Wednesday, June 21, 2000
Tonight, after dinner, my family and my cousin Kameha went to the LAX Airport. We arrived around 7:00, and my flight didn’t leave ‘till 10:05, but it was good because it took us forever to find a parking spot. Once we finally did, we waited inside the terminal for my plane to leave. Goodbyes were emotional, and I started missing my family before I even left them. Finally, the time came for me to board the plane. I had asked for an exit row when I checked in so I could have a lot of leg room, and as I sat down I was sure glad I had. I had as much leg room as first class. The only drawback to my seat was the fact that I was sitting next to a drunk guy, and he sure had a strong (and rather unpleasant) smell. My seat was a middle seat, and his was the window seat. To my delight, right before we took off I figured out that no one was going to sit in the aisle seat. So, I moved to that seat and got to spread out in two seats and not smell the drunk guy nearly as much. I took a sleeping pill and sat back to go to sleep...
Thursday, June 22, 2000
A few hours later I awoke, still tired, but very excited. I read for a little while and listened to a some music until I arrived at the Miami International airport. The first thing I did was to go have a cinnamon roll and a coffee for breakfast. I figured sugar and caffeine were the best way to start a day after a sleep deprived night. I wandered around the airport for a while (I had a 4 hour and 45 minute layover) meeting some interesting people, including: a Teen Mania Missions group headed for Peru (I went with Teen Mania to Peru last summer), a Brazilian girl going to college in New Zealand, a family headed home from Disney World, and a Honduran viola player that played a duet with me in the airport (I had my guitar). Well, after almost 5 hours, my flight left. I had the seat in front of the Exit row, so my seat didn’t lean back at all. Oh well. I sat next to a lady named Vivian Sevilla, who was bringing her two children to see relatives in Honduras. She is the only Christian in her family, and she hopes that she can be a positive influence for Christ to the rest of her family. I told her I’d ask all of you to pray for her. After the flight, I arrived to the San Pedro Sula airport. I went through immigration without any problems, but when I got in line for customs I began to worry. They were searching every inch of everyone’s bags. I had quite a few medicines packed in my bag (for the clinic), and I was concerned that the bag searchers might give me trouble. I prayed that God would not let them search my bag, even though every bag was being searched. A few minutes later, a customs lady walked up to me in line and asked me if the bags I had with me were my only bags. When I told her they were, she told me I could leave! I was the first person whose bags didn’t get searched. I thanked God all the way out of the airport. As I walked out of the building I saw Tom Jopling. His face was the one white one in a sea of brown. We walked out to his truck and went to Pizza Hut. When we came back to the airport to pick up the coming medical team, there was an Army truck parked there, the back filled with soldiers armed with M-16 machine guns. As we walked toward the terminal, an army officer waved to us. It turned out he was Mayor (Translation: Major) German Alfaro, Tom’s best friend. When the team arrived, Alfaro helped them speed through customs and we were off. The soldiers accompanied us. The reason they did was that we had to travel at night, and the Honduran highways are not safe to travel while it is dark, because of bandits. We stopped at a truck stop in a town called Sula for dinner, and I got to know everyone a little better. There was a wide variety of people on the team: one doctor, a lot of nurses, two translators, a pastor, and a few helpers. After dinner we continued on several hours until we arrived at the Army base in Cucuyagua, Copan. There we were given abandoned barracks to sleep in. After our long day of travel, we all fell into bed, dead tired.
