quick update

We had another wonderful birthday celebration last night for Bryan turning 32. We went to the state fair and went to the Lincoln Bruster/Big Daddy Weave/Mark Shultz concert and we had a lot of fun there. It was a great night especially because Kirk (my brother) & Chrystine took care of our boys for the evening and they even had a sleepover with their cousins, Kira and Brinley.

We are off to Jamestown, ND to see my family and for a family anniversary celebration. I will update things on Monday or Tuesday.

Honduras pictures

I finally have some pictures online from our 4 weeks in Honduras. There is one combined folder of pictures from our vacation in Roatan and our 3 1/2 weeks at the Loma de Luz Hospital in Bafate. There are 268 pictures that I uploaded. It was hard to sort through the 1200 pictures we took and select out the best ones to tell the story. I added captions to the pictures to explain things along the way since we won't be able to do that in person for most of you.

Here is a link to the pictures.
http://picasaweb.google.com/astromom/2008_08_06HondurasSummary

Here are a few of my favorites.

The Loma de Luz Hospital

One of the thousands of geckos we lived with and heard. They are small but put out an amazingly loud clicking noise. We liked them because they ate the bugs.
This was our last day in Honduras and we spent it at the city dump in La Ceiba. It was my favorite day because it just broke my heart. I can't believe that people live at the dump and survive on so little. They are uneducated and don't take advantage of the education they could get as kids. I think this leads to lives without ambition and the cycle continues for their kids and grandkids. This day embodies the worst of Honduras and how much help is needed there. This place made my heart grow for Honduras and want to help them more.
My wonderful, sweet Honduran friend, Argentina. She knew very little English and I knew very little Spanish but we still managed to develop a friendship. She is the housekeeper for staff housing and is a hard worker. She taught me how to make flour tortillas and pastalitos (fried sandwich pockets).
Bryan's favorite day was on our 10th anniversary, August 1, 2008. We had a babysitter and took off for the afternoon and evening by ourselves. We went to a waterfall and swimming hole area with hot springs. It was so beautiful to be out in the jungle together.
Bryan in his doctor's office where he saw many clinic patients. He also admitted some patients to the hospital and would do their medical care in the hospital as long as they were there.
Bryan's interpreter, Guildy, who lives at the Children's Center. It is an amazing facility for foster care for kids whose families can't take care of them. Guildy became a great friend and was an incredible blessing to have an interpreter around. She is very gifted at 15 years old.
The guarded gate to the grounds of Hospital Loma de Luz.
Joshua became a friend to my boys at staff housing and the boys still pray for him and Marsela.
Marsela is 3 years old and Joshua will be 2 soon. It was so cute to see my kids try to get them to understand English and them try to get us to understand Spanish.
Family picture at another scenic area with big rocks and waterfalls.

Minnesota State Fair

Last Saturday our family and our friends, the Currells went to the Minnesota State Fair in St. Paul. We have never been before and it has quite the reputation so we were anxious to go finally. The fair is huge here and it is called the great Minnesota get together. Saturday was beautiful and sunny and not to hot with a cool breeze. We couldn't have asked for a better day and it sure brought out the people to the fair.

We tried lots of fried foods and lots of food on a stick. Things we consumed included: mini donuts, corn dogs, fresh lemonade, roasted corn on the cob, ice cream, cotton candy, fried cheese curds, a chocolate malt and snow-cones. Thankfully we all shared these but we all went home with our cravings satisfied. Our family all went down the giant slide and it was a blast. I had never done that before and was glad that I finally did. Clay rode one and half rides with Jaden before they had to stop the airplanes because he was screaming in fear. Jaden had lots of fun on all the rides and even wanted to go on a roller coaster but he was too short. He did get to ride on the alligator boats, 2 different airplane rides and the motorcycles. Here are some pictures from our adventure.

(I am closer to getting pictures up from Honduras. Stay tuned.)

Happy Birthday Bryan!

I have a wonderful husband that treats me very well. Today is his 32nd birthday. The boys got him presents and picked out a card and I wrote him a nice card too. We even went out to dinner to his choice, Carbone's Pizza, with my brother and his family. I tried to be extra nice and loving to him but didn't do such a good job at keeping my cool at dinner. My boys were out of control and I didn't have enough patience for them. Jaden had already ticked me off from an hour and half of crying before nap and then woke up cranky. Both boys were all over my lap and were just uncontrollable. I made Bryan put the boys down for bed tonight because I just couldn't take any more. Bryan is so great, he just takes it in stride. He is truly a great husband and great dad and I honestly couldn't ask for anyone better. He is my perfect gift from God. I appreciate and love him more than he will ever know.

