On Monday I received the call that Milagros was finally home from the hospital in Santo Domingo...2 weeks post-surgery.  The next day Mary Ellen (missionary in charge of hospitality at the base and Milagros's supervisor) and I loaded into my car and headed to her house.

I was surprised by how close Milagros lives; only a short drive up a dirt road behind the base....but it truly felt like a different world far more similar to the remote communities I visit in the mountains (like Angosto or Mata De Platano).

I am around poverty all the time.  My favorite patients live in scrap wood houses with cockroaches, lizards and rats scurrying in and out.  So, I was shocked at my internal reaction to her living conditions.

Milagros lives in a tiny house the size of an American living room partitioned into three spaces for a kitchen and two bedrooms.  The walls are made of moldy wood and plywood, the floors are hardened dirt and most of the time she has no electricity or running water.  A small outhouse is positioned behind her casa.

When Mary Ellen and I stepped out from my car; no bigger smile could have been seen. It was a little crooked with a large suture line at the posterior aspect of Milagros's cheek and tears flowing from her eyes as her tear ducts were affected by the surgery.  But nonetheless her cheeks were symmetrical...at last!!!  And that smile was so full of joy.  Her surgery was a success! Praise Jesus!

We sat with her in broken plastic chairs outside of her house amidst plantain trees and listened to her experience.  Milagros has been a very challenging patient since the beginning but The Lord has filled my heart with such overwhelming love for her.

Milagros stayed with her half brother in the capital.  He is quite poor and everyday looks for enough work to live.  Because of his quest for survival, Milagros was alone the day of surgery, while in the overcrowded hospital and while taking a taxi back to his house several days later.  Not one person visited her.

And now, here she is in her own small, hot house recuperating yet again alone.  She is not married, her two children work and the rest of her family are unsupportive.  How very different her experience looks than when most of us have surgery in a comfortable hospital with attentive nurses, supportive family and friends who cook and clean and transport us and then a comfortable house and bed to recuperate in.

Milagros fought for her surgery and she won.  She is doing great and she was able to get enough governmental assistance to afford her surgery.  But, the injustices of poverty in her situation are so overwhelming to me.  Does she not deserve the same as me?  Or you?  What is the difference in who we are? Our birth place? 

I am so thankful for all of your prayers for Milagros.  May you continue to pray for her healing and her next surgery as she also requires a full hysterectomy due to uterine fibroids that we're hoping will take place in August.

While I'm grateful for this small success, as I continue to be surrounded by innumerable injustices my quest for good health care, community development and that everyone may know the love and hope of Christ continues.  And don't you worry, I will be regularly visiting Milagros.