Friday, June 23, 2000
Bright and early we arose to our first work day. After breakfast we loaded up in the back of a couple of big army trucks and set off for on a three hour drive to a village called Tomala. Alfaro had tried to get us a couple of helicopters to fly there in, but it was too short notice, so we had to drive. Accompanying us was an Army escort, some Honduran dentists, and a Honduran doctor. Tomala had been trapped in by a landslide for nearly nine months, and the road was just being cleared. These people were in desperate need of medical help. We arrived hot, dusty and sore bottomed, but ready to work. I was assigned to translate for the American doctor. After just a few patients, I got a message: Joel, Tom’s son, didn’t feel comfortable translating for the pastor, and wanted to translate for the doctor instead. I was only too happy to oblige, since I felt much more comfortable with my religious Spanish than with my medical Spanish. So, I went to translate for the pastor. When I got to him, he handed me a microphone. I was more than a little surprised, because I had never translated for a big crowd before. I was expecting to just do personal evangelism. Well, I didn’t have much choice, so I translated his message to the crowd awaiting medical care. Afterwards, we went inside to talk to people one-on-one. For the rest of the day I helped where I was needed, passing out tracts, translating for the pastor, translating for the doctor, helping in the pharmacy, and babysitting the missionary kids. On the way back to the base I opted for a seat in the back of Tom’s truck as opposed to the canvas-covered Army truck. It took us about 4 hours to get back home, for a total of about 7 hours driving time in one day. We got back around 9:30. After we ate dinner, it was straight to bead again.
Saturday, June 24, 2000
Today we were promised a shorter drive: an hour and a half up Mt. Celaque to Belen Gaucho. I rode in the back of Tom’s truck again, accompanied by his five-year-old daughter Danielle. On the way up we passed a small procession of people carrying a statue and playing guitars. When I asked Tom what it was, he explained to me that it was a parade to honor a village’s patron saint. As we continued our upwards trek, the air got colder and colder. By the time we neared Belen, it was colder than I had ever expected it to get in Honduras. I was sure glad I’d brought my jacket. When we arrived, a crowd of several hundred people anxiously awaiting us was already assembled. We entered the school that had been prepared for us and set up shop. The pastor was going to work in the pharmacy, so I was assigned again to work with the doctor. This time, the assignment stuck. All day I translated for him, and I learned a lot of medical Spanish out of pure necessity. I got to know him a little better too: His name is Dr. Griff, and I found out he is an ER physician. What he had been seeing was really opening his eyes to the rest of the world. I got to really get to know the people too. When Doc (that’s what we called Dr. Griff) asked a medical question, he would often get a more detailed than necessary response. When asked what their medical problem was, not only would they tell where they hurt, but also a few guesses at why and how they think it might be fixed. Since I was translating, I got to hear everything that was said, and felt like I really connected with the people. Finally, the time came when we had to shut the gates and not let anyone else in. There were still hundreds of people waiting to be seen, but we had to head back down the mountain. On the way down it started raining, so I got to squash inside the pick-up. Despite the rain, we enjoyed the beautiful drive. After an hour and a half, we got back to the base and had dinner. After dinner, Wally (a helper with our team) and I went and played billiards for a while before bed.
Sunday, June 25, 2000
For those who don’t know me well, I am always hungry. This particular morning, however, I was only interested in having a few bites of breakfast. After that, I rushed to the toilet... A few minutes later, I started myself on an antibiotic my dad had sent me. I was lucky that that day we would be working in the infirmary on base. I had planned to trade jobs with Joel today and work in the pharmacy while he translated, but when I tried to fill a prescription, I got dizzy and sick to my stomach. I needed a job where I could sit down. Joel was gracious enough to trade jobs with me and let me translate. Even though I wasn’t on my feet, I still felt pretty miserable. I didn’t really eat anything that day. There were a few times during the day when I felt I just couldn’t go on any more, and I had to take several breaks to rest. We saw more than 800 patients that day, almost the same as the last two days put together! We also did two minor surgeries. After we closed the clinic, most of the group went to attend a Baptist church service in town. Tom and I stayed behind to clean up the pharmacy and consolidate and pack for the next day. That night, sleep came quickly.
