What do you think?
Rate this book
Guinea Pig For Brunch: My Life As A Missionary Doctor In Ecuador
This fascinating personal memoir, told from the perspective of a missionary doctor in Ecuador, explores what it means to love every day fully, to love those around you, and to embrace the trials life throws at you. Dr. Andrea Gardiner once thought it was normal to expect a long, healthy, pain-free life. Finding herself in a poverty-stricken country where suddenly life is far from easy, and individuals must learn to love God in spite of their suffering, she begins an intriguing journey. It is one that will leave you challenged and inspired.
201 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 15, 2014
10 people want to read
About the author
Andrea Gardiner
14 books10 followersAndrea Gardiner is a medical doctor and writer. She worked as in Ecuador for 13 years and wrote Guinea Pig For Breakfast, and Guinea Pig for Brunch. Currently residing in the UK, you can find her on her blog www.returninghometoyourself.com
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 4, 2015
Guinea Pig for Brunch by Andrea Gardiner tells of Andrea and her family's life in Ecuador, and I was blessed to receive a copy. This is Andrea's second book, and follows her life where book number one, Guinea Pig For Breakfast left off.
Andrea Gardiner is an English doctor who found love in Ecuador, with Vladimir, and they have a beautiful daughter Tamara. As the book opens so Andrea is still running her clinic, seeing people whom hospitals and/or other doctors have written off. The local people all trust Andrea, and will drive or walk many miles to be treated by her and her faithful nurses Hortencia and Monserrat.
Andrea's clinic is funded by donations, and she has also set up a sponsorship program, helping to look after and educate children and young people. As if this wasn't enough, she and Vladimir help with funding and building of houses for the very poor.
I had read Guinea Pig For Breakfast several years ago, and eagerly devoured Guinea Pig For Brunch within twenty four hours. Andrea Gardiner has a wonderful personal style of writing, which means that the reader is engaged, believing they are reading tales from a dear friend, rather than a book.
The book is filled with Andrea's experiences of life in Ecuador, helping people whilst raising a young family (another daughter Emily is born). The reader hears of Andrea's concerns, both for her own family, and also for the wider community of people that she meets.
Within the book are total gems of stories of the different people that Andrea meets and treats. She has a huge heart for people, especially the very poor. No one is ever turned away. No one is judged. Everyone is accepted.
This book will challenge your faith. Here in the west we have so much material stuff, but many people do not know God. In Ecuador the people have little in the way of possessions, but they have something of far greater worth - a huge faith in God. In the book the reader meets people suffering, who can still give thanks to God. And people with little or no food, who can still praise God. This book will open your eyes to the great faith in God of these people. You will find yourself looking within at your own faith, and at what you could do to help others - can you give time or money or prayer or something else?
Andrea Gardiner writes from the heart. And my prayer is that everyone who reads Guinea Pig For Brunch will be changed and challenged, and have a bigger faith at the end of the book than at the start. And that like the people of Ecuador, you rely less on self and more on God.
Andrea Gardiner is an English doctor who found love in Ecuador, with Vladimir, and they have a beautiful daughter Tamara. As the book opens so Andrea is still running her clinic, seeing people whom hospitals and/or other doctors have written off. The local people all trust Andrea, and will drive or walk many miles to be treated by her and her faithful nurses Hortencia and Monserrat.
Andrea's clinic is funded by donations, and she has also set up a sponsorship program, helping to look after and educate children and young people. As if this wasn't enough, she and Vladimir help with funding and building of houses for the very poor.
I had read Guinea Pig For Breakfast several years ago, and eagerly devoured Guinea Pig For Brunch within twenty four hours. Andrea Gardiner has a wonderful personal style of writing, which means that the reader is engaged, believing they are reading tales from a dear friend, rather than a book.
The book is filled with Andrea's experiences of life in Ecuador, helping people whilst raising a young family (another daughter Emily is born). The reader hears of Andrea's concerns, both for her own family, and also for the wider community of people that she meets.
Within the book are total gems of stories of the different people that Andrea meets and treats. She has a huge heart for people, especially the very poor. No one is ever turned away. No one is judged. Everyone is accepted.
This book will challenge your faith. Here in the west we have so much material stuff, but many people do not know God. In Ecuador the people have little in the way of possessions, but they have something of far greater worth - a huge faith in God. In the book the reader meets people suffering, who can still give thanks to God. And people with little or no food, who can still praise God. This book will open your eyes to the great faith in God of these people. You will find yourself looking within at your own faith, and at what you could do to help others - can you give time or money or prayer or something else?
Andrea Gardiner writes from the heart. And my prayer is that everyone who reads Guinea Pig For Brunch will be changed and challenged, and have a bigger faith at the end of the book than at the start. And that like the people of Ecuador, you rely less on self and more on God.
March 17, 2016
It was strange. I expected it to be about the medical missionary work she did in Ecuador but it was mostly about her.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews