Chapter 10

At work, Maria mentioned a few things and then said his idea of having a picnic had taken on a life of its own. All the therapists said they would attend and each one would bring food to share. Some of the patients heard about this picnic and wanted to contribute. Two of them said they would donate a half-barrel of beer with a tapper and two cases of soda. Another patient was donating some cake and other items. A few of the needed items would be paid for from petty cash. The only things not being donated were the hamburgers, hot dogs, and sausages. Maria’s husband and another husband were designated to be the cooks.

Maria also said they found a nice place to have this picnic which was a pavilion located at the military base. It contained two gas grills, picnic tables, electricity, bordered a volleyball court, and is close to a children’s playground. She gave Kyle the phone number for the Special Services unit to call and reserve this pavilion.

Kyle told her would do that and asked her to order the food and gave her his credit card. He did make the call and had no problem in making the pavilion reservation for the date Maria said they had agreed upon.

The following week he received a phone call from Elena. “I thought you would want to know that I received the information on this physician assistants program. I reviewed it and made some copies of it. I called for a special meeting of the medical board and certain people of the university which was held yesterday. The meeting consisted of me giving a presentation about us developing a college curriculum involving both the medical school and the university that will produce PAs. I received some mixed reactions from the people there. It was the older members there who were a little resistive to doing this. They thought that these PA’s would be nothing more than glorified nurses. You do know older people are resistive to change.”

“I listened to them stating their concerns about how good these PA’s will be. I told them that how good these PAs will be is dependent on how good the training is that they receive from them. I was a little proud of myself for putting the onus back on them. I told them I wanted a graduate program established for PAs and agreed with their suggestion that those admitted to this program be students who have a good background in the sciences along with passing an admission test. There was some uneasiness expressed for this program to be able to be developed that fast. I told them it will be that way and if they can’t do it we will get people who can. They had never seen me talk that way and I can see I surprised some of them. I felt pretty good when the meeting over.”

He told her he was proud of her and invited her to the picnic. Kyle also thought he may have let another genie out of the bottle and he needed to support her.

In talking to Maria he asked her if any of the patients we treat here have connections with television or the newspapers.

She told him that there are some and this afternoon a Javier Cerda who is a television reporter is scheduled for treatment for his bad back. Kyle said to ask him to see me before he leaves.

Javier came into Kyle’s office and asked what he could do for him. Kyle said he wanted to give him a tip about a new program that the Minister for Health was starting which in time will be a big benefit to the people of this country. He told Javier what was happening who said it sounds like a feel-good story that had big implications for the country and he would look into it. Javier also gave Kyle his card and said if he has any more tips to let him know. People he said needed to see some positive news reported rather than most of the news being reported which is all negative now.

Two days before the picnic Kyle received a phone call from an Army Specialist who said she was from the Special Service unit at the military base. She said her Captain asked her to call Kyle and inform him that his reservation for the pavilion was canceled. When asked why that happened she said a Major had just now wanted to make a reservation for his son’s birthday party. Her Captain said that military requests for reservations take precedent over civilian requests which was why Kyle’s request was canceled.

Ending the call he thought about what just happened for a minute before he picked up the phone and phoned Lorena Pena.

She answered his call and told him this was a nice surprise. There was a little talk on how each of them was doing and then Kyle told her of the problem he had with the pavilion reservation. He asked her if she could do anything to help. She said she would look into it.

It was less than a half-hour later that Kyle received a phone call from a shaken Captain who said he was in charge of the Special Services Unit. He apologized for any misunderstanding and said that he was calling to confirm Kyle’s reservation for the pavilion. In ending the call he said he had never received a call from the Minister of Defense before and asked if there was anything more he could do for Kyle. Ending the call Kyle couldn’t help but think it was nice to know people in high places.

On the drive to the picnic in the jeep, Elena said she had the day before had a long interview with a reporter that was going to be shown on television about this physician assistants’ curriculum becoming available at the university. She discussed the program and what it will lead to once a student completes it. She said the reporter thought because of the impact this program would have that the interview would be shown twice on TV tomorrow. Elena said she wondered how this reporter found out about this.

“Good news travels fast,” said Kyle.

“Yes it does,” said Elena smiling. “So I asked the reporter and he said, “A little birdie told him and then he gave me the name of the little birdie.” Do you want to guess who that was?”

“No, I think I know.”

She laughed as she thanked him for doing this. When she told her father about what had happened and how that came about, he told her that she should hire Kyle to be her campaign advisor when one becomes necessary.

The picnic turned out to be a fun event. Someone had brought a music player that played some popular music. Everyone there seemed to enjoy themselves and had a good time. The food was plentiful and hit the spot. Kyle and Elena mingled and met with all of the people, most of whom thanked him for having the idea to do this. Elena was quite popular and she made it a point to talk to all the people there. Some of the people asked her for a photograph and she posed with them for a picture.

There was excitement when the Minister of Defense and his wife stopped by and paid a visit. They each had a cup of beer, a hamburger, and some cake. All of the people were surprised that they did this and said after the Minister and his wife left that it seemed that they were just ordinary people.