Monday, June 26, 2000
This was the last ministry day for the team. We climbed up Mt. Erapuca (the second highest mountain in Honduras) to Los Naranjos, Ocotepeque. It was quite an interesting drive, to put it nicely. The big Army truck that most of our team was riding in was the largest truck ever to travel that road, and for good reason. The road was narrow. Really narrow. There was also a bridge that was a few feet to narrow for the truck to cross, not to mention too weak. The truck had to ford the river instead. The beginning of the drive wasn’t so bad. A sheer rock wall on one side and a vertical drop-off on the other. We just hugged the rock wall. After that came the aforementioned bridge. Then it started getting fun. There were several hairpin turns around steep valleys. The truck made them: one wheel halfway on the road, the other wheel pressed up against the rock mountain wall. (Not an exaggeration). One turn in particular was umm... exciting. The edge of the road right before the turn was crumbling, and after the truck somehow made the turn, it got stuck in mud. The one redeeming quality about our two hour drive was the view. It was by far the prettiest drive we had made, through jungle, clouds, and coffee fields. When we finally arrived to Los Naranjos, awaiting us was the biggest crowd yet. I noticed this sadly, as we would have the least time here. You see, we had to get back before dark because of the condition of the road. After what seemed like only a few hours of ministry (a good deal of which time I was passing out drugs in the pharmacy), we had to leave. It had begun raining, and we could not stay any longer because the rain just worsened the condition of the road with every passing moment. Sadly, we turned from the still waiting crowds and drove off. Overall, general medicine saw 1903 patients, dentistry saw more than 400, and there were more than 45 salvations! Praise the LORD! We got back to base around 4 or 5 ‘o clock. At dinnertime we were introduced to the Inspector, the second highest ranking officer in the Honduran military. Instead of serving us food, we were told to meet in a gazebo at the other end of the base. When we arrived, we were surprised to find a party for both the Inspector and us. There was live music and a festive atmosphere throughout the night. Before we were served dinner, the inspector and the other officers on base presented us Diplomas de La Secretaria de Defensa Nacional y El Comandante del 7o Batallon de Infanteria. In other words, thank-you certificates from the Honduran Military. Pretty cool stuff. Next we went on to have dinner. It was fried fish. Each person was served a whole fish, complete with scales, skin, and eyes. It was really good. That night Alfaro took a couple of us fishing. We used tortillas for bait, but no one caught anything. He loaned me his fishing gear in case I wanted to try again in the morning. By then, it was around midnight, so I figured it was time to go to bed.
Tuesday, June 27, 2000
3:00 a.m.: I woke up and barely made it to the sink in time to vomit there. After a few miserable minutes I cleaned myself off and went back to bed.
7:00 a.m.: I woke up feeling just about perfect (go figure!). I went light on breakfast just in case. After breakfast I took some tortillas and walked to the pond to go fishing. Joel accompanied me. After about 10 casts I still had no luck. I let Joel try his hand at it. After one cast he pulled in a nice looking fish. I was just a bit jealous. Oh well. The bus arrived and it was time for us to say goodbye to the army base. We headed out and after about one hour we arrived in Santa Rosa de Copan. I got a chance to write a quick E-mail to my parents and run a few errands with Tom, and we were off again. We were going to see the Copan Ruins. After another hour and a half or so of traveling, we arrived to the El Jaral Hotel in Copan Ruinas, Copan. For the rest of the day we just relaxed.
Wednesday, June 28, 2000
Bright and early we were off to see the Copan Ruins. These Mayan ruins have been around for centuries. We explored the museums and ruins with the help of our guide, Antonio. He can give tours in 5 languages, and speaks wonderful English. We saw the stone gods they worshiped and the altars where they made their gruesome human sacrifices to appease these gods. We also saw a ball field where the Mayans played for their lives. The looser was sacrificed. It was sobering to realize the hopeless religion that these people followed. After the ruins, we went into town and went shopping. I bought a few souvenirs and had lunch. The town of Copan Ruinas is located about 9 miles from the Guatemalan border. When we arrived back to the hotel, a few of us decided to go horseback riding. We had a fun time exploring the Honduran countryside. When we got back, it was time for dinner. After dinner, Tom and I watched a movie in our room and then went to bed.
Thursday, June 29, 2000
This morning we traveled to San Pedro Sula. Tom and I traveled ahead in his pick-up while the others followed in the bus. We got to the hotel there and got everyone checked in, then continued on to Price Mart to go shopping for food. About every two months Tom goes shopping for food in this Honduran equivalent to Cosco. They sell American food in bulk. You can’t get much better than that. We ran a few more errands and went back to the hotel. We went swimming and had dinner. We packed to be ready to take the team to the airport early in the morning and went to bed.
