Does Anyone Else Like Shoes? Or Is It Just Me?

March 24, 2011 Today Was A Wild Day In Tegucigalpa

Today was the another day of teachers rioting in the streets of Tegucigalpa.  I went to Burger King after they all left and took a few photos.  See the hole in the bottom of the glass?  doesn't look too bad until you get up close.

Then you see it is also burned.  It was a coke bottle filled with gasoline and set on fire and then thrown.

The window on the far left is gone... the one in the middle has a hole in it...

Three windows gone!

Right window broken, left window gone!

These are two tear gas canisters which were lobbed by the police at the teachers and then were picked up by the teachers and thrown over into my patio...

Pray for people to repent... Pray for the president Pepe Lobo to have wisdom, pray for the safety of the police, pray for them to use wisdom.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a bigger riot than today...

They are even talking about curfews!

March 24, 2011 Today Is A Sad Day I Am Losing Two Old Friends...

Today is a SAD day.  I am saying goodbye to two old friends.  About 20 years ago my friend Linda Bell gave me a pair of Dearfoam slippers...  I never in my wildest dreams thought I would fall in love...


 But I did...


They are sooooooooo soft, so comfortable, so ...... 


There is no way to explain the sadness I feel as I am preparing to throw them away.  But the truth is they are worn out... There are no Dearfoam slippers in Honduras... 

March 23, 2011 Genesis Gets A New Wheelchair

Genesis arrived and had a surprise... She is in kindergarten and 1st grade at the same time, but she has fallen out of her chair at school.  So she really needed a wheelchair...  In walks Monica Chachin, the girl with the heart of gold.  Monica called me and arranged to surprise Genesis with her new gift... Immediately upon arrival, we placed Genesis in the chair and took photos and then we raised the foot plate where her feet would touch the foot plate.  

Genesis was born with hydrocephali but received a shunt at a young age.  She was all smiles when she saw her surprise!

Thanks to Monica and to Free Wheelchair Mission for making this gift possible.  Thanks also to my friends who brought the chairs from San Lorenzo to Tegucigalpa.

March 25, 2011 Santos Margarita Hernandez Has A New Set Of Wheels!

Santos received a new set of wheels today thanks to 

Free Wheelchair Missions and Vilo Martinez.

March 17-20, 2011 Medical Team Visits From The USA and Performs Surgeries In Choluteca

This weekend was a busy weekend.

To start the weekend off right 3 of the 4 team members were coming out of Michigan and their plane didn't fly out so they missed their connection to Tegucigalpa.  Those things rarely happen, but when they do it can wreck havoc with good plans.  

So I breathed deeply and went to the airport 3 hours early because of an immanent teachers strike. Also not on my agenda, by the way... Since the hospital is over a two hour drive from Tegucigalpa, in Choluteca... That means that between Thursday morning at 7:30 am and 9:00 am I had to rearrange all land travel arrangements... Whew, but I got that done... then I had to get to the airport before the teachers which are on strike did...

But did I tell you that the air-conditioning on the Ford F-350 decided to start blowing a musty smell on Monday afternoon when I was going to get it washed, so I took it to the shop and they said 3 days to fix it... Which obviously was too late for my Thursday team... 

So I scrambled and found someone else to fix it for a mere $500 and some change... and it was supposed to be ready Wednesday afternoon, but wasn't because the part didn't arrive from San Pedro Sula on Wednesday morning like it was supposed to arrive.  The part arrived Thursday morning as I was fixing everything else which went wrong...

I went to the airport, the coast was clear, no rioting teachers near the airport... 

Remaining in contact with the air-conditioning people by cell telephone, I left the airport, to pick up the truck which was now supposed to be ready at 12:00.  Remember the flight of my medical team of four, which now consisted of the one lonely doctor, was set to arrive at 12:10... Several blocks and several traffic jams away from the air-conditioning place.  

Things were not looking good.  But remember it is only 9:10 because I had to go to the airport really early because of the teacher's strike.  Remember also that I have had to make arrangements for another car and driver for Friday for the people who missed their flight.  What a mess.  Jose has agreed to take the people south on Friday, but when he was driving his car through the mountains the other day, the hood flew up, nailed the windshield and broke it all the way up and down and across.  So I needed to help him with the logistics for a new windshield.  After all we don't want gringos in a car with a totally fractured windshield.  So, off we go to get a new windshield put in... They say 45 minutes, so by now it is 10:30ish and 45 minutes puts us at 11:15 which is not cutting it too close.  That gives us an hour to pick up the Ford and get to the airport, right? WRONG! 

see the rest of the story below...

 

Dr. Margaret Lee on the left

Dr. Lee, who came all the way from Hawaii, of course was on time and now due to the problems with the plane in Michigan she would have to surgery without English speaking nurses to help.  Not an ideal situation, because that means I have to stay pretty much tied down in the OR translating.

The first patient is ready to go, but the hospital is a little short on staff, since we had planned to bring our own nurses...

Another patient ready to go...

This time we did varicose vein surgery on several patients.

See the tumor on his head?

Now you see it but later we took it off... 

I am not sure I would be smiling so big going into surgery, but he was happy!

Another vein patient, patiently waiting her turn...

Another vein patient... She had big wads of veins on her legs... 

I know they must have hurt her...

Dr. Lee performing vein surgery

These make me think they hurt just to look at them.

I think she does this to make them not bleed so much...

