My Corner Of The World: March 2013

Feb 16, 2013 My husband and I flew out of Indinapolis, IN for a trip to Honduras. We went as part of an 18 member medical brigade. We traveled 2 1/2 to 3 hours through the mountains to San Luis, Santa Barbara, Honduras to a mission compound. From there we traveled out each day to set up mobile clinics in the remote villages to provide health care.

This is the mission house we stayed in.

This is the view from behind the mission house.

On Sunday we walked to this church in San Luis.

The streets are quiet different in Honduras. A few of them are made of concrete but most of them are dirt. The streets are filled with people walking, a few trucks, motorcycles and taxis like the one you see in the picture below.

The people are friendly and enjoy having their picture taken. This gentleman ask me to take his picture. I showed it to him on the back of my camera and he just laughed. He also spoke to me in Spanish, which of course I couldn't understand. But his smile and body language crossed the language barrier and told me he was pleased with the picture.

This is the clinic on the mission compound. This clinic is run by LPNs. I think they even have at least one nurse that has only had on the job training. They deliver babies, suture machette wounds, treat dehydration, fractures, fevers.... whatever comes in they do their best to help. This is the only clinic in the town of San luis which has a population of 10,000 - 15,000. The resident missionary's wife is an RN and they can call on her if needed. There are two doctors in the town and they do call them if they have something they can not handle. I am told it costs about $75 USD to have a baby here.

Another view of the clinic.

The Adult Ward

The Delivery Room

The Emergency Room

Labor Room

The Nurses Station and Reception

Pharmacy

Pediatric Ward

Another view of the Mission House

This is the view from the fence behind the mission house.

I think at one time the missionaries that resided here had a plane and this was their landing strip.

Near the end of the runway.

Looking over into the valley from the end of the runway.

A Honduran family enjoying the overlook. This rock is called the praying rock. The lady in yellow is facing the moutains you see below.

You can't see the praying rock in the picture below but it would be located in the trees just to the left of the mowed area of the runway near the edge. Beautiful view!

This image is facing the opposite direction as the one above. This one is looking back over the mission property toward the streets of San Luis.

Just a little closer view. The first building is a mission houe, the 2nd one is the back of the clinic and the third and fourth are on the streets of San Luis.

Headed out to our first village to visit for a mobile clinic. This isn't a great shot and I had to shoot thru the vehicle window, but it shows the type of roads we traveled on..... this is the good part of the road :)

This is the school building where we set up our first clinic. None of the school buildings have windows, just concrete buildings with a roof and bars in the "open" windows.

The little house below was directly across from the school. The image of this home is ingrained in my head. This isn't a very good image but it so tells the story. The little lady you see in the yard was a big helper in our clinic. She worked the whole time keeping everyone organized and lined up and ready to come in when it was her turn. She was a hard worker.

The Honduran redcross helped haul some of our supplies in trucks and set up tarps for the people to wait under. Many would have to stand in these long lines for hours, holding their babies, yet I heard no complaints and didn't even read complaint in their body language. They seemed so greatful for the care they recieved. You can see our helper lady in this image.... she has on a black shirt and red skirt, as you can see she is keeping the kids in order in line. You can see the red cross worker in the right middle with his Red cross vest on.

I looked out the back of the school to gasp at the beautiful scene. When I had a moment to spare, I ran out and snapped a few pictures.

Most of our patients in the morning were mothers and children. The men came later in the day. Many of the families were large, 5-7 children.

The medical brigade saw a total of 1062 patients in our 4 mobile clinics. We saw fungal infections, gerd, parasites, fevers, abcesses, colds, allergies, painful joints, high bloodpressure, rheumatoid and osteo arthritis, mastitis, hernias, constipation, diarreah, ears clogged with ear wax, headache, irritated eyes, and pink eye.

We visited a coffee farm and the owner explained the process to us.

These are the coffee beans after they are taken out of their outer shell.

Here he is explaining it to us.

The coffe beans still on the bush. The red ones are ripe.

A closer look.

The view from the coffee farm.

A house we passed along the way.

This little guys dad was in front of him carrying what looked like a bag of coffee. The little one is carrying the coffee picking basket, probably his dad's. If you look really close there is a little basket inside the big one. The Honduran nurse who traveled with us said the little basket was his to pick coffee into and the big one was his dad's.

This little lady was near the road and I shot her out the window of the vehicle.

This is a Honduran house made of bricks. They mix up mud or clay and make their own bricks then put them together to form walls after they have dried or cured.

This pretty little lady's mother did some work at the mission house so we saw her several times.

The last day of our clinic was the least busy of the four days and we had an extra person, so I had more time to play with my camera.

The children have such beautiful eyes!

This little man posed for me.

This is Raquel. She is such a sweet person. She was my husband's interpreter since he can't speak Spanish. She was such a big help to us while we were there. She lives in San Luis.

This little guy was sitting on the porch and let me take his picture.

Pulpira (Store)

I awoke early every morning and it was always foggy in the early morning. I could see the people walking on a little dirt road going to work every morning. It was so foggy this morning but this is one of my favorite images from the trip.

There were a lot of beautiful flowers, but alas I had no time for really shooting them.

There is a Christian School on the mission grounds and this is their kitchen. The lady is making tortillas. You can see the beans in the skillet near the front of the stove, camera left. If you notice there is a stack of bags of beans over near the left edge of the image.