BUMC Honduras Blog

Day 4 and 5 Update

Steve — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 12:52:36 +0000

Sorry for the delay in posting, but the Internet connection at the hotel has been subject to intermittent outages. So this post will be a summary of both Tuesday and Wednesday of our trip. We will have more photos later but cannot add them at the moment.

Tuesday we worked in a community to the northwest of Tegucigalpa called Las Hadras. We worked in an abandoned vocational training center built in 2001 with funds from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. It may have been well-intentioned, but the building is now unused, for reasons we never learned. I would say it was a pretty big waste of money but at least John and Ana get to use it for clinics.

We saw nearly 250 patients who seemed to be in slightly better circumstances than the people we served yesterday. The health problems were similar, but their living conditions were slightly better.

Tuesday night we had a very good meal at a restaurant called Hacienda Real that was practically indistinguishable from a restaurant you might find in Nashville’s Cool Springs area. Many members of the team have been struck by how Tegucigalpa seems to consist of two separate societies. One includes people like those we have been serving, the majority of home are unemployed and living in squalid and dangerous communities. The other consists of a significant number of individuals who are able to eat at nice restaurants and shop at one of four nice shopping malls filled with the same branded merchandise we enjoy. But it is difficult to see where the “haves” live.

Wednesday we served in a community called Carrizal, in northwest Tegucigalpa. The people have been wonderful in all the communities we have served, but we found the people of this community to be especially friendly and gracious. We worked on the second floor of a two story church building and served close to 200 people. We will be back in this community on Thursday. After finishing at Carrizal we returned to the hotel for another round of pill-counting fun.

Our days have generally required leaving the hotel at about 7 AM and turning in for the night at about 9 PM. The long days are leaving us pretty wiped out at the end of the day, but thankfully everyone is in good health. It is a blessing to be able to do this, and we appreciate everyone’s support back home.

Day 3 reflection from Charles G.

Steve — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 04:29:53 +0000

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.

Day 2 and 3

Steve — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 04:13:09 +0000

Yesterday was a day for church and a bit of sightseeing and shopping before getting to work today. We attended a large non-denominational church for a Spanish-language service, before heading to a colonial-era village called Valle de Angeles (Valley of the Angels). Valle de Angeles is a quaint town with several shops where local artisans sell hand made crafts, jewelry, and other items. Every now and then a horse and rider will make their way up the street.

Today we served in a community in the hills of northwest Tegucigalpa called Ciudad Nueva (New City). I didn’t get a final count of how many we served but expect it was in the neighborhood of 150 to 175. As will be the case all week, the needs of the community were overwhelming. Some of our doctors and nurses expressed disappointment that we were powerless to assist many people facing issues that would be routine and easily solved in the United States. But the people we met were very appreciative of our efforts. More stories and photos to come, but it’s late and we start all over tomorrow!

Day 1 post from Rupa G!

Steve — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 03:24:24 +0000

Landing in the Honduras airport was not as frightening as we had anticipated. We arrived safely and are preparing to care for the sick people of Tegucigalpa. John and Ana met with us and oversaw us replenishing their clinic’s pharmacy. At this point, I am unsure about the details of the week, though I look foward to getting into the community, meeting the people, and making use of this privilege.

captions for pictures:

Rupa, Abby, and Laura pause for a picture while awaiting customs clearence.

John, Jeff, Nelson and Mike sorting prescriptions carefully.

Night time overlooking the hills of Tagucigalpa

Day 1

Steve — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 02:59:16 +0000

Buenas noches! We have all arrived safely in Honduras and had a successful first day. We pulled away from church at 3:30 AM in a church bus driven by Dwight A., who we can only assume lost an epic rock-paper-scissors battle to determine who would have to drive us. Big thanks to Dwight.

A few hours later we were on the hot dry soil of Honduras. Today was mostly a day to get organized so we made a stop at the mall for lunch, picked up a few things at the Hiper Pais (the WalMart brand in Honduras), and got checked in at our lovely hotel.

We spent the rest of the afternoon taking the bulk medications we brought down and dispensing them into little baggies for individual patient prescriptions.

We are all pretty wiped out after such a long day, and looking forward to a great night’s sleep. Tomorrow we will all attend church (en Espanol!) and have time for a bit of sightseeing and more prepping for the week.

Thanks for your support!

Anyone seen the duster?

Steve — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 03:51:03 +0000

Passport? Check. Spanish-English phrasebook? Check. Travel-friendly microfiber clothing? Check. That’s right, BUMC has another Honduras medical mission coming up! So that means we need to clear off the e-cobwebs, dust off the cyber-furniture, and relaunch this blog. It’s been quiet around here since our last trip, but that’s about to change. During the week of April 9 to April 16 eleven individuals will be making a trek to Tegucigalpa, the capital city of Honduras, to offer medical clinics to several impoverished communities in and around Tegucigalpa (affectionately known as ”Tegus” for you cultural cognoscenti). Please check back during our trip to see what’s going on!

