Hace lloviendo!!!!!!

Hace lloviendo!!! 

It's raining! And it's been raining!! All night Wednesday (it started before six pm and we actually watched the storm come down the town--we thought we had a few minutes before it arrives, poked inside a souvenir shop and seconds later the rain arrived! We sprinted to Jim's pizza from the store!) When we woke up Thursday it was still raining! Often clinics get canceled when it rains. Wednesday we traveled to Las Brisas de San Juan and the roads leading to that village are impassible in rain. They remain impassible for a day or two after a rainstorm actually as they are so steep, muddy, and curvy. Thankfully the rain did not start until long after we left Las Brisas! Praise God!

Each day we have seen about 150 patients, mas o menos. (More or less). Tuesday we went to Las Medias. Clinic setup there was interesting--the medical treatment team had to share a one room building with pharmacy! It was a little tight but it worked out. In that village, there is a gentleman who is in charge of the water supply--and he continues to deny water to 8 Chorti families. Please pray for a change of heart. He owns the house where the Bible study leader lived and held meetings. He recently demanded the leader stop holding meetings or move out. The leader would not stop holding Bible studies and has had to relocate. Please pray for strength among animosity and persecution for he and his family. 

Wednesday--we went to Las Brisas de San Juan. There are about 30 or so Chorti villages. Although this is only my second trip to Honduras--I remember going to Las Brisas six years ago. This village is frequently rained out of clinic and the men always wait patiently for all the women and children to be seen first. This time each family consisted of 4-5 children! But the men waited patiently for their turn. The Agricultural center (Ag center) works with this village and has taught terracing the land and they have done phenomenally with it. Words cannot convey the place they live--the sheer steepness of the slopes. Imagine standing on a hill planting corn. It is so steep you do not have to bend AT ALL to plant the next row up. It's incredible. 

How catastrophic landslides are makes much more sense when you look at the slopes. It would not take much water to erode the soil. 

They had several turkeys in Las Brisas. Eduardo bought one to bring back to his family. Around 11 am it looked like rain but thankfully it held off!!

Thursday we went to El Conal. It had rained all night and the rain continued. We made it to the village with a few auto problems and began to set up. And it continued to rain. And rain. It lighten for a few minutes every hour--but after each light spell it came back with more force! Thankfully we set up tarps and had a few covered walkways. We were packed in tight under the triage tent. The tent top kept needing to be emptied of water every 20 minutes or so. Hay mucho llueve!!! So much rain!! Often when it rains we have to leave:( Thankfully today was a close village with a decent amount of rocky roads (more traction!) and we were able to stay until we finished. 

One village to go!!

Honduras!

Sunday we attended a local church. The believers in this part of the world all pray out loud together when the leader begins to pray--which is an awesome and humbling thing to experience!! In my basic Spanish knowledge, I have a hard time understanding when one person is speaking. I cannot understand multiple Spanish voices--but how great is our God, that He can understand us in our myriad of voices!! He understands, He speaks our language, and He desires that we fellowship with him! 

The message was on Matthew 6:25-34; where God tells us not to worry about our lives and that He will provide. Monday we discovered that recently the pastor has been struggling to find work--and his message resounded even deeper the need to trust in God and believe that He will provide. 

Having our daily needs met isn't something you and I likely struggle with. For the Chorti, they do have to wonder where their next meal is coming from and when it will be. My usual "concern" with food is how soon can I eat again and what would I like to eat. 

We had our first clinic yesterday at Gotas del Sangre. (Drops of blood). This village in the past has lived up to that name, with the group hearing of several murders having taken place since our last visit. Thankfully, over the last few years that has improved. We saw 150 people!! I was amazed by their patience and politeness as they quietly waited to be seen by the staff. 

There was a mother with her child awaiting us as we arrived. Her young girl's left eye was almost swollen shut. How many days has the little girl suffered already? Is her vision already affected even if we can reduce the swelling over the next few days?

I saw another girl who had one eye smaller than the other-the actual iris and pupil were significantly smaller. I imagine she has no sight out of that eye. How do people treat her? She is four or five years old; how will people treat her down the road? 

We treated many for lice--and I was scratching my head as I fell asleep last night! Hopefully out of empathy--I'd rather not bring those critters home!

