

From North Carolina's Autumn Leaves to the Blue Caribbean's Swaying  Trees 

We were unexpectedly home for three months from our mission, during which time Elder Booth 'got' to have lots and lots of medical tests (including a late night visit to the ER) to find out why he had all the symptoms of a heart attack and blacked-out while we were serving on the island of Saint Vincent back in late July.  The tests all came back negative... apparently...he is just fine!  The  next thing we knew, we were back at our mission office in Barbados.  We had just enough time to take a photo of the beach from our overnight hotel,  and then we returned to the airport for our flight to Guadeloupe.

A Happy Three Months

                                     

In spite of the doctor appointments and worrying about them each week, we had a wonderful time being in our own home where our youngest daughter, her husband, and excrutiatingly cute grand daughter are living while we are on our mission.  Sadie Mai just celebrated her six month birthday. 

She and I hung out A LOT together.  She would only nap if she was held and rocked. ( I confess I might have had a tiny bit to do with that.) We were also  able to go  to NY for a quick visit to see our eldest daughter, her husband, and excrutiatingly cute twin grand daughters there, who just turned one

. 

Getting Back to Guadeloupe 

I have to confess that it was a struggle the first week, getting back into the senior couple missionary groove.  This was the third time to start this mission and I think I was suffering from reverse reverse culture shock - sort of an emotional whiplash.  Once we were back working with our island missionaries, though, things started to click.  As always, there was lots of paperwork to do- there had been a few car accidents to get updated on, bikes stolen, apartments to open and close, phones that had gone missing, bills to pay, insurance to straighten out, immigration paperwork to complete, receipts to sort through, Elders to drive here and there, and cookies to be made.  Just when we were getting settled in again, our Mission President confirmed we were going to be transferred to another island.  He had indicated, by phone, before we left NC that this might happen.  We were hopeful that it wouldn't, and we are still having a hard time getting our minds around it.  It is unusual for a couple to be transferred.  The island we are going to?  The "scene of the crime" where Wally ended up in the scary hospital... St. Vincent! 

Almost Christmas at the airport with our zone leaders

Sometimes, I'm a Matthew 21:29 Kind of Person

I really thought I would never have to set foot on that island again after what happened - and now we are going to spend the rest of our mission there ( almost a year)!  I couldn't hide my disappointment from our mission president.  But, he feels strongly that we need to be in SV.  Of course, after my initial "please no!", I came around.  I  wish I was always a 1 Nephi 3:17 kind of person ( I will go and do... no problem), but sometimes I'm a Matthew 21:29 kind of person.  That's the verse about the son that told his father he didn't want to do what he was asked, but then he did it.  So, it is with a heavy heart ( un cœur brisé) that we bid farewell to Guadeloupe. 

Au revoir to all things French ( this is a grocery store ad for Christmas.) I have managed to handle shopping, conversations with real estate and insurance agents,  phone calls,  discussions with church members, sorting out medical problems with doctors,  teaching on a few occasions with the missionaries, writing letters and emails, and even did a role play at a zone meeting with our Area Seventy ( Elder Gamiette) all  in my four decades old French.  It has been nerve wracking at times - but joyful as well. 

       Au revoir to our Guadeloupian church members ( this is President Bargot of Lamentin Branch)

Au revoir Guadeloupian friends and food

 Au revoir to our apartment 

Au revoir to our volcano, palm trees, and banana trees

( Well, technically they have all this on St Vincent, but still...)

Au revoir to my best friend here.

Time to make new memories on St. Vincent!    

Island Hopping - Perhaps A Bit Too Much

After Puerto Rico to Guadeloupe to Martinique to a stop in Saint Lucia and on to Saint Vincent- all  in four days, we were ready to stay put for a week, even if it was in Saint Vincent during the beginning of their Carnival or Vincy Mas as they call it. ( Photo of Saint Lucia)

We thought all Carnival celebrations were held in the Spring as in New Orleans, Louisiana USA - we were wrong.  That's when Guadeloupe holds  their party also ( these things go on for two to three weeks)  but we came to learn that each island in the Caribbean has their own timing for the event which goes on throughout the year.  Thus we learned that we had arrived at the beginning of Carnival 

( a nice name for a pure celebration of sin and debauchery) in Saint Vincent  at the end of June.  We knew something was up when we entered their little airport and saw hanging on the walls a variety of headless half naked mannequins in feathers and rhinestones.  In spite of all that,  we were able to get much of our work done and the missionaries prepared to hunker down in their apartments for the duration.

