Renee's adventures in Honduras

Cool creatures around the house

2011-06-27T19:02:00.001-07:00

Sometimes interesting creatures come to visit, and sometimes I just happen upon them.

Community Health Promoters

2011-05-16T18:05:00.000-07:00

At Hospital Loma de Luz, we see many patients with illnesses that could easily be prevented. From children with frequent diarrhea due to unclean water to malaria outbreaks and patients with severe asthma due to smoke in the house from cooking over an open fire. Rather than continue to treat the same diseases over and over with no change, we desire to make lasting health changes in the surrounding villages so that people will lead healthier lives and take more responsibility for their own health care. This is achieved through education. However, many people in rural Honduras have superstitions and ancient beliefs that make it difficult for foreigners to teach effectively. Therefore, the most successful method of educating the people is through training a select few who desire to understand basic concepts of health and hygiene. These few can then go back to their friends and neighbors and teach them in a way that they can understand. These few can make changes in their own homes that their neighbors will notice and desire to imitate. We pray that these few can spread out and change the face of Honduras.

In February of 2010, we started a community health worker training program in conjunction with MAP International Honduras. Thirty men and women from surrounding villages are being trained in the basics of health, hygiene and education. The students spend three days at the hospital in intense training, four times per year for three years. Our friends from MAP International have been instrumental in organizing the program and providing educational materials that they have used for many years in other parts of Honduras and the world. Our students learn not only about health and first aid but they also learn how to teach. In each session, the students practice various teaching methods so they will be able to effectively communicate information to others in their communities. A large part of the course also involves learning how to become a person of integrity who will be trusted and confided in. This is vital as the students begin to do community risk assessments and plan healthy changes for their communities. We pray that lasting changes will be made in our communities through the teaching, influence and Christian witness of our community health workers.

Sweat and Tears

2011-05-10T21:06:00.000-07:00

Little Maryuri arrived at 6pm in a homemade cot carried by her father and sister. She was burned by hot water at noon, and it took 6 hours for her father to fashion the makeshift cot and bring her all the way down out of the mountains. She was burned on her back and arms and a little on her legs. There was a chunky pink substance all over her back which the father said was good for burns. It looked like pepto bismol. He was so concerned and attentive, you could tell this little girl was the apple of his eye. We all had tears in our eyes as he caressed her hair and told her it would be alright. We put Maryuri to sleep with Ketamine and began the painstaking process of washing off the pink goo without breaking open any of the blisters. She began to shiver, so we turned off the fans. Pretty soon the nurse and I were drenched in sweat as we dried her off and wrapped up the burns. When I went into the hall to give the father an update, he and the sister were nearly asleep in their chairs. Their clothes were covered in sweat stains and dirt. I realized what a wimp I was to be cursing this heat in the ER with no fans for an hour, when he had just hiked for 6 hrs in the afternoon sun, up and down the mountains, carrying his crying daugter. That is love!

I am so thankful to serve a God who loves me even more than that!

More than I ever wanted to know about rice

2009-11-28T09:51:00.001-08:00

Today I had the morning off and decided to accompany our resident agriculturalist and his family and visitors down to the fields in front of the hospital. The Hondurans were harvesting rice from the field and it turned out to be quite fascinating. First of all, the rice looks like just another weed growing in the field. Second of all, you have to beat it to death on a board to get the rice off. Then the rice has to be tossed about and blown to get the husk off. The most interesting thing to me was realizing that rice does not have to be grown in a swamp. I have always seen "rice paddies" in huge puddles of water. However, according to the locals, rice can be grown anywhere, it is just often grown in swampy areas because it tolerates the water better than any other crop. Other plants would be washed away or drowned out, but rice stands firm in deep waters. Fascinating!

After the rice lessons, we wandered through the fields taking random photos of pretty scenery, huge banana spiders, and cute little crabs. Then we headed down through the "enchanted forest" to Miss Christie's beach. It was a lovely day!!!

Apologies

2009-11-28T09:48:00.000-08:00

I would like to apologize to all who have looked at my blog for updates the last 6 months and found absolutely nothing. I have been a complete slacker and I'm sorry. I vow to be much less of a blog slacker in the future! The following blog entries will be completely out of order and random, but at least it's a taste of my life and ministry here! Thank you for your patience!

Extreme Easter Egg Hunt

2009-05-27T22:39:00.000-07:00

This Easter after a wonderful worship service and a delicious potluck, we had our second annual easter egg hunt. Some of the missionary kids felt they were "too old" to be hunting for eggs, so I set them to work hiding them. Next thing I know they are climbing in the trees, up on the roof, putting eggs in wall crevices high above the ground. And one creative young man decided to make an "egg bomb". Very funny!

I invited the kids from the Children's Center to come play with us and for some of them it was their first easter egg hunt ever. However, it didn't take long for them to join the competition and be running all over the grounds, climbing the trees, crawling under cars and climbing walls. Some even risked life and limb climbing down into a ravine! Fortunately, no one was injured!

Sunrise Service

2009-05-27T22:15:00.001-07:00

Easter sunrise service was a really special time for our community this year. For those of you who know me, you might be shocked that I would drag my body out of bed BEFORE the crack of dawn for anything! However, on this occasion, my sweet friend Mariah was getting baptized, so I knew I had to go. Even though most of us arrived bleary eyed and stumbling about on the sand, we were soon lifting our gravely morning voices in praise to the Lord who had created the lovely beach reflecting pastel pink clouds.

Then we all walked over to a little stream that plunges down the mountain side, forming a nice little pool in the rocks before spilling into the ocean. People gathered on the rocky cliffs on either side of the pool to witness the baptism of one of our 12 year old missionary kids, Mariah. It was a beautiful scene to witness her father baptize her and tears of joy sprang to my eyes. This act of faith was a powerful witness to the other missionary kids and the Honduran children who were present.

Sally the Anteater

2009-04-04T22:02:00.000-07:00

Sally was found hanging by her tail at the side of the road. Her mother had been killed and the killers were trying to sell the baby. Baby anteaters live on their mother's backs until they are 1 year old. Sally is only a few months old. Even if she had been set free she wouldn't have survived. Rosanne saw her and took pity. They bought her just to save her life. Now she has become a very sweet pet! After some research on what in the world anteaters eat besides ants, everyone was surprised to find that milk mixed with honey and blue cheese is a favorite. She puts her front claws on the sides of the cup and sucks up the liquid with her long thin tongue. She makes a slurping sounds like someone slurping up spaghetti!

I had the privilege of babysitting her last night and it was very entertaining. After her milk, honey and blue cheese dinner, she went outside for a look around the place. She slowly meandered through the yard, occasionally digging up ant hills and having a little snack. When she was tired she snuggled up in my lap for a nap with her tail curled around my arm. Today she wanted to explore the house so while I was cooking I let her wander around. Suddenly I heard a noise on the stove. Sally had climbed up the side of the oven and was sitting on the stove. Luckily the burners were off! Later I turned around to see that she had climbed up the drawers onto the kitchen counter and was sitting on the cheese grater. I decided to wash that again before grating more cheese. I swear she can climb up anything!

These photos aren't that great, but give you an idea of what she looks like. I'll get some better photos soon!

A New Heartbeat

2009-04-04T21:47:00.000-07:00

March 21, 2009

It is such a privilege to be the first one to hear a new heartbeat! It is awesome to hear them breathe and cry for the first time, to see them open their eyes for the first time, to see them eat for the first time. But to hear their little heart beating inside their chest...the sound of health and vitality. That is really something!

Neidy came in today with her newborn baby. When I saw her last week she told me she would have her baby over the weekend. I smiled and nodded and said "yes, maybe". Today she comes in with a precious little bundle all dressed in pink. Victoria, born last weekend, is a perfectly beautiful baby. Victoria has a perfectly round head, perfect little features and a sweet little cry. What a doll! When I listened to her heartbeat for the first time, I was reminded of the miracle that occurs each time a new life enters this world. That all those complex organs are working together just right for this little being to survive and grow. What a marvelous designer we have!

Sunset on the beach with Jasmine

2009-02-26T18:47:00.000-08:00

The Girl Without a Face

2009-02-25T12:55:00.000-08:00

Cancer has taken over her face, leaving a part of her mouth as the only recognizable facial feature. Seven year old Marbella came to our hospital with a large, advanced, cancerous tumor covering her face, asking if there was anything we could do. She was admitted to the hospital for fluids and pain control. A biopsy was taken. In this country, with such an advanced tumor, little Marbella will not live much longer in this world. Our pediatrician recognized this immediately, and began talking to little Marbella about the Lord. The first few days she would just turn her head away or change the subject. She was not interested in talking about God. As a community we prayed for her and her parents prayed for her. After a week, when our Pediatrician approached her yet again with the Gospel message, she finally listened. Something had clicked and she was ready to hear the good news. That day she wept and accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior. She will be with him soon!

The Hatfields and the McCoys...

2009-01-27T13:54:00.000-08:00

There's nothing like an old fashioned family feud to keep us docs busy. In the small village of San Jose de Eden, a five hour hike up the mountains from the road, all has not been well.

Last week after already going into the hospital twice that night, I was called at 5:30am with the report of a 79 year old man that had been shot in the chest and in both arms. My first question was, "Is he alive?". The nurse told me that he was talking to her and complaining of a "little pain" in the right arm where she could see the broken bones bulging at the skin with every movement. Miraculously, the bullet to the chest did not damage any major internal organs, but he did have two broken arms. He says men came into the home to rob he and his wife while they were sleeping and when he got out of bed, they shot him three times. His family made a makeshift cot and carried this man down the mountain in the dark for 5 hours!

The next night as this sweet old man was laying in bed with two casts on his arms so that he couldn't even scratch his nose, another man came in from that same little mountain village. He had been cut up with a machete and had bled so much that they couldn't get a blood pressure. After giving him a lot of fluid and stopping the blood gushing from his arm, he improved some. Dr. Greene was caring for him and just happened to be his blood type, so then and there between giving meds and sewing up his wounds, Dr. Greene donated blood for a transfusion. If that isn't an awesome missionary doctor, I don't know what is!!!

It turns out that this young machete wound victim had been attacked by a son of the elderly man who was shot. The other son (who incidentally had been shot in the shoulder a month ago) of the elderly man was in the hospital with his dad and kept going into the room where the machete wound victim was. Once everyone realized what was going on, the police were brought in to help protect our patients from the revenge of family members.

Later on, a young boy came in with a gunshot to his knee and reported his father had been killed. He was from a village near to the others. We can't find a definite connection, but it sounds like there are several angry men in that region who are drinking too much and causing a lot of problems!

Fortunately, there has been no violence in the hospital and everyone denies everything. We sometimes hear about these family feuds in the mountains where there is no law and no police ever venture. People take the law into their own hands in those parts, just like in the Old West. Who knows what may have precipitated this latest round of violence? A stolen cow, a stolen wife, land disagreements from generations past... We just pray that as we reach out to communities here and eventually farther up in the mountains, that people will learn a way other than revenge. We pray that they will learn the way of Christ and not feel compelled to shoot and machete each other in retribution for what has happened to their family or forefathers.

Fun in the Mud

2008-11-21T12:57:00.000-08:00

I wouldn't exactly classify our missionary kids here as the type to tip-toe through the mud, trying not to get their pants or shoes dirty. They are much more likely to run around barefoot and find a nice muddy hill to slide down! Somehow I got drug into one of these adventures, though I had the brains not to fling myself down the muddy slope myself. You might think these were some of the young boys, running around getting dirty...nope. It was the girls! We all walked up the muddy road to the "perfect" very steep hill of mud and they flung themselves down it over and over. If only they had a toboggan or even a good trashcan lid to slide down on, I may have tried it. But alas, my bum is not as young as it used to be...:)

After they had giggled and screamed themselves hoarse with glee and gotten themselves completely covered in the slippery red mud, they decided I was much too clean. By the time we got back down the road, one of the Mom's said, "oh, Renee, I'm surprised you went down it!". When I told her I hadn't, she didn't believe me because I was covered in mud from head to toe!

Flood Aftermath

2008-11-19T20:33:00.000-08:00

The flooding here in October was pretty incredible. At least for me. It was intense for a while, but now things are getting back to normal. Thank the Lord there wasn't nearly as much permanent damage to the villages as there could have been. People spent a lot of time digging mud out of homes and some of the mud huts collapsed, but people seemed to band together and help each other initially. Since all the bridges were out for nearly 2 weeks, people were running short on their food supply. We thought they were getting plenty of supplies through a government organization that was bringing in helicopters to drop food. However, we quickly realized that only the political and strong among the villagers were getting the food. Distribution was not organized, so the young, fast and healthy got what they wanted and the poor, feeble and hungry were left at the back of the lines with nothing. Our missionary community organized to assess needs in the different communities around us and help with appropriate distribution of the resources as well as some donations of our own. When the bridges were finally repaired there was a mass exodus for the city!