I have been on a bit of a blog hiatus because, well, let's be honest, I have been a bit down. Life here is not that interesting yet. I really wish I had a job and my kids were in a Montessori school. There are a couple of problems there. I need to appreciate where my life is now but also work to get it where I want it to be. I want an aerospace engineering job but I don't have enough confidence in getting a job or recalling all that I previously learned. It is scary how much I have forgotten. I am settling for putting Jaden in a Lutheran preschool for now because it is cheaper.

I am hoping for more time to spend on finding a job and more breaks from my boys. Bryan will soon be helping me out more. I know things will get better and more interesting as we get more settled in our house and the number of projects diminishes. I know that I need more appointments with friends and family to get me out of the house. Spending time with others, with or without my kids, helps my mood and motivates me to do more with my days. I am hoping that next time I blog, I can be more upbeat but this is where I am right now.

Honduras medical summary

I found this summary of some of the medical stuff that Bryan and other doctors dealt with while we were at the Loma De Luz Hospital in Balfate, Honduras. Dr. Leon Greene wrote most of this and I added and modified it.

· A drunken HIV-positive man who was shot in the leg and nearly died from blood loss.

· An 8-year old girl who was raped earlier in the day by the man with the bullet wound in his leg.

· A dying AIDS patient who turned out to be the 8-year-old-girl’s mother.

· A man who accidentally fell on his machete, piercing his chest wall, lung, and heart and later died.

· A boy who had his hand nearly destroyed by an infection.

· A man who had a fractured hip and had gone to the local government hospital where they put a cast on his ankle!

· A heart patient who came to the hospital psychotic, bound hand and foot, with 5 hefty men unable to control him.

· A boy who had the entire right side of his chest burned by boiling milk.

· A woman who fell and sprained her ankle, but who spread rumors in the community that we had not casted her “broken leg” because we had run out of casting plaster.

· Patients are still hearing about God from the entire hospital staff. Four have accepted Jesus in just the last 2 weeks.

· The rapist is in jail (unusual for the Honduran justice system).

. A lady died after hernia surgery from a blood clot to her lungs but came to know Christ during the recovery process. Her husband also became a Christian while the hospital staff was trying to get the lady's heart restarted.

internet

So, we finally have internet at our house! It has been a long week and a half. I haven't gotten back to blogging but I hope to get back into the routine soon. Not sure I am ready for it yet. I do miss getting my thoughts out of my head.

We have lost much sleep to watching the Olympics and doing stuff around the house all hours of the day and night. That has been causing me bad headaches and sometimes migraines. That is depleting me of any extra energy.

We have gotten tons done around the house, including our new kitchen. We have had lots of family here to help us from ND. There seem to be an endless supply of little projects around the house and we keep creating more. There is still a lot of organizing and decorating to be done in the house but it is happening very slowly now. Everything is pretty much unpacked except for a few boxes in our basement that will remain there. Usually Bryan and I are very good about getting our bedroom setup first but this time our bedroom is the worst and still needs the most help. It is on the top of my list to do but there always seems to be some urgent thing that needs to get done when I am ready to tackle our room.

I am busy checking our preschools and touring them. There doesn't seem to be a perfect option but I am still looking and it is time consuming when I would rather be getting settled more in our house.

Other emergencies that we are dealing with: paying our mortgage 20 days late (thank goodness for extra time on the first payment and nice telephone people at Chase), dealing with the insurance company from the hail damage on 5/30 on our house in Rochester, getting our dryer working after much tinkering from Bryan and a host of toddler emergencies.

Gotta go for another school tour!

moving update

We are in the process of getting settled in our house in Bloomington, MN. It has been a little adjustment to American life after being away for 4 weeks. I have almost accidentally put the toilet paper in the trash instead of the toilet--Central American life!

The truck unloading and unpacking went very well on Thursday. Our wonderful new neighbors, two houses away, had our kids over to play for a few hours. That was a big help.

On Friday, my parents and grandma Alma came to visit and help install our new kitchen. Today my parents left and my grandma will stay with us for the week. I am really looking forward to this time with her and her help unpacking and cleaning.

My dad, Bryan and brother, Kirk, did an excellent job working on our kitchen. We now have new cabinets and countertops that look absolutely beautiful and better than I expected. There is still some finishing touches that need to be done and they will get finished next weekend when my parents return.