Friday, June 30, 2000
After a quick breakfast, it was off to the airport. We saw the team off and then began the trip back to Santa Rosa. We made it in about 2 hrs. and 15 min., only almost getting in a crash twice (pretty good for two hours on a Honduran road). We had lunch and then just relaxed for the rest of the day, getting settled in.
Saturday, July 1, 2000
This was a catch-up day. Tom spent most of it paying bills and answering E-mails, while I unpacked and relaxed. That night, Tom asked me if I wanted to teach a children’s Sunday school class the next morning. I agreed and spent he rest of the evening planning for that and setting up my E-mail.
Sunday, July 2, 2000
Today began with church, or rather, Sunday school. As I said in my last update, I had been planning to teach a children’s Sunday school class this morning. After a few songs in church, we separated into our smaller groups and I took the early grade school level kids. I taught the story of Moses and how God spent 80 years getting him ready for his work leading the Hebrews. It went really well. I used a flannelgraph and some activity booklets to help me. The children were also very helpful. After Sunday school we had lunch. Sunday afternoon I spent several long hours writing my previous update. Sunday evening after dinner came the church service. I played guitar to help lead worship, and then afterwards I helped watch the children while Tom preached. After having a cup of tea and writing a few more E-mails I went to bed.
Monday, July 3, 2000
This morning, Tom woke me up and sent me in for breakfast. It was a homemade Sausage McMuffin with Egg and a homemade Egg McMuffin. Boy, were they good! After breakfast we planned to go to the Army base, but before that, Tom had been assigned by his wife to fix the washing machine. While he was outside doing that, someone came to the gate. It turned out it was Mayor Alfaro’s brother bringing us some ducklings. We made a shelter for them put them in it, and gave them some corn, promising them we would return with fish later. Tom finished working on the washing machine and we set off for the base. Our purpose in going was to check on some medicines we had left there and organize them for a later visit in which Tom and I plan to give medical care. When we got there, we found the medicines already organized, so we had a few hours to kill. Alfaro took us fishing. I caught 5 or 6 fish, probably average of 6 inches long. Nothing big enough to keep, but I was happy nevertheless. After lunch, Tom and I headed back to Santa Rosa. Right after we got back I gave a guitar lesson to several of the neighborhood kids. I couldn’t find my tuner, so it was an interesting sounding lesson. Guitars in Honduras are almost always at least a bit off key. When the lesson was over I went with Joel and a few of his friends to fulfill our promise to the ducklings. We found a pond a few blocks away and went to work. Whenever we saw a minnow in shallow water we would put our hand behind it and fling as much water as we possibly could, and if we were lucky, we would find that minnow on the shore, flopping around. Somehow we managed to catch fifteen or twenty fish, tadpoles, and frogs. We let the frog go. Then we brought our catch to the ducklings. They were full, so we left the fish in their little pond. I hope we didn’t catch them for nothing. Now I am writing this letter so there is nothing more to say. Goodbye and God bless.
Tuesday, July 4, 2000
Today I woke up tired and with a sore throat. Right after breakfast Tom and I went out to the clinic that he has in his yard. Many people were there from places more than hour’s bus ride away. Tom said he has seen people come from as far as Guatemala (one of Honduras’ next door neighbors.) We saw many patients who desperately needed medical care. After each exam every patient was given some kind of medicine or a supply of vitamins. Just about every person in Honduras could use either vitamins or mebendazol (an anti-parasite drug). There were 80 patients or so, and we finished up around lunchtime. I walked straight to bed and went to sleep. Three hours later I woke up, not feeling much better. I went ahead and had a late lunch, complete with a fourth of July cupcake. I had planned to go into town with Tom after lunch, but didn’t get a chance to, ‘cause I was asleep when he went (and I didn’t feel up to it anyway.) Instead I spent the afternoon reading. When Tom and his daughter came home (she went with him instead of me) they brought a turtle with them. They already had one turtle, but they thought maybe it was lonely so they brought it company.