It is wonderful to have electricity and water and actually have my food in my own house rather than in one of the refrigerators running off the hospital generator. It had a real community feel though for all the missionaries to come to the worship center at the hospital to get their food from the community fridges. Many of us ate there as well. Eating by candle light loses its charm pretty quickly! :)

I had the distinct privilege of crossing two fast flowing rivers in a very tiny dugout canoe. My friend Daron came to visit and even though he delayed his flight by a few days, the bridges were still not usable. So, I climbed into the tiny canoe that only stuck out of the water about 2 inches. I practically held my breath the entire way, I was so afraid to move and flip the canoe over. Then I had a mile walk to calm my nerves before climbing into an even smaller canoe for the next river! :)

There are many patients with colds, but not at many serious infections as I anticipated. We'll see about the Malaria and Dengue! There are mosquitos hatching everywhere. :( We've had to cancel our medical outreach to the Cayos Cochinos Islands twice already due to the weather. We are going to try again the beginning of December if the ocean is calmer.

There are lots of photos here. These pics probably aren't that impressive if you don't know what it used to look like, but here they are anyway. The building with a huge hole in it is the Baptist church in a village nearby. The pic of the huge roots is a massive tree in the middle of a river. The pic of the woman walking toward her hut shows where her banana tree crop used to be. I went up to our favorite swimming hole and barely recognized it. Where a jungle path had been there were just rocks and a couple trees left standing. The water had overflowed its bank so much that it ripped out all the trees and undergrowth for about 20 feet above the banks. Some HUGE boulders were out of place and where there were lovely rocks, there is now sand; where there was a sandy beach, there are now tons of rocks. Incredible what a lot of water moving really fast can do!

Tears From Heaven

2008-11-19T20:09:00.000-08:00

I wrote the following description right after attending the funeral of 12 year old Karen who died of bone cancer:

We drove solemnly up the windy road, climbing the hill outside the city. Humble homes were stacked on the hillsides and vegetation dripped down the sides of the cliffs. Soon we joined the crowd of mourners standing in the muddy streets all around Karen’s house. We were ushered inside the tiny living room where the small black coffin sat, covered with flowers. The coffin was so small, coffins should not be that small. A life ended too soon.

Karen’s older sister clung to the coffin, wailing in grief. Karen’s mother entered the room, her face puffy from crying. Fresh tears streamed down her face when she saw our small group from the hospital. I held her tight and we both sobbed for the loss of her 12 year old daughter. She thanked us over and over for all that was done at the hospital to treat Karen’s bone cancer. She said that in Karen’s last days, when the cancer that had metastasized to her lungs made breathing difficult, she begged her family to take her back to Loma de Luz hospital, to her doctor. We wept fresh tears.

There were prayers and songs and tears. Then the long wake to the cemetery. Hordes of students came. There were children weeping everywhere, crying out for their beloved classmate. So young for such pain and grief. The coffin was so small…

As they prepared to place the coffin inside the tomb, Karen’s mother threw herself on the coffin, screaming, “ I want to touch her one more time! Just one more time, my baby!”. Karen’s sister fainted, her brother collapsed to his knees in tears. Off to the left there was a young voice crying out, “I miss her so much! I miss my friend!” I looked over to see a young boy in his blue and white school uniform, clutching his mother, tears streaming down his face. I scanned the crowd of mourners as the rain began to fall gently. There was not a dry eye in the crowd. Soon raindrops were mingling with the tears streaming down people’s faces. It was as if even the heavens were grieving the loss of this young life.

This funeral was so sad, but I’m very glad I chose to attend. It was very different from funerals in the States. In Latin culture there is no one telling you, “hush, don’t cry” or “be strong” or “it will be OK”. There is no one expecting you to “hold it together”. Latinos cry and wail and lament the loss in very physical ways. They actually let their emotions out and I think they grieve in a healthier way than we do. In the midst of grieving the loss of their little girl, this family was also praising God for the life Karen had lived and the lives she had touched. They wailed and screamed that they wanted her back, yet they said prayers of thanksgiving that she was happy with her Lord, her suffering was over. They thanked God that someday they would see her again in heaven, happy and whole, smiling beside her Savior.

Attack Dog

2008-11-19T20:00:00.000-08:00

Tonight when Jasmine climbed onto my lap on the couch, she happened to stretch up and look at herself in the mirror on the wall. Talk about freaking out! She was in attack mode! She started barking, hair standing on end and she nearly lunged for the wall. (of course the dog on the wall was barking back at her, so she was naturally upset…) I pulled her down so she couldn’t see herself, but she kept trying to get up. She was sniffing the air and barking….I nearly peed my pants I was laughing so hard. Finally I put her on the ground and she ran to the window, then the door, then sniffed all around under the mirror and tried to look up into the mirror above her head. I was still rolling with laughter and trying to get her to calm down. Finally she decided the threat was over, but for ten minutes, she would still give the occasional growl in the direction of the mirror. :)

October Floods

2008-11-01T12:25:00.000-07:00

We have had some crazy rain this week. I was sure we were in the middle of a hurricane. This storm has actually caused more flooding and damage than former hurricanes! The flooding caused all the rivers we know of to overflow their banks, and many ran right through the middle of villages. So many homes have been flooded and filled with mud. Crops like banana trees have been flattened by the rushing water and we are all isolated from the city and from one another by the overflowing rivers. Two of the main bridges between us and the city are uncrossable and people are starting to go across in little canoes. Kinda dangerous with the fast-moving water! We have been out of power all week and they are working frantically to get the power lines back up. We had no water for a few days, so we had to gather water in buckets outside but now our system is working again. Thankfully, they had just filled the diesel tanks for the hospital generator so we were able to move freezers and fridges into the hospital areas to keep our food from spoiling.

We have been very blessed with our dedicated employees who have hiked through mud and forged rivers to get to work. Then we are challenged with treating the few patients who can actually make it here and making sure it is safe for them to go back home.

We still do not know what devastation has occured in the mountains. Here on the coast, only a few homes have been completely washed away. But with the mudslides we are having here, we can only imagine how many homes have slid down the muddy mountains, leaving their inhabitants homeless, wet and cold. We pray for their safety and our wisdom to help them when we can.

Delivery!

2008-10-27T19:42:00.000-07:00

Friday, Oct. 17, 2008

We had a delivery early this morning! She was a lovely patient that I had seen many times for prenatal care. She came in the middle of the night because she was having some bleeding and was scared. That turned out to be fine, but when her water broke there was thick meconium and it was my turn to be scared! Luckily, I had a very experienced OB nurse with me (thanks Amber!) and I called John down as well in case there was trouble with the baby. I can't tell you what a difference it makes to work with a nurse who actually knows what she is doing...and is good at it!!! Our Honduran nurses are really sweet, but when it comes to OB, I have to hold their hands and tell them every little thing to do.

Everything turned out great, and as you can see in the photos, Mom and Dad were beaming!!! Three of their six other children were there as well and treated their new little sister like a new baby doll. They were thrilled! So, needless to say, this was a very fun day for me!

Girls Night

2008-10-17T22:10:00.000-07:00

We had a birthday party/sleepover at my place and what a blast! I invited all the MK girls over and we made pizzas, had cake, played sharades until we couldn't laugh any more, and then cuddled up on my bed and floor to watch a chick flick.

During the movie there were 6 of us on my bed. However, they all wanted to stay there to sleep all night. I swear, they are like a pack of puppies, they just lay all over each other. I'm great with that while movie watching or hanging out, but sleeping is another matter! So, Catie and I slipped out and slept in a different room and had beds all to ourselves.

It was a great time to reconnect after most of them had been gone all summer. I've really missed those girls and it's great to have them back!

Don't wear flip flops in the mud

2008-10-17T20:08:00.001-07:00

One of the most important lessons I have learned this week is that you should never wear flimsy flip flops in thick mud that is stickier than molasses. It makes for great difficulty in walking.

Norma and I went up to the mountains to meet with a community health nurse about an upcoming outreach to the mountain villages nearby. It had been raining for 4-5 days and there was plenty of mud everywhere! The car had no problems, but my feet were not so good! I had worn my lovely flip flops that rinse off easily, thinking we would be walking through a river and I didn't want to get my boots wet. Unfortunately, our trek led us down a very sticky red clay road and up a cow trail covered with cow patties and slick mud. About 10 steps from the car Norma did a classic "slipped on a banana peel" maneuver and landed square on her bottom. Once we could contain our giggles and move on, I started leaving a flip flop behind with nearly every step! My foot would sink completely into the mud and the suction wouldn't let me pull the flip flop out! It was very frustrating and made for slow progress! Where there were no obvious sticks and rocks, I just went barefoot and squished through the manure laden mud, trying to imagine that I was actually getting a very expensive mud treatment that was very good for my skin! :) I have to admit that on more than one occasion, Norma and I mistook a soft squishy cow patty for a solid rock and rather than finding a stable foothold, found ourselves sliding back down the hill. Ick! Unfortunately, all that trekking through mud was to no avail because the river was too high to cross and the nurse was not able to come meet us. We'll have to try again next week, this time with proper footwear!

This photo is after I had washed off my feet. I was actually covered in red clay up to my ankles most of the time! And you should have seen the splashes of mud on our backsides and even in our hair!!!

Swimming lessons

2008-10-17T19:57:00.000-07:00

Many of you may remember the story of a girl in a little white dress who was sexually abused by a man with HIV. Praise God, her 3 month test came back negative for HIV!!! That is such great news! We still have to check again at 6 months, but this is very encouraging. Little Andrea actually seems to be doing quite well in spite of all that has happened to her. She is doing well living at the Children's Center and attending school. I had the chance to take her and some of the other kids from the Children's Center to the beach and the river this summer. When we were at the beach, she wouldn't go out deep and play with the other kids and she told me that she had never learned to swim. So, when we went to the river, I took some floaties for her and we spent some time learning to swim. Jasmine was a great example. I didn't even have to try to explain the doggy paddle, she just had to imitate the dog! When she was in clinic getting her HIV test done this week, she ran up to me excitedly and asked when we were going to the river again. She is ready for another swimming lesson!

Swinging from vines

2008-09-29T12:52:00.001-07:00

This is an email I wrote to my Mom a while back and I thought I would share it!

Today clinic was pretty busy and I got out late again. I ran into Hannah (10 yo) on the road and she wanted me to come over and swim in their water hole. So, I but on my suit and went over. They have dug out a huge hole in the middle of their stream and dammed it up so they can swim in it. Its pretty cool, out in the jungle, completely covered over by trees and lotsa vines hanging down that the kids swing on and drop into the water. The last two times I've been there I just swam a little and watched them climb the trees and swing from vines. This time they really wanted me to drop into the water but I hate jumping into water from that high, so I kept making excuses. Usually 5 feet is about my limit! Then they got the main vine all stuck up in a tree and I was relieved. Unfortunately, we somehow ended up making the deal that if they got the vine out of the tree, I would swing on it. So, with renewed vigor, Gabe and Hannah spent 20 minutes throwing things up into the tree and then finally climbing up on a very precarious branch to rescue the swinging vine. I was very sad. :(

I had to keep my end of the bargain, so I climbed up the muddy embankment, over the tree roots and grabbed onto the vine. I stood there for a while looking way down at the water thinking I had lost my mind. Then sudddenly a push from behind and I was flying through the air, screaming at the top of my lungs. The water loomed below and I had no idea where the deep part was to let go! So, I just let go and landed in a quite shallow spot, hitting my butt on the rocks! It didn't really hurt, just shocked me a little. So apparently this fall dislodged the sense from my brain because I promptly climbed back up the muddy hill and swung again and again until I finally landed in the deeper part. I swear, these kids are a bad influence on me! I felt like I was in a Tarzan and Jane movie, very fun!

Karen

2008-09-09T21:04:00.000-07:00

When you see a man of strength, a man of leadership and power, a skilled surgeon, turn away from an xray, walk to the end of the room and hang his head, then turn back with tears in his eyes...you either have to turn away or start balling your eyes out. I chose to turn away for a moment.

Normally, when I realize that a young child has metastastatic cancer and is going to die, I would feel sorry for the child and her mother. However, in that moment, I felt more sorry for the strong man with tears in his eyes who had yet to explain to this poor family who had already suffered so much, that their precious little girl was going to die.

Karen has a long sad story of cancer in her leg that was not removed until very late because the family kept waiting, refusing surgery, praying for a miracle. This surgeon had pursued the family, talked with them, prayed with them, cared for this waif of a girl and finally removed her left leg. Once, I even saw him climb onto an old bus packed with people in the middle of a rainstorm to take a look at this girl's leg when her mother recognized us in the line of cars waiting to cross a flooded river. That's what I call going beyond the call of duty!

