Would someone please shut off the spigot that won't stop dumping rain on our mission work in Honduras! 

 

For the veterans on Trinity's team, this week is the wettest anyone has experienced.

We are disappointed for the first-timers who have not had the opportunity to see the beauty of this country, to experience the sun and enjoy the views of the Santa Barbara mountains from the front porch of La Casa de Alfredo. However, we have had the joy of seeing the beauty of people in Honduras.

 

Despite the weather, we have done a full day's work at each of the communities on the schedule. Today at El Aguaje, we literally worked in a cloud that settled on this first-time community for FOBF. El Aguaje is the home community for Danilo, FOBF's longest term employee in Honduras. When we arrived, we were greeted by a small group of people. Most were attending the funeral of a woman who died early in the week. One of our first-timers, Jim Eckart, gave his holy moment cross to a little girl (maybe 5 years old) who started talking to him soon after he got off the bus. She pointed to his cross, and he gave it to her. Later, she appeared at Virginia Rhine's station in the medical clinic, and Virginia discovered she was a daughter of the woman who had died.

 

At the opposite end of the age spectrum, Ellen Bruny made a house call for a 93-year-old woman who had suffered a broken leg (her daughter said) or a broken hip sometime in the past couple of years. Ellen noted the woman was well cared for and showed no signs of being bed ridden. Ellen said she thought this was a good example of a culture that shows respect for its elders. Later on, a 9-year-old girl asked Ellen if she could go home with her. The girl knew a lot of English and was very smart.

 

  

Dr. Dick Burch drew on past experience to do some suturing on a man in his 60s who had a machete cut on a leg. Dick got lidocaine (for numbing) and sutures from the dental clinic and used Don Pierce´s Swiss Army knife and leatherman and Larry Girvin's leatherman to sew up the cut.

 

Dr. Bill Curry turned to the pink bubble gum medicine (Amoxiciln) to treat a little boy who showed signs of pneumonia and a 4-year-old boy who had swollen tonsils. The latter was referred for extended care.

 

The general health and the dental health of the community was not particularly good. The people we served were 196 in the clinic, 52 in the eye clinic, 99 in deworming, 34 in Vitamin A, 11 in flouride and 21 in dental with 34 teeth extracted. 

 

 

Our dentist, Dr. Adan Arita, used five instruments and wrestled with a root tip on a 70-something gentleman for seven or eight minutes. Dr. Arita also pulled a partly impacted wisdom tooth from a 19-year-old man. When the tooth came out, Dr. Arita said ¨Got it¨, pointed heavenward and added, ¨Thank you God."

 Roger Hart, who has been the Trinity team's eye guy in years past, saw the new system at work for the first time today and was impressed by how efficient it's become.

 

Good news from Wednesday´s work. The 5-year-old girl got her thumb caught in a coffee grinder made it to the hospital in San Pedro Sula had the laceration sown up. There was no nerve damage. She will lose her nail.

 

We ended the day with a sweet blessing. Que Dios le bendiga! May God Bless You (and pray for the rain, which is coming down hard as of this writing, to stop)!

 

Art Utley and the rest of Team 1

Don Pierce

Ellen Bruny

Virginia Rhines

Hannah Lambert

Jim Eckart

Dick Burch

Bill Curry

Jamie Eubank

Lynn Johnston

Bert Norfleet

Thomas Lott 

Larry Girvin  

Joe Toler