We arrived in Ocotopeque to a very unorganized mayor who first stated that he didn't know we were coming, but then when asked why some people showed up for wheelchairs if he didn't know about it, he changed his story to say that he didn't think we were really coming with wheelchairs. Somehow it was twisted to became our fault that he was unorganized.
Then the mayor tried to break all the rules... We require that each patient provide us with a copy of their ID and a note from a doctor stating that they need a wheelchair... some people try to get wheelchairs when they don't really need them. Why? To sell them for money. Lastly we require that ALL patients pickup their wheelchairs in person where we can take a photo of the patient in the wheelchair. It may seem cruel and unusual, however, it seems that there were some people who were picking up wheelchairs from another group using DEAD old people's IDs and then selling them to pharmacies for a few dollars. So this is our way to keep that from happening.
Anyway, I said all that to say this... I refused to leave the 10 wheelchairs with the mayor because there was no paperwork and only 2 patients... so the town doctor showed up and after a few hours of waiting a total of 6 patients showed up. Then in order to NOT lose the other 4 chairs allotted to his town, but soon to leave with me the mayor suddenly remembered the old folks home down the street 3 blocks. Someone called the nuns who run the home and they showed up and asked for the other chairs. I was more than willing to give them the chairs, but I wanted to see patients. So off to Casa Maria we went with the mayor and his crew.
Thankfully there were several people with us on the trip to help put the wheelchairs together for us. Thank you to Renan Inestroza and his crew of four who drove across Honduras with us and helped us put together the chairs.
Posts
Is the mayor at any of the fotos?
ReplyDelete