After the amputation, little Karen had a slow recovery and was very depressed but finally learned to walk with crutches and soon was dropping by the hospital with her Mom and a radiant smile to visit her friends. Everyone knows her and her story and we were so relieved when her parents finally brought her for the amputation.

However, when she arrived today with pain in her chest and an xray showing cancer in her lungs, it seems that all this care and fighting to save her was for nothing. Or was it? Her Mom still has a smile and still praises God for the care their surgeon gives her daughter and for the life her daughter has had. Maybe she doesn't understand my medical mind ponders. But, then again, maybe she does and she is trusting God with the life of her little girl.

Respect the signals

2008-08-18T22:03:00.000-07:00

Every time I drive home from getting groceries in the city, I pass this sign out in the country. It says, literally, "Respect the Signals" or follow traffic signs. It is actually in the middle of nowhere. There are no cross streets or villages nearby. No stoplights, stopsigns, yield signs...not even a cattle crossing sign. Just fences and cattle as far as you can see. I've decided this is a joke. Some Honduran stole this from the city and put it up here by his field so he can laugh at the silly Gringos who drive by and frantically look around for signals that aren't there. :)

Modern Art

2008-08-18T21:41:00.000-07:00

Some of you may be familiar with the phenomenon of buying old furniture or "antiques" and putting one in your front yard and turning it into a flower bed. The most popular is of course an old bed to make a flower bed out of. Then there is modern art which often turns familiar shapes or objects into something new or unexpected. Now, most of you know I'm not the hugest fan of modern art or old furniture in your yard, but I think this piece above really has something going for it. As you look at the next two photos you'll notice the great use of form, the careful distortion of the front end, the touch of rust, the beautifully manicured vines, the open door inviting you enter in and experience the jungle in a truck...a work of art!!!

Toxic fuzz

2008-08-07T21:40:00.001-07:00

This may look like just a piece of fuzz. Or when you see that it is actually a tiny worm with a fuzzy fro, you may think it is kinda cute. Well, the young boy with a bright red, stinging rash on his arm didn't think it was too cute! Apparently it has a chemical on the end of its hairs that causes an allergic reaction in most people with terrible itching and burning for a couple days. So, beware the cute fuzzy creatures when out in the jungle!

Since I'm in the medical mode, I guess I'll put up some other pics of cool stuff. This is a lady with a bad Leishmaniasis infection on her leg. Nothing like a tropical parasite to eat a hole in your leg! That tropical medicine studying in London comes in handy in cases like this!

This is probably the worst case of tinea capitus I have ever seen. For the non-medical among you, this little girl has a severe fungal infection on her scalp.

On a happier note....this is a young lady that I followed throughout her pregnancy for prenatal care in the clinic. She brought in her baby for a checkup after a home delivery. He was doing well and eating like a champ!

This is one of our nurses Penny. No, she is not working in the barber shop. She is cutting the blood-matted hair away from the huge gash on this patient's scalp so I can sew it up!

A trip to the mountains

2008-08-07T12:16:00.000-07:00

A visiting doctor and his family really wanted to go up to the mountains and visit some of the villages there. Since the people I've always gone to the mountains with before were unavailable to guide us, we decided to just go have an adventure. So, we put my awesome new Landcruiser in 4-wheel drive and headed up the steep dirt road toward what we hoped would be the community of Las Flores. We had amazing views from the top of the ridge of the coastal villages, rivers and ocean. Then we went further into the mountains and there were lush green hillsides for as far as the eye could see. We did run into a little traffic up there. We had to wait for some cows to get out of the path, and then the women walking with large bundles on their heads, and then the men on their donkeys. Practically an LA freeway! :)

We went to the end of the road (nearly an hour) and explored the river blocking our path. We met two Honduran boys out fishing and learned more about their communities. We passed several groupings of homes and stopped in for a visit. We had found Las Flores! Hondurans are soooo hospitable. They are just the nicest people! They invited us into their homes and offered us drinks and showed us around their property and we discussed their cattle and their pigs and their stove and their children and where their water came from and how long it took them to get down to the hospital for medical care. Then they told us about a waterfall that was just down river. They said if we took the left fork in the road and then walked about 20 min we would find it. So, after our visit, we took off in search of falling water.

To make a very long story short, we never really found the waterfall but we had a great time walking along the path looking for it! There were gorgeous plants and tall trees covered in vines and huge boulders in the rivers. We climbed down the hillside and explored the boulders a little and it was absolutely gorgeous. On the way back we were so hot that we just splashed around in the river in our clothes. Even Jasmine got in and cooled off!

In all it was a nice day of trying out my new wheels, showing the Jarabek's where some of our patients live and looking for the elusive waterfall.

A Little White Dress

2008-07-29T21:43:00.000-07:00

July 18, 2008
A Little White Dress

Who knew that a beautiful little white dress donated to a local pastor for distribution could change a little girls life, possibly save it? Who knew that the color of purity would reveal the dark red stains of abuse?

Andrea Nicole is a precious 8 yr. old girl who was brought to the hospital Tuesday night with her drunk Padraste (boyfriend of her mother) who had been shot in the thigh. The little girl sat in the corner and waited quietly as he (Hernan) was examined. He was a mean drunk. Yelling and cussing at everyone including me when we tried to ask him questions. Finally, I gave him enough morphine to shut his mouth so we could examine him. We ended up taking him to surgery in the middle of the night because he had no pulses in his foot and he couldn't move his leg. A friend drove through the dark to pick up our surgical tech and we operated until nearly 3am, repairing the femoral artery that had been blown apart by the bullet. The spinal anesthesia was high and the patient stopped breathing, so I played anesthesiologist and bagged him for nearly an hour. Meanwhile, giving meds to keep his blood pressure up. Suddenly, he woke up and pulled his arms off the arm board, reaching for his endotracheal tube. I grabbed his arm to hold him down and he lifted me off my feet, slamming my leg into the bed, and he extubated himself. Then we had to give meds to keep him quiet, but his blood pressure dropped again....basically he nearly died several times and we did all we could to keep him alive and repair his leg. I remember thinking as I was holding his head at 2:30 in the morning, trying to calm him down in the middle of surgery, " I hope this guy appreciates what we're doing for him".

The next day we were all a bit bleary eyed and tired, but kept pushing through a busy clinic, then medical staff meeting, then regular staff meeting and we were called to a code. A woman had thrown a pulmonary embolus and we intubated her and bagged her and did CPR for over an hour. She came back to us several times after the Epinephrine, but in the long-run her heart could not keep up. The blessing was that she had accepted Christ last week and her husband had just given his heart to the Lord that very day. While we were in the middle of the code and I was bagging her with sore hands from the night before, one of the nurses told me that an 8 yr. old girl had blood stains on her white dress and they wanted me to examine her.

To make a very long story short, some of the Honduran staff had noticed a little girl walking out the door of the hospital in a white dress with blood stains on the back. It was Andrea Nicole. Her Padraste, Hernan, had told her to go home and clean up the house and then stay with a neighbor. Andrea can't stay with her Mom because she is very ill with AIDS in the hospital in the city. After gaining Andrea's trust, she lifted her intelligent brown eyes and admitted that the man she had come in with the night before, Hernan, had sexually abused her on Monday night. We examined her and saw with tears in our eyes a large perineal tear and bleeding. Did I mention that Hernan is HIV positive? These are the times when your heart breaks and your head aches with the unleashed tears welling up. And I thought to myself, "this horrible, evil man. I held his life in my hands last night."

Fortunately, the Children's Center is officially open, so we were able to take Andrea to a safe place for the night to stay with loving Christian staff and other children. We started this little girl on HIV prophylaxis from our meager stock here for employees and over the last few days (after much paperwork and hassle) have gotten the authorities to give us permission to take her to the city to enroll her in the formal HIV prophylaxis program and then be able to give her a safe place to live in the Children's Center here. If she hadn’t been wearing the little white dress, she would have walked out the door of the hospital unnoticed, right back into the same abusive situation. Thank God for little white dresses.

Meetings cancelled...again

2008-07-29T21:40:00.000-07:00

May 28, 2008

Ah, there was a wonderful breeze last night that cooled things down a lot. I didn't even have to sleep with the fan blowing on me. But I had to still turn the fan on low just because I'm so used to the noise!

Today was another disappointing attempt to have a meeting with the lay midwives. I got a ride over to the centro de salud and it was empty. The doctor that is there sometimes was sitting out front chatting with someone. Neither of the nurses were there, so everything was cancelled. He said one lay midwife showed up earlier in the morning but they told her the general monthly meeting was cancelled because there were no nurses, so she left. He said they may try to contact them for a meeting next week, but I doubt if that will happen. They would have to send people off into the mountains to track them all down! We'll see if that happens or not. Hopefully the meeting tomorrow in Rio Esteban will go better...or at least go! :)

My little 7 mo baby with bilateral club feet came in today for a checkup after his surgery. He is doing well. When we were coming back from Balfate after the nonexistent meeting I saw the family going down the road on a donkey, holding an umbrella over the baby to keep the sun off his face. It hit me that they will be traveling like that for the next 3-4 hours to get home! Incredible! And you guys think its a long ways to drive into Denver!!!

One of my patients from the Cayos Cochinos came in today and she said the ocean was really rough this morning because of the wind and she almost didn't come. But she didn't want to miss her appointment, so she came anyway but she was feeling really seasick because of the rough ride. Poor thing! She was really excited to hear that we plan to come out there to see patients starting in July. She told me to let her know when I was coming and she would cook me some fish!

Sad

2008-07-29T21:39:00.000-07:00

Some patients really make you want to cry. A little girl broke her arm "falling out of a tree" two
months ago, had a cast placed, but never came back to check or change the cast. She came in today after her Mom had taken the cast off that morning. The girl was in a lot of pain and her hand was scrunched up like it had been squished in a deformed cast for too long. There was a lot of skin breakdown on her palm and fingers and there was obvious deformity of her forearm that I didn't remember being so bad after the initial fracture. When I saw the new xrays, I sighed with despair. The girl had re-broken her arm, this time much worse, with significant displacement that would require surgery. The Mom was immediately terrified at the prospect of coming back again. She had to sneak out of the house just to bring her daughter in today. Apparently the father is a real jerk and won't let them come to the doctor and gets mad when they spend money on anything. It is a terrible family situation. Now, because this little girl was not allowed to come in for follow up and appropriate care with the new fracture, she is in a much worse medical situation. What a tragedy that this father does not care enough about his daughter's health or future to let her come to the doctor. We will use our indigent fund to help this girl and help the Mom bring her in at times when she and the daughter will not "get in trouble" with the dad. So sad!

Dona's foot

2008-07-29T21:35:00.000-07:00

Dona is a wonderful lady from the Cayos Cochinos, tiny islands just off the coast where many Garifuna people live. Dona grew up there and works as a cook at the one restuarant on the big island and she works with the nurse, Jan, as her translator, cook, and right hand woman for three months out of every year when Jan comes to serve the Garifuna people. Dona is diabetic and her father died a few months ago, so she has not taken very good care of herself. She noted a small foot wound, took antibiotics, but then did not mention that her foot was worsening until the ulcer had grown quite large. Fortunately, the nurse Jan had just arrived and gave her antibiotics and used good old fashioned maggots to eat away the dead skin and infection.

She was improving until one day her middle toe suddenly turned black. She was put on a boat and brought to our hospital for care. When I saw her, she had a large ulcer over the top of her foot and her middle toe was indeed black and dead. We admitted her for IV antibiotics and diabetes control. Over the next several weeks we struggled with her sugars being too high and too low and going through several different antibiotics as her foot worsened. Her middle toe was removed, the infection kept spreading down the bottom of her foot, and we were afraid that she would lose the rest of her foot. Unfortunately, around here it is not uncommon for diabetics to lose their feet, but I felt so awful about Dona. She is a leader in her communty and does so much to help her own people. It would be tragic for her to lose her foot! So, after being stressed out for several weeks, praying against the curse she believed had been put on her, searching through our warehouse for stronger antibiotics (praise the Lord for a Vancomycin donation!), and watching in fascination as Dr. Jeff invented a hyperbaric oxygen chamber for her foot...we finally saw improvement. Dona was here with us for six weeks and she left the hospital last week with her foot intact! What a blessing! She came in to see me yesterday, walking a little and with a much healthier looking foot. There is still risk of re-infection, but she is definitely on the road to recovery. She was so grateful and told us that if she had gone to any other hospital in Honduras, they would have amputated her foot immediately. She thanked us for all our hard work and patience and prayers. She said, " I know that God moves in this place and he heals what no one thinks can be healed!". On the gate in front of the Hospital it says, "Dios obra aqui" which means, "God is working here". So very true!!!

