HONDURAS 2020: January 2020

Thursday, January 30, 2020

Today started like all the others. It for breakfast we had amazing egg omelets. Great way to start our day. By 7:30am we were ready to leave the Mission House on our way to Los Picachos, Santa Cruz de Yojoa.

Arriving at the school I was at first a little disappointed by the low number of people waiting for us. Well, that was an incorrect assumption because we ended up seeing around 200 community people today.

For the morning session I was in dentistry doing dental hygiene. I saw 16 people that wanted their teeth cleaned. I was a bit sad when I saw a pretty 15 year old girl and her two lower teeth were mobile due to Periondontal disease. So sad!!!! On missions like this you simply do, it have all,the conveniences of home so her cleaning was a little subpar by my standards. One thing I have had to tell myself over the years of providing dental care in rural areas is you do what you can with what you have.

After I was finished in dentistry I walked over to pharmacy to find out they were very busy with scripts needing to be filled. For the next thirty minutes I helped pull meds So they could be given to the patients. The afternoon session I joined the pharmacy team, again pulling meds. We filled prescriptions for 178 individuals today. Most were given three or more meds!

I had a few minutes today and walked into the room where they were giving donations away, doing blood pressure and oxygen levels, and deworming. At the deworming station, everyone, 2 years and up, is given a pill (Albendazole, 400 mg) to take with water which is good for two years. For the children we mix the pill in water and have them drink it. Vitamin A is given to the very small children by squirting it in their mouth. Apparently this stuff doesn’t taste good because you can hear the children crying after they get their meds. Poor kids!! At the weigh station ten children were identified as malnourished. At the vitamin station children and adults are given multi vitamins with instructions to take home

On the way home we had the privilege of stopping at Danilo Orellano’s house. He was my translator for the week when I was in dentistry. His parents own a palm tree farm which palm oil is made. He explained to us the ins and outs of harvesting palm trees for oil. When we were leaving Danilo’s house I saw this tree with strange things hanging from it only to find out it is a loofa tree. We were given one of the “pods” so we will each be able to take a small loofa home with us.

Stay tuned for pictures. I am still unable to post them from my iPad so as soon as I get home I will upload them.

Again , thanks for your prayers.

Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Hard to believe today is “hump day”. Only two clinic days left.

The day started like the ones before, dogs, chickens, packing our lunches and breakfast. Our travels will take us to La Victoria, Santa Cruz de Yojoa.

We arrived at the school only to be greeted by over 200 community members. They were sitting on chairs as if they were waiting for some sort of entertainment to start.

As with every location, there was more than enough help carrying our equipment into the designated school rooms. I saw young children helping carry boxes that probably weighted as much as they did. Once we were set up the businesses of the day started. WOW, busy was an understatement!

I had the privilege of working in the farmacia today. I was told it usually starts off slow but the afternoons can get a little crazy. Well, let me tell ya’, the first 15 minutes were slow but from then on we had 4-5 people standing waiting for their prescriptions. At one point we asked people to have a seat and we would call them when their meds were ready.

How did the pharmacy work and what was my job? Patients would come into the room and be seen by one of four doctors. Blood pressures were taken prior to them coming to see the doctors. The doctors then make a diagnosis, prescribe the needed meds and finally the patient brings their script to the pharmacy. I would help pull the meds which were double checked by Vivian before given to the patient. After the meds and instructions are given to the patient, I get the paperwork and must record each drug on supply list which ultimately gets entered into the computer. These numbers are then calculated and used as reference as to what illnesses were diagnosed and what meds were given out.

Tonight when we get back to the Mission House we will need to pack more meds. The most requested are adult and child vitamins, Advil, and Ibuprofen.

We saw approx 240 people today. Sadly, 36 children were diagnosed with malnutrition. There is a formula the nurse (Rosa) uses to identify these children. It has to do with age, height and weight. Rosa then consults with the mother letting her know what is available at the Nutrition Center and how Healthy Ninos can help her child. Side note: Healthy Ninos has been to these communities before so most people are familiar with the resources available to them.

Signing off for another day. Thanking God for safety and health every day. We have had a few team members not feeling well so we keep pushing the water to keep hydrated.

Sunday, January 26, 2020 PHOTOS


Zip lining at the Pulhapanzak waterfall

Carlos bringing the Lowe's buckets from storage to back deck for us to turn into Water Filtration systems.

Putting together the Water Filtration systems.

Bill presenting a water filtration system bucket

Sorting supplies and counting pills.

Tools Bill donated to the workers at the Mission House. The men were thrilled to be getting these new tools

Mary explaining the need Pharmacy --not enough space for supplies

The Mission House we called home for the week.

Lava Rock behind the Mission House.

Walking to the Nutrition Center

Sylvia helping in the kitchen

Little girl at the Nutrition Center comfortable in her mothers arms but that all changed when Sylvia wanted to hold her. We gave her back!!!!

Tuesday, January 28, 2020

This morning started out again being serenaded by the dogs and chickens....nothing new!

Today our travels took us to Buena Vista de Varsovia, Taulabe, Comayagua. We went by Yojoa Lake. It was absolutely beautiful. We could stand on the back steps of the school we worked at and look over the lake onto the mountains. So relaxing.

