Mixed observations from a sleep deprived mind...

If you live in the city, country noises bother you.  If you live in the country, city noises keep you awake at night.  If you live a developed country, noises from rural Honduras are like a shot of caffeine right before bedtime - no way you’ll get a good  night’s sleep!

So was our night last night.  Despite rising early the day before and navigating three airports, uninterrupted sleep eluded many of us.  Gunfire was the first unfamiliar noise (a good way away, but unnerving nonetheless).  Then roosters crowing (way before dawn!), dogs barking furiously outside the open windows, and just plain unfamiliar surroundings made sleep seem more like a series of interrupted naps.

Dawn arrived and found us in the dining hall enjoying cereal, fruit, and coffee cake.  Yum!  After devotions  by Darryl and loading of the truck, we piled into the bus for the ride to Las Flores, the community picked for today’s clinic.

The weather this morning was a little cool, so the windows to the bus remained closed.  That was a good thing, because the well maintained dirt road showered everything within reach with a fine white dust as each vehicle traveled its path.  No longer were roadside plants green. Instead, they looked like ghosts of plants past, bravely guarding the road’s path.

Patients were waiting before we arrived

Circling for prayer and a song before the Clinic Day 1

Approximately 250 persons were waiting for us as we arrived at the community center.  Usually clinics are held at a school building where there is plenty of room to spread out and plenty of classrooms for the different stations- registration, de-worming, medical, pharmacy, eye glasses, dental and food distribution.  This site’s layout was more challenging.  It took almost an hour to set everything up and reach the point where we were ready to begin the day with prayer and a song. This year, we learned to sing “This Is The Day” in Spanish.  We all feel it was important for the patients we were about to treat to know why we are here.  Hopefully, our very southern American Spanish communicated!

Hondurans are very respectful of their elders.  All of the “old people” were already at the front of the line and sitting in chairs.  They were the first patients to be seen.  Because some of their physical ailments need a little more attention, and because we are short medical staff, we didn’t finish the “senior” crowd until lunchtime.

Speaking of medical staff, our crew from Oregon was not able to get a flight out of Portland last night, and many of them decided it was best for them to not make the trip this year after all.  By the time they would arrive, 2 of the 5 clinics would have been complete.  Dr. Laine Murphy and his son are still planning to come, and we hope they will arrive tomorrow.  Donna T. and Michelle S. arrived today. Donna helps in dental and is a physical therapist.  Michelle is a pediatrician.  They bring much appreciated additional medically-trained "sets of hands."

Michelle S. checking a set of very swollen tonsils

Dentistry was rockin!  For the first time since I’ve been travelling with the group, they had several spells where the "dentistas" were actually waiting for patients. Certainly having the third trained dentist was huge (Laurie), but we also have a trained dental assistant able to give the anesthesia injections (Heather), and a dedicated interpreter (Meghan).  Those ladies made a great impact!

Laurie enjoying a happy moment with a patient

Meghan helping keep an anxious patient calm

Heather "numbing-m-up"

When we finally saw the last patient (about 4:30) and got the bus packed, we were ready to leave on the bus only to discover that the bus wouldn't start.  The guys tried to hot wire it from a pick up truck (you should have seen them using a machete to expose the copper wire!)  When it became evident we were not going to get the bus started, Dr Ponce called for some vans and pick up trucks to take us back to the compound in Cofradia.  We were tired and hungry, but we perked up once we realized fried chicken and mashed potatoes were being served for supper!  Yum! Yum!

The evening ended with a time of debriefing the day.  This is a time when everyone can share special events they witnessed or experienced during the day, and final counts are shared.  Today we saw 415 patients, had 63 dental patients pulling 123 teeth, gave away 88 pairs of eyeglasses and 650 pounds of food. Whew! No wonder we were tired!

At the end of share time Yvonne, Dr Ponce's wife, apologized for the problems with the bus- They have been such gracious hosts!  Yvonne said it best-when you are about the Lord's business, the devil works hard to get in your way.  

Tomorrow our clinic will be right here at the compound.  It will be nice not to have to factor travel time into our day.  Breakfast is late tomorrow...7:00 a.m!

As I prepare for bed, I hear the sound of crickets, and a preacher at the church with the volume cranked!  Maybe he will wind down soon...or just in time for the roosters to start.