La Victoria, Santa Cruz

Today we headed toward the zoo!  (There is actually a really nice zoo near the mission house.) We headed up the mountain after the community of Santa Cruz to beautiful mountain views, pastures, fields of neat rows of pineapple, coffee and sugar cane.  This was a new community for us.  It was fairly healthy although there were very many high blood pressures.  We had two children faint in the clinic today when they saw the blood from the anemia check…this was a first and we were fortunate to have medical student Kelly there to handle the situation. 

Our count for today was about 300 people served with deworming medicine and micronutrient vitamins.   

Each day our concrete teams are pouring concrete floors for 10 houses in each community we visit. Often there are minor logistical challenges that come along with these projects. Getting the sand, water and cement to the location can be a challenge and having enough people and space to work can also be a challenge. The first home one of our teams visited today had no running water in the area. This single mother and her two children have water delivered to their one room house, as they need it and the water delivery did not come. She was out trying to find ways to get water for the concrete, but it was going to take significant time so the team decided to move on to the next house, expecting that Felix, our coordinator, would work with her to find a solution so they could finish the work later. We were told later that as the team was leaving and she saw them walking away with all the tools and buckets she thought they weren’t coming back, that she wouldn’t get a floor for her home, and she broke down crying.  After the team finished two other homes, they returned and the woman was so excited and so thankful. She had worked, others in the village helped, and she had enough water for the floor to be done. We were going to make sure that she got her floor today. Her joy and gratefulness just overflowed. We know that this simple concrete floor won’t change her world over night, but we hope and pray that it is a blessing and a step towards a better tomorrow for her and her children.

Ruthie led us in devotions using the book One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp.  The author challenged Ruthie to look for things to be thankful for thru the day.  Ruthie shared all her discoveries with us-patience as people wait in line, the grandmom who is here to take care of her grandchildren after their mom died, to see older children care for younger siblings, and the doctors on our team taking extra time to care for one of the children who fainted, to name a few.  Ruthie challenged us to look for the many ways we can be thankful thru the day.

We look forward to serving close to home here tomorrow- here in San Francisco de Yojoa.  We are all healthy and enjoying serving together.

Thanks for praying us thru this week!

Barb and Loren for the team