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| All gathered around to dedicate the new classroom. |
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| Rigo reading scripture before we prayed to dedicate the class. |
A fun picture from my porch this afternoon!
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| 4 of the kids from the children