The room filled up with student nurses...

We ended up having plenty of help in spite of the fact that our nurses arrived a day late.

Another patient..

Friday was "Fix a Hernia" day...

All these patients patiently waited their turn...

Things were slower with me interpreting, so they had to wait a while...

She was really happy about her exam...

Finally, Friday afternoon Dr. Adam Nofziger who is an ER doc and the two nurses arrived. Remember, they are the ones who got stuck in Michigan!

He worked in the ER.  I sure hope he will be back... I think he liked it, maybe! 

Left Danielle Dymora, Center Jamie Schwartz, Right Dr. Adam Nofziger

Having a cup of coffee before leaving for the hospital.

So the guys which are fixing the windshield now have it almost out and the 45 minutes have passed... I am panicking by now... So I ask... when?  "Oh, it takes 1 hour 45 minutes or maybe 2 hours."

By now, I am about to flip my top, but I smile and I call Jose...

He comes to where I am to pick up the money for the truck air-conditioner and goes and pays them and they are ready early... if you don't consider the fact that the car was supposed to be ready yesterday.  

So by now it is 11:30...  He then comes and gives me the Ford and I leave for the airport and he stays with the car which is getting the 45 minute windshield job...

So to make a long story short, I am at the airport and see the plane land...

The lines at immigration were backed up so Dr. Lee didn't walk out to meet me until 12:50...

Whew, what a day!

But everything was great from there on.

Great team, great patients, great Honduran volunteers at the hospital, great spiritual weekend...

Oh, by the way about 30 minutes out of town the air-conditioner started blowing REALLY hot air...  So next week it goes to the shop again...

When you think about it, pray for your friends who are missionaries in third world countries.  We have to wade through tons of problems to get anything done... Every day is a challenge, but the up side is there are lots of blessings along the way.

March 19, 2011 A Transvestite In The Emergency Room

I have a medical team visiting from the USA doing surgeries... that is part of what the ministry which the Lord has given me is about, but other than the general surgeon, I also have an ER doc on this trip, so he is working in the ER. 

In Honduras, where I live there are Friday and Saturday night drinking and drugging fights and accidents... so Friday nights, Saturdays and Sundays in the ER are a challenge.  This Saturday morning a 6' tall man with mascara, blue eye shadow etc. came into the ER, he had been stabbed by his male "partner" So he is laying in the ER with a catheter in his "you know what" and all this shiney blue eye shadow and RED lipstick...

So I walk into the ER in the morning and this is what I see and no one, I mean no one would speak to him... not the nurses, not the doctors, not anyone and the ER doctor visiting me well, he might have been a bit "surprised" shall we say...  Don’t get me wrong, the local doctors and nurses did their job, but they must have been uncomfortable talking to him.  Well, who wouldn’t be?  Suddenly I had this compassion… just an overwhelming compassion for him…

So I pull a chair up next to him, he is bleeding out his side where he has been stabbed and has blood in his stool, which is NOT a good sign, that means his bowel has been perforated when the knife stabbed through his side.  So he will have stool in his body and if not treated immediately with surgery will surely die from a ferocious infection.  So I explain to him the gravity of the situation, which no one had explained... but he kind of knows…

But when I first pulled up the chair, I said... "So, you are a transvestite."  I thought every nurse and doctor in the room where going to fall over... the look on their faces was like I had just done the imaginable... But, I broke the ice, I was clear and concise, I identified his real problem and I moved close to him, caring about him...  He said that he was part of the big transvestite group in Tegucigalpa and we started talking... My church has a ministry to the transvestites on the streets, they are delightfully open and realistic… You don’t have to beat around the bush with them… The stark naked truth is ok.

Anyway to make a long story short, within 5 minutes he had prayed to receive the Lord...  His heart was tender and he was looking for a different lifestyle, he knew what he was doing was the wrong lifestyle for him... Meanwhile, everyone in the room was in shock... As he repeated a prayer of repentance after me…

More and more medical personnel gathered around as he prayed, asked God to forgive him for his sins... then I did the unthinkable... I stopped praying and looked directly into his eyes and I asked who had molested him as a child... He, without a second thought gave me the guy’s name... So I said, “Now we need to forgive that man for doing that to you... When you hold unforgiveness in your heart, it causes you to sin...  We must forgive.”  So he prayed again and told God that he chose to forgive the man and that he wanted God to forgive him too...

So that was my Saturday morning, how was yours?

These are the things I rarely write about on my blog...  but they do happen... As the Bible says, "The fields are white for harvest and the laborers are FEW! My medical teams are mixed groups, some are Evangelical Christians, some are Mormons, some are Buddhists, some are atheists.  They do their medical work and I talk to people.  

I just shared this with a new friend and decided I would share it with my blog readers…  I am stepping out on a limb here...  I sure hope I don't get a lot of hate mail.  I love people and have compassion for them.  This is not meant to demean anyone.  It is meant to show how we as Christians should love those different than we are.  A little compassion goes a long way.

March 15, 2011 Pablo Rodriquez Receives A Wheelchair

March 10, 2011 Wheelchair Giveaway

Carlos Alexander Velasquez and his new wheelchair.

March 2, 2011 Today I Was Blessed To Be Able To Give Away A Wheelchair

This precious girl desperately needed a wheelchair.  Her mom carried here everywhere draped over her arms.  I am so thankful that Free Wheelchair Mission has donated the chairs to me to give away.