Day 4

Sunday March 27, 2011


Pavement and a cold drink. These were the two things I think we were all most thankful for today!!! Our morning started out with pancakes and mass. Both were wonderful. That is the wonderful thing about a catholic mass, it can be anywhere in the world and you know what is going on. The church was full and we got welcomed with applause from the congregation. No animals running through or on the altar this year though!Immediately after mass we loaded the bus for Sulaco. This was an almost three hour drive on nonpaved roads, but beautiful mountain scenery and lots of sites going through different towns. Along the way we got a glimpse at the house of the “stick lady”, drove pass a huge gaping hole on the side of the road, had to bypass many cows, and waved at lots of Hondurans. Our first stop in Sulaco was the sewing school which is now just a place of business for some of Sister’s former students, and the woodworking school which is also no longer operating as a school. There were some purses and pillows, quilts, etc for sale at the sewing center and some woodworking pieces for sale as well. It was a good opportunity for some of us to get some souvenirs and support the local workers. The next stop was the mal nutrition center. There were at least two children that were not only there when we were there last year, but my previous year as well. It took the children just a short while to warm up to our group, but it did not take our student long to get the children to go to them and even play. Niko had a child on his back, Nick invented an indoor soccer game, and Devin and some of the girls had a few of them outside. We also presented our beds. For those of you who don’t know, SCHS raised money and bought 12 pack n’plays to take to the center. Even though they do not have many children now, in a few months they will and there are just not enough beds. Thanks to the generosity of our Catholic community that is no longer a problem. Mrs. Bureman even made sheets and extra mattress pads for each bed so they would be more comfortable. We also we able to give them 9 large cans of formula, and in a bank account in their name our community has raised and or contributed a total of $2,156. Thank you so much to all who were involved in these gifts. It is such a great feeling for us all to know we have made a difference in a place that so desperately needed it. This is always a painful visit. The children are severely mal nourished or they would not be there, and although it is fun to play with the kids, it is a hard lesson for the students to realize why they are there. The other hard thing for Sister and I was to see the lack of toys, books, and stimulation for the kids. GEHLEN PLEASE HELP. There is literally nothing there. Maybe on your visit you could bring some toys? We all left with a very depressed and empty feeling.

Sulaco was very hot, so it was a nice end to the day to walk to a friend of Sister’s named Dulce who had VERY cold cokes waiting for us and “fritos” which was a fried dough pastry. We board the bus for the long ride home. We got back very late so that is why this blog is very late. We had a hamburger for dinner. The students say they are ready to get back to the hard labor tomorrow. Our work day will be a little different. Don and Greg are running a Clinic. Don has a list of 30 “patients” and Greg may be pulling teeth. The people of this mountain have not seen nor do they access to Dr.’s. so this is a real opportunity. We love and miss our families, but everyone is doing great and is very happy. Thanks to all our family and friends for the comments. It means so much to us. Bob, thanks for handling everything, and Trace I love and miss you too! Jack and Ty have fun at school tomorrow (ha ha) and I love and miss you both.

Until tomorrow………..SCHS Mission 2011

Day 3

Saturday, March 26, 2011




A pick ax to the Eye!! Don’t worry, it’s not as bad as it sounds, but I know it would get your attention. Emily Ortega got her own eye pick ax, but it was minor and just below the eye and we do have an eye doc on board (and mom too). We thought we knew hard work yesterday, but today really challenged us all. We were paired up and each team worked a section digging. There were no ceremonies this morning so it was straight to work once we got there. It was also very hot today, so digging and pick axing from 8a to 12a wore us all out. We keep everyone one their water and Gatorade. The little kids came around and me and a group of the girls had fun leading them in song and playing games. We sang chocolate, heads shoulders, row row row your boat, and played duck duck goose…………all in Spanish of course!

During our work day we had no access to bathrooms, so that made for some interesting fun. Melissa had her first “natural experience”! We ate again in the church, tortillas and rice, spaghetti and meat balls and more watermelon. Tonight we had tortillas, chicken, vegetables, and fresh tomatoes. As you can see we are well fed.

