Keeping the Faith

Over the past week I got to make my second trip off the island.  This time, I only went as far as La Ceiba (where the ferry takes us) where I worked with a mission group from Texas.  For the past several years, this mission group has been coming down to Honduras to work for a week with an Episcopal Church.  Part of the group works with tutoring the school children, another group works with medical and eye glasses, and the third part of the group works on construction projects.  Myself and 3 other volunteers from Roatan worked with the medical team of course.  Everyday began with breakfast at 6:30, followed by morning prayer before we all headed out our seperate ways.  Tuesday through Thursday, we spent the mornings working in the clinic with the Honduran doctor that is always there.  Dr. Silvio Azure typically sees around 80 patients a week; so anywhere around 20 patients a day.  Upon walking into the clinic the first day, I was rather taken aback.

There was next to nothing in this clinic.  There was an open room that served as their waiting room but there was nothing more than a bench on each side of the room for patients to sit on.  Behind the front desk was not only the files, the bathroom, and the admission area, but the triage area as well.  Triaging consisted of taking a blood pressure, weight, and tempurature.   No chief complaints were gathered, no blood sugar was checked for diabetics, no pulse or pulse oxygenation levels were gathered.  And although the temperature was taken, every temp was either 36 or 37 Celsius- even if they had a fever!  The consult rooms had just about as much- an exam table, a desk, and a couple chairs.  There were a few medical supplies but if there was something you actually needed, chances are it wouldn't be there.  The pharmacy had a smattering of medications, but of course, it lacked many as we waiting all week for the ordered medications to be released from customs.  The "lab" consisted of a chair used as a desk and another chair for the patient to sit in along side the pharmacy out in the hallway. The clinic had a storage room, but the supplies that were in there were mainly eyeglasses.  With very little to work with, I must say, I actually thoroughly enjoyed my time spent in this clinic.  It was very much serving the poor in a location that wasn't all ritzy yet had the essentials to be able to treat these patients adequately and appropriately.  While the clinic lacked in many of the medical/technological advances that are now seen in the health care field in the US, it focused on treating the root causes of the problems (such as nutrition, lifestyle, etc) and left the rest up to God.  These people search out medical treatment but they still keep sight of their faith; for some of these people faith is all they have, but that is enough for them.  This was enhanced even more when we went out to a village, La Linea, on Thursday afternoon to do a health clinic. 

One of the guys that we treated came to us with a problem of not being able to make a fist with one hand because of a machete wound he suffered 5 or 6 years ago.  He was asking us about whether there was a surgery or medications we could give him to correct it.  I had to tell him there were no meds other than some pain pills that we could give him.  I told him they could do an operation to fix his tendons but that was about it.  His response was that he is a poor man and surgery is expensive, is there nothing else he/we can do?  Once again I reiterated that surgery was all that could be done.  Then he wanted to know the likelihood of the surgery actually helping his hand- would he still be able to work out at the plantation?  You see, his first three fingers worked fairly well, they were just a bit weak.  His 4th and 5th fingers however, were straight, unable to be bend due to tendon damage.  Since his accident happened such a long time ago, he would most likely need a tendon graft done as well because the tendons have permanently shortened.  After surgery there would be no guarantee that his hand would be all that much better.  So I told him that surgery was possible but probably not available in Honduras and it would be a complicated surgery.  His reply was that we would just have to pray to God for strength.  I replied, yes, for now all we can do is take meds to control any pain and pray to God for help.  He thanked us and was on his way.  Wow!  Even people with little to nothing, having difficulty working due to injury still have faith in God.  Can we say the same thing?  Would we have this same faith or would we have given up on Him long before?  It's in situations like this that I am reassured that there are people that still have faith and trust in God.  They don't give up easily just because something didn't happen in their favor.  If only more people could see things like this and gain renewed strength and faith in God- even through the hard times.  Then as we were getting ready to leave, he came up to me and asked if I could take a picture of us.  Even though he would never see me again, and never get the picture, I believe he wanted me to have a picture of us so that I could remember our encounter for years to come.  What a great day it was!

So, while almost everyone on the mission group as well as the 3 I traveled with spent a day or two of their time with Montezuma's revenge, I was able to enjoy my week full force and really soak up the work that god was doing in this community.  Not only did I work with the medical team, but I learned a little more advanced way of fitting people for eyeglasses using foropters and constructing glasses to test for astigmatisms and the whole shpeal.  So I guess, if nursing fails, I can always take up optometry!  Working with this mission group allowed me to see what it's like working with a community that is very accepting of a short term mission team coming in and working with them.  Oh how I cannot wait to do more mission trips in the future.  Therefore, at the rate I'm going, I should probably come to appreciate the letters d-e-b-t as I will be seeing them for quite some time!  Save your change folks, it could get you far someday.