Making connections...

2008-07-29T21:31:00.000-07:00

In many ways it is great to be getting to know the local people. When I walk or am getting a ride down the street, I see lotsa people I know and wave and smile. I'm always making new connections. Oh, that lady with the baby must be so and so's daughter or niece...aha!
Unfortunately, getting to know the people has its down side, sometimes there are some very sad connections. Just this last week that has happened twice. A little girl was not allowed by her father to come to clinic for follow up on her arm fracture and now there are several complications. We started talking to the Mom and trying to find out who the dad is. While talking with another missionary we realize that he must be the guard that was working for so and so who shot that other guy in "self-defense" on the road last fall. NOT a nice man. Very sad realization to make.

Another connection was the man who sent his mentally delayed wife to get the baby they had given up. She reported that they were “moving to the city”. They had signed a one year contract that this foster family would care for the baby because he was dying in that home due to parental negligence. I wondered why the father himself hadn't come. I was reminded that he couldn't come back to these parts because he's the one who nearly killed a man with a machete. He tried to strike a man in the head and ended up cutting off two of his fingers and breaking the rest. That victim was here with us after surgery for a week or more and I remember him well. Strange connections!

Melting

2008-07-29T21:21:00.000-07:00

May 22, 2008

We are absolutely melting here. We were absolutely dripping with sweat tonight at the missionary fellowship. They say it is unseasonably warm for this time of year. That is an understatement!

I had today off but no one was going to town so I couldn't get a ride. I just couldn't face the bus in this heat! I can't wait till I have my own vehicle! I took Jasmine for a walk up the hill and into the jungle. Coming back she collapsed in the shade, spread out, laid her head down and refused to move. I let her rest a few minutes and gave her water, but she still wouldn't get up. I tried pulling on her leash and I just drug her down the path!!! She is so pitiful. Finally I had to pick her up and carry her a ways. Then she was OK. She didn't mind her bath at all when we got back!

There is a visiting doctor from Canada here so I won't be the only one in clinic tomorrow. Praise the Lord!

I may go fishing with the boys this weekend. The motor still isn't fixed from the last time when we nearly sank the boat. I guess they'll be rowing out there! They say they are leaving really early, so we'll see how I feel about getting up early on Saturday.

I said goodbye to my friend Cara tonight. She is going back to the States tomorrow. It was very sad and I couldn't stop crying all through the prayer time. I thought that maybe no one would notice the tears with the sweat dripping down my face but I guess the red eyes and nose gave it away. I'm really going to miss her!

Don't grab the needle!

2008-07-29T21:18:00.000-07:00

May 16, 2008

Work was OK today considering I was the only doc. A kid fell off a wall and split his forehead open, so that was fun to sew up. I gave him medicine to make him really sleepy but he woke up in the middle of it and was thrashing around and I was trying to keep him from grabbing the needle!!! We gave him more drugs and all was well! :)

I'm over at the hospital again for another "non-emergency" that came in this afternoon. This place is hopping. I hope it calms down tonight! A guy drank some "te del monte" which means literally tea of the mountain. So, the crazy herbs made him puke his guts out all afternoon and then he came to us. I so badly wanted to say, "well, you shouldn't take herbs when you don't know what they are", but being a smart-alec down here doesn't go over so well!

At our missionary fellowship this week, Guildy (the little girl who hit her head and almost died a couple weeks ago) was dancing around and clapping her hands and giving everyone hugs. It was so beautiful to see her acting like herself again. What a blessing that she is still with us and seems to be doing well!

Strike

2008-07-29T21:15:00.000-07:00

Letter on May 14, 2008

Just a quick note to ask you to pray that Dr. Ted will get here tonight so that he can do his clinic tomorrow and I can have a day off and go to town!

There is a strike all over the country and they have closed down all the bridges, so Ted and the Rumbaugh family are all trapped in San Pedro Sula. Some glycine was supposed to be delivered this am so the urology team could do some more surgeries but they won't be able to get here. I am trying to discharge a patient but the daughter can't get here in her car because the bridge is blocked. Then a couple hours ago a pipe broke in the hospital and two rooms are flooded. One was full of cardboard boxes of eyeglasses that were just donated. I just walked into the pharmacy and saw Mike, our head of maintenance, under the sink looking very wet. I just said, "Oh, no. Here too?" and he commented, "when it rains it pours!".

So, please pray that the disgruntled people who are striking today (no one really knows who it is) get tired early and go home so that Ted and the Rumbaugh's can get home tonight!

Ashley

2008-07-29T21:02:00.000-07:00

May 14, 2008

This is a difficult month of goodbyes. The Larson's have left, my good friend Ashley is leaving this Friday, my friend Cara is leaving next week, the Brownings are leaving this month, the Yount's have left for 4 months....yikes!

Ashley is a college student who has been working at the bilingual school and living next door. We eat together and hang out all the time and she has become a dear friend. I will really miss having someone to talk to at the end of the day and eat dinner with and go to the beach with and have discussions about life and God and love and the future.... The next few weeks after she leaves are going to be lonely!

Work at the hospital has been very stressful, especially last week when all the docs were in Tegus and I was the only one here Thursday, Friday and Saturday morning. I was suddenly covering everyone's hospital patients and the clinic by myself. I'm not used to that! But God was gracious and did not send anything I couldn't handle. I sure missed having Jeff around to ask questions of. ( I hate it when our surgeon is gone!) I was the only doc in clinic on Monday and again tomorrow. Then again on Friday and every Friday through June. I guess I'll have to get used to working solo for a while. I can't wait till our short-term visiting docs start coming to help out!

I am very thankful for my sweet puppy, Jasmine, who keeps me company and gives great hugs!!! Though she's not so cute when she wakes me up in the middle of the night or poops on the porch! That is getting better though.

Living History Day

2008-07-29T20:52:00.000-07:00

Letter on April 28, 2008

Our weekend was very busy with Living History Day. The missionary kids have been working on it for weeks. It covered the 1800s so there were cowboys and Indians, 49ers, Mexican American war, remember the Alamo, Civil war, post war reconstruction, industrialism, slavery issues, all the way up to Teddy Roosevelt and the Panama Canal. Whew, lotsa history. Each student had a booth and a presentation of their topic. Then they had a test or a game or activity of some sort. I hung out most at the wild west one where we got to shoot the gun at buffalo and win candy! It took a couple hours to get around to them all and it was fun to see everyone all dressed up, especially all the southern belles! (lots of missionaries here are from the south, so they did the southern thing really well!) It was like a huge science fair, but with history. I took Jasmine up there and she was in heaven! She played for two hours straight. She rolled in the grass and chased the other dog and played with anybody who would play with her. She was very popular!!!

After the booths, we went down to the worship center above the hospital and had a square dance. Soooo funny! Then we had a chuckwagon meal (baked beans and BBQ beef). They had a program including multiple skits and songs that lasted over 2 hrs! It was really good though. They drug me into a part, very reluctantly. All the kids memorized tons of lines and had all different costumes and different accents...very impressive! During intermission we had apple pie and ice cream! Yummy!

Afterward they had some music that sounded like Polka so one of the MKs in a big hoop skirt and I did the polka all around the room. That was fun! Then a few of us hung out to clean up and then we had fake sword fights between the confederate and union generals. I think that was even funnier than the plays!

Oh, I don't think I told you about taking Jasmine to the beach last week. It was hilarious! She was rolling in the sand and digging it up and hopping all over in excitement. Then she would shove her face into the sand then pull it out sneezing and shaking her head and then do it again! So silly! However, when we approached the water she put on the brakes! I forced her to stand in the shallow water and she was scared every time a little wave lapped at her feet. Then I picked her up and took her out in the water and slowly lowered her in. At first she just sat there, then she started pawing with one foot. Then I let her down lower and she started pawing with both front legs and voilah! she was swimming. She headed straight for shore! After doing this several times she wasn't as scared. Finally she started playing a little with the tiny waves and pawing at them. She walked out a little deeper up to her chest and then a swell came and lifted her off her feet. She freaked out and started swimming madly for shore! She ran back up to the soft sand, dug a hole and plopped down, staring at the ocean. I'm sure she'll love it eventually. Afterall she is part Lab!

Medical pics

2008-05-27T16:36:00.000-07:00

Most of the photos I take around here would not be appropriate to post on the web. They would probably make someone vomit or pass out or something. But here are a few from the last week that are not so gross as usual.

There is a baby named Hector that I have had the priviledge of seeing every two weeks since he was three weeks old and his parents brought him in for club feet. I have been casting his feet for 6 months and the right foot is much improved but the left is still severely clubbed. His parents are amazing. They have to hike 3-4 hours down the mountains to the road and then catch a bus here. They are my most faithful patients. They have only missed one appointment in 6 months and that was when the whole north coast was flooding and they couldn't get down the mountain. Finally an orthopedic surgeon came down for a week to help out and was able to do a tendon release on his left foot. What a blessing for this boy and his parents!

A little boy fell off a wall and landed on his forehead, splitting it wide open.

I sewed him up last week but he came back for his recheck in three days with a forehead full of pus! He was on antibiotics, but we had to drain all the pus and change antibiotics. He was so good about the whole thing. Today he came back without all the pus!!!

This is a photo of Dr. Jeff's invention of a hyperbaric chamber for

my patient's terrible diabetic foot ulcer. I have been stressed out about her for weeks as her diabetes and hypertension were out of control and her foot infection continued to worsen daily in spite of antibiotics. We finally found some vancomycin that someone had donated and that finally turned around the infection and it looks like she won't be losing her foot. Thank the Lord!

And then there is the walking miracle guy who was shot in the head three times and is still alive and talking. Amazing. Only one bullet penetrated his skull and barely.

And finally, Irina, one of our lab workers finally had her beautiful baby girl and brought her in for a checkup today. I was following her in her prenatal visits and she was huge and miserable with tons of swelling in her legs. We were so excited when she finally popped that baby out!!!

A cool breeze...

2008-05-27T15:51:00.000-07:00

Its amazing how the weather affects us. A beautiful sunny day can raise your spirits, a dreary day can make you solemn, excessive cold makes you want to cuddle up by a fire, excessive heat wilts you...so, I can't even describe how nice it is to have a cool breeze this afternoon. I have been sweating non-stop for a week. Wilting is not a strong enough word. The heat and humidity have been so oppressive with not even the whisper of a breeze that even the Hondurans have been complaining. Waking up in the night multiple times sweating even with the fan on me, taking 2-3 cold showers per day to cool down and rinse off the sweat and dust, being so, so tired. Basically it has been miserable around here. So imagine being trapped in a too-hot sauna for a week and then finally being released out into the cool fresh air. Aaah! Sweet relief! Even Jasmine is much more playful today. I was beginning to wonder if she was sick last week because she was just laying around all the time.

So, that's my expose on the weather. Another reason to have lifted spirits is that most of our docs are here right now which makes clinic so much more bearable. Plus my hospital patients are doing better, which is always nice. So I went from an incredible paucity of doctors with multiple very sick hospital patients and super busy clinics and wilting heat to more docs to share the load, patients getting better, and a wonderful cool breeze! Praise God for cool breezes!

Some random photos

2008-05-08T21:54:00.001-07:00

Life has been crazy busy here, no time to write. Too many patients and not enough docs! But still time to play with Jasmine who is getting taller and sweeter every day! Here are some random photos:

Sleeping through the night...

2008-04-24T09:02:00.000-07:00

Jasmine slept until 6:30 this morning! No waking up to pee or play at 3am! Finally! I hope this becomes routine for her. She is doing well sleeping in her crate. By the time I'm ready for bed, she's usually been passed out on the floor a couple hours already, so she gladly goes into her crate for the night. So, I'm the night owl and she's a morning-dog. I'll have to teach her how to sleep in. She wants to play in the morning and I can barely stumble down the stairs to take her to the bathroom. I still carry her up and down the stairs because I don't have enough patience that early in the morning to coax her down each step. She's terrified of stairs. (mostly because she does a lot of face plants!) Her legs seem to be getting longer every day and she's having trouble keeping up! Lets just say she's not the most coordinated puppy! :)

She loves her blue squeeky ball. When I first showed it to her and made it squeek, it scared her and she ran away. (yes, ferocious guard dog in the making...) But now she carries it around making it squeek and kicking it with her front paws and then chasing it.