Generally people's blood pressures here run lower than my patients back home. I was shocked to take a young teenage girl's blood pressure and discover she has high blood pressure! We referred her to a "local" clinic (local--within driving distance however an extremely long walk for one without transportation) and I hope she is able to follow up. Getting pregnant will be quite dangerous for her---and is continuous treatment even a possibility for her?

We are off to another village; Las Medias I believe. Please continue praying!

Gratitude and a week of corn

Hi all.

I get the opportunity every July to tend to my parents' garden while they are away. Have you ever gardened? It is tough work, and I don't even do any of the tilling, fertilizing, planting, and other prep work that gardens require! All I do is keep it watered and harvest vegetables and fruit when they ripen. Some summers I'll blanch vegetables to prepare them for freezing, and also boil down tomatoes for salsa (which takes a significant amount of time, and at the end of the process, you are left with a far smaller amount of tomato volume then when you started!)

Anyway, on to the point. A few summers back my parents were on a mission trip to Honduras, working with the Chorti people group. The Chorti are direct descendents of the Mayan Indians and the majority of them are subsistence farmers. Remember learning that term in grade school? Many of our ancestors were subsistence farmers--living off the land and barely getting enough to feed their own families some crop seasons.

While my parents were away, the corn was going to ripen. Corn usually ripens all at once and has to be harvested, eaten or blanched then frozen within about a 7 day span of the first corn ear ripening. For my dad's garden, that means more than 100 ears of corn were going to ripen while he was away. The second day of this venture, as I walked to the garden I noticed many stalks down--and it looked like a hurricane or tornado had gone through the corn. The corn had been ravaged by squirrels, and I remember thinking of Adam and Eve and how they lived off the land--and how so many people in our world continue to live off the land and the utter devastation my family would feel if the corn was our only food and our livelihood. For the Chorti, a ruined crop generally means starvation. Several years ago, my church learned of the Chorti and "adopted" them as a people group. Over the last decade, the church has done at least two "food distribution" trips where several individuals fly down to Honduras and begin trekking through the mountainous terrain distributing food when their crops have failed. I am glad my church now knows of this people group's existence---because they still live in a world where a failed crop--be it from bad weather, droughts, animals...means zero food and zero income to buy food.

A few weeks ago I manned the homestead again--and we were in the middle of several weeks without rain. Thankfully, my parents live in a place where we can water the crops with hoses (far easier then hauling individual buckets from a watering hole a mile + away) and provide the corn, broccoli, sweet potatoes, etc; with the much needed hydration for the plants to continue growing and the crops to ripen. I was struck again with how blessed I am with where I live. Had I been a subsistence farmer like the Chorti, like many Sierra Leoneans, and like hundreds of thousands around the globe, this lack of rain would mean I and my family likely would go hungry.

I am grateful for the time I can spend in the garden because the manual labor can be quite rewarding. You get to enjoy the "fruits of your labor." Fresh corn, eaten minutes after it has been picked, is extremely satisfying. As are fresh peaches straight from the tree. But I am even more grateful that I am not a subsistence farmer and that I do not have to depend on the weather cooperating and the animal kingdom leaving my hard work alone just to keep food on the table.

http://freerice.com/
Ever heard of that site? Check it out! For every question you answer correctly, 10 grains of rice gets donated through the World Hunger Programme. It's like Trivia Crack--but instead of competing against friends, you are fighting hunger! :-)

In Loving Memory

I hesitated to write about this lady. But she was wonderful--and her story, what little I know of it, deserves to be made known. Her name was Mariama, she had a gorgeous smile and loved others. One day, about a month ago now, Carrie and I were walking back to our housing compound from spending some time in the Lunsar market (buying some vegetables, cloth, and cooked eggs), when we heard our names being called. We looked to the left and saw our friend Mariama, one of our national workers, sitting on the porch. She invited us over and introduced us to her small children who were busy playing with their cousins. The one was about six years old and the other about six months old. We talked to Mariama for a little while then continued on our walk.