Wednesday, July 5, 2000
When I woke up I had a fever and my throat hurt more than it had the day before. At breakfast I could barely swallow my food, so I asked Tom if he would examine my throat. I speculated I had strep throat, and he agreed with me and gave me a package of erythromycin. I felt miserable for most of the day, taking several naps and reading, even skipping lunch. By afternoon I was feeling significantly better, although my throat still hurt. That evening I taught an Awana class. Awanas is a children’s program that emphasizes scripture memorization. After the class I watched the ABC show “Survivor” and then went to bed.
Thursday, July 6, 2000
Today I woke up feeling much better. Tom and I worked in the clinic again. We didn’t have as many people come as Tuesday, but we had perhaps a more serious case. A lady came in with a blood clot in her leg, and we had to send her to the hospital. If the clot moves to her heart or lungs, she could die. Please pray for her. After we finished with the clinic and ate lunch we went to San Pedro, Copán (not to be confused with San Pedro Sula, the city I flew into) to help plan a children’s nutrition program there. We got a list of things that were needed to begin the program from the pastor’s wife. She will be running the program there. We then went to the army base to pick up some food we had stored there for the feeding program. It is in Cucuyagua, San Pedro Copán’s next door neighbor. After getting the food, Major Alfaro invited me to stay for a while and play soccer with some of the soldiers and officers. I accepted his offer and was soon out on the field. In the hour we played, I think I touched the ball three times. My position was on-field spectator. Oh well. I had fun anyway. After all, I was playing with soldiers.
Friday, July 7, 2000
This morning we went shopping to get the things they needed for the feeding program in San Pedro Copán and a few other things. Valerie donated her plates to the food program so she could get new ones. You’d never guess how hard it could be to find 10 plastic plates with matching patterns. Oh well. After lunch Tom and I went out to San Pedro Copán to give them the things they had ordered. Since we were out that way, we also went to the base to organize the medicine we had left there. Then we were on our way back home. After dinner Tom, Valerie and I were watching TV when all of the sudden, the lights and TV went out. We lit some candles and started talking. I figured that the power would come back on soon, as it had gone off a few days ago and came back on within 15 minutes. I was wrong. Eventually we went to bed with the power still off.
Saturday, July 8, 2000 (Amanda May’s 5th birthday!!)
At 5:30 Tom came in and woke Joel and I up. (The power was still
out.) We quickly threw on some clothes, grabbed some pop-tarts, and piled
into the truck. Before 6:30 we were at the army base. We were there
to give medical care to the people whom we had had to turn away when we were
with the team. I worked the pharmacy and Tom saw patients. Alfaro
and another soldier helped me. We helped 88 patients. It was around
2:30 when we finished up and began the trip back. The power was still
out. I had planned to send my sister an E-mail birthday card, but that
wasn’t really feasible without electricity. I decided to call
instead. After a few tries I got my calling card to work. As luck
would have it, I got the answering machine. I sang happy birthday to my
sister anyway. I also told them to call me back when they got the
message. As Valerie went outside to put dinner on the gas grill the
electricity came back on. After dinner they still hadn’t called back, so
I called them again. This time I got through. I got to have a
conversation with my whole family, except for my brother. He wasn’t
around when I called. It was great to hear my family’s voices again.
There was church again
this morning, and I taught Sunday-school to the same group I did last
week. I also helped again with the
music. The story was the ten plagues of
Egypt. It was a much harder lesson then
last week. The activities were also
harder, so we worked through them as a class.
After the class was over, we all met in the sanctuary and each class
recited the bible verse that they had learned.
Sunday afternoon I wrote the previous update. After that I taught another guitar lesson. The only person that came was a boy named
Juan. The lesson went really well. The two boys that came to the previous
lesson (Juan being one of them) had asked to learn “La Cucaracha”, so I taught
him that first. Then we continued on to
learn “Father I Adore You” and another not so well known praise song, both in
Spanish. After the lesson there was
time for a quick bite of dinner before church.
