Hitting the books

"EDUCATION IS THE PROGRESSIVE DISCOVERY OF OUR OWN IGNORANCE."


Actually we don't really use books -- all our lectures are power point presentations
which we print off in place of buying loads of books. But 2 weeks ago I started in the Dr. William M. Scholl School of Podiatric Medicine at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in North Chicago, IL. So far I'm taking Biochemistry, Gross Anatomy, Structure & Function (physiology and histology) and a class called Essentials of Clinical Reasoning. Already I'm astonished at how much can be learned when adequate time is spend staring at/studying it. I think I only studied this much during finals week at Wheaton, but so far I'm enjoying all my classes, but leaning toward Anatomy being my favorite.

End of Summer

Last summer was kind of a blur, but I mostly remember it being relaxing, enjoyable and a time that I could focus on my relationships with family and friends back here in the States. I spent time in Decatur, a bit in Chicago, traveled to GA, MN and WV for friends' weddings, and went camping in MI. I had time to read a lot of books, explore the northern suburbs by bike (no small feat) and learn how to cook for one person. Eventually I moved to an apartment in Lake Bluff, IL which is 3 miles from school, and still close to a couple good Wheaton buddies.
Photo taken at a Chicago Symphony Orchestra concert at the Ravinia outdoor music theatre with friends Beth (pictured), her husband, Graham, and my good buddy Jean.

Sandy's Scholarship

Soon after moving to Honduras, Sandy and I became buddies and she was the one person I felt comfortable chatting with in Spanish.  Not asking for directions or making small talk, but actually having a conversation.  Nick even mentioned when he came to visit how he noticed that I actually tried to tell funny stories to her in Spanish!  Sandy's subtle and sly sense of humor along with her patience with my endless mistakes made her a fun person to learn from -- not only speaking Spanish, but about life as a Honduran girl my age.  I ate meals at her house and visited with her family often, and our friendship really grew throughout my time in Honduras.

(Sandy and me under her birthday sign back in April)

After learning about the educational system and experiencing firsthand the difficulties of the application and entrance process, I felt that God was really asking me "Well, what are you going to do about it?"  I was hesitant at first, knowing it would be difficult to deal with sending money, especially since it was a friend and because I was moving back to the States.  But those excuses were just ways I was looking for the easy way out.  I decided to start a scholarship fund for Sandy which is similar in the setup to the scholarships of the other missionaries in the area.  Sharon Washburn, administrator at the Christian high school, has graciously offered to help with the distribution of the funds on the Honduran end of things so the money is more secure.  Plus I get her added experience of having dealt with this endeavor before.

(Photo taken during first week of living in Honduras!)

 Sandy and her family are very excited that she can continue her education at the public university in the city, which is about an hour away from Rio Viejo.  What a special and extraordinary opportunity for her – the first to attend college in her family!  Sandy is interested in studying business with a focus on tourism industry studies.  She wants to return back to the river valley where she grew up to be involved and affect her community. 

Necessary funds which include tuition, books, housing, food, bus fare, and a little spending money have been estimated and adjusted by missionaries who support students in similar situation as Sandy.  A check will be sent to the administrators of IER who will directly deposit Sandy’s funds in the Honduran baking system.  In this way, Sandy will receive money on a monthly basis directly into an Honduran bank account.  She will therefore be responsible to pay her bills, budget for upcoming expenses, and learn to responsibly manage money.  

I spoke with her the other day on the phone for the first time being back.  We had so much fun catching up and could have talked for longer!

If you're interested in donating to the scholarship, or in more info about the logistics of the process, feel free to contact me at allisonippel@yahoo.com.  

"Bolsas de Brenda"

"Bolsas de Brenda" means Brenda's Bags, the name of the small business of a good friend of mine from Rio Viejo.  By providing an order of handmade purses and tote bags, Brenda is able to work in her home while taking care of her 3 children.  I was blessed by our relationship while living in Honduras and Brenda and I still keep in touch frequently on the phone.

(Me with one of the twins the week before I left Honduras)

 Each handmade bag ($10, tote or purse style available) is designed and crafted by Brenda Carcamo in her home in Rio Viejo, Honduras.  Brenda and her husband, Alfredo, live in a typical Honduran home made mostly of scrap wood, sticks, cardboard walls, and a tin roof.  The children all sleep in the same bed and Brenda’s kitchen is outside her home.  Alfredo works a variety of jobs when he can find work— as a farmer, painter in the city and also doing construction.  Brenda earns money by making and selling snacks and drinks during the snack and lunch bread at the local high school. She is especially grateful to have work during the rainy season (during fall/winter months in the States), as this is a particularly hard time for her husband to find work.

·      The bag can also serve as a reminder to pray for Brenda and her family, and all who are in poverty and hunger all over the world.