We are looking forward to getting internet, phone and cable TV in the next couple of days but for now we are sporadically available online or by cell.

Thank you all so much for your prayers and support while we were in Honduras. We definitely felt the prayers of our fellow Christian family.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008: 29 days

Twenty-nine days later we are returning to Minnesota. It has gone so quickly but so much has happened and so much has changed. I am sitting on an airplane dwelling on what has happened in our lives over the last month.

I am ok with sitting in my own sweat all day now.

My boys love the water (used to hate it).

My boys are ok getting dirty (Jaden still is a little hesitant), killing bugs and have countless owies on their bodies from the rough terrain.

Our hearts have grown for the people of Honduras. We want them to find Jesus. We want to help them spiritually, physically and emotionally. We want to see them have ambition in life and a quest for knowledge. The Honduran people will forever be in our hearts and minds and we hope, continually in our lives.

We have been asked many times if we are considering full time mission work and if we will be returning, when and how soon. We are not planning on being full time missionaries for now. Life as a missionary is hard and we would want to know clearly if that is something God wants from us. Right now we plan to do repeated, short term trips, hopefully for 4 weeks at a time. We are very much looking forward to returning in the next year or two.

My first 3 days in Balfate were the hardest but I very much enjoyed my time there. We left before it got too hard on us. Our time there left us wanting more, and I can’t wait for God to challenge me like that again.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008: Dump Living

Today we left for La Ceiba. We have been wanting to go to the dump there to see the community that has made it their home. Lisa Bradley drove us to the dump. She tries to help out there with a food program that provides one meal, twice a week on Tuesdays and Fridays. It was perfect timing for us to go on our last day so that Bryan could join us. Lisa rarely has a doctor with her there so she tried to put Bryan to work helping some people at the dump. There ended up being another American mission group at the dump to help serve the food so we didn’t end up doing that very much. We said hello to lots of people but took extra time with 3 families. The first family we talked with was the family (mom + 7 kids) with a daughter with cerebral paulsy. She was 6 years old but smaller than Clay. She looked around 1 ½ years old. She has gotten excellent care from her family despite the dump conditions she lives in. She wasn’t eating so Lisa started bringing the girl Pediasure after the advice of a physician. She is doing better now but probably won’t live to be that old. She spends almost all of her life lying in a hammock on the front “porch” of her makeshift house. There was such sadness and pain in her face. It just broke my heart and brought tears to my eyes. What a hard life for this girl and her family.

As we walked along we saw lots of garbage on the ground an lots of kids running around. The kids had very little clothing and most didn’t have shoes. Their surroundings make me want to change them – improve them but it is so hard to know what to do to help.

Next we moved on to visit the pastor’s house and his family. We spent some time praying with the wife and youngest child. The baby girls was sick with a fever that could be caused by a virus or bacteria. Later Bryan got some medicine for them to treat the girl and make sure she gets better because a fever in Honduras can be caused by much worse illnesses than are typical of the US. We also bought them rice and beans and flour and shortening for tortillas (thanks for your donations allowing us to do this). The pastor’s family, like everyone else in the dump community, don’t have enough money for food.

After leaving the pastor’s family, we moved on to go with 2 boys to their grandparents’ house. Lisa knew this family from previous visits so she was concerned when the boys said they are living on the streets now. Lisa wanted to find out what happened so we went to the grandparents house. The parents are not around for the 2 boys that are cousins. The dads most likely were never in their lives and one mother died and the other was killed. The grandparents have done their best to provide for the many grandkids that are in their care but these 2 boys have some bad outside influences. They have stopped going to school because they don’t like it and the grandparents don’t make them go. A lady gave the boys free drugs at 9 and 10 or 11 years old and they used them. They probably got them free in the horrible hopes that they get addicted and make the drug lady some money. The grandparents saw the boys using drugs and trying to give some to their little sister. So the boys were given an ultimatum – move out or stop using drugs. They chose the street and have no desire to return home. They have no respect for their grandparents. The boys think they won’t get addicted and say they’ll stop. The older boy tears up and his eyes are obviously bloodshot from drug use. So sad! So very, very sad. Bryan said it best, “This place just makes you want to take the kids out of this place.” The boys have very little hope to change their lives. Our only hope for them is Jesus. I will definitely remember these two boys in my prayers for a long time to come.