One of the things that is totally amazing is arriving at our destination and community members are waiting for you eagerly ready to help unload your supplies. One team member directs which room each piece goes and other team members set the rooms up. It is truly like a well oiled machine.

This morning I spent my time working with the dentist cleaning teeth, I had the privilege of making the mound of 13 individuals healthier. I worked with Dan, my translator, who was awesome. We were able to communicate with the people how to better take care of their mouths. In the afternoon I “graduated” to the pharmacy where I will work on Wednesday.

A total of 146 community members (81 children and 65 adults) were seen today.

The exciting and sad part of today was a little girl was brought to us by her mother asking us help save her. 😢. The little girl was defiantly malnourished. I saw this little girl, who I thought was a 6-month old, or so, only to find out she was not quite two years old. The Nurse talked to the mother and recommended she being her daughter to the nutrition center, one thing you need to understand about Honduran culture is the husbands/fathers must agree to this plan. Everyone was in agreement and the mother and her child returned to the Nutrition enter with us. Tomorrow the little girls will be completely assessed by a doctor and then begin her treatments. If children are too sick for treatment at the Center they will be sent to a hospital.

After supper tonight we had a “presentation” by Karin, the director here at Healthy Ninos (HN). She gave us insight on what working for a non-profit in Honduras is like. WOW!!! Are we ever blessed in America. HN works with several other non profits in the area. How this works, when HN goes to a community, the other groups will not go to the same community for six months and vice versa. Information is shared between the non profits which allows for better follow-up on the wellness of individuals and the community as a whole.

Another thing Karin did was go into more detail the function and everyday life at the nutrition center. This is such a fabulous project. A program is in place not only for the children but also for the mother’s. The children attend school every day so when they go back to their communities they will not be behind in their studies. For the mother’s they are given a 25-step nutrition program so when they leave the Center they are better equipped to help their child and their community to better eating habits. Each mother is sent back to their community with a water filtration bucket.

Water testing has been done at the communities Healthy Ninos serves with staggering results. Bacteria levels in water should be under 500 but sadly in these communities the bacteria levels were over 9,000. Water tested using the filtration buckets were 25!!! Getting more of the water filtration buckets into communities will allow for better drinking water thus being one step closer to a healthier individual.

Signing off for today.

Monday, January 27, 2020

Happy to report today started just like yesterday. Ok, probably not happy (chickens and dogs) but that is life in Honduras. The bigger problem was I looked at my watch and thought it was 5:30 so I got in the shower only to realize it was 4:30. 🥴 My watch did not change times (Honduras is on Central time zone) so I have been up and ready to go way before everyone else. The first duty I had today was figuring out how to sync my watch to the correct time, SUCCESS!!!!

We started our day with a saying: God gave you a fingerprint that no one else has so you can leave an imprint that no one else can. This is a beautiful saying that we can use not only for missions but for our everyday life.

By 7:30am we had the trucks loaded and headed out to the community of El Sauce Las Vegas, Santa Barbara. The trip took us around an hour to real 19 miles. The roads were actually not that bad with, in my mind, the biggest obstacle were the pot holes in the road. 😳

We arrived at the school the a small crowd of community people waiting. As soon as the back door to the truck was opened there were probably 10 individuals waiting to help carry supplies to the school rooms so our clinic could be set up.

Community people lined up under a canopy waiting for registration to begin, once they were registered the next station was vitals (blood pressure and oxygen level) being run by Marlene and Nancy. The next station was deworming (Vernon and Eliana), every person was given either a pill or liquid form of the medicine. They then proceeded to the vitamin station and finally the height/weight station where children up to age 16 were assessed for possible malnutrition. After each station is completed families could go to the gift/donation station manned by Linda and Glenda. At this time, if any needed to see the dentist they were escorted to another waiting area. The dentist had a mobile dental unit so she was able to place fillings as well as extractions. The final two stations were the medical doctors (Dave and Jim) and pharmacy (Carol B and Sylvia). If an individual had a medical issue we had the medications there for them. During the morning session I was able to clean 10 individuals teeth.

As we were waiting for the dentist and doctors to finish their day, the rest of us went outside and interacted with the children. We had a fingernail polish station, coloring station, and balloon station. All three stations were very popular and sadly we had to cut them off so we could get packed up to head back to the Mission House.

We cannot forget the very important construction crew which included Bill. Two cement floors were laid in local homes. The first house was laying a floor for a home that is just starting to be so strutted. It is owned by a 20 year old woman. The second house was putting a floor in her kitchen area. I had the privilege of helping the afternoon crew lay the kitchen floor. The criteria for laying a floor is the individuals must provide the gravel which is approximately 25-30 5-gallon jackets full. Healthy Ninos provides the cement. What we did was put 5 buckets of gravel and a half bag of cement mixed with one and a half buckets of water. Mixed it then poured it onto the floor and smoothed it. My job was dumping the gravel and water, helped mix the cement and watched the rest.

Bill had the honor of presenting new water filtration systems to families of the community. The filtration system will now provide families clean, potable

Back to the Mission House for supper then bed anticipating tomorrow’s community.

Thank you for your prayers.

Gripe...cold, congestion
Headaches body aches arthritis