Planned Chaos!!!!!

We arrived at the hospital a little late, but all was well. The flights came in on time and almost all went well at the airport as I picked up this week's 3 team members. Dr. Yeu-Tsu Margaret Lee came all the way from Hawaii on American Airlines and Valeria Miller and Dr. Charles Chung came in on Continental from Texas.

As usual CUSTOMS decided that they would confiscate or make me pay tax for the car parts for the FORD F-350 ministry truck, which Val brought down in her luggage. After a couple of minutes of wrangling and a firm look, they decided that in fact I did have a dispensa, as one of the guys remembered me from before and knew that it was useless to try to wait me out for a bribe. Finally the last few parts for the transmission arrived.

Then as we were closing up her bag, they discovered the Brianna's Poppy Seed Dressing. It was fun to try to explain why she was bringing poppy seed dressing to Honduras. I had sent Val a wish list and asked for my favorite dressing and for some really special vinegar which I use to cook with. She was wonderful and brought those things plus the car parts! Thank you Val!!!!

It has been years since I have been to Hawaii and Dr. Margaret brought me Macadamia Nuts. I have plans for those! A cheesecake with Macadamia Nut Crust! Maybe I will give you all the recipe the day I make it and dig it out of my archives. I still have recipes from Home Economics class in the early 1970s at Hall High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. I had a Home Ec teacher that was a wonderful cook. The thought of her makes me hungry for Mexican Wedding Cookies made from her recipe.

After finally getting cut loose by customs, we headed to a friend's Italian Restaurant to eat. While we ate, Jose went to downtown Tegucigalpa with the transmission parts to deliver them to the transmission guy. I had called him a few days earlier to have him meet me at the airport and then I called and reminded him at 10:00 am, but he never arrived. When I called him as we were leaving the airport he had a million excuses why he didn't make it to his scheduled appointment. So Jose had to leave the team and go to deliver the parts.

Upon his arrival, he wolfed down a few pieces of pizza and some lasagna and we were on our way to Choluteca.

When we arrived, it was the usual CHAOS at the hospital. There were lines of hungry patients and all were very impatient. Sandra from Caimito had arrived with several patients and was furious when I refused to see her patients first. The Hospital papers have a time sheet on them and so I go by the time the patient arrives and do not "play favorites". She demanded that I see her patients first and each time I politely refused until the last time, I said to her, "We are seeing the patients according to time of arrival." She then lied and stated that they had arrived at 6:30 am. I showed her the paperwork saying that they had arrived at 10:36 and 10:37 and she got mad and stormed out. She was obviously unaware that the paperwork was time stamped and that I would find out that she was lying.

Finally we had all the patients arranged and ready for surgery. Dr. Chung was already operating by the time we finished reviewing the general surgery patients. So we then went to start the General Surgeries, but they were doing an emergency c-section, so we played the waiting game, while Dr. Chung did his 2 thyroidectomies. A few hernia cases later and we were off to the Hotel Flamingo to rest for the night!