Hannah and I had the bright idea of taking her on a walk a few days ago at about 1pm. It was a really hot day and the sun was relentless. We walked over to the bilingual school and it was miserably hot and Jasmine was panting like crazy. After a little rest, we started back, but it was even hotter on the road and she kept trying to escape and lay under the bushes in the shade. We were only about half way back when she just stopped in the middle of the road, panting and hanging her head and refused to move. She looked terrible and suddenly I was afraid I was going to give my little 8wk puppy heat stroke! So, I picked her up and carried her. Fortunately, a fellow missionary was driving by on his motorcycle so we put Hannah in front and me and Jasmine on the back and that cut about 10-15 minutes off our walk. When we got to my apartment I got out a hose to spray Jasmine off. At first she flinched, but then she just stood there while I hosed her (and me) off with cold water. That thick fur coat just wasn't made for tropical heat! Maybe we'll start with shorter walks....in the evening!

Frustration

2008-04-24T08:53:00.000-07:00

The last two days I have been preparing for a meeting with the lay midwives in the community of Rio Esteban, about 15 minutes and two rivers from here. Last month it poured rain the day before and the day of the meeting so that both rivers were impassable. I saw one of the lay midwives in clinic last week and confirmed that there would be a meeting this week (last Thursday of each month). So, I have packets ready, a lesson plan for teaching about postpartum hemorrhage....Then a Honduran friend, Xiomara, who helps out at the centro de salud (health center) where the meetings are held, informed me this morning that the health center is closed all week because they are doing vaccination campaigns in the mountains. So, for another month, no meeting. At least I found out before I borrowed a car and drove out there! Still, it is very frustrating to be put off again when we are trying to build relationship and trust with these ladies and have some continuity and education. Hopefully the meeting in Balfate next Tuesday will still happen!

Jasmine

2008-04-20T21:06:00.000-07:00

I have a new puppy! She is soooo adorable! She is a Chocolate Lab/Weimeriener mix, so she is dark brown with green eyes. She is nearly 8 wks old and already pretty big. I like the name Jasmine, but since she is a Honduran dog, she must have 4 names. My friend Ashley really wanted to me to name the dog after her, so her full name is: Jasmine Ashley Lilly Kusler.

I got her this week and I must say that I am very tired. At night Jasmine wakes up and whines and cries about every two hours. The first night I just thought she had to go to the bathroom all those times. But I now realize that about 3:30 in the morning is her favorite time to play!!! Since I live in an upstairs apartment, I have to scoop her up, hurtle over the wood barricade I made to keep her on the balcony, run across staff housing, down the stairs and outside to the grass where she can do her business. Even though I've been getting plenty of exercise running up and down stairs, she pees all the time, so I've still had some messes to clean up. I swear she has the smallest bladder of any dog I've ever seen! I tried to put paper down to have her go on that and she promptly shredded the paper while I was in the shower. Hmm. This could be a challenging situation!!!

Oh, well, I asked for it! Hopefully she'll get used to this place soon and stop crying every time she is alone...and grow a bigger bladder. In the meantime I will get plenty of exercise running up and down stairs and star gazing throughout the night!

Church Dedication

2008-04-11T11:51:00.000-07:00

There was a wonderful dedication service last Sunday for a new church building in a little village near here called Margarita. Several years ago a man came to our hospital who had been shot in the leg. After he went home, he still required frequent nursing care, so one of our nurses, Norma, went to his home daily to mend his wounds. She started reading the Bible to him and after a while she noticed other people peeking in the windows, listening. Through the days and weeks, people began to come into his room to listen to the Bible readings and discussions. Before she knew it, Norma was leading a home Bible study. This eventually blossomed into a little church which has been growing steadily through the years. Several of our missionaries are involved in this church ministry and they have a pastor who is a missionary from Guatemala. After much fund-raising and hard work, they finally have their own building to use for church services and other ministries. What a blessing to see how God has worked in that community through the years! And it all started with reading the Bible to a patient....

The dedication service was a wonderful time of praising God for his provision and fellowship with other Honduran Christians from many surrounding communities. There were at least 10 different churches represented who came to support this growing church in Margarita. The place was packed!

Howler Monkeys

2008-04-01T14:23:00.000-07:00

I’ve written before about our noisy neighbors the howler monkeys. They live in the trees just outside of staff housing where my apartment is. They are brownish, black monkeys that travel in troops, this one being about 14 strong by a recent count. They usually come to our trees in the dusk and the males proceed to announce their presence with loud howling that echoes through the treetops. Moms and babies hop from tree to tree and hang upside down from branches to eat the leaves. A few days ago they came out early while there was still sufficient sunlight to take some photos. I was so excited! Usually they turn out as a dark blur when it is dusk, but I was able to get a few good photos that aren’t too washed out. The last one is a large male hanging upside down with the sunlight streaming through his poofed out hair. I thought that looked pretty cool. I thanked them for coming out when I could take photos so that people will actually believe me that I have monkeys in my backyard.

Close Talker

2008-04-01T14:21:00.000-07:00

For any of you Seinfeld fans out there, you know exactly what I’m talking about when I say, “she was a close talker”. Now, being a close talker in Honduras is seriously CLOSE because within latino culture there is much less personal space to begin with. Most normal conversations here invade one’s personal space by Western standards. One of my patients today, let’s call her Maria, came into the room and instead of taking the seat I offered, she came and stood over me at my desk. She couldn’t even bend her arm to point at her belly without nearly hitting me in the head, she was so close! So, I stood up too, and she moved in closer. Fortunately, I was much taller so I could get a breath of fresh air now and then. I even tried to use the chart as a barrier, holding it between us, but she just moved around to my side where the chart wasn’t inhibiting her closeness! What a blessing that she had been privy to a toothbrush recently or I may have had to call in for backup! :)

Boating Misadventures...

2008-03-30T22:42:00.000-07:00

Our young friend Gabe (14) is an avid spear fisherman and finally took my friend Ashley and I out to the coral reef near here to learn how to fish. For some reason this fisherman insisted on starting out at the insane hour of 6:30 am on a Saturday. I protested loudly, but still went along. Gabe and his sister Hannah (10) met us on the road with the tractor and trailor and we headed for the water. The little green metal boat was fitted with the outboard motor and the small air filled raft was lashed to it to drag behind. We got about halfway to the reef when the engine cut out and wouldn't start again, so we rowed the rest of the way. We had a splendid time snorkeling about and looking at the coral and fish. Unfortunately, most of the coral is dead and the fish were pretty small and the water was kinda murky because of a few waves now and then. We didn't get any fish, but we had fun anyhow. The funniest moment was when Ashley opened up the massive umbrella and said, "look I'm like Mary Poppins!". At that moment a little breeze caught the umbrella and pulled her right over the side of the boat! :) She screamed and splashed and the rest of us nearly fell out too we were laughing so hard!

Finally we started rowing back and singing songs. (the motor still wouldn't run for more than about 30 seconds at a time) We were still about a half mile or more from shore and singing boisterously when the drama began. We were not paying any attention to the large wave approaching from the rear. At the moment the wave hit the little green boat, Hannah decided to stand up in the boat and clap her hands. So the boat lilted, then tipped, then rolled almost all the way over. It righted again but was filled with water and started sinking immediately. Ashley and I jumped out of the raft and swam over to hold up the boat. It was all a blur of kicking madly to keep the boat and motor from sinking to the bottom of the ocean, while throwing all the snorkeling gear, spear guns, clothes, towels, etc. into the raft as the cooler floated away. Gabe got into the raft and leaned over the edge to unscrew the motor from the metal boat while Ashley and I swam with all our might to keep the boat near the surface. We somehow got the motor into the raft and after multiple failed attempts at flipping the boat to get the water out, we finally hoisted it mostly onto the raft and flipped it. That worked pretty well and we bailed the other five gallons of water out with little plastic cups while still treading water next to the boat. (note to self: bring a bailing bucket next time) Once the major drama was over and the cooler had been rescued, we put on life jackets and flippers and pushed both boats all the way to shore. Talk about a hard swim!

So, our near disaster turned into a great adventure, AKA 'Missionary Impossible'. I just thank God that no one got hurt and we didn't lose anything!

Mice

2008-03-30T22:35:00.000-07:00

Wow, I can't believe I just killed a mouse with my bare hands!!! OK, its not so bad as it sounds. I actually killed it with my fist and my flip flop....but I didn't touch the mouse directly. It's 11:30 at night and I've been chasing this darn mouse around on and off for the last half hour. It ran across my counter, then behind the stove, back on the counter....sooooo annoying. Finally I heard it under a little piece of cardboard and I just jumped up and slammed my fist down on top of the cardboard. I heard it shaking around and its tail was sticking out, so I took off my flip flop and slammed it down on the cardboard a couple times. It stopped moving so I quickly scooped it up and threw it over the balcony. I felt like shouting out to its relatives wherever they may be lurking, "let that be a lesson to you!".

Who needs a mouse trap when you have a fist and a flip flop?

Easter Sunday

2008-03-25T21:42:00.000-07:00

What a busy and blessed Ressurection Sunday! The night before we dyed easter eggs and I must say the MKs were VERY creative with the wax crayon drawings!

Easter began with a sunrise service on the beach. The moon was very bright when we arrived and was soon overshadowed by the rising sun. We had a bilingual worship service with our Honduran staff and friends and then many people shared and gave testimonies.

After church we had a huge potluck with awesome food! We ate so much that I was dragging when we were trying to hide all the eggs for the Easter Egg Hunt. At first some of the teen MKs said they were too old for an Easter Egg Hunt. I insisted that you are never too old to have fun! Once it got started they were of course the most competitive and very optimistic, carrying around huge buckets to put their eggs in!!!

Hannah and Cory were the winners, (with a few donations from their older siblings).

Then the youth insisted we play capture the flag because it is an Easter tradition. Many of you know that I don't particularly enjoy running, however, when you are chasing someone to put them in jail I guess it can be a little fun! I must admit it's a bit embarassing when the 10 year olds can outrun me half the time....

After getting all sweaty in the hot sun, we headed to the beach to end our Easter day watching the sunset. It was pretty awesome to start the day praising God at sunrise and then thank Him for His sacrifice for us at the end of the day on the same beach.

Cancer all around us...

2008-03-25T21:12:00.000-07:00

I have three patients who are waiting for pathology results to find out if they have cancer or not. Most likely they do. Cancer is even worse here because there are so few resources. They have to go to the big city and try to get into the ONE Cancer League program that many have not been accepted to. I'm not sure what their criteria are, but we have had a few people come to us after being refused there and we basically offer them unofficial hospice services. Since no one has medical insurance, pretty much the rich can get chemo and radiation and the others just suffer. Its so frustrating to feel like you are practicing medicine with your hands tied behind your back. You can talk until you're blue in the face, but you can't reach out and do anything. I guess that's when we have to pray and ask God to do the reaching out...

Tropical vacation....with blankets

2008-03-25T19:55:00.000-07:00

I had a couple days off and I was invited last minute to go to the Cayos Cochinos, the little islands just off the coast here. The other times I have gone, it has been a tropical paradise. HOWEVER, this trip started off with a very windy morning and the roughest boat ride I've ever had. The small boat was slamming into the waves the whole time and the water was pouriing over us. I would have sworn it was raining buckets there was so much water. EVERYTHING was soaked! I finally put on my swimming goggles because I couldn't open my eyes due to the stinging salt water!

We finally arrived looking like a bunch of drowned rats and the wind got worse and the temperature dropped. The only clothes we had were shorts and t-shirts and they were all wet. Some of our clothes never did dry off! That night it rained. Fortunately, we were staying with our friend Lori who is a wonderful hostess who provided us with plenty of towels and blankets. A hot shower never felt so good! We cuddled up under the blankets to read, talk, watch videos, play games. It wasn't until the last day that the sun finally came out and we were able to go snorkeling. There were tons of pretty parrot fish, and one of the locals caught one to eat. So sad to eat such a pretty creature!

The best part of the trip was that I was finally able to meet Jan, a nurse who volunteers on the islands three months every year. She has been going there for 34 yrs! Now that's dedication! She is a really cool lady and very organized. We had a nice visit and asked how we could help her take care of the Garifuna people on those islands when she is not there. Currently most patients come over individually on canoes to Loma de Luz for appointments. We have wanted to start a monthly program there but we were under the impression that Jan did not want to work with us. However, this time she said she was very glad to have our help and wants us to come out again while she is there in the next couple months to see how she runs things. Hopefully this can be a good partnership to provide more consistent care for the Garifuna people.

So, we spent some time being cold and disappointed, but in the end God worked it all out and brought about a wonderful result. We now have contacts for ongoing clinics and public health on the islands and we also had a smooth boatride back to the mainland with a gorgeous sunset!

ENT team

2008-03-16T21:23:00.000-07:00

There are some conflicting views here regarding the usefulness of short term medical brigades. I have heard that some teams come for a “medical vacation” and really don’t help out all that much. They would rather hang out at the beach rather than tackle difficult cases that we need help with. Some surgeons come and operate and then leave without good instructions of what the follow up care should be. Some visiting teams need so much hand-holding that the rest of the clinic and surgeries are paralyzed because the team needs so much looking after. These are the complaints I have heard about some teams that have come in the past.