About the “military coup” in Honduras

Steve — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:20:58 +0000

I have no way to check, but I’m guessing Ronald Reagan was President of the U.S the last time the word “Honduras” was on the front page of the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, on the same day and “above the fold.” But events over the weekend have caught the attention of the world press. In case you missed it, Honduras’ president, Mel Zelaya, was removed over the weekend in a dispute about his desire to amend the Honduran constitution to remove presidential term limits in the constitution. The Honduran Supreme Court judged his actions to be illegal, and with the support of the Honduran Congress, ordered the military to remove him from office. Unfortunately, almost all of the press coverage outside Honduras has portrayed these events as a “military coup” of the kind that was common in the 20th-century history of Latin America.

Press accounts have paid little heed to the fact that every important democratic institution in Honduras, including Congress, the Supreme Court, and Mel Zelaya’s own party, regards the military as having acted with restraint and only after legal authorization by the other branches of the Honduran government. The Honduran press and the vast majority of the population seem very supportive of Zelaya’s removal.

Here is an excellent article that offers a view more consistent with what I’m reading on blogs from Honduran nationals and American expats living there.

Zelaya has previously aligned himself ideologically and politically with the Chavez/Castro wing of Latin American nations, so it’s no surprise he has found support with them. But I am surprised that the leaders of more centrist countries like Costa Rica and Colombia, who ought to know better, haven’t been more supportive. For years now Zelaya has been cozying up to Hugo Chavez and blustering against the U.S., so I can’t imagine why U.S. diplomats would have felt a need to head this off and keep him in power. Honduras’ Congress, Supreme Court, and interim President will need to do a better job of getting the full story out, or else world opinion will force Zelaya’s reinstatement, at least until the fall elections.

“That’s not fun. I don’t like this one.”

Steve — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 09:56:12 +0000

Cockpit View of a Jet Landing into Tegucigalpa Honduras TGU

The landing into Toncontin International Airport in Tegucigalpa is legendary among those who travel to Honduras. Sometimes the passengers will burst into applause upon landing. Why? The mountains in the area require the pilot to take a swirling kind of approach before leveling out at the end very close to the ground, just before landing. Here’s a cockpit view. Have your sound on.

Increasing Hunger in Honduras

Steve — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 03:15:33 +0000

Here is the latest update from John and Ana:

Greetings from Honduras,

We are busy!! The two pictures taken at the beginning of the day [see below] could easily have been taken at the end of the day and they would look the same except the faces would change. We are seeing hundreds of patients every week. 468 last week alone. On days we know we will see lots of patients we take another doctor with us to help.It seems the people are poorer every week. Famine is beginning in some parts of Honduras due to the high cost of food. The poor have no resources to fall back on. They live day to day. There is no government assistance such as welfare or food stamps. They work hard just to eat. More and more cannot afford to purchase the beans and rice or eggs which they need to survive. There was an article in the paper last week about people subsisting on tortillas and salt. Can you imagine eating only tortillas and salt and then trying to work? Your body would waste away; which is what is happening to the poorest of the poor. I think I told you in my last e-mail that Ana & I are helping one family that was living like that and with the help of the First United Methodist in Tuscaloosa we began helping another 4 month old baby that was starving to death. With less and less nutritious food the body becomes more susceptible to disease which we are seeing more evidence of.

Ana and I appreciate your supporting our efforts to help the poor in Honduras and we hope that you will continue to do so. We know that things are becoming difficult in the states. Everything costs more. But multiply that effect by several times and that is what is happening in Honduras right now. Added to this, the government of Honduras has subsidized many things to help keep the cost low for the poor people. Well now they are removing many of the subsides because they can’t afford to subsidize gas, electricity, and other commodities any more. This is hitting the poor really hard. We ask you to keep us and our work in your prayers and continue supporting us as God leads you.

Smoke in Tegucigalpa

Steve — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 18:32:14 +0000

For most of our trip last week, we were dismayed to see fires burning in the Tegucigalpa area. The smoke from these fires got worse as the week progressed, and by the time we left visibility was greatly reduced. By the end of the week the smoke was quite an annoyance to some among us with respiratory issues.

Here is an article from El Heraldo (translated into English, somewhat competently, by Google) that describes the situation. According to the article, and unbeknownst to us while we were sitting at the airport on Saturday, the smoke actually caused the runway at Tegucigalpa’s Toncontin airport to be closed Saturday morning and Sunday. Am I the only one that thinks it’s a little eerie that the authorities decided it was safe to fly during the times US flights were taking off and landing, but not so safe other times? I can’t say the visibility was any better between the morning and the time we took off.