Peace and Love to all those at home!!
Laura

True Meanings

It seems like we are constantly celebrating one holiday or another.  But, are we really celebrating the holiday or are we celebrating the commercialism that comes with the holiday?  Most of the holidays have come and gone without me even knowing that they were coming.  If it weren't for the fact that I know the date in which holidays fall, I probably would be none the wiser as to whether it was a holiday or not.  Being removed from all the commercialism associated with any given holiday has made me realize that there is much more to the holidays.  Today is Valentine's Day.  Do any of us really know the history behind this day?  Why do we send people cards; was St. Valentine known for something associated with love or why do we associate the holiday with that?  Since many of you are probably too busy to really sit down and look into the history behind Valentine's Day, allow me to enlighten you.

Not only is there one person known as St. Valentine, but 3.  One was a priest, one a bishop, and the other is heard of only vaguely.  All three of these men were martyrs of the church, and all are remembered on February 14th, but none of them really have any direct relation to the holiday in which we celebrate.  The holiday in which is celebrated today is because of a reference made by the poet Geoffrey Chaucer in his poem Parliament of Foules.  In one stanza he writes, "For this was sent on Saint Valentine's Day, When every foul cometh there to choose his mate."  Because of this reference, people started to associate St. Valentine's Day with a day for couples to celebrate- to send love letters and tokens of love to one another.  The reason for this reference in Chaucer's poem is because it was a common belief in England and France during the middle ages that toward the middle of the second month of the year, birds would begin to choose their mates.  (referenced from NewAdvent.com)  While North American's celebrate with candy, cards, and roses on February 14th, other countries have varying days and ways of celebrating.  Of course, just like many other holidays, Valentine's Day is considered an American culture.  Some countries refer to the holiday as Friend's Day (when you recognize all of your friends, instead of just lovers), others refer to it as Lover's Day, Day of Love and Friendship, or All Heart's Day.  One tradition that I found to be rather interesting was that of South Korea's.  On February 14th, women give chocolate to men; March 14th, men give non-chocolate gifts to women.  On April 14th, those that received nothing on either of the two previous 14th's go to a Chinese restaurant and eat black noodles.  Also in Korea, the 14th of every month is celebrated in some manor to reflect a lover's holiday: Candle Day, Valentine's Day, White Day, Black Day, Rose Day, Kiss Day, Silver Day, Green Day, Music Day, Wine Day, Movie Day, and Hug Day.  Those could be fun celebrations :)  (info from wikipedia).

And there you have it folks, the source of Valentine's Day and its many traditions.  Now that you know where it comes from, feel free to go out and celebrate in whatever way you see fit.  As for me, I'm going to sit inside and enjoy the rain.  Happy Valentine's Day to all my loved ones- family and friends!

xoxo,
Laura

All systems go!

Wow!  Almost 5 months in, my body has fully adjusted and worked out its problems, the weather is getting nicer, the days are getting longer, and I once again enjoy being outside without fear of mosquitoes and 'cold'.  Lately I've been able to go snorkeling a number of times without freezing as soon as I got in the water (in which case, I would have opted out of snorkeling).  Along with the numerous amounts of fish, I have seen an octopus, king crab, sea snake, sea cucumber, starfish, and have been able to play with dolphins!  Poco a poco, the sun is staying up a few minutes longer and we see more sunlight in the day. 

More and more volunteers are streaming into the clinic, so there are more hands to do things, therefore making my work even lighter--plus I have a student nurse!  It's great.  Today we went out to an isolated community on the island to do an outreach clinic.  There were a fair number of moms and children, but other than pain, parasite/worm treatment, and a couple cases of chicken pox, we didn't see anything too exciting...that is, except for some amazing views!  In the process, I also saw Hottest Sparrow.  This is another small, isolated community, that is very difficult to access--yet this is where the 3 children were from that I wrote about back from when my parents were here.  After the outreach clinic today, we did a health screening at the SOL Foundation, which is an after school program for children.  Therefore, for 3 hours we measured the height and weight of children....way to long!  (especially since we had just spent the past 8 hours in the clinic and on the outreach clinic)  Oh well, we got them all taken care of and were able to pinpoint the kids that are below the average for height and weight. 

In a week and a half, I will be making a trek over to La Ceiba to help with a medical brigade that will be coming for a week.  It will be a great change of pace for a bit and a new population of people to work with.  More to come following my week there....stay tuned ;) 

For all of you suffering from feet and feet of snow, I thought you would like to know that with the longer hours of sun (and the warmer days), my tan is coming along quite nicely...unfortunately, I really only get to work on it over the weekends since the sun is no longer very good by the time we are done with clinic.  Oh well, such be the life!  Not much else is new around here, so I will leave you with that...maybe next time I can write something a bit more inspirational....I'll think on it for all of you :)

My thoughts and prayers are with you all!
Laura