Sleeping through the night...

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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!