·      Reuse your bag at the store to avoid throwing away plastic bags. (The average American uses 492 plastic bags a year!)

If you're interested in learning more about Brenda's bags, please email me!  I will be taking orders for the bags for one more week so that they can arrive before Christmas (they would make great gifts!).  

Brenda Update

Progress with Brenda's kitchen!  

Brenda and I have been staying in touch via cell phone since I've been back in the States and she and her family are doing well, although she mentioned last time that my Spanish has gotten much worse!  

Because of the money she has earned selling the purses and bags she sews, she has been able to buy the bricks for her new kitchen!  Brenda and Alfredo are excited to add a kitchen to their home to keep the chickens from flying on the stove and also to keep the rain out when Brenda is preparing food.  She is hoping to have the construction done before the rainy season starts this fall.  

HAPPY birthday!  The twins turned 2 in July!  Look at their beautiful dresses!  Somebody must've had a little too much fun.

These pictures were taken off of Heather's blog, but sure seems like they had a fun party.  I'm sorry I had to miss it!

Aunt Cristy with the birthday girls (Alesandra and Alejandra).

Honduran friends

Claire, me, Heather, Martin and Wendy (fellow interns along with the Dr. Williams and his wife who I worked with)

Brenda, Alesandra, Minor and Alejandra (Sandy's sister-in-law with her 3 children)

Chris (teacher at IER), Sharon (nurse at our clinic), me, Claire (fellow intern), Allison & Larry Smoak (missionaries living nearby),  and Joel

My buddy, Ronald Joel Velasquez Hernandez

Sandy's birthday

Sandy's sister, Cristy

Elida, the culinary extraordinaire for our short-term teams

Movie night at Earl and Sharon's house (administrators of Instituto El Rey high school)

Maxs, Elmer and Jeremias (boys who attend IER and live across the street at Earl & Sharon's house)

My class farewell

This is a video from my 9th grade English class (the more well-behaved one!).  They sang a song for me in English, "This is the Day".  Enjoy!

Brenda visits her mother!

As I mentioned in a previous post, my friend Brenda is a mother of 3 beautiful children and has been using her talents in sewing and designing bags for me to bring home to friends and family in the States.  I am hoping to continue to purchase bags from Brenda, but it's difficult as I am not living in Honduras anymore (I returned on May 16th).  I had to purchase the fabric, buttons, thread, etc. in the city and bring it to Brenda, and then pay her when she finished.  As Rio Viejo doesn't have mail service, it's a bit complicated to get the bags to the States, but I'm hoping to work with the missionaries who still live there and see what we can do.  It's hard to leave Brenda and her situation and want to help, but being so far away.  

Here one of the twins is taking a nap while her sister mischievously swings the hammock.Brenda also makes and sells food during the breaks at the high school to help support her family.

Brenda, like many Honduran women, works very hard, long hours to care for and support her family.  Her husband works in the city when he can find work, so Brenda has been able to save the money she's made from these bags to pay for the bus fare to visit her mother over Mother's Day.  Brenda took all three kids and spent 5 days with her mother, who she hasn't seen since she was 1 year old.  I asked her what it was like when they first saw each other and she said there were "lots of hugs and kisses, but no crying.  We were just so happy to see each other."  She also added that Minor was a bit apprehensive when his grandmother hugged him, but the twins were both very scared!  Brenda is hoping that her children can be closer to their grandma now and that their relationship will grow stronger.  

Brenda and her husband, Alfredo, have also been saving their money to build a kitchen on their house.  She has already bought some of the bricks and said Alfredo knows how to do construction.  He will build it after they purchase the remaining 100 bricks, cement, and iron rods.  

Brenda is enthusiastic to have an enclosed kitchen where her chickens won't fly up on the pots and where the dishes can be kept clean after they are washed.  Also, she's anxious to put a new doorway to the house as the 3 steps leaving the house are steep and dangerous.  She is scared and nervous after one of her little girls was unconscious after hitting her head from a falling down the steps.  Life in Honduras and all who live in poverty is full of unfulfilled promises, hurt, surprises, and a lack of options.  I hope God will continue to lay on my heart people like Brenda and her family, the awareness of their situations, and what I can do about it.

Saying goodbye to Brenda was probably the hardest goodbye for me, and I'll miss her energetic smile and fun personality.  She is so joyful and a wonderful mother.  When I was saying goodbye, Minor shared a chip with me from the small bag which was probably his lunch.  So generous, yet they have so little.  With tears in her eyes, she thanked me over and over and told me she's excited for when I can come back to visit as we will have a big meal of fish that Alfredo will catch from the river, with tortillas, beans and fried bananas...A true example of hospitality and selflessness.  As I said to her, it's not "adios", it's "hasta luego!"

