On Monday we finally went to work. We were on the bus at 7 am and
drove about 45 minutes to a neighborhood up in the hills around
Tegucigalpa accessible only by very bad unpaved roads. Its the dry
season in Honduras and it was hard not to wonder how any plant life
survives in the bone dry dust that passes for earth right now. Mike
D. reminded us that, in the wet season, it was green and lush to
the opposite extreme. Today, that was hard to envision. There was a
layer of dust on everything: trees, homes, cars, and, very quickly,
the BUMC Mission Team.
The church we served today was founded four years ago and currently has 35 members, most of whom
showed up to help and be served by the clinic. People were lined up
when we arrived and after 30 minutes of setting up tables and
unpacking the medicines, we began seeing patients. Everyone had a
role and all were vital. Two people greeted the patients, took their
vitals and then passed them onto our doctors and nurse practitioners
who examined them and prescribed medicine or treatment. Finally,
prescriptions were filled by the pharmacy team. It was bumpy at
first, but we got a rhythm going and managed to get through 175 people
in 7 hours of clinic. The people were very friendly, very grateful,
and very patient with our Spanish! We had several translators, but
every member of the team had to use some Spanish and everyone was a
liitle better at it by the end of the day.
At 3 pm we packed up, needing to be gone before it got dark. While we
never saw anything that made us feel worried about our safety, the two
hired guards toting machine guns that stood out front all day reminded
us that our cargo of prescription medicines might be a temptation to
some and we needed to leave with light to spare.
With one day under our belts, the team is feeling relieved to know we
can do this, and very tired from a long, exciting, and rewarding day.
Tomorrow, we do it again in a new location.
Filed under: General