We were no sooner back in Gwada running around doing immigration paperwork for ourselves and the missionaries when one of our Elders ( that is the title of  their calling of proselyting, not necessarily an indication of wisdom - most are only 19 years old) ended up in the island's infamous hospital.  What happened? A man had gone  right up to Elder L and stole his bike.  Our brave little missionary grabbed the fellow who then punched him in the face, which broke Elder L's  jaw and fractured his cheekbone in two places! The crowd grabbed the man and so did the police. Our missionary was put in an ambulance and we caught up with him in the ER where he waited for only seven hours before being admitted.  There was a lot of blood and he was one sad hurting young man.  For the next two days the doctors went back and forth as to what should be done to help him.

It was finally decided that he should get home immediately,  and have the surgery there. I was impressed that the doctors admitted that they did not have the right equipment to perform the operation with the latest techniques as in the USA and Canada.  I was also impressed that I managed to understand two solid days of French medical language. Definitely had some spiritual help on that one. I don't even understand it in English.  Long story short, thankfully our mission medical advisor and her husband flew in that second evening to help us get him out and on his way because while we were upstairs in the hospital, Sister S was downstairs being admitted in the ER for Zika related symptoms.  Sister Clawson (medical) waited downstairs in the ER for Sister S all night long. ( She was in the ER for 26 hours, half paralyzed for part of the time,  and was never admitted).  It was quite late at night when we took Elder Clawson, Elder L, and another missionary who had torn up his knee, all to a hotel for the night before flying them out the next morning - Elder K to Georgia for his knee and Elder L with the Clawsons to Edmonton, Canada. Medical missionaries are amazing.  A couple weeks later, Sister Clawson had to escort Sister S home ...to Tahiti. It was a total of 77 hours of traveling there and back! That was even further than going to Canada.  Talk about dedication.        

     

After that - things were back to normal with trips to the airport ( photo of the crowd watching a TV in the terminal for  the European Cup Semi Fiinals Football match - France won that game) Super!

More trips to CHU to pay hospital bills and do some of our own immigration medical run a around - This is  one of the offices in the hospital we had to go to for TB testing.  It was dripping with black mold and it is the pulmonary unit! It smelled so bad we couldn't breathe in there.

At least the ceiling on Elder L's floor didn't have mold on it - but then,  a lot of it was missing...

We inspected all the apartments and especially liked this bit of ingenuity demonstrated by one set of missionaries.  We had given them money to buy a seat and lid for their toilet ( since there wasn't any)   - but they found the door wouldn't close  once they installed it.  So here was their solution... 

We took care of some apartment insurance issues, attended church in Abymes Branch, went to a Missionary Zone Meeting and got ready to leave for St. Vincent again. ( Weren't we just there??). We got to the airport and found out our flight booking had mysteriously been cancelled so we re-booked for two days later. We left and returned and then we were on our way. One of our goals was to help the missionaries on transfer day there ( those occur every six weeks) but scarcely anyone transferred on that day as the flights in and out of the island were all full due to Carnival!  Some missionaries were scheduled to leave as far out as two weeks later.  Getting around these islands is difficult. 

Sunday morning 5:00 our lives took a sharp turn.  My husband felt pain in his chest, dryness in his throat, and got up to get a glass of water in the kitchen.  Then he felt nauseous, his arms went numb, and he blacked out, hitting the back of his head with a crack on the tile floor.  I jumped out of bed to see what had happened, thinking he knocked over a table, but I found him lying on the floor with a lot of blood behind his head. He was cold and clammy and unresponsive for about 30 seconds.  When he came to, he was disoriented and couldn't move because of dizziness.  I thought he had had a heart attack and started him on baby aspirin which I happened to have with me.  I reluctantly managed to get an ambulance, guessing how bad the hospital would be, but was afraid not to have him go in case there was a recurrence of whatever just happened.  

As bad as the hospital was in Guadeloupe - this one was far worse.  He ended up spending two days in the "Male Ward" a long hallway with spaces on one side for five men in each 'room' and open to an outside area.  No air con, no fan, no screens to keep out mosquitoes, no food, no bathroom ( just cups) - it looked like a bad WWII hospital  movie scene. It was so hot and humid. I don't know how he managed it - but he kept his sanity and quite a few of the staff said they enjoyed the " nice white missionary man" from the States.  

Getting discharged was another story as they only took cash for payment ( 4,000 Eastern Caribbean dollars in this case - about $1,500 US) which we didn't have on us.  No American Express or anything else accepted.  We managed to get it scraped together between the missionaries and the petty cash box and finally made it out.  The next day, we flew to Barbados ( this flight had been booked for some time as we were supposed to attend a Senior Missionaries Conference there) and President Herrington invited us to stay in the mission home on the island.  We were shocked to learn that we had to be sent home and released from our mission.  I guess I thought we would just get this taken care of in Barbados ( we did see a really good doctor there) and pop right back to continue on.  But LDS Church policy is that missionary health comes first.  So until we get this resolved, we can't finish our mission.  (It wasn't a heart attack but some other mild heart issue according to the cardiologist here in NC).  It was a rough week but we got through it with many  thanks to our mission president and his wife for all their help. Perhaps we will submit a request to complete our mission service, once everything is straightened out.  That would be one year. Oh, and we need to return to Guadeloupe to get our clothes and things. We left for home straight from St Vincent. Long day. 