Final Clinic Days

Assisting Martin cast a woman in the hospital in La Ceiba who broke her arm a couple days before.  She called Martin who brought the casting materials down with us so we could cast her arm that had been in a sling.  Have I mentioned things are a bit different in Honduras?

A couple weeks ago this patient (in the hammock) accidentally cut himself with his machete while working in his fields far away from his village.  He yelled to his friends who found him bleeding profusely from the gash just above his knee.  The friends then ran down the mountain to bring a hammock and carried him to our clinic where he was stitched up and drank IV bags to replace some of the fluid that was lost from bleeding for over 3 hours.

A Honduran campesino-style ambulance...and a sign of true friendship!  

Part of my duties included pre-screening patients and taking blood pressure, temperature, weight, etc.  

This little baby had strep throat, an upper respiratory illness very common in our area.

I also filled prescriptions and explained the different medications to the patients, which sometimes is more difficult as many adults in our area are illiterate.  

One of my favorite patients -- she's a trooper and could out-hike me any day!

Assisting (i.e. pinning the kid down) an injection of penicillin for one of many cases of step throat we saw in the past couple weeks.

Trust and Obey

TRUST AND OBEY

   1.            When we walk with the Lord

           in the light of his word,

         what a glory he sheds on our way!

                While we do his good will,

          he abides with us still,

             and with all who will trust and obey.

Refrain:

            Trust and obey, for there's no other way

            to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

2.        Not a burden we bear,

            not a sorrow we share,

            but our toil he doth richly repay;

       not a grief or a loss,

            not a frown or a cross,

            but is blest if we trust and obey.

3.            But we never can prove

            the delights of his love

       until all on the altar we lay;

            for the favor he shows,

            for the joy he bestows,

                     are for them who will trust and obey.

4.            Then in fellowship sweet

        we will sit at his feet,

            or we'll walk by his side in the way;

            what he says we will do,

               where he sends we will go;

    never fear, only trust and obey.

Larry mentioned this hymn at house church last weekend as a couple of us are leaving soon (me this week, nurse and her husband next month, and Heather later this fall).  It's my Grandma Ippel's favorite hymn and is such a beautiful song.  Think it's my favorite hymn too and also my prayer as I move back to the States this week.  That the Lord would seal in my character and being this part of my journey -- to always love what he loves, and never forget this place and time he's given me.    

A Taste of Honduras

For real fresh fruit.

Papaya tree from my backyard.

Pataste plant (prickly pear) at Larry's.

Lizard friend on our fence.

Pretty beetle friend.

Agriculture Trip

During the last weekend of the Canadian high schooler's two-month stay in Honduras, the team splint into three groups for a sleepover weekend with one of three rotations -- clinic group had campout in remote village with little medical care, construction projects for the orphanage group, and for us ag people, learning to live simply and to live out Christ's love.

Part of living simply was learning how to make lots of foods from scratch.  Pictured here are students making peanut butter, oatmeal bread, and homemade granola.

We also worked in the fields in order to experience a bit of what it's like to be a farmer in a place like Honduras.  Here we are weeding the banana trees, which is done using a very sharp machete.

The most eye opening and memorable part of the weekend was the hike and overnight stay at the home of a fellow farmer and friend of Larry's, Don Chombo.  Just to walk to the village took about an hour through a shaky Indiana Jones-style hammock bridge, dense jungle, steep rocky mountainside, and even across a river -- which is amazing as its an almost daily routine for some in the area.  

Pictured above is a view of Chombo's farm -- not quite what most of us envision as farmland.  But this is where he grows his corn and other vegetables.  He also carries down his harvest on his back in 100-pound sacks in this terrain, which amazed us as we had trouble just walking through.

To help support his family, Chombo sells cilantro in La Ceiba, about 2 hours from his home.  Here we were learning how he uses banana leaves and a part of another plant for string to package his bundles.

All in the group were astounded at the hospitality and generosity of Don Chombo's family.  We brought a live chicken to put in the soup we had for dinner, but the rest of our food came from Chombo's land.  Most students mentioned how amazed they were at how much they gave to us, even though they have so little.  

These people are one storm away from being hungry.

How can I identify with these people as my life is so different?

Chickens!

Ugliest Chicken of the Year award:

One day during the 10-day visit of my friend Alex, we crowned this featherless friend first place.  Unfortunately it must've heard and while we were snoozing in our hammocks it took out its revenge by stealthily sneaking into the house and leaving a number of splats scattered throughout the house, despite the tall barricades which guarded the back door.

Here he is purusing the kitchen in search of the vast array of dead bugs...

...under the kitchen table, where he really hit the jackpot...

...in my ROOM, that little sneaker...

...under the couch (quite a contrast of cultures, no?)...

...and finally, FUERA!!  And stay out!