However, this week we witnessed one of the hardest working surgical teams ever! A group of ENT surgeons came here for a week and hit the ground running. They saw many clinic patients, did multiple surgeries and some of them very complicated. Three nights they operated until after dark! One was a ten hour case. They consulted on Bob and helped with his tracheostomy care, one of the nurses helped us organize a better recording system for the techs taking care of Bob. They left a detailed list of patients and follow up care that was needed. They were enthusiastic, hard working and incredibly encouraging to all of us! I was fortunate enough to be able to hang out with them a lot since they were staying here in Staff Housing and they were not only talented medically, but also had servant’s hearts and were very fun people! My friend Kaalan (from medical school) was the team leader and it was great to spend time with him again and see how he has grown into a talented surgeon, a patient teacher, and a man after God’s own heart. I drove the team into the city today and it was hard to say goodbye. I will miss them. So many patients were blessed by the surgeries and expertise that they provided and the whole community was blessed by their presence here. They are a team we would definitely love to have here again! I thank God for sending such a wonderful group to us.

Visa trip

2008-03-11T21:43:00.000-07:00

Every 90 days, the government of Honduras has the courtesy to kick us out of the country for at least 72 hours to renew our visas. Don't ask why. Maybe just to make our lives more difficult? They are very good at that!

I should have been very excited about going to Costa Rica with my dear friend Amy, but I was too stressed out the week before to even participate in the fun of planning the trip. (craziness of visitors, lay midwife meetings, complicated medical cases, putting a dog to sleep, Don Goyo getting electrocuted, Erlin dying....) However, once I arrived and spent some time hiking in the jungle and laying on the beach, I loosened up plenty! Now, I am so grateful for the break and the time to spend with Amy.

We stayed in a really cool hostel overlooking the beach at Manual Antonio national park and then headed up to Arenal Volcano (which is still active). We stayed in a hostel called Gringo Pete's for only $4 per night. What a steal! Then we found a local eatery with the "plato typico" of beans and rice and chicken and fried plantains and tortillas for only $2. I wish all of Costa Rica was that cheap! We played in the hot springs and Amy swung from the Tarzan rope over the river and we saw all four types of monkeys in Costa Rica. Then we went up to Poas Volcano which is a huge crater with a lake. We went to a series of 5 waterfalls (my knees nearly pooped out on me with all the downhill!) and a butterfly enclosure and saw toucans and hummingbirds and poison dart frogs and more monkeys. Very good time. Not to mention all the interesting people along the way from the noisy Israelis, to the sleep talking roommie, to the recluse, park ranger, gardening guy who was great company, to the stuttering Floridian, to the cute "Global Routes" team leader, to the British girls planning to create a written language from a "click" language in Namibia.... No lack of interesting characters.

For all you coffee addicts or afficionados or whatever you call yourselves....you must go to Costa Rica. When you arrive in the airport, there is free coffee in the gift shops and chocolate covered coffee beans to try! There was awesome coffee at each hostel we stayed at and any major gift shop or touristy area. I drank more coffee in one week than I have all year and I didn't buy a single cup!

Another Death...

2008-03-11T21:19:00.001-07:00

Things sure do get personal here in Honduras. I mean, I know its all about building relationships here, but that makes it so much harder when things go bad.

A 22 year old lady named Keylin has tetralogy of fallot. For the nonmedical among you that is a combination of several severe heart defects. Keylin was one of my first patients when I was on call here. She about scared me to death because she was so hypoxic and then I nearly put her into pulmonary edema trying to rehydrate her. (some of you may have heard of that crazy call night) Anyway, I've known her since the second week of my stay here. Turns out she was pregnant. That is most often a death sentence for a person with her heart condition and we doubted if she would even make it half way through her pregnancy. However, even in that hypoxic state, her baby miraculously grew and her heart tolerated the stress of pregnancy. She was having preterm contractions at about 30 weeks and after many hours of hard work, Leon (our cardiologist) and John (nurse midwife) got her into the hospital in the large city of San Pedro Sula. She has been cared for there and received nearly weekly visits from John and his wife, Penny. Somehow, she made it to term and delivered a healthy baby boy. That is amazing considering her condition!!! We were all so excited. Then this morning I saw Penny crying in the hall. Keylin died early this morning just three days after delivering her baby. We don't know all the details yet, but with her heart condition she most likely had a pulmonary embolus.

It is just crazy. We never thought she would make it through her pregnancy but she did. We thought for sure the baby would not grow in that hypoxic environment, but he did. We all breathed a sigh of relief when the baby was finally delivered and all was well. Now our breath is taken away at the shock that she has died.

Stereotypes

2008-03-10T22:54:00.000-07:00

I don't like stereotypes. Making broad generalizations about people is usually inaccurate and closed-minded. However, there is usually a grain or two of truth in stereotypes. Like the stereotype that every Latino is named either Jose or Maria....

At our February meeting with the lay midwives, I asked them to introduce themselves again and tell which community they are working in. There were five women at this particular meeting. The first lady introduced herself as Maria Theresa, the next was Maria Santos, the next was Maria Elizabeth.....they all started to giggle. I exclaimed that there were three Maria's in a row. They giggled even more. We continued around the circle and every single woman's name was Maria. Incredible!!!!

LIfe and Death

2008-02-29T18:47:00.000-08:00

Two days ago, a beloved member of our Honduran community (Don Goyo) miraculously lived through an accidental electrocution. I visited him today in the hospital in the city and he was smiling and praising God for saving his life. All he lost was his pinkie finger. Absolutely amazing!

Then we heard tragic news. Erlin is a young man who has been working at our hospital for the last year. Everyone knows him as the man with a mask. He wears a surgical mask to protect and cover the gaping hole in his face. He was supposedly diagnosed with cancer a couple years ago and given high doses of radiation to his face. By the time our surgeon saw him, his upper lip and palate had been cut or eroded away. The continuing radiation effects have caused further erosion so that there is basically a huge cavern in the middle of his face. Biopsies have been negative for cancer, but the erosion continued, and we finally had some contacts with Honduran ENT surgeons in the capital city who could take care of him there and try to halt the erosion and reconstruct his face. He was married to his High School sweetheart (Erica) in January, who is also working at our hospital. We were very hopeful that he would finally get the help and care that he needed. Today he died in the capital city of Tegucigalpa. His wife was here in our small community. He had no family or friends around. A young, 21 year old man who has suffered greatly with pain and disfiguration for the last couple years, died alone in a strange city hospital today. Absolutely tragic.

And so we ask, WHY? Why is one man's life miraculously spared and another not? Life is not fair, I know this. God's plans are not our plans, I know that too. But I still ask WHY and struggle with not understanding.

The right place at the right time...

2008-02-27T21:43:00.000-08:00

Today I had the experience of being in the right place at the right time...

Don Goyo is a bit of a legend around here. He is full of stories, a hard worker, respected as a Christian leader in the community and can be seen at any time riding along on his bike with his machete in hand, with a ready smile, a goofy grin....Don Goyo works for our director and surgeon, his wife cooks food for the children at the bilingual school, his daughter works at the hospital...you get the picture. Everyone knows him and loves him.

Today I was taking my visiting friend out to the waterfall when we heard yelling and saw about 20 men running along the road and up the hill at the driveway to the director/surgeon's home. Everyone was yelling and in a panic so I stopped my car wondering if their house had been robbed or a dog had killed an animal....but then we heard that Don Goyo had been electrocuted and was hanging from a tree by his foot. They got him out of the tree, he was breathing and crying out in pain, so we loaded him into the bed of the pickup truck I was borrowing, turned around and zoomed to the hospital. He was holding up his charred right hand with his pinkie finger burned and broken off, with charred bone sticking out. We got him on the gurney and brought him into the hospital where we hooked up monitors, started IVs and did general assessment. He was awake and talking and we were so thankful he was stable. He then told me that since the power had been out, he was cutting some branches off a tree that kept hitting the electrical wires. He cut the first branch, and then as he was cutting the second branch, the electricity came back on and he was electrocuted. The electricity entered through his burned hand and exited his right foot. He fell backward and his foot caught in a Y branch of the tree which likely saved his life. If he had fallen from the tree he may have broken his neck!

After the initial assessment, I asked how he was. He told me felt like he was dying when the electricity hit him. Then he said, "but our God is powerful and he is gracious and he gave me a second chance". Then he asked about his wife and was so worried that she would be worried about him. He said, "I know I will be OK, but I worry for her because she will be so scared for me. I want to know that she is OK." Several of us had tears in our eyes to hear that this precious man who just had his finger burned off and nearly fell to his death was not concerned at all for his own wellbeing, rather the wellbeing of his wife.

He was stable but there are so many possible complications from an electrical injury that we knew we couldn't handle with our lab and equipment here, especially with our surgeon out of town. So, we transformed a Landcruiser into a makeshift ambulance with an oxygen tank and sent him to the private hospital in La Ceiba where he could have the careful lab monitoring that he needs for the next couple days. They arrived safely in town and an orthopedic surgeon saw him and will only have to amputate his pinkie and no other fingers. Praise God! For a man who lives and works with his machete, he needs as many fingers as can be saved!

So, I thank God that we were headed to the waterfall right at that moment and were there to bring Don Goyo into the hospital and round up the docs and nurses to help right away. Sometimes you wonder why you were doing a certain thing at a certain time and sometimes you know exactly why....

Meeting with the lay midwives

2008-02-10T06:51:00.000-08:00

The last week of January John (our nurse midwife) and I had a meeting with the lay midwives in the communities. John has done some teaching in the past, but had not met with them for a year. Now that we have a little more support from our local Centro de Salud through the department of health, we are ready to get started again. Since I am new to the area it is a good excuse to "start over". We had our typical lengthy Honduran introductions and then spent the rest of the two hours asking them questions about their needs, what the women in the communities believe about labor and delivery, what the lay midwives believe about what happens and why and how to handle it. Mostly it was a "getting to know each other" session. We were encouraged by some very correct responses, scared by others. But we were overall encouraged that the ladies who showed up are interested in learning. The ladies that work farther back in the mountains have a reputation for 'doing their own thing' and not being interested in learning or coming to meetings. We are praying for wisdom in how to reach them and get them involved. I kept emphasizing that our goal is to have healthy moms and healthy babies and we need to work together to achieve that goal.

Some of the more humorous responses: don't let new Mom's eat green things or the baby will poop green and that is bad, women have increased vaginal secretions during pregnancy because the baby is spitting a lot, women get infections after delivery because they have sex too soon and "men are dirty down there", women get postpartum infections because they eat dirt......:)

Weekend Getaway

2008-01-28T19:32:00.000-08:00

I wrote previously about a fellow missionary named Bob who coded on Jan 4th. He is physically much improved, but mentally only making very small improvements. He is still essentially in a coma and does not respond to commands though he opens his eyes frequently and moves all four limbs. We continue to pray for complete healing!

This weekend I was able to get away to some tiny little islands just off the Honduran coast called the Cayos Cochinos. There are 2 large islands and 11 small keys. There are three Garifuna villages on them and I had visited one called Chachahuate this summer with my friend Amy. There is no running water or electricity and the island is tiny! They survive by fishing and bringing food and fresh water over from the mainland. There is a nurse that comes down for 2-3 months out of the year, but the rest of the year they have no medical care except to take a boat to our hospital. We hope to eventually set up a regular visitation to provide medical care and education and to support the tiny little church that is there.

We were very fortunate to stay with a new friend Lori, who is retired and lives in paradise!!! We stayed in her guest house, laid in her hammocks on the dock, went snorkeling all around, hiked up to a lighthouse at 6:30 am, visited two of the Garifuna Villages.... We had a fabulous time! It was a wonderful weekend away to just relax and enjoy the beauty of nature.

Toucan

2008-01-28T18:58:00.000-08:00

This evening I saw 8 toucans fly from tree to tree around the grounds here. It was really amazing! I've never seen 8 toucans, not even in a zoo! That reminded me that I never posted the photo of the poor toucan that got blown out of a tree during a big storm a while back. One of the gate guards found him on the ground and brought him over to the hospital. The bird was fine and was released once the storm was over. But not before blinding him with a million camerea flashes!

Off to the mountains!

2008-01-19T18:30:00.000-08:00

Today was a wonderful getaway to a lovely mountain community of Honduras. I went with several other missionaries up a crazy dirt road, then a steep and windy foot path to a beautiful little home with the cleanest dirt floors you've ever seen. We went to celebrate a birthday, take some medicines and have a worship service.