The La Ceiba dump breaks my heart. We saw many garbage trucks driving in with full loads of trash. There were people sitting in the back of the trucks waiting to go through the garbage when it stopped to unload. They are looking for any useful items to build their house or use in their house and sometimes any food scraps they can find to eat or feed their family. So immensely saddening. I feel so helpless. My prayer is that they would find Jesus and God would keep chasing them because He is their only hope. I pray that they see the love of Christ in other people and that more people come to help them.

After the dump it felt very selfish and shallow to eat a big meal at the mall food court and shop for souvenirs, but that’s what we did. I pray that God shows me my part in this devastation. I pray that I can help and that God helps me reconcile and understand, in a small way, the differences between my abundantly blessed and excessive life and their deprived and difficult lives. I continue to pray that things that break God’s heart also break mine.

Monday, August 4, 2008: Our last day here.

It has been hard.

I don’t feel ready to go. I’m sure that is a good thing because that means I’d like to come back. We want to come back and plan to. We will wait and see what and when the best timing is for our return. We will be much better prepared the next time we come.

The one thing I wish I had brought the most is a cookbook but we managed ok. I will also be more prepared with a Spanish class before I return. I want to be able to communicate better.

We were reassured by many that they appreciated us coming. They said we were flexible and easy to host here. We were let know many times that we would be even more helpful on our return visit.

Quick run down of our last day at the hospital:

-busy day for Bryan with lots of patients and a short lunch break (8am to 5:30pm)

-laundry

-made pastalitos with Argentina

-at the best Honduran food, pastalitos (fried sandwich pockets with carrots, potatoes and chicken) with friends

-went to bilingual school for 2 ½ hours where boys sat still again – hurray!

-boys napped, more laundry

-visited Bob and Zena Lillard at hospital – missionaries in Italy and now semi-retired here; Bob’s in a semi-vegetative state and has been hospitalized here for 7 months

-took 2 soccer balls to children’s center and said goodbye to many there

-ate leftovers

-had another yummy dessert from Cindy

-shared pictures, talked with Renee and more goodbyes

-late night packing

Sunday, August 3, 2008: Missionary church

Today we had church services that seemed normal to us. It was nice that they did Sunday School, Worship and gave a sermon – “real church.” There is a team here now from Cornerstone International for a week. They came to pray. Pray for the people, the hospital, the missionaries and anything else they can think of. It is amazing timing considering some of the big things that have been going on at the hospital and patients. The missionary families here seem pretty depleted with the loss of so many missionaries recently going back to the US. They are worn out from the extra work they have been doing and they miss their friends. There are a few happy souls here long term and I pray that they would breed into the others.

They have made it clear that short term missions groups/families are sometimes a burden on them. I hope that we are more helpful than a burden, but I’m not sure. I know that Bryan has lightened the load on the few other physicians that are here. I still think it was worth it to come down here and I will forever be changed. We hope to come back and help more. This is an amazing organization doing great things for the Lord. The people and the hospital will be in our hearts, minds and prayers forever.

I swung on vines today and dropped into the McKenney swimming hole. We also attempted to boogie board at the Balfate beach.

Saturday, August 2, 2008: No Power

I thought today was going to be bad. The morning started off with burnt bacon and a burnt blistering finger. Then the power went off around 9am and I lost my chance for a semi-warm shower. Good thing I had showered before I went to sleep. Bryan was also on call for anyone new that came into the hospital. I didn’t think anything good could happen after Bryan left right before the power went off. But God proved me wrong.

The kids spent about 2 hours playing outside with the hose and lots of bowls and a couple squirt guns. I got to read while watching them and it was quite refreshing after our stressful breakfast.

Bryan did make it back for lunch and quickly got called away again. He returned after the kids napped. He wanted to take the kids to look for monkeys. Before he left I asked him if he still needed the radio. He said he didn’t because it was just after 3pm and John should be back to take his shift. I thought that was dangerous to not know if he was back yet but Bryan left anyway. I stayed back to make some cookies in the gas oven because we are running out of food and haven’t been able to go to the grocery store Friday or today as planned. We have no snacks, no meat, no fruit and no cheese. We are making do with food that others have passed on to us.