At church I supervised the children watching a video while the adults
listened to a sermon.
Early this morning Tom
and I went into town to do a few errands, including making some copies, getting
rabbit food, visiting a kindergarten, and a few other things. After we finished the errands we came back
to the house to grab a few supplies and we were off again. We were headed to San Pedro Copán. It was the first day of the feeding program
there. When we got there we took
pictures of each child and gave them each a small gift. Dolls for the girls and Hot Wheels for the
boys. The program looked like it was
going smoothly. It was really needed
there. There were 6 orphans in the
group, and every other child there had several siblings, making it hard for
their parents to feed all of their children.
Each child gets one full meal a day, five days a week. The only stipulation is that they must
attend school, if they are old enough.
As the old saying goes, “If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a
day; teach him to fish, you feed him for the rest of his life.” The goal of the feeding program, while
concerned with the short term food needs of children, also looks to prepare
them for life through education.
Tuesday, July 11, 2000
Today was a clinic
day. In his clinic, Tom charges a
nominal fee to keep down abuse. He
doesn’t want people who aren’t really sick coming in, and this helps motivate
them. One lady came in and brought a pineapple
because she didn’t have any money.
After we finished up in the clinic we had some of the pineapple. I love pineapple, and Honduran pineapple is
the best I have ever tasted. Needless
to say, I enjoyed lunch. After lunch I
went outside and found a quiet place to sit and play my guitar and spend some
time with God. It was a time that I
really needed, a chance for my soul to rejuvenate. While I was doing that, the Jopling children had been setting up
treasure hunts for each other. After I
was finished, I decided to make one for them.
I left notes that led them around to different places in the house and
yard, and finally to a prize of 1 Lempira apiece. (A Lempira is worth about $0.066).
Wednesday, July 12, 2000
I got woken up at 5:20
in the morning today. Tom and I were
traveling to San Pedro Sula to pick up his daughter Dalaina from the
airport. We set out by 5:30 with
Pop-tarts in hand. It was freezing
cold. As we started our two and a half
hour journey I decided that even though I was tired, I would not fall
asleep. After an hour I could not keep
my eyes open any more, so I gave in and slept.
It made the trip go a lot faster.
We got there a little before 8:00.
We had a few stops to make before we went to the airport. We had to get groceries, look for lawnmower
parts, and get gas. After that, we
continued on to the airport. When we
got there Tom noticed a funny noise in the motor. We looked at it and figured out that it was just part of the
exhaust pipe and was no big deal. We
went to wait outside the terminal for Dalaina.
She finally made it through customs and out to us. As we got in the truck she was full of
stories about her trip to the U.S. We
were about a half hour away from San Pedro when we figured out that the noise
was not the exhaust pipe. It got louder
and turned into a high pitched scream.
We pulled over and looked at the engine. Tom said it was the water pump.
He cut down a bush with his machete and put it about 50 yards behind the
truck. This is to warn everyone coming
that there is a vehicle stopped on the shoulder. Then he left Dalaina and I to
guard the truck while he went to look for help. It was really hot. We
took some water from a canteen in the truck and made instant tea. (We had a truck full of groceries.) After more than an hour Tom finally came
back. We decided we would drive a half
mile or so to a gas station up the highway.
We hoped the engine could make it.
It did. Since we couldn’t get a
tow-truck to come and get us, we left the truck there to be fixed and took the
bus to Santa Rosa. Two and a half hours
later, hot, tired, and sweaty, we arrived.
Thursday, July 13, 2000
For me, today was a break. Tom left early this morning to go camping with some soldiers. I was invited, but I was just too tired to go. I just read, watched TV and rested. Tom was planning to stay overnight and come back Friday morning, but instead he showed up this afternoon. He said the soldiers had to come back early because El Salvador was patrolling the Salvadorian/Honduran border. The Honduran soldiers were going to take positions on the border Monday, and they had to come back to get ready. Tom said he was going to the border with a group of soldiers tomorrow to figure out where the best place to put a hospital would be, if indeed war did break out. I asked if I could come with, but he didn’t want me to, simply because he feared for my safety.