So we are back home ( again).  After the surprise surgery last month and  now this, we are starting to wonder if we are  supposed to be on this mission right now.  There are so many times in life that one feels they are following the Lord's plan but  then everything goes wrong or at least different than expected.  ( i.e. - See all the missionaries' stories above.)  Why is that?  Well, I don't know - I just feel  that God knows and loves each one of us. That is my faith.  I recently recorded  this  story in my journal which has inspirational quotes on each page.  I felt like I received a little message of love when I read the quote on the page on which I concluded my entry. It is by the 19th century English theologian, Charles Spurgeon, " He who counts the stars and calls them by their names is in no danger of forgetting His own children.  He knows your case as thoroughly as if you were the only creature He ever made, or the only saint He ever loved." 

Sometimes Good Things Come In Unexpected Packages

May 18 - June 20, 2016 

We were in our apartment in Guadeloupe on May 18 getting ready to go to bed when we received a Face Time call from our youngest daughter, Whitney, in North Carolina.  We saw her lying in a hospital bed before  she said, " Mom, don't be upset... But I'm in the hospital."  She had been sent there by her doctor after an exam earlier that day which found there were problems with her pregnancy.  She had a due date of June 28.  We talked for awhile and then I could tell she needed a little rest so we hung up and called back about an hour later.  When we did so, the  camera briefly picked up Matt, her husband, in the hospital room and a nurse authoritatively saying, " We have to go right now and deliver this baby."  Matt had to hang up, and minutes later, we received this beautiful but surprising  photo.

Welcome to little Sadie Mai Donohue, their first baby, and our seventh grand child. She was a tiny little thing at 4.5 pounds and she had a few health issues, so she would end up being  in the NICU for 12 days. Whitney's emergency c-section also kept her in the hospital, but she recovered amazingly fast. That everything turned out so well was an incredible blessing. 

Meanwhile back in the Caribbean...

We got our plane tickets home as quickly as possible which meant waiting for five long days to leave. We continued on with all we had to do while keeping an eye on Face Time to know how things were going in NC.  We had a zone conference on the 21st during which Elder Booth was not feeling too well but he recovered Sunday evening. His expression and posture reveal  an attempt to hide his pain.

   On Monday the 23rd we were finally on our way home.  It was only about five hours in the air but 17 hours to actually make it to our house.  During that entire time, Elder Booth was in a lot of pain and had to take a handicap buggy to the last gate in the last airport.  We arrived to our house about midnight and first thing in the morning we went to see our sweet daughter and  grand daughter in the hospital...

The next thing to do was to see our physician about the intestinal pain my husband was experiencing. We did so, and he said we needed to see a surgeon.   We saw the surgeon who said surgery was needed immediately.  It was a strangulated hernia with torn abdominal muscles that had been going on for some time - years in fact. It was dangerously close to being  life-threatening. ( I could say "I told you so" right here, but I will refrain from making comments about men who refuse to listen to their wives about going to the doctor.)  But here comes the good thing in this strangely wrapped package ... apparently after surgery you cannot fly on airplanes for fear of blood clots.  That meant more time with the family, for which I was quite happy!  A Senior Missionary Couple normally only has 10 days to visit home for important family events - we ended up with 23!  We were so happy to have a visit with  our daughter from NY who came down for several days with her seven month old excruciatingly cute twins, Vera and Miriam...

 

I got to go to Whitney's lovely baby shower hosted by friends from church...

Matt's sweet mom came out from Utah, so we got to enjoy a visit with her.  And finally we were there to participate in Sadie's Name and Blessing Ceremony which was held at home instead of at church.  Whitney and Matt invited a few friends over to celebrate with us.   

It was hard to say "goodbye" to family, friends, and home...but it was time to leave our aptly named Blue Ridge mountains and head back to the tropics ( view from one of my morning neighborhood walks)... We still have over a year to serve on our mission. 

Getting back to Guadeloupe took even longer than getting out of Guadeloupe. We left from Asheville  Airport and flew to Charlotte and then to Puerto Rico where we got stuck for two days ( here's the view from our airport hotel window - charming) ...

We left PR for Dominica where passengers got off but we stayed on for the final leg to Guadeloupe.  In fact we were the ONLY ones on the final leg to Guadeloupe.  Here we are enjoying our private airplane tour over the Caribbean Sea. The pilot said we had to stay in the back to help with the weight.

We got back to our little island and in less than 24 hours were on our way to Martinique for an assignment there with our mission president...