While I was making cookies, of course the hospital radioed for Bryan. He wasn’t anywhere to hear the radio so I knew I needed to get the radio to him. He drove up the mountain and it is quite a steep walk. As I left our home ot find him, the lady on the radio called for Bryan about 10 times in Spanish and called for anyone else to answer. I am just praying that there isn’t a patient at the hospital that desperately needs help. I can’t answer for Bryan because I can’t tell the lady what is going on in Spanish. I ran halfway up the hill and see Bryan in the truck just leaving the 3 houses in front of me – oh no! I yell but nothing happens – keep walking. I get to the houses and hope someone is there to give me a ride to find Bryan. There are 2 people there. Penny gives me a ride up the mountain over the muddy, steep road and she explains to the lady on the radio what’s going on. We find out that the patient just had severe back pain. We get to Bryan and fill him in and then get ready to go. The road is narrow and muddy and full of ruts. Penny gets turned around and leaves. We go to leave and get stuck turning around. In the process of trying to get out, we get more stuck. Thankfully we have a radio and Bryan calls out for help, ashamed. We wait a little while and then 4 guys with shovels show up. They eventually help us get out and the patient left the hospital instead of waiting.

The power came back on by the time we got home. I actually enjoyed the complete silence since their was nothing running to make any noise.

The rest of the day was a lot less eventful. I eventually finished the cookies and we had macaroni and cheese and hot dogs for dinner. The kids were sweet tonight and actually posed for pictures for me. Lately Jaden refuses pictures of him by leaving or turning his head. This was a nice ending to the day.

Friday, August 1, 2008: 10th Anniversary

The day almost went bad several times but in the end we couldn’t have asked for a better anniversary. (Bryan later said that this was his favorite day in Honduras.)

This morning 6 people were fired from the hospital in connection to some pornographic pictures that were taken on the hospital property. The pictures were then spread all over the area by cell phone. This is possible very damaging to the hospital so please be in prayer for all those involved and that God would be glorified through the work being done here.

The firings caused several changes in our plans today. The boys and I were planning to go to the La Ceiba dump to help with a feeding program for the kids that live there. That didn’t happen due to the things that were happening at the hospital.

Bryan and I were planning on going out to dinner to one of the two nearby restaurants for our anniversary but those plans got canceled. The two restaurant operators have daughters that got fired today so the hospital staff thought we shouldn’t go there tonight. They aren’t a traditional restaurant. The mom makes the food and serves it at her house and you need to have given advance notice if you want her to cook for you.

Instead of a nice dinner, we tried for a nice lunch prepared by the cook at the hospital gate. We ended up waiting 45 minutes for our fried chicken, chimol (Honduran coleslaw) and fresh corn tortillas. The food was good but it was missing the rice and beans because we didn’t give enough advance notice.

We did arrange to have Guildy, Bryan’s translator, babysit the boys for the evening. It was so nice that Bryan got done with work early today at 3pm so Guildy came early too. We just decided to pack PB&J sandwiches for dinner and to have a picnic in the sand. We went to a swimming hole and waterfall near the hydroelectric plant (where Bryan and the boys went on Sunday).

I thought things might take a turn for the worse when it started raining on us climbing over rocks and big boulders. Thankfully the rain stopped after 15 minutes.

We had a wonderful and adventurous time there. We floated/swam up to the waterfall and climbed over lots of huge boulders. At the end we rested in the sand (heated by hot springs) and ate. It was truly beautiful and so memorable to be out there by ourselves in the jungle.

After that we left when it was getting dark and drove to the beach right by the hospital. It was extremely dark but we managed to find out way. I surprised Bryan with 2 DVDs of our wedding from 10 years ago. I just recently had someone put it on DVD and edit it down for a highlight reel also. We watched the DVD on our mini player (3.5” screen) with the ocean wave crashing in front of us and the beautiful night sky above. The sky was gorgeous tonight with numerous stars out. I even saw 2 shooting stars. It was a great ending to our date and a great way to celebrate us and our relationship.

Bryan´s Journal

Here are some of the journal entries from Bryan. He picked a few of the best of our time in Honduras.


