The First Mission -- August 2001

The first mission to Ocotepec involved the 4 members of the Brody/Liegner family, and Sister Ernestina Vieyra of Mexico City. The Superior of the Salesian Sisters in Mexico had determined that the volunteer efforts of the Brody/Liegner’s were most needed by the indigenous Zoque people of Ocotepec and the surrounding 51 pueblos.

Never having performed such work in an isolated area, Joanne and David really did not know what they we getting themselves into. No doctors or dentists had ever traveled to Ocotepec. David used the Internet to contact other dentists who had done similar work in other areas. From them, he received advice and support. Joanne used her many talents to induce pharmaceutical companies to donate supplies. Notices left in both Joanne’s and David’s offices appealed to patients to make monetary contributions. It was most heartening to see the response from the Sussex County (NJ) community.

Limited by the airlines’ allotment of two 70 pound suitcases per person, Joanne, David, and Kim flew to Mexico City and then on to Tuxtla Gutierrez where they were reunited with Nick, and met Sister Anna Maria and Giorgio from Ocotepec. It was at this time that David made the biggest mistake of the trip; he rented a Nissan car for the week. Little did the family know that the “road” to Ocotepec wasn’t a road at all. While Giorgio drove his truck in the ruts, David drove the car over the rocks to avoid bottoming-out.

60 miles and 5 hours later, the group arrived in Ocotepec. The family stayed in a classroom of an abandoned school, down a hill from the Sisters’ house. Meals were taken with the Sisters.

Over the next three days Joanne, with help from Kim and Sister Ernestina, saw over 200 patients, many of whom walked 3-4 hours from the even more isolated villages, in a room at the convent. Despite being a gynecologist, Joanne treated men and children as well as women. Common conditions included chronic respiratory ailments (there are no vents to allow smoke to escape from huts), post-partum infections, and diseases related to poor nutrition. In the early morning, before “clinic” hours, the family was shown to the homes of the people too ill to walk to the “clinic”. In their homes, Joanne would administer what care she could with the limited supplies.

David and Nick set up shop in a small room in the abandoned school. Having only hand instruments, gauze, local anesthetics, and the light on his head, only extractions were possible. Nick had searched Tuxtla Gutierrez for a day and finally found a beach chair to serve as a patient chair. It was better than nothing, but David’s back suffered from working in a poor position. Instruments were cleaned in a liquid disinfectant. In the three days, over 160 teeth were extracted from some 120 people. Only the worst teeth could be removed in order to allow the greatest number of patients to be treated. The patients were stoic and grateful to be rid of painful, infected teeth.

After departing Ocotepec, the group stopped at a Salesian House for sexually abused girls. The 35 girls received medical and dental care in an open courtyard. The family continued on back to Tuxtla Gutierrez where they returned to the boys’ orphanage where Nick had spent his summer. The boys and the kitchen/cleaning staff were screened and treated for medical and dental problems.

A tough, but rewarding week came to an end with the travel back through Mexico City and on to Newark. The Brody/Liegner family vowed to return to Chiapas in 6 months to provide more care.

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