Two days later after a brief stop in St. Lucia we were on our way to St. Vincent for a week  to help out the younger missionaries.  

Whenever we travel ( which seems a fair amount lately) and I think about our family and friends, I remember the old John Denver song, with the lyrics,  " The moon and the stars are the same ones you see."  It makes me feel good to know that somehow we are all connected through God's creations...   

 And thank you Lord for good things that sometimes come in unexpected packages.  If Sadie hadn't come when she did, her grandad would not have been in the states to have his surgery, and if he hadn't had his surgery there ( I hate to think what might have happened), we wouldn't have been able to enjoy all the blessings during those two weeks with our family.  Definitely a Proverbs 3:5 month...  "Trust in the Lord with all thy heart and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths..."

 

A Missionary Mother's Day In Guadeloupe

I got to spend most of Mother's Day in a hospital in Guadeloupe. Not to worry -  it was all good, because I truly got to "Mother" on that day.  So here is my Mother's Day Story....It started very early 

( here's  the Traveler Palm beside our apartment building at sunrise.) 

One of our sweet sister missionaries, Sister Cruz, from Nevada, had not been feeling well for several days after having  just been transferred here from the island of Maritinique. She was extremely tired all the time and her legs kept giving out from under her.  Our mission medical advisor   ( on another island - St. Martin) advised her companions by phone ( she is in a threesome) to take her to the Emergency Room at the hospital.  The closest one to them is the largest one on the island, the Centrale Hospitale Universite in Point-a-Pitre.  They sat there with her for NINE hours in a  dimly lit, crowded,  hot and humid waiting room. When we called at 11:30 pm to see what was happening, and were informed she still hadn't been seen yet, we drove across the island to see if our presence might help.  

Just before we arrived, she was finally admitted to be examined. The nurses said that they would keep her there but that nothing would be done or decided until 6:00 am.  Her companions ( two very determined young ladies) wanted to stay with her through the rest of the night, so we went back to our apartment and returned at 6:00 in the morning.  Sisters Covey and Gomez were ready to go home by then!  I brought them  hot breakfast sandwiches, and we took them to their apartment to get some sleep.  We returned to the hospital to stay with Sister Cruz. It took us 30 minutes to find her room.  There was virtually no one there working and the little paper directional signs taped on the walls were peeling off.    We finally found her in her room, sitting up and smiling, though a bit  nervous.

After about an hour, a nurse came and told us we would have to leave.  I told her we could not leave our little missionary  there all alone. I don't know why she changed her attitude, but she agreed to let us sit on the metal chairs outside our patient's door. We sat there for five hours. ( Yep, we missed church.) We had a lot of time to think about the pros and cons of socialized medicine ( we are technically, after all,  in France.)   On the pro side - this was costing us almost nothing.  On the con side - there was black mold dripping from the ceiling . Actually, parts of the ceiling were missing. I won't even describe the bathroom.  

When we arrived at the hospital the night before - we thought it was abandoned. It looked like something from a horror movie.  There were no directional signs, the sidewalks were overgrown with tall weeds, and it was very dark.  We went inside where it was also dark and  no one was to be found.  Miraculously we found the emergency room ( partly by seeing people walking along the side of the road in the dirt to get there.) Of course, things looked much better in the morning...

Mmmm... maybe not so much.  A doctor finally came and decided ( thankfully) that Sister Cruz could leave.  An hour later, we were on our way and we took her back to our apartment for the rest of the day, where she slept for four more hours.

On Mother's Day,  all the missionaries get to 'skype' home ( normally,  they just email every week) so this call was going to be a bit awkward....( Hi Mom, I just got out of the hospital.  Yeah, they think it's the after-effects of the Zika virus I got from a mosquito bite a couple months ago - no problem.)  Of course, our mission president had already let her parents know what was happening.  Still, I felt badly for her mom, and let her know I was trying to partly fill her shoes.  I made her daughter and two young Elders ( I know that's oxymoronic) who  were also here to skype home, a very nice dinner and even baked chocolate cupcakes ( I imported ingredients from our last trip to St, Vincent).

So, Sister Cruz didn't have to be sent home from her mission. She told me she has been wanting to do this since she was sixteen ( she's now the ripe old age of nineteen!)   We have been back to the lovely hospital for more tests, with results pending at the end of the month.  She is back with her intrepid companions and managing okay. Here she is on the left with  Sisters Gomez and Covey. 

 

And I got to be a 'mom' on Mother's Day even though I am far away from our own children and grand children.  I've about decided that this is really what our mission - what everyone's life mission - is all about ... Caring for those who need you most whenever and wherever you might be.  The End.

This post is dedicated to our four children - Wallace, Wendi, Sarah, and Whitney  - who gave their mom and dad permission to run off to the Caribbean to  see if they could help make a little difference in the world. Love you tons, Mom and Dad