7/16/08
Laura Eodyn Cooper died today after running a code for her for 2 hours. She had surgery to repair a large ventral hernia last week. After surgery she went into flash pulmonary edema and was coded, intubated and ventilated by hand overnight. She recovered and from that experience and the witness of the staff, she realized she almost went to hell so she called Penny to come quickly and pray with her to give her life to Christ. Today we think she had a pulmonary embolus (blood clot in her lungs). We used the ICU monitor, suction device and IV pumps that Raquel and I brought to run a code for about 2 hours. She kept losing her pulse and then with more fluids and medications she would regain her pulse temporarily. During the code I was not sure if we should be continuing when we could not fix the underlying problem of the pulmonary embolus. Then I realized why God is in control and I am not. After 30 minutes Penny walked in and told us Laura's husband Dimas had just become a Christian. It shows me that God is still chasing after his lost sheep and sometimes has to allow severe calamity and even death to bring us stubborn humans into a relationship with him. I wish the suffering in the U.S. hospitals could lead people to God! Maybe God can use me some day to help that happen more!
7/26/08
We went on a Honduran jungle adventure today. I checked on the hospital patients who are all doing well. Then Renae picked up our family around 9:30 AM and we drove about 15 minutes on the main road toward La Ceiba and then turned left before the big bridge to head up into the mountains. We drove for about 45 minutes in her Land Cruiser to a village named Las Flores. The road was steep in places but was actually graded and no problem for the Land Cruiser and 4 wheel drive. The views of the mountains, jungle and beach were breath taking. The road ended at a beautiful river where we met two Honduran kids catching crayfish mith a metal stick. We took some pictures and we asked the kids about the two paths on each side of the river which they said led to more villages but only on foot. The kids told us about a beautiful waterfall further down the river. So we stopped at a very nice house with beautiful tile floors that were just being placed and the boys played soccer with some Honduran kids. The family there told us the waterfall was up another road from their house so we decided to try to find it. We drove about 5 minutes and then walked another hour. We walked past a damn right away then after about 15 minutes came to a place in the river with huge 20 foot boulders and a small sand filled water hole that was just like a post card of the jungle. Then we walked another 30 minutes along the road but never saw a waterfall. You could tell where there was a large change in water elevation so I crawled down a rock slide to the river and found a small water fall flowing through beautiful white rock. There was water going on either side of a very large white boulder and falling about 5 feet into a deep pool. The water then goes out the side and down about a 30 foot white rock channel that looks like a water slide and goes into another deep pool. I took a lot of pictures and then caught the boys, Raquel and Renee at the beautiful sandy beach in the pristine river just after the dam. There were many little gold flecks in the sand but they would snap when bent so they probably weren't real gold. It was an awesome trip. At the end we stopped back at the house with the Honduran boys and would you believe they had a fridge full of soda. We bought a 3 liter of Coke for 36 limperas and a 20 ounce orange fanta for 13 limperas. The exchange rate is 18.5 limerpas to 1 dollar. Who would think they would have Coke way out here in the middle of the jungle? What an amazing adventure!

7/28/08
Honduras is hot! I am sweating just lying in bed. Today was a busy day at work. I saw 14 complicated patients at clinic, sewed 7 stitches into a kid´s arm after he hit it with a machette, called Jeff off his tractor to sew on the tip of a 19 month old boy's finger that was almost completely cut off, discharged the lady with acute angle glaucoma, and arranged for Mr. Ortiz to get daily INR's in La Ceiba for the next week to treat the blood clot in his leg while we try to find a way to fix his hip. I am still trying to figure out how to x-ray Mr. Ortiz's fracture hip now that it is in retraction. A man I saw last week with a whited out right lower lung came back with a chest CT today and has a 13 x 14 cm mass that is probably cancer. His pain got much worse after I told him what we thought it was and they he needed a biopsy. It is wonderul to be able to take him right to the pastor and to explain to the pastor and pray with them for his cancer right after having to tell him the bad news. He needs God right now more than he needs any of us and I pray that he would feel God's presence tonight and God would ease his pain. On a good note a mechanic fixed the microwave we brought and put in a new glass plate so the employees in the cafeteria can use it to heat up there food now. All the monitors and IV pumps are up and running too and the staff is very excited to be using the new equipment.
7/29/08
Today was busy and hot. Clinic was busy but went well. The kid with the hand infection is getting better in the hospital and will probably go home tomorrow. Mr. Ortiz is doing well but it is going to be difficult to repair his hip. I admitted a very sick kid that probably has typhoid fever. I met my first hypochondriac today that wanted medicine for diabetes and arthritis that he didn't have. After clinic the family and I got to see a whole family of black faced howler monkeys including 4 or 5 babies. Raquel continues to make us awesome meals! I love being here together as a family. We only have one week left here and the time is going fast. We are almost ready to give our talk about how to have a better marriage on Thursday for missionary fellowship and I think it should go well. God has really been helping our talk come together. A big prayer tonight is for Josua who is the son of a nurse living in staff housing named Nelsy. He is sick in La Ceiba and they may need to hospitalize him tomorrow. May God heal Josua and comfort Nelsy.