M, D and L visit: Village Gallery

Dad workin away under our champa under Lindsay's supervision...he sure kept busy with my long list of projects during his time here!  Managed to fix our lights, hand a backsplash above our stove, hang and cut curtain rods in the whole house, drill holes in the cement walls for our pictures and shelves, put wooden frames around the doors, screens in a couple windows, play around with our faucets and showers, and paint our microwave shelf.  All in 3 days!

On the last day of their visit, we went on a walking tour of the village and to visit the house of my friend, Sandy.  In her backyard, Sandy asked my family if they wanted to try coconut water, so her brother, Victor, slipped off his flip flops and just climbed up their tree!  He held on with his arms at the top and kicked off coconuts...quite amazing to watch.

Sandy's little sister, Cristy, and Sandy, holding her niece (one of the cute twins from earlier blog pictures!)...Mom was really looking forward to meeting the twins all week -- they are quite the cuties.

Victor whacking the tops of the coconuts to make a hole to drink the water...Dad and Lindsay were the only ones to finish -- I think they have over 16 ounces of water inside!  Then, when the water was finished, Sandy gave us each a spoon to scrape out the inside coconut goop -- it's not my favorite, but it's very clean and readily available throughout the village.  

Life in the village is much more laid back and relaxed than city life -- people here rarely take one hour bus ride down the mountain to go to the nearest large city, La Ceiba, to buy groceries, because they are practically self-sustaining up here.  There are small stores, called bodegas, where you can buy things like soda, chips, flour, corn for the chickens, candy, and other basics, but otherwise the people grow their own food and raise their own livestock.  They are very resourceful with what they cultivate from the land here, but their diets generally do not include many vegetables.  A typical Honduran diet mainly consists of: chicken, either fried, baked or in soup, root vegetables like yucca, fried bananas or plantains, white rice, and red beans.  They also have lots of oranges, pineapple, and banana trees up here -- and mango season is just around the corner!  I can't wait!!

M, D and L visit: Clinic Gallery

The nurse is in the building!  (Not me...Lindsay!)

Children who received a toothbrush and toothbrush from the donations from my home church, St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Decatur. 

Working in the pharmacy filling prescriptions -- Lindsay is getting the hang of it!

Mom and I in the courtyard of the clinic -- during clinic hours she was usually at our house sewing like mad!  Using a not-so-reliable machine, Mom made curtains for our whole house, and also couch covers for our living room furniture.  It sure looks great!

Julio, the foreman of the building of the dorm next to the clinic, is a hypertensive patient who has been doing great with his blood pressure and sugar and has recently quit smoking, but he jokes about how he still has trouble lowering his weight -- that's hard to believe when you see how hard he works!  Since he stops over in the clinic during his workday, as I was pricking his finger to test his blood sugar his hands were completely covered in layers of thick glue!  It was hilarious trying to peel some of it off to find a spot big enough for the tiny glucometer needle.

Me, Dr. Williams, and Lindsay -- hanging out in the pharmacy...at the last second, Martin said "Wait!" and instinctively Lindsay and I both squatted down a couple inches and Martin stood on his tippy toes -- it was pretty funny.

Lindsay and I with our new friend, Isis, who seemed shy at first but eventually turned into quite the model!

A Honduran Zoo

So I was more or less successful in hiding all the small creepy crawlies from my family during their visit, but upon reviewing their photos I realized they were quite fascinated by the larger creatures of Honduras.  Here's a glimpse (not a complete list, of course) of what they saw...

   

Someone's pig next to my backyard fence...one of Sandy's turkeys...
   

The kinkachu at Jason and Sarah's (run the orphanage up the road)...
   
can't get enough of "Paco"...a macaw, the Honduran national bird...
   

Our cats, Monk and Jasmine..."Dot", our new rag-doll puppy...
   

Horses outside the fence of the clinic...cows walking through the village...

Guess it's a bit different than they're used to around here!  Beginning to feel like home for me...even felt that very strongly as I got off the bus the other day.  Must admit, I really do love it here.

Emergency Night

Last week we had our record number of patients in one day since I've been here (a little over 2 months now) -- 33 patients total, 3 of which were emergencies!

One day after clinic when my parents and Lindsay were here visiting, Wendy came over to the house and said we had an emergency machete case -- this boy, Michael, accidentally cut himself and was bleeding pretty bad.  Michael is 12 years old and lives here in Rio Viejo.

  

Later in the day, after dinner, Wendy came back over and told us there was another emergency machete case!  This time it was a guy, Joel, who had been in a fight and his opponent "barely got his arm" -- good thing it didn't get a full swing in!  (Joel was born without a left hand.)  Lindsay was able to assist Martin in tying on the tourniquet and handing gauze, etc.  

Meanwhile I was in the exam room next door where another patient came by -- a 23 year old French Canadian who lives in the area wiped out on his motorcycle at the end of the bridge down the road from the clinic and some people 

from the village brought him to our clinic.  He was concerned about a possible broken wrist and was a little banged up and disorientated, but he returned last week and seems to be doing fine.   

If these patients didn't come to our clinic they would've had to catch a ride down the mountain to La Ceiba which is over an hour away -- that's if they caught the bus (which runs about 5 times a day) or if a pickup was on its way down.  What a day!

Up the Mountain...

So we took the Xterra up the mountain with a new record of people and stuff it it:

-9 full-grown not-small people

-8 suitcases/duffles full of their stuff and lots of donations

-Groceries 

I think Mom's question of "Can't we just take a taxi to your house?" was quickly answered in about 15 minutes during the bumpy trek which winds through the mountains.  Oh yeah, and it was raining!