Saturday, January 24, 2009

Jan 24- Copan

After a long drive, 5 hrs we arrived safely in Copan about noon today. We had a wonderful day touring the ruins and good meals at Carnitas. The weather was a perfect 80 degrees. Some plan to do the zipline in the morning, others will visit the coffee and bird sanctuary. We hope to be back in San Pedro Sula by 5pm Sunday night to prepare for our 745 flight home on Monday. Will see you all soon. Thanks for holding this trip and team up in prayer. We felt Gods hand moving in our team and in our work.
Barb for the team

Friday, January 23, 2009

Day #5-Last Work Day El Tigre, Santa Cruz de Yojoa
Our last day was very productive (even though we were tired.) We set up our clinic today in a beautiful church, with tile floors and finished wood benches. Ruthie did deworming on a lovely breezy porch, along with Rosa doing registration and Tim W. helping with weighing and measuring. Dr. Sandra saw patients, while Rhoda and Trish took blood pressures. The dentist was in a room off the back of the church. As we drove into the community we saw nice homes, surrounding a grassy green with the church on the corner. But the cement floor crew saw a different picture as they did 4 floors on the outskirts of the village, very poor homes where the new floor is more substrantial than the walls. We were sad to have Vince and Rhoda leave about 1:30 for San Pedro Sula to stay overnight to catch early flights home on Saturday.
Tonight we enjoyed a special dinner celebration with the staff---oh...Isabel is a wonderful cook. She worked so hard all week. We appreciate all the staff for their hard work to make our week a success.
Final numbers for the week: Deworming pills- 792, Vitamins to children- 498, Medical Consults- 341, Cement floors- 20 plus work at mission house (110 1/2 bags of cement).
Thanks for your prayers on our behalf, as we experienced good health, safety and nice weather (70´s daytime, 60 nighttime). Please pray for better health for the people we saw, that the medicine we gave will heal and give hope.
We head for our R & R weekend at the Copan Ruins tomorrow at 7am.
Will write from the internet cafe.
Barb for the team

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Day 4- El Portillo, Santa Rita Yoro
Another good day in a small community in the general area we went yesterday. Some nice homes and school along a badly rutted mud path. We were happy the mud from earlier in the week had dried up, or we would not have made it back to the school. The team is working together like clock work! Four concrete floors were done by 2:30! We saw 67 patients for doctor consults and Ruthie gave deworming medicine to 72 people. This community had a lot of absent men and fathers. We were concerned for the 26 year old mom with 4 kids, including a 15 day old and no husband. The infant has not opened her eyes since birth, determined to have an eye infection. Rhoda took time to lovingly show the mom how to wash and apply eye drops. We tried to help moms organize medicine for each child, as each were given amoxycillian and numerous other meds for infections. Our hearts break for some we see.
The guys have enjoyed seeing floors poured on previous trips-checking out how their work has held up for a few years of use. It was determined that the floors were still in good condition!
Tomorrow, Vince and Rhoda will leave for San Pedro Sula overnight to catch early flights home on Saturday morning. It will be sad to have them leave.
We are amazingly healthy---thank you Ruthie for boiling the water for doing dishes and then making sure we dipped in magic blanco (bleach). We are wondering if our risk takers will be OK tonight---ones always trying the food brought in by the community women and Tim drinking the pineapple juice made with clean?? water.
Thanks for praying for our safety and health. God has been with us.
Barb for the team

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Wednesday, January 21, 2009- El Sentadero

A slower paced day today for everyone´- nice steady flow at the clinic and the concrete crew had the surprise of community people setting up the last two floors, and we were all done by 2pm! Since we got back early the concrete crew used their expertise to work on the new driveway in front of the mission house. They poured footers on the lower side of a new turnaround.
The rural community today was along one of the main rivers in Honduras. It was a pleasant place with obvious cleaning done to prepare for our visit. Persons were fairly healthy, just signs of a hard life - foot problems from lots of walking, skin problems from bathing in the river, headaches from dehydration and hard work. We worried about the boy who cut his hand with a machete yesterday trying to open a coconut and about the mother of two down-syndrome children. The day is really a celebration for everyone- medicine for now (and the next time they are sick), vitamins (everyone wants vitamins, esp. the kids!), and gifts for the kids (stuffed animals, notebooks, Bibles and candy).
The weather has been perfect, even a touch cool (mid seventies during the day, 60 degrees at night). Everyone is healthy and enjoying our time here.
Thanks so much for your prayers!!
Barb for the team

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Day 2 La Virtud, San Francisco de Yojoa

Another very success day, 232 taking deworming medicine, 76 medical consults and another 4 new cement floors. The community was up the mountain toward Lake Yojoa. We passed a number of egg production farms, as a result the community was well nourished, lots of cracked eggs to eat? But hygiene information was needed with lots of scabies and other dirty living condition results. Ruthie processes all the deworming, rewarding the children with a Gummy vitamin and a sticker. Dr. Sandra, Rhoda, Trish and Tim (translating) see patients, Barb manning the pharmacy. The guys had a hard day, carrying sand at the first house, 2 houses in the afternoon were up the mountain, but the truck was able to bring the sand up. It seems there was a lot of rain prior to our arrival, so everything is so muddy, but we enjoy the beautiful lush vegetation and not so hot days and cool nights. The people in the communities come up and stay the whole day, an important event for everyone to get medicine and see doctors. The children love to get their vitamins and little things the MAMA staff hands out, including a new Testament today.
Everyone is enjoying each other, the work and is healthy so far.
Your prayers are protecting us and helping us thru each day! Thank you!

Barb for the team

Monday, January 19, 2009

Day One Report Guangolola 2 El Negrito Yoro

We had a good first day 292 dewormed, 75 saw "doctors", and 4 floors poured! The guys did not even start to work until 11am! Trish and Rhoda took blood pressures to start and then saw patients. We also had a doctor, Sandra who saw patients too. It was a blessing to have MAMA staff who are bilingual this year, Erica and Mary. The community was typical, lots of high blood pressure in older people, a very awful leg ulcer, children w/ ear infections. One mom and small baby were brought back to the nutrition center for low weight. We were thinking as she got in the MAMA vehicle with just her baby, nothing else, what we would want to bring along if we were moving somewhere for 6 weeks? The guys were impressed with all the setup and help done by the community to make the 4 floors a possibility today, even with the late start. Well, time for dinner....will write more soon.
Barb for the team

Friday, January 16, 2009

January 18-26, 2009- 15th Deep Run East Team to Honduras

Team Members- Joe and Ruth Hohenstein, Jake and Barb Rice, Don Rice, Tim Nyce, Vince Fleck, Tim Weaver, John Weaver, Rhoda Detweiler, Trish Samanns

MAMA Team to San Francisco de Yojoa--Planning medical clinics and concrete floors.
Watch for updates.