Nolvin's Community- Sante Fe San Francisco de Ojuera

Great to see a happy 11yr old today wearing shoes compared to the sad 9yr old wearing a twisted sandal on his club foot 2yrs ago! Nolvin had told Dr Karen in 2012 that what he really wanted....was to wear shoes! A program of Deep Run East, Children Without Choices helped coordinate Nolvin's club foot repair in May at Cure Hospital in San Pedro Sula We especially appreciate the help of Dinora, a good friend in country and also the community health leader in Santa Fe. Nolvin's smile today was a blessing to us! The community today was high in the mountains, lots of switchback turns up along the timber tops. It is easy to understand why persons that live there do not get medicine or have access to health care. We saw about 200 patients and the dentist pulled another 30 teeth. We have enjoyed working with Josh & Brenna Benner from Souderton/ Lancaster that are here as long term volunteers. Brenna has a great system for giving gifts to the families. As the families come thru the deworming & hemoglobin stations Brenna hand selects gifts for them from our donations. We have shoes, crayons, coloring books, glue sticks, pencils and adorable beanie babies among other things this week. The items are handed to the family in a bag. This eliminates the crazy grabbing free-for-all we have experienced in the past and everyone gets some gifts. The cement crew was productive as usual- 45 bags of cement and 6 homes have new floors. Jose's crew had some translation issues and ended working at houses that were a long walk down into the valley (and back up again!). They were dragging but persevered. As usual the newbies are the brunt of teasing. After teasing Matt about being a "chick magnet", one of the local volunteers said she could not sit beside Matt or she would vomit (she meant car sickness) but of course that is not how it was interpreted. Later in the day, another volunteer sitting by Matt actually did get car sick! Lots of laughter ensued. We are all well, enjoying good dinners from our beloved cook Isabel and her helper Karen. Tim has been sharing some thought provoking storytelling in the evening as we reflect on our day. Thanks for your prayers on our behalf for our health and safety. Also pray for Hector the MAMA director who is not with us this week due to back pain. Gracias and buenos noches, Barb for the team