The same day I began to get sick, Mariama was also sick. Her story and mine are similiar yet have drastically different outcomes. We both started to feel ill and we reported it. We both sought treatment. Right now, in Sierra Leone, we initially test you for malaria and Ebola. Mariama and I tested negative for both. But Mariama continued to worsen...and we began to suspect something else, something almost as sinister as Ebola and far more common to West Africa. Mariama was tested for Lassa Fever, which is a hemorrhagic (bleeding) fever that is often fatal. The difference between it and Ebola, however, is there is a drug we can use to treat it--as long as it is caught in time and you are in a place where the drug is on hand. We sent Mariama to Kenema, one of the few places in the country that currently has the capability to treat Lassa Fever. She responded to treatment and began to improve. But then Sunday, two days after I was released from Kerrytown, we received the news you never want to hear. Although Mariama had initially shown signs of improvement; she was gone. Her six-year-old and six-month-old had lost their mother. Is their father in the picture? I don't know. It isn't atypical for the father to be completely absent. Carrie and I did not meet him the day we met Mariama's sweet children.

Pray for those tiny babes, friends. Pray for the children who are losing their parents to Ebola and Lassa Fever. There are so many more orphans now in West Africa. Please, do not forget them.

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." James 1:27

Photo Friday (part 2)

 Beachfront of Freetown

A shantytown in Freetown--devastated recently by a cholera outbreak :-(

 Bureh Beach

View from Bureh Beach

Our ETC around Dusk

Photo Friday has Returned! (part 1)

 A view of our recently completed training center in Lunsar

 The "Mock ETC" at the Training Center

 Overlooking Freetown

 A Creole house

 "Minister" birds. Aka owner of the most obnoxious 

windpipes at 0600. I do not miss this bird at all!

There are billboards all over that speak 

about Ebola, many say "Ebola is real."

Sierra Leoneans can carry practically anything on their heads! They have incredible posture!

 Celebrating Valentine's Day in Sierra Leone (Med tent)

 Narrow bridge...that apparently is "beyond" its lifespan. I was happier when I was blissfully unaware that my life may be on the line each time we transversed this bridge...

Ebola Graffiti in Freetown

Hard to read because Dr. Jean and I saw this sign out of the corner of our vision and just barely snapped the photo in time! Reads: "Respect Ebola Survivors & Health Workers/They are our Heroes"

Returned to Work :-D

Sunday, the day I was supposed to be leaving Sierra Leone, I was given permission to leave housing. Did I leave? No! But just the knowledge that I now had the permission, the ability, the freedom to leave, was quite comforting. Makes me think of the elderly in the US that have their driver's licenses taken from them...and for those around the world who do not have the freedoms that I take for granted each and every day.

Monday I was allowed to work! I chose to work nightshift, as a nightshift would have been the last shift I was originally supposed to work before leaving Sierra Leone. I cannot describe how wonderful it felt to walk back toward the ETC, how nice it was to lift one foot then the other to have the sole of the shoe sprayed with the chlorine and to put the "gumboots" back on. I had thought that I wouldn't be allowed back at work before leaving Sierra Leone, and that had made me quite sad. It was wonderful to see the national staff: "Where have you been? Are you better? We thought you left without saying goodbye." It was wonderful to be doing what I came to Sierra Leone to do--fight Ebola alongside my teammates.

There was only one patient in the ward that was the same since I had last worked. All the rest had gone--some discharged, and unfortunately, some had died.

We had 14 patients again. The last day I worked there had only been 6. Seems the roller coaster is going to continue for awhile.

Our current 'outbreak' of patients that are testing Ebola-positive and subsequently dying are from one family. We believe the current influx of positive patients stem from one individual--a cured patient who had sexual relations and gave the other person involved Ebola,  which then spread to the individual's family which includes a 4-yr-old and a 16-yr-old. Ebola virus lingers in some body fluids, semen in particular, for up to three months. We have heard that there is at least one individual in Sierra Leone who tells women that "he has the antibodies for Ebola and if the woman agrees to sleep with him, she will be safe." No. She won't be safe. She will most likely contract Ebola and more than likely die.

Survivors are given several things upon being discharged from an ETC. One of the things they are given is a large bag of rice. Before passing judgment on either the survivor or the person who as yet does not have Ebola--place yourself in his or her shoes. You have 2-5 small children. You can't find work, you haven't been able to work in months. Your youngest child looks to be on the threshold of death if you do not find food. What do you do?

It makes sense that a person who is starving, literally starving to death, would be willing to exchange his or her body for food. There isn't an easy fix for poverty.

But while there isn't an easy fix...we cannot ignore the problem either, that benefits no one.