We had lots of time in the park today. The students are a real hit with all the kids. We had Stephanie, Macy, and Chastyn doing head stands, Mary and Megan were surrounded by a group of little girls, Connor and Brandon were showing some basketball moves, Niko, Lauren, Melissa, and Kirsten were playing soccer, Nick was sketching the whole thing, and Sami was in the middle of it all. Devin seems to have his own fan club there. I also walked them to the corner store and we bought ice cream. You would not believe what an exciting treat that was, something as simple as ice cream has much more significance now. It was not all play back at the compound, moms get ready, everyone was washing their clothes at the “pila”. This is a small well inside the compound with a washboard and soap. But our chaperones are busy too….Steve Rice has tended to an eye injury, helped fix a truck, and apparently he and Don just helped install a water tank here at the compound. Tomorrow we will go to church and off to the mal nutrition center. We will be delivering our beds as well. The team is both excited and anxious about what they will experience.

Everyone is doing well and having lots of fun. Once again I was very impressed with how hard everyone worked. It was hard to get them to even stop for breaks. I think everyone will sleep well tonight. Thank you for all your comments, they are very much appreciated!

Oh, and Chuck, Don says the fishing here is great, you should try it!

All the students and chaperones say “miss you and lots of love!”

Day 2

Friday March 25, 2011


Hello to all! After a refreshing night’s sleep, we were up early and excited for the first day of work at Vallecio. The students had a breakfast of eggs mixed with peppers I think. Of course, all of our girls matched this morning wearing their Irish work shirts and styling all their hair the same! Even in Honduras our girls look cute! The ride to the village was on very winding and narrow roads, but never fears parents, Carlos our bus driver is the best! Vallecio is not but about an hour away, so the ride went by very quickly. We all enjoyed waving to all the children going to school that we saw along the way. When we got to Vallecio, we parked in what appeared to be their soccer field, so immediately we had some happy people in our group to see that the village had a place for them to potentially play some soccer with the kids. Some people of the village had gathered, but it did not take long for there to be many more. The best thing was when the school teacher marched all the children down to greet us. Then there were several speeches of thanks from different leaders of the community. Then we all grabbed either a pick ax or shovel and followed Angel (the project engineer) down the road to see where he wanted us to start digging. The dirt was dry, the work was hard, but with the help of several very strong Hondurans we made a lot of progress.

One thing was that some of the boys felt sorry for the Honduran kids helping and already gave way their work gloves. As I was scolding for this I then found out Nick had also given away his sunglasses. This was all in about the first 30 minutes of working. I found out today that we have some very soft hearted boys in our group! We got their gloves back…don’t worry moms! Everyone pitched in and worked very hard. The students are already attached to several of the kids. After work, we were served lunch at the village church. We had corn tortillas, rice, a potato salad type dish, and fried chicken. The best was when they sliced open watermelons for us!

Next was back to the compound for our 1 minute showers. We were out of water for a while, but eventually everyone got cleaned up. The students went to the park to play with the locals. There was soccer, bubble blowing, jump roping, basketball, and cartwheels by Devin!! We are now about to have dinner now. Please know that everyone is doing SO well. The kids are great. They are having fun, behaving, and contributing so much in every way. You should all be proud! Please Please leave us comments!!! We miss everyone!

This just in: Stephanie had a bite that was just treated by Frank by the juice of a poinsettia leaf!

From Seivert - Home In Iowa

Greetings to all blog readers from LeMars, Iowa.

We arrived home very late Thursday night. Very tired but energized by the wonderful experiences we had this past week. A great deal of work to do in the coming days, weeks, and months.
Many thanks to all of you that keep us in your prayers and thoughts. Knowing that we are not alone in these missions gives confidence and hope.
The planning mission review: thoughts.
Representing Gehlen Mission Honduras, Mission Honduras LeMars, and ...Then Feed Just one (fulfilling to say the least).

It seemed like we were always on the road - physically hard.
Many emotional moments.
Emotional memorial Mass for Illich. All of his family were present. A great reunion with them.
Lots of very poor, destitute, and sick children and adults.
A great deal of dengue fever in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula. None or very little in the outlying villages. Very Hot and humid - hard to deal with.
Many children being taken care of through Mission Honduras LeMars and the Illich Foundation.
Gift of Mary Don de Maria children's home run by Mother Teresa's Sisters of Charity is amazing - many volunteer opportunities if you would like to go. We can make arrangements. 4 of Mother's Sisters are stationed there at all times.

Hole of la Pena San Francisco is also amazing - right in Tegucigalpa - run by Fr. Ramon from Spain - many volunteer opportunities here as well.
Introducing Plumpy Nut and Supplementary Plumpy to the medical people and the Minister of Health was awesome.