It was a great day and we made fresh corn tortillas. We took the corn and ground it up by hand in the little mill, then smashed it up finer on a rock, then patted it into tortillas and cooked it on a metal sheet over the fire. I've made many tortillas before, but it was cool to do the whole process from start to finish, and then eat them of course!

Bob

2008-01-19T17:56:00.000-08:00

The last two weeks have seemed like an eternity. It has possibly been the most emotionally stressful period in my life. On January 4th, just before 8am, as I was preparing to start clinic, one of the nurses yelled for me to come over to the hospital right away. I ran across the building, entered the men's ward and found my friend, neighbor, fellow missionary lying lifeless on the hospital bed. Bob had been in the hospital for one week with a duodenal ulcer and diverticulitis, he was going to be discharged that day. We immediately started CPR, shocked him once, other docs arrived, we gave meds, his son-in-law (the surgeon, Jeff) intubated him, his daughter (Roseanne) was helping push meds and checking for pulses. It was definitely the most traumatic code of my life, but such an amazing joy when he came into sinus rythm and he suddenly had bounding pulses. Our working diagnosis is Pulmonary Embolus. He started breathing on his own after a while and after several hours of intense work, we moved him into the post-op area which we slowly transformed into an "ICU".

Dr. Greene, our Cardiologist, is an absolute star and the two of us took turns caring for Bob around the clock. His blood pressure and fluid status were all over the board for days, he had several runs of V-tach, then A.fib, then A. flutter, then back to normal sinus rythm. He had many periods of apnea and one night from 2-4am I bagged him (breathed for him) and couldn't get him to start breathing on his own again. We don't have a ventilator. Talk about holding someone's life in your hands! I've never had the experience of breathing for someone, let alone someone I know and love, and begging them to breathe again. I was literally begging Bob to breathe, begging God to spare his life long enough for his kids (who had just arrived late that night) to spend some time with him. He finally did start breathing on his own again, but by the time the sun came up and the family arrived, I was sure he wouldn't make it through the day. That was one of my lowest points.

But he did make it through the day and his body has continued to improve to the point that Dr. Greene and I don't have to be constantly in the hospital and can actually sleep at night. However, his mental status is grim. He makes small neurological improvements day by day but still does not follow commands. Besides being stressed out, tired and worried about Bob, watching his wife and daughter grieve and cry daily has been awful as well. I could write volumes about the blessings and dissapointments, the laughter and the tears of the last two weeks. I have learned a lot, forged strong bonds with the family and other friends, been strengthened and encouraged by the Lord when I thought I couldn't go on, and been incredibly blessed by the support and care of the community here. Maybe someday I'll look back and say it was a good experience. Right now it is just hard. I do thank the Lord for placing the right people here at the right time just when they were needed. In the midst of tragedy and sorrow, God has been faithful in so many ways. Its hard to see the 'big plan' from our limited point of view, but we pray that somehow God will be glorified through this situation.

Stuck on the wrong side of the river...

2007-12-23T16:03:00.000-08:00

When they talk about the rainy season here, they are not kidding! I've never seen so much rain in all my life! I went to town with the surgeon and his wife this week and we got stuck on the wrong side of the 'plancha' (the dry river bed that turned into a raging river over 6ft deep!). We sat there for 2 hours watching the rain pummel us and all the people on either side hoping the water would go down. A couple guys tried to swim across and the current was so strong they barely made it! Finally it was getting dark so all the buses and cars turned around. We ended up staying in La Ceiba (the city) that night. We went and got toothbrushes and then went to dinner in our wet clothes. Fortunately, I don't get cold down here too easy, but they were freezing! We went out to dinner and I splurged and had Filet Mignon for $7! Not suffering too bad! :)

Roseanne just HAD to have clean underwear, so a gaggle of girls followed her around the store to 'help' and tried to convince her to get a g-string. She was trying to explain that she wanted underwear that actually covered her bottom and soon the whole store was very interested in her taste in underwear! So funny!

Fortunately, the next morning the raging river was more manageable, down to about 4 ft high in the middle and not too terribly strong. We made it across in the landcruiser with the snorkel. Everyone else was being pulled across by this huge tractor. I"m glad we didn't have to try to go across in a little canoe with all our groceries and junk!

So, that was my first "trapped on the wrong side of a raging river" experience in Honduras. I 'm sure it will become old hat soon enough!

Supersize

2007-12-12T21:27:00.000-08:00

Today was a strange day of abnormally large things. A 72 year old man came in with the complaint of 'hernia', which is fairly common around here. As he pulled down his pants, I was about to ask him which side was bothering him, when he revealed an incredibly huge scrotum. We're talking football size...actually a little bigger than a football. I was amazed and astounded. I had never seen such a large hernia except in the textbooks. I ran to get the surgeon so he could share in the hugeness of it all and schedule surgery!

Then a young girl of 16 presented with abnormally large breasts. Again we are talking supersize here. She was very uncomfortable and was having a lot of back pain and couldn't even find a bra large enough to fit. She made Pamela Anderson look like she was wearing a training bra. I felt really bad for her and we are trying to figure out a way to get her a breast reduction surgery so that she can at least sit up straight.

Obviously photos of these cases would not be appropriate!

Bouncing Baby Boy!

2007-12-11T17:21:00.000-08:00

We had another delivery at the hospital and it was very fun! It was a lady that I have seen many times for prenatal care and so it was great to be with her and her family for the birth of her first child.

Tea Party!

2007-12-11T17:05:00.000-08:00

After taking care of another scary snakebite and spending three hours in the middle of the night digging rocks out of a kid's head and sewing his scalp back together, I was ready for a tea party. Some of the young girls told me I had to dress up and come with an appetite! We had a lovely time drinking lots of sugar with a little tea, giggling over nothing, and having very refined and sophisticated activities such as trying to keep a cup on the end of your chin longer than anyone else! :) It was great to hang out and relax. They started talking about what they wanted to be when they grew up and I realized that I am grown up and I am doing what I've always wanted to do! Cool! I guess they call that living the dream! :)

Snakebites and swimming holes

2007-12-08T13:50:00.000-08:00

A lady came into the hospital this week after being bit by a coral snake. She was reaching behind some dried corn in their storage room and grabbed a snake. It bit her on the finger and by the time she came to us her arm and face were numb. We had six vials of antivenom and we gave it all to her. She got a little worse, then better, then worse again. So, since we were out of antivenom and we don't have a ventilator in case she went into respiratory failure during the night, we sent her into the city. Scary stuff!

This morning a few of us drove up a muddy road and then hiked across a river, past a waterfall, and down a dense jungle trail to a lovely swimming hole. As we struggled through the dense underbrush, the thought entered my head. I hope I don't run into a snake, since we don't have any more antivenom!!! We stepped very carefully. :) Then we went bouldering up the river in flip flops....lots of slipping and sliding! We swam across to where there is a natural hot spring. The sand was really warm (hot if you dug your feet in) and there was a nice warm mud hole! Gorgeous scenery!

Drumming and dancing...

2007-11-12T20:52:00.000-08:00

Most of you know by now that I have a relatively recent infatuation with drumming. It all started in London, was greatly enhanced by my bongo drum purchase in Africa, and now I am learning to play a full drum set from some of the teenagers here. What a blast! Praise God for music! One of the VERY musical families here has a drum set in their extra room as well as many other instruments and the missionary kids get together biweekly for "jam sessions" to Christian music. I join when I can and it is a great learning environment. While I am trying to hit things to the right rythm, they are learning guitar, base, flute, keyboards...crazy, scary musical talent here!!! :)

Today it was pouring rain during the kid's PE class, so I was roped into teaching them country line dancing. They did great with the Electric Slide, but struggled a bit with the Tush Push and the Boot Scootin' Boogie. We all had a blast and no one got hurt, so I count it a success!

New Birth

2007-11-10T14:54:00.000-08:00

We've had a few deliveries lately. Loma de Luz Hospital is not officially open for deliveries, but when women show up ready to push a baby out and there is no time to send them to the city, we take them in. Of course, I think it's a blast! It has helped us to get a little more organized, write some protocols and prepare for the future. It also points out the incredible lack of training that our nurses have in Obstetrics. In nursing school they may spend from 1-3 weeks total on a labor and delivery unit. It is a big change from a hospital where our labor nurses had MANY years of experience and were our teachers at first. Now, I have to explain every little thing. It is helpful though to know how basic we will have to start with our education. Now if we could just get some more nurses to train!!!

Here are some pictures of a bouncing baby boy that was born here last week.

Escape to the Waterfalls

2007-10-21T21:03:00.000-07:00

This last week has been really rough. We’ve been having problems yet again with the government and medical college of Honduras in the continuing struggle to get our doctors licensed here. But I won’t bore you all with the ghastly details. What I prefer to write is about the blessing of God’s beautiful nature. What a wonderful gift to enjoy some of that this weekend. Saturday we all took off for our favorite waterfall and had a wonderful day playing in the water, cliff jumping, hiking to the top of the falls, swimming in pools higher up, getting a great back massage under a small waterfall…good times all around. Of course we did have the little setback of the tailgate of the truck falling off as we drove there, so three of our boys took a nose dive into the mud! It was very funny actually!

And of course, the obligatory traffic jam at the cattle crossing. Poor Sally got caught on the wrong side! We had to wait for all the cattle to go by so she could get back to our side!

Then this afternoon I had another fun diversion for a few hours to take my mind off the stresses of medical stuff. I went with some of the youth down to the beach and we found a huge log, drug it into the water and played "king of the log" for what seemed like hours. Why is knocking people into the water sooooo entertaining?
I just thank God for the little pleasures in life that remind us that the world is not actually falling apart and that there are many things out there besides our problems.

Missionary Conference

2007-10-15T21:02:00.000-07:00

This weekend we loaded up the Landcruisers with luggage and kids and headed for the hills. About 30 of us went to the Honduran Missionary Conference in Siguatepeque about a 6 hr drive from here. Those who couldn't go (and had to stay and cover the hospital) sent their kids along anyway, so we had the whole gaggle. What a blast!

There were missionaries from all over the country starting Bible Colleges, teaching english, running medical clinics, ministry to prostitutes, church planting...so many cool people out there! I made great contacts and learned a lot from others. Our speaker was an incredible man who was a missionary in the Phillipines for over 20 years. What stories that guy had! Whew! He was hilarious and inspiring and challenging...best speaker I've heard in a long time! It was cool to be at a conference for missionaries. There was none of this "you need to go out and serve" business. It was all, "now that you're here, how do you best minister to people?".

Hanging out with the MKs was one of the highlights of the weekend. I was one of the chaperones for the swimming pool and that was a good time, except for when some of the kids got in trouble (I'm still trying to figure out that balance between buddy, big sister, and adult). Then we played games, stayed up late talking, told stories, prayed together. Precious kids!

Another highlight was the deliciously cool weather. I actually put on jeans and a sweater. It was so exciting to finally be cold again! At night when I shivered and pulled my blanket up around my neck, I thought I might have died and gone to heaven. As I sit here sweating at 10pm back in the lowlands, I wonder why God didn't call me to the mountains???

Family Surgery

2007-10-07T22:13:00.000-07:00

So, today, I was the lucky doctor chosen to remove part of an infected fingernail of one of the MKs (missionary kid). She didn't want it done, but she REALLY didn't want her Dad to do it, so she let me. Of course since all the MKs here are like brothers and sisters they couldn't resist coming in to see what what going on and to make sure that Katie was OK. I had about 10 curious eyes staring at me while I worked! It was actually pretty funny because every time a new kid would come in, they would ask "is she cutting off her finger?". When it was all done and Katie had indeed survived, with the support of her friends, Katie's Dad came in and took pictures of us all. So much for patient confidentiality! :)

Home visits

2007-10-07T21:01:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I went out with my friends John and Penny to the hills to visit a family. We went 4-wheeling up a crazy dirt road for half an hour and then hiked up and up and up the mountains to a ridge over looking the ocean and the villages below. Breathtaking! About ten minutes before we arrived at their home, the heavens let loose and gave us a nice shower. We were already soaked with sweat, so it didn't make much difference!

We spent several hours with them, discussing medical problems, giving them some meds, encouraging, learning and praying with them. It was a great time. The only uncomfortable part was when they insited that we eat some of their fresh, homemade cheese. Yikes! We really prayed over that cheese that we wouldn't be running to the toilet with diarrea the next few days. (we were spared!)

It was such a blessing to visit that family who is so remote. And there are sooooo many others WAY out there that could take many hours, maybe days to reach. And we wonder why they wait to the last minute to come to the clinic!

The biggest pager in the world!

2007-10-07T20:51:00.000-07:00

When I was an intern, I had to wear four pagers when I was on call. It was terrible, you were pulling up your pants all night long and when one went off, you would frantically search your waistline for the offending machine.

