Jungle Medic Mission Transport

Hello my name is Bryan Buchanan. I am an old Indiana boy. After my time in the Military where I learned oral surgery, I became a Paramedic/Firefighter. I felt the call on my life to do medical/dental mission work in 3rd world countries. My family and I moved to Belize where we started our work for four years. While in Belize I heard about an area of Guatemala that was experiencing a three year drought. The people that live in remote villages raise corn and use it to make tortillas of which they eat three times a day. But with no corn they were literally starving to death. They had no food stamps or safety net like in the States. Children and infants were dying.
I borrowed a cargo truck and filled it with dehydrated food that had been donated by the Texas Mens Baptist Assn, and drove to the area of drought. The people were so grateful and it was there I began to ask where do you go for medical care? They said we have no medical care. I said what do you do when you are really sick? They looked at me like are you from another planet? If we get sick we die....That is when I realized I could help these poor people.

I moved to Guatemala and began doing medical clinics in the remote Mayan villages that are so remote no one else will go there. People began to hear of my work and began bringing emergencies to my house. I literally delivered babies and sutured open wounds and treated burn patients on the couch of my front porch.

Because I am an independent missionary I receive no support from organizations, but people in the States began to hear about my work and started donating funds so I could build a dorm to host medical teams from the States to come and help me.

The emergencies became more serious and more often, So I made the 1st floor into an Emergency Room. But still takeing teams with me to go to the remote villages that had no medical or dental care. These people had infections and were full of parasites and worms, and malnourished.

I had an old 1999 Ford shuttle bus to pick up and return teams to the airport four hours away in Honduras. But the old bus was very undependable. (It was one of those vehicles that I drive for and hour and work on it for two hours.) I could take my teams in that old bus to some villages during dry season but it was not made to drive through rivers and up muddy steep mountain roads. When I would get stuck it was so heavy we would spend all day getting it out and only have a few hours for seeing patients.
I have a pick up truck but it is two wheel drive and so I have the same problem not being able to get to the villages.

I realized I just had to find a way to get a 4x4 truck that I could put a trailer behind and then transport my medical teams with supplies and medicines to the remote villages.
So I sold my old shuttle bus for $4,500.00. I then contacted a dealership in Guatemala City and found a KIA double cab diesel 4x4. Perfect....But how much? They said $19,352.00, but with a roll bar top so people can ride in the back and a bumper with a trailer hitch it is $21,702.00. I asked how much will you give me for my pick up? They said $8,000.00.

So with the $4,500.00 from the old shuttle bus and $8,000.00 for the trade in I need to come up with $9,000.00.  I am hoping to get this raised in the next 45 days.  
The hardest part about this work is asking people who work so hard for their money to help me care for people they do not even know. But when I look at a child who gets one corn tortilla with one bean to spread on the tortilla to give it flavor, or look at child who was burned by a giant pot of scalding soup over an open fire who has no one to start an IV with anitbiotics and care for his open burns over his body.....well I have to swallow my pride and ask for help.

Let me tell you about Rodrigo.
On one of our trips into the villages to do a medical clinic a woman came to me and told me her son was burned a few months ago but could not walk to the clinic.
So I got my medical bag and walked to their shack with dirt floor and grass roof. When I got inside and saw this 11 year old boy laying on a grass mat on the floor, completely covered with 2nd and 3rd degree burns from his neck to his legs. He almost did not look human. It was not that he could not physically walk but his parents would not let him out of their shack because the kids called him monster. They were ashamed. I asked when did this happen? They said about two months ago. I said did you take him to a hospital? Or why didn't you bring him to me? They said we have no money and no way to get him there.
Now I have seen more trauma as a paramedic and in the military than most, but looking at this burned boy I began to weep...

I did not have a 4x4 vehicle to get to their village so we came by boat. I carried Rodrigo to the boat and took him to my Emergency Room. We worked on him for months, even doing plastic surgery on him. Then we did months of physical therapy. Today he is a fine young man and has returned to a normal life. But if I cannot get to these villages that no one else will go to I cannot help these people.

I have teams of people from churches, medical schools, and non medical people just willing to pass out vitamins and medicines who come on one week trips to help us. But I need a dependable four wheel drive truck and trailer.
If you could help in any way with this we can use it to get the transportation we need.
I know you are bombarded there in the States with solicitors constantly calling you for money.  Some are good causes and some are just trying to make money. I don't have anything to offer you. ( Not even a free toaster....) but I can tell you your gift will help someone who is suffering and will make a difference in their life more than you will ever know. Thank You and God Bless You.
In His Service
Bryan Buchanan ( The Jungle Medic)
Junglemedic Missions
Rio Dulce Guatemala
Web Site www.junglemedicmissions.org