The visit to the Tolupan was special. It would take hours to explain the significance. Received a 'peace pipe' from Jefe Julio, chief of the Tolupan. In return I gave him one pack of Marlboro Lights as a sign of the strong bond between our two peoples. We then smoked a cigarette together - amazing feelings knowing we are the only people that have full access to the Tolupan. Loved hearing Tolupan being spoken between the people. Introducing Dr. Kemmer - nutrition specialist (retired military colonel and now professor) and Dr. Coello (U.S. Military base at Soto Cano and Task Force Bravo) and the new health initiatives was gratifying to us. Francis has been working toward this end for years. Amazing stuff.

Seeing the completed water projects just finished by an international Rotary water grant - 4 projects completed. The 5th will be done next spring by high school teams - we made that deal with the village.
The Cerro de plata foundation and the work they are doing for us and ...Then Feed Just One meals into the country. 3 full containers this past spring. Wow!
More requests for water projects in MDLF - will probably begin another application with Rotary.
Some of the children we are helping: These are all very severe medical cases - we will continue to work with them throughout the year through Marny Rivera and the Illich Foundation.
Jarmi, Nelly, Santos, Francisca, Yesenia, Cynthia, Alexi, Pablo, Oscar, Franci, and Kelvin
We got to see most of them on our trip.
Meetings with various groups all went well - as productive as we have ever had.

One of the most emotional experiences occured Thursday morning - we left Esquias very early and stopped for a small breakfast break in Dona Blanca's village. Much to our surprise in walked Ligia Erazo and her father. Ligia (23 three years old as I remember) was a young mother of two that Mission Honduras LeMars brought to the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland four years ago for a stem cell transplant. The pics of this reunion are amazing. I remember sitting in El Guante 5 years ago when she and her entire family came to our compound for help - otherwise she would die. Much thanks to Frank who pushed and pushed for this to happen. She comes back to Bethesda once a year for a check-up but is very healthy and well. She cried and cried before we had to leave.

Great things but a whole lot to do. Will send numerous photos via your email address when I get a chance. Will try to place just a few on this blog when I figure out how to do it.

Take Care,
Richard Seivert

In Esquias

Hi All,

Good day yesterday into Esquias. Very ill little boy. We saw him yesterday afternoon. Today we had a long day of bumpy travel to Vallecillo. Made a deal for next year's water project. Then drove to La Florida to check the water project. Everything is fine. Next we visited El Junco to check their water project. Things are okay but they need a little work after the heavy rains. Visited numerous sick people along the way that are being helped by Mission Honduras LeMars. Look forward to putting up more information tomorrow. We have awesome photos. We will try to blog or email tomorrow.

Carolyn

Montaña de la Flor

Hello Blog Readers,

What a spectacular day we had. As you can see from the above photo of Richard and Francis Seivert, the 2 docs, and the chiefs of the tribes, the meeting with the Tolupan in Montaña de la Flor ended on a very positive note.

Our day began at 4:30. Those Seiverts really like to get going early. It was a very smart thing to do, though, as Francis well knows. It took us around 4 hours to drive to the mountain over very rutted roads. We drove through streams approximately a dozen times. Once Sr. Val came close to getting stuck, but she gunned it, and we shot right out  of there. We all breathed a sigh of relief because pushing a truck through one of those streams would not have been fun, and we'd all have gotten quite wet.

Dr. Miguel Cuello - medical doctor with Task Force Bravo, Dr. Teri Kemmer - USD nutrition professor/retired military, Vanessa - a nurse, Marny - Illich Foundation, Marta - Cerro de Plata Foundation, Sr. Val Knoche - translator who spent 32 years as a missionary in Honduras, Richard Seivert - president of MHL, Francis Seivert - team leader of all mission teams, Linda Reichle & Carolyn Bickford - representatives of MHL travelled in two trucks. After a brief stop for a breakfast of fruit, yogurt, and sandwiches, we continued to a small village where we visited a little girl with osteomyelitis. She has a rod in her leg and it is much shorter than her other leg. The doctor examined her, and Marny will follow up with the required work of scheduling appointments and arranging for the girl's and her mother's transportation into Tegucigalpa.