Now that I am out of training and into the jungles, I have traded in my pagers for a very large, fairly heavy CB radio. So, I once again have the "pants falling down all day" problem. Is there no justice in this world? Am I doomed to be forever hitching up my pants? Should I give in and start wearing suspenders???

Bambu Waterfall

2007-10-03T22:26:00.000-07:00

Amongst the many tragedies that we see here every day, (breast cancer left untreated and grown into a fungating mass coming out the skin) there is amazing beauty all around in nature. Today was a national holiday, which meant a day off. Yippee! There is a visiting doctor and his wife who really wanted to go to the waterfall, so after much calling around, I finally commandeered a vehicle for a few hours and off we went. We bumped and jostled down the road, crossed many rivers (almost got stuck in one!), and then hiked up the river to a lovely waterfall and fresh water pool. Gorgeous. It was nice to relax and get away from the craziness of the hospital!

Salsa and Zuko

2007-10-03T22:15:00.000-07:00

I must say that I make some pretty mean salsa. I'm quite well known among Greeleyites for my delicious salsa and for the taste of garlic left in your mouth for several days after eating it! :) Unfortunately, my secret weapon (salsa maker) did not make it to Honduras, so I was reduced to chopping vegetables by hand. No wonder people don't make salsa that often! Its a lot of work! I'll have to try it out on some of the other missionaries and see if they

like it as much as my Colorado friends.

Just wanted to show the "juice of choice" for most Hondurans in these parts. ZUKO. It is of course not juice at all, rather lotsa sugar with some flavoring. Strange thing is that it really grows on you and I've become quite fond of the Mango flavor. Hope all my teeth don't fall out! The local Honduran dental disaster is a good demonstration of what happens when you drink sugar and never brush your teeth!

Really big scrubs...

2007-09-21T16:24:00.000-07:00

Supersize! The Hondurans were amazed that they could fit a whole person in each leg of these scrub pants that were donated.

Tarantula!!!

2007-09-21T16:14:00.000-07:00

I awoke with an itchy toe, realizing something had bit me. I turned on the light and glanced at the clock. It was midnight. For some reason I remembered that I had not checked under my bed that night for bugs. As I hung my head over the edge of the bed, my breath caught in my throat at the sight before me. I blinked my eyes several times and wondered if I was dreaming. Then it moved. One huge, long, hairy leg after another, walking toward me. I’ve never seen a tarantula so big!!!! I yelped and called out to Amy that there was a tarantula under my bed. So, there we were, both bleary eyed, standing on our beds, wondering what to do! We ended up putting on our hiking boots, finding brooms and sticks and bowls and chasing the silly thing out from under the bed, then out from under the dresser and finally trapping it under a bowl. It was quite the ordeal and involved much jumping from one bed to another. Talk about adrenaline! We scooted the bowl outside and put a large brick on top of it. The next day we watched it bake in the sun.

Cayos Cochinos Islands

2007-09-21T15:38:00.000-07:00

9/10/07

I had this weekend off, so Amy and I went on a little adventure to the Cayos Cochinos which are some tiny islands just off the coast here. We have a lot of patients from there and they have no consistent medical care there. They have a nurse 3 mo out of the year on the big island, otherwise they have to take a boat to the mainland to see a doctor. We took a very small blue canoe with an outboard motor out on the open ocean with fisherman, Malaquias. We put-putted for 1 1/2 hrs to get there. (In a large boat it only takes 45 min.) Malaquias was bailing water the whole time and we were praying for no waves higher than the 6 inches that we were sticking out of the water!!!

We stayed on a tiny little island called Chachajuate, about the size of a football field, where anywhere from 60-120 people live in little huts on the sand. There are fishing boats all around and plenty of hammocks. They recently put in a composting toilet, but I think they still "do their business" in the ocean most of the time. There is a lock on the toilet, so anytime you want to take a dump, you have to go find the "keeper of the keys". I guess she could give you a pretty good account of everyone's bowel habits! :) Anyway, we stayed in a little "cabana" for $4 per night. It was just a rickety bed on a sand floor, with wooden walls and open windows overlooking the sea. We could hear the waves all night! It was lovely. We learned a lot about the Garifuna people and hope to eventually start monthly trips to the islands to provide medical care and education.

Losing a patient

2007-09-21T15:33:00.000-07:00

9/12/07
We just lost a patient this afternoon. She was struck by lightning near the river while bathing her child. She was immediately unconscious. It took them 15-20 min to get here, no CPR. On arrival she was cold and unresponsive, no breathing, no heartbeat, no pulse. We did CPR, got an IV, gave meds and she finally had cardiac rythm. We intubated, gave more meds. The EKG shows a huge inferior myocardial infarction. (common in lightning strikes per our cardiologist). We worked on her for two hours but she never took a breath or responded. The worst is that we have no ventilator here, no ICU, no way to transport her safely to La Ceiba. They say that she would likely not make it to town (the ambulance is a truck with no trained personnel) and even if she did make it with a heartbeat, the track record in La Ceiba is very poor for any critically ill patient surviving. We discussed taking turns bagging her (ventilating her by hand) overnight but our director vetoed that. It is likely that she didn't have oxygen to her brain for 20, maybe 30 minutes. We finally had to call it. She left behind a husband and six children. She was only 34 yrs old.

Machete Wounds

2007-09-18T09:19:00.000-07:00

How is it that one tool can keep us doctors so busy? Perhaps because every Honduran and their dog owns a machete or two or three and never leaves home without it. They carry their trusty machete everywhere...walking down the road, working in the fields (obviously), riding on a bicycle, hopping in the back of a truck, under their pillow at night... I admit it is an incredibly useful tool. It is used mainly in the fields for working with crops, but also comes in handy for gathering firewood, cutting grass, cutting rope or string, chopping the head off a snake, cutting up meat or veggies (the all-round super-size cooking knife), self defense weapon...and the list goes on. Since Hondurans carry this tool with them and leave them lying about their homes, I spend several hours per week sewing up machete wounds. Most of them are accidents. The kid tripped over the machete lying about in the kitchen. A man mistook his leg for the plant he was cutting down. The five people riding on one bicycle fell over and someone landed on their machete. However, other docs have seen some very serious wounds inflicted during drunken brawls where machete wielding is common. All this to say that the "Honduran household tool" is causing a steady improvement in my suturing skills. Good thing I like to sew!

Hurricane Felix

2007-09-18T09:11:00.000-07:00

Praise the Lord it passed us by! We had battened down the hatches, bagged up valuables, moved furniture away from windows, and were getting ready to move patients around in the hospital when we received news that Hurricane Felix had changed course and was moving through central Honduras rather than along the coast. It hit Nicaragua as a Category 5 and caused great damage, but as it turned inland, it hit the mountains of central Honduras and transitioned into a mere Tropical Storm. What a relief! Lots of rain and a few power outages is all we suffered. I consider all the scrambling about and hurricane preparation as good practice for the next one. Hurricane Season is just beginning!

Flowers and Bugs

2007-08-25T16:39:00.000-07:00

On one of my "exercise walks" up the hill to the water tower, I found this cute flower with a lovely little green spider on it. So, I immortalized it on film forever!

There are a few other bugs I took photos of that I will share. Most of you are probably not so interested in the little flowers and pretty bugs, but I tend to think that its the little details that make life so interesting. God is incredibly creative!

Spam Rocks!!!

2007-08-25T16:38:00.000-07:00

8/23/07

Spam rocks!

What an amazing food product! Who would of thought that a greasy clump of dog-food-looking meat could slide out of the can and then become so useful? I remember eating Spam as a child and liking it, but I’m pretty sure I haven’t had it since high school! As I was complaining to my mother about the difficulty of finding good meat here and the often less-than-delicious flavor, she recommended Spam. I thought she was crazy and that it would be disgusting, but once again my mother is wise! (ask me about the ice cube trays sometime) So, this week I have been frying up Spam and putting it on sandwiches to take to work, in my bean and rice burritos, with eggs….I think the possibilities could be endless!

Sunset walk

2007-08-21T11:24:00.001-07:00

8/19/07
I walked up the hill tonight at sunset. The sun was beautiful as it set over the ocean and cast a gentle glow over the clouds and the deep green hillsides.

The howler monkeys barked at me as I climbed the hill, and so I stopped and followed their sound. Then I saw them, cute little black monkeys hopping from tree to tree and a baby as well. So cute! A few of them stopped to look at me curiously, though they didn’t pause long in their playing and barking. I guess they are used to seeing Gringas in these parts!

Things I love about Honduras

2007-08-21T11:18:00.000-07:00

Some of the things that I love about Honduras:
*Pepsi that comes in a THREE Liter bottle. Awesome!!!
*mangos falling off the trees
*the smell of green
*the grateful attitude of most Patients
*the amazing stars on a clear night
*incredible downpours with much more water pressure than my shower
*the sound of crashing waves in the afternoons

*brightly colored boats

Geckos and Howler Monkeys

2007-08-19T12:28:00.000-07:00

Mom, you will be glad to know that the creepy crawly quotient has been pretty limited!!! Very nice. Maybe part of the buglessness of my apartment is that I am upstairs. I have plenty of cute little geckos around that eat up most of the little bugs. And there are some huge toads downstairs that make lotsa noise at night. But no chickens! Praise the Lord! No cockadoodledooing in the middle of the night. Though there is the occasional Hee-Haw from a donkey passing by. Here is a photo of a local hitching post.

We do have monkeys around. I haven’t seen them yet, but you can hear them in the evening. They are called howler monkeys. They are a medium sized black monkey but when they howl is sounds like a bunch of German Shepherds are barking at you from the tops of the trees! Its kinda creepy! They really don’t like motorcycles. Anytime someone rides up the hill on their motorcycle, the howler monkeys go crazy and I’m sure people can hear their complaints for miles around!

Honduran Church

2007-08-19T12:26:00.001-07:00

August 12, 2007

Church was lovely! Ten of us sqeezed into Norma’s SUV and drove down the bumpy road to the village of La Colonia, picking up a few kids on the way. The service started with all the kids getting up front and singing songs, hand motions and all. Then some announcements, which of course included my illustrious introduction. I was pleasantly surprised that I didn’t have to go forward and sing a song (Lord help them!) or share my testimony. We sang more songs. Multiple songs all to the same “Honduran Christian Chorus” rhythm and then a few familiar hymns. The preacher was pretty good, though a bit long-winded. About half way through I was focusing more on the sweat dripping down my face and the hot heavy air in my lungs than on his sermon. By the time church was over, it was so stifling inside that everyone rushed outside to visit in the fresh air. Then we stuffed about 15 people into Norma’s SUV to head back. There were a jillion little kids in the back of the car, with the pastor squished somewhere in the middle! I have a pretty funny photo!

I am finally here!

2007-08-19T12:09:00.000-07:00

When I stepped off the plane, I was overwhelmed by the smell of Honduras. It is a good, earthy smell. I never realized before that Honduras has a smell, but now I realize it is quite distinctive and wonderful.

It is so green here! I just love it. The heat and humidity is another story. I pray that I get used to that quickly.

Everyone at Loma de Luz has been very friendly and welcoming, inviting me over for dinner and lunch. I am starting to get settled in. The hospital is beautiful. Quite nice for a developing country!

I don't have much time to blog right now, but I will write more later!

...and the beginning of a new adventure!

2007-07-29T21:28:00.000-07:00

I leave for Honduras tomorrow morning. I can't believe the day has finally arrived! It seems like I've been waiting forever!

I have my bags packed, each weighing 50 lbs, my computer, my carry-on, and of course my DRUM. I hope I can carry it all!

It seems surreal that I am moving to Honduras. In so many ways, it seems like just another big trip. Lots of bags, checking off my list of things to do, printing out my flight itinerary... Its just that from now on I'll be flying round trip from Honduras!

The good news is that I'll be home briefly in November! Thanks to my wonderful friend Michelle getting married December 1st and asking me to be in the wedding, I get to come home much sooner than I anticipated! So, I'll get to be at home with my family for Thanksgiving. Yippee!

Well, I better finish checking off my list of last minute things to do...

The ending of an era...

2007-07-29T21:23:00.000-07:00

My First Blog

2007-06-28T00:27:00.000-07:00

I was so inspired tonight by the blogging prowess of friends like Shaleah, Keith, Standridge, and Foster that I thought I should start my own. Since I generally send out enormous emails to friends and family, maybe this method of "online journaling" will keep the mass emails down to a more reasonable size. Plus, then my wonderful Mother who wants to know my every move can look on my blog as often as she wishes for updates. Also, as everyone knows, I like to take photos and show photos, so I can just put them here!

So, I'm sure this will be my shortest entry ever!