Friday, July 14, 2000
I didn’t have much to do today either. Tom left for the border early this morning. After lunch, Dalaina and I went into town to rent a couple of movies. We watched them right before bedtime. As we were watching the first one, Tom came home.
Saturday, July 15, 2000
Another missionary family living in Santa Rosa was going to San Pedro Sula this morning, so Tom hitched a ride with them to go pick up his truck. It was another day for us just to recuperate.
Sunday, July 16, 2000
When Tom woke up this morning, he felt about ready to die. He was having some bad gastrointestinal problems. He was barely able to think, and moving hurt. I had planned to accompany him to Corquin this morning for a baptismal service, and we were going to go, weather his body liked it or not. (It didn’t.) We stopped in San Pedro Copán and Cucuyagua to pick up several pastors and the people being baptized. These two cities are about a 5 to 10 minute drive from Corquin. When we arrived in Corquin, our first stop was at the pastor there’s house. We loaded him into the truck along with one more person to be baptized. Then we were off to a pond on the other side of Corquin. I had been assigned by Valerie to take pictures of the service, so I did. After a few nearly on key hymns, it was time for the baptisms. Tom, still thoroughly miserable, got in the pond and baptized Oscar Reynerio Rojas Alvarado, Amilcar Lara Lopez, and Gloria Magdalena Espinozá. After a few more hymns the service was over. We all climbed back into the truck and drove back to Cucuyagua, stopping several times along the way to drop people off and once for a police roadblock. Then we were on our way back to Santa Rosa. It’s a wonder Tom made it back he was feeling so bad. When we got back, lunch greeted us (Tom didn’t eat, for some reason.) After lunch we had a few hours until church. This Sunday I was going to go to the service instead of watching the kids, but only a handful of people came for the service, so we all watched the movie. It was a cartoon production of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18-19).
Monday, July 17, 2000
Late this morning we went to the battalion in Cucuyagua. We had some medicine to deliver there. We had been planning to drop it off the day before, but Tom just hadn’t felt up to another stop. He still didn’t feel quite up to par, but he was miles above how he’d felt yesterday. He decided he’d just skip lunch. When we got to the base, one of the first things they did was offer us lunch. Now in Honduras, if you are offered food, you accept it. Period. So we both ate lunch. After that we went to the bodega (warehouse) to get some medical tools. Someone from the states had sent Tom a whole truckload of medicine, and the army had extra space in their bodega, so he stored it there. We found most of what we needed, and then went back outside. As we stepped out of the door we were met by a soldier and several officers. The soldier was shaking and complaining of several ailments, including lack of appetite and pain from a bicycle injury he had had a few years ago (among other things). Tom and I guessed half of it was genuine, and half of it was to avoid going to the Salvadoran border the next day. (If you’re curious about what happened with El Salvador: Everyone was really tense on base that day but, skipping ahead a few days, nothing happened.) Anyway, this soldier wouldn’t eat, so we gave him an ultimatum: eat or get nutrition through an IV. He chose the IV. A few minutes later we were in the infirmary getting an IV started. We were using a bed that we stood on one end for an IV pole and a shoelace to tie the glass IV bottle to the bed. We guessed we had a defective tube, because the solution would not go into him. (After the fact, we both came to the conclusion on our own that the glass bottle simply wasn’t allowing for ventilation and we probably should have used a vented tube, but it’s too late now.) While we were trying to get the IV to work, Tom noticed that the soldier’s fingernails were oddly shaped, a fact pointing to a diastolic heart murmur. He listened to his heart and his suspicions were confirmed. After interviewing the soldier and finding out that that he tired easily and couldn’t do many of the things that he needed to be able to to be a soldier, Tom decided to suggest to the officers that he be discharged. After talking to Alfaro about that we were on our way back to Santa Rosa.