Upon reaching La Ceiba, our friend Julio reintroduced Richard and Francis Seivert to Chief Julio. Chief Julio presented a pipe he had made to Seivert in thanks for his continued support and the support of the Le Mars Rotary and Mission Honduras LeMars  for the water projects, and to MHL and Kids Against Hunger for the life-saving food packages that have been sent to them. After greeting the other chiefs - Thomas and Alvero, all moved to the meeting room. Francis, Richard, Dr. Cuello, and Dr. Kemmer welcomed everyone to the meeting. They then spoke in turn to ask permission of the Tolupan to allow them to do a nutrition study of the children, and to bring medical teams in through Task Force Bravo. MHL also plans to bring in Plumpynut, in conjunction with Drs. Kemmer and Cuello. Pumpynut is a nutritional supplement for extremely malnourished children, of which there are quite a few on the mountain. The Tolupan leaders were extremely grateful for this opportunity for their people. All people in the meeting signaled their agreement through a show of hands.

We spent some time touring the school on the mountain and speaking with some of the people. Two village leaders requested water projects for their villages. The village leaders of the three completed water projects voiced their gratitude, relating that MHL and Rotary has done for them what their own government has not.

The trip down the mountain was also bumpy, but the treks through the various streams proved quite easy for the drivers. However, Seivert and Linda were almost bounced out of the back of the truck and into the stream. Fortunately, they were holding on tightly enough to avoid being bucked out.

We said a farewell to all of our Honduran friends. I am sure we will be seeing more of all of them, as we all work together for the poor in Honduras.

This evening we enjoyed a meal at Chili's. At this point most of the group is either already in bed or taking a much needed shower after that dusty ride. I plan to join them shortly. It was a wonderful day. The agreement that was reached today with the Tolupan promises to greatly improve the health and well-being of the people of Montaña de la Flor, thanks to the efforts of a group of caring and dedicated people, most especially Francis and Seivert.

Tomorrow Francis says we can sleep in a bit. We'll eat breakfast around 6:30 and then head to Esquias for the next leg of our journey. Hopefully, I will be able to continue these blogs there, but there may not be internet service there.

Adios, Amigos!

Carolyn

Eye-Opening Sites

It is Saturday; well, not for much longer as I write this blog. It will be hard to tell you about some of the things we saw today. If I can get it to work, I will upload a couple photos. I hope it will work.  (Photo on left was taken in the place called "the hole" in Tegucigalpa.)

This morning we met some Honduran friends who would take us to a place that was in Tegucigalpa, but way UP on the edge. It was the home of Cynthia, a little girl who suffers with a heart condition. At this time Cynthia is living at the orphanage run by the Sisters of Charity. The doctors are unable to help her, and they say she has months, perhaps a year or so to live. Her mother would like to take her home to die. However, the mother requires a latrine and pila - a place to do the wash - so she does not have to leave Cynthia alone. Cynthia needs someone with her all the time. Marta took us to visit her home. It was a small shack with a hotplate for a stove, a table just large enough to hold it was the kitchen. There was a table just barely large enough for two. A sheet hung from a string to hide the twin size bed that served the mother and 2 children who are living there with her. The mother was off working. She does laundry for some families in the city and makes very little money. With that money she pays her bus ride to work and buys drinking water for the family and a small amount of food. Marta is getting funding for a pila and latrine. We are hoping to help her family with enough money so the mother can stop working and stay home with her children until Cynthia dies. It is a very sad situation.

The priest who is also helping this family and many others - including the school I blogged about yesterday - showed us another place he is building in that area. They showed us the progress on that building. Then the volunteers and Marta took us to another school that is what you could call a supplemental school. All the children must be in extreme poverty to be there. 1700 children attend that school. Some of the older children stay on after a certain age to work and teach the younger one, as well as take care of the grounds and go to university themselves. It was an amazing place to see.

This afternoon we picked up Dr. Teri Kemmer, the professor of nutrition from USD, and her son Nick. They attended Mass at the Basilica with us. Afterwards we all went to Marny's house, which she share with her parents, Fabio, and Graciela. They served us a delicious supper of chicken, beef, rice, bread, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, and more. We had cake for dessert. We all enjoyed lots of conversation.

It is now 10:30 in Honduras. The rest of the team is sleeping. We will rise at 4:30 a.m. to start our drive to Montaña de la Flor. It will be another special day for us. We hope to meet with all the chiefs of the Tolupan to set up a medical/nutritional connection of some type that will help the Tolupan with much better health. It was raining when I came to the computer. We hope it will not be raining in the morning or we will not be able to travel up the mountain.

Until tomorrow,
Carolyn