Betzy

Yumi, Betzy, & Edgar

Got Chocolate?

Edgar carrying Betzy upstairs

In the appartment

A unicorn!

Last night we ate dinner with a family Heather knows from church. We visited with them a week ago and they very graciously invited us to dinner. This family is of meager means, living in a small, one room apartment with no running water in their room. The room contains a bed, a crib, a TV, a small table, and a small stove. They do not have a refrigerator. What they do have is a lot of love for each other and for their daughter.

Betzy, their seven year old daughter, has cerebral palsy. She is unable to control her movements well enough to walk, eat, or use her voice for speech. She does however speak volumes with her eyes and smile. When Heather first came to Peru on a short term mission trip, they brought a wheelchair for Betzy, but because the apartment is on the 4th floor, it is not easy to make use of the chair. To go out, her parents must carry her and the wheel chair down three flights of stairs. Her mother, Yumi, will still carry her on her back using a manta, the traditional cloth Peruvians have been using for centuries to carry things. Edgar, her father, just picks her up and carries her either cradled in his arms, or over his shoulder. The stairs are steep and narrow, making this maneuver difficult at best and potentially dangerous as Betzy does not have good muscle control and often has spasms causing her to flail her arms and legs.

Yumi takes Betzy to therapy three days a week. To get there, she must get Betzy and her chair down the stairs and onto an inaccessible bus. To understand fully the difficulty of this, you must first know a bit about how the buses operate. They are in a hurry! They stop only long enough for passengers to get up the stairs. There is not really a schedule; buses just get there as quick as they can, because the quicker they go, the more passengers they can carry in a day and the more money the driver will take in. So, if they see a passenger that will slow them down, they might not stop. Yumi talks of buses passing her by with regular frequency. She tries to blend in to a larger crowd so the driver will not see Betzy and her chair. She can take a taxi, but the cost is about three or four soles, vs. one sole for the bus.

Yumi dreams of seeing her daughter walk. I believe that with better medical care Betzy would be capable of walking. There are medications and treatment modalities available which could help with the involuntary muscle movements. She could be fitted for braces and potentially use a walker. Unfortunately, these things are just not available to Betzy, and likely never will be.

What can be done is to make life a little easier for this family. Heather’s mission group intends to do a home makeover Peruvian style for the family. They are trying to purchase a house close to Pat’s Place since that is also close enough to Betzy’s therapy that Yumi would not have to take a bus or cab to get there, she could just walk. They would then remodel the house to make it accessable for Betzy’s wheelchair.

You had to know there might be a plea attached here somewhere. If any of you reading this feel moved to help, you could contact my sister at heatherga@juno.com and she can direct you to the right place to offer help, whether it be a donation of funds, supplies, or your time.

Oh, you might be wondering what we ate. It was one of the best meals I had had here in Peru. We had fish, rice, carrots, and broccoli. Yum!