Tuesday, July 18, 2000
This morning I helped for a while in the clinic, but before everyone had been seen I set off for “Migración”, or Immigration. I had to renew my visa so that I could legally be here until the end of my trip. I had never been to the city alone before, but I figured it wouldn’t be a big deal. I took a taxi to town square and walked the block and a half to Migración. When I got there and explained what I needed, the lady at the desk told me I’d have to go to the bank to buy a stamp for my passport, unless she could find one in her desk. She found one, and told me I was lucky. Then she asked for my passport. She opened it up to the page where the visa was stapled, and put the stamp on the back. Then she asked me what date I’d come into the country. I told her and she finished up my paperwork. Then she told me that my passport didn’t have an entry date on it, so I really hadn’t needed to come and get my visa renewed. I could’ve stayed as long as I wanted. Oh well. Then I paid L30.00 and got my passport back. I ended up going to the bank anyway, to get some money changed. That afternoon Tom and I and his daughter Danielle went back into town to run a few errands. We went to the post office, the vegetable stand, and the local meat market, among other things.
Wednesday, July 19, 2000
5:30 a.m.: Tom woke me up. We were planning to go to Gracias, Lempira with the twelfth battalion, the one based in Santa Rosa. We ate breakfast and were out on the porch waiting for the soldiers by 6:00. At six thirty we decided they probably weren’t coming, even if they had meant six o’ clock Latin time (Latin time moves slower than US time). I went back to bed.
7:10 a.m.: I had just gotten perfectly situated and fallen asleep, when suddenly Danielle came in and told me the soldiers were here. Oh well, so much for sleeping in. I hopped out of bed and went to go load up cases of medicine. Tom’s truck was at the mechanic, so we were borrowing another missionary’s SUV. It actually had a stereo, so we got to listen to music. From Santa Rosa, Gracias is about halfway to Erandique, where my dad and I went on a medical mission trip in February. Anyway, when we got there, we set up the clinic and pharmacy in a school building. I was in the clinic all day, and Tom worked both seeing patients and in the pharmacy. The people that I had helping me in the pharmacy had no medical knowledge, except for a very knowledgeable male nurse. Anyway, they all learned very quickly how to fill prescriptions and what and where the medicines were. At one point around noon I took a break and went with a couple of students from the military high school in SPS to go to a Spanish fort up a hill from the clinic. It is one of the oldest in the Americas. It had some interesting history, as well as a great view. As we left, some of the other military high school students were forming ranks, raising the flag, singing the national anthem and shooting blanks from a mortar. It was really cool. Anyway, we went back to the clinic and by late afternoon we were finished, having seen over four hundred patients. We headed back, and had dinner here in Santa Rosa. Then there was AWANAS. I ran games, because Dalaina felt sick. I had so much fun. We played steal the bacon. I love playing with those little kids.
Thursday, July 20, 2000
Today, while Tom began working in the clinic, I started sorting out and categorizing one of about 12 boxes full of medicine. That’s what I did for the whole morning. Then, in the afternoon I began catching up on my long forsaken stack of E-mails. This evening, we were planned to go out to dinner to a restaurant called El Rodeo. It was really good. After dinner it started raining. Then we went to an ice cream parlor called Kobs. While we were eating our ice cream, we heard a sound like a bomb. I was worried that El Salvador had attacked after all, but it turned out that it was just lightening striking really close to where we were.
Friday, July 21, 2000
This morning I began working on this update. Then in the afternoon Tom and I and his son Joel headed to the battalion. He was preaching a message to the soldiers that evening. Before we did that, the secretary from the commander’s office asked us if we would come and take a look at her printer because it wasn’t working. After just a couple minutes, we figured out it was a mechanical problem. We opened the front up, but still couldn’t fix it, so we decided to take it apart. After about 15 minutes of poking, pushing, and pulling we finally got the thing open. We still weren’t sure what was wrong with it, but we cleaned it up a bit and fiddled with it. We tried it again and it worked! Then Tom put it back together while I looked for games on the computer. When he finished, it still worked. There was only one problem. There was one rather large extra piece that didn’t fit anywhere. Oh well. It worked anyway.