day 6

Day 6, March 29, 2011




Well, it’s official……there are coral snakes in Honduras! Fortunately, we have only seen dead ones. Nevertheless, good to know.

We had a late and long junta last night because the whole team still had a lot process on what we saw and experienced at the mal nutrition center in Sulaco. We were also extremely tired still from that long bus ride and the long day of work so I did not have too much trouble getting everyone settled down. The girls of course have a long process of spraying down there entire room with bug spray before they go to sleep. Apparently they are afraid of the critters that come at night. We woke up bright and early as usual at 5:30. We had a great breakfast of eggs, sausage, beans and tortillas, along with fresh pineapple and papaya. We did our usual job of shoveling and pick axing. Today was hard because the area where we were digging had lots of rocks. The scenery however makes it worth it. The mountain view we get every time we glanced up took any pains we had of work away. In fact, some of them even made their way on a trail up one mountain and I heard the view was incredible. Steve made lots of kids happy by handing out sticker, and some actually went up to a home and visited with a family.

Dr. Kratz had his “clinic” again today. This time Megan and Stephanie assisted by asking each woman a series of question and making them a card with basic information. The clinic is run inside a local’s home. The “patients” gather on her front walkway area, and enter into a small room. This room has two small couch like pieces of furniture and the walls and ceiling are covered in various vinyl table clothes. You go through to the next room which had a bed, a table, and today a rooster, and this is where Dr. Kratz worked with the patients. He did encourage the rooster to remove himself from the bed for the patients. There were also baby chicks in and out. I believe today they got to announce pregnancy to at least 3 women and show them their baby on the ultrasound. The big boss of this operation is Sister Juanita, and she is keeping Dr. Kratz in line. We had a very special patient today. His name is Brian Eduardo. He is 4 years old and has never walked. His mother presented him to us on our first day and we have been trying to help her. I assisted with this today and I can tell you it was heat wrenching because the mom is so worried about him, and is looking to us as her only means of help. Frank is going to make sure he gets to Tegucigalpa for a proper evaluation, and we have given her some exercises to do with his legs in the meantime. Prayers for Eduardo please! Keep checking the blob because I will try to get pictures loaded of the clinic.

The whole team is doing great, and is already a little sad that today was our last day to have lunch at the village and have a full day of work. Tomorrow we are going in to the Valley of the Angels for a well deserved light hearted shopping day, and Thursday we will only work a couple of hours them spend the rest of our time presenting our donations to the villagers and saying thank you and goodbyes. We are one more 1 minute shower away from being home!!! The best thing I overheard today was two students on the bus ride home saying that if they were juniors, they would definitely come again next year. I want nothing more than for this trip to be one of them most fulfilling things these kids have ever done. Knowing that they trusted me and this mission enough to come and already saying they wish they could do it again tells me this entire thing has been a success! Thank you again to all of you for your support, donations, prayers, and most of all lending a member (or members) of your family to this mission!!!!

Bugs seem to be the theme for today. We had a spider discovered in a sports bra ,at least one tick, and we discovered termites in a hollowed out tree that Carlos stopped at today. Chastyn screamed that she saw a snake but it was a frog. Carlos is our bus driver for those of you who don’t know. He is great! Today he drove home a completely different way so that we could see some different things.

To my husband, yes, get the basketball goal and set it up, tell Jack I am counting the tomorrows too, and I will probably come to Tulsa late Saturday because I cannot wait that long to see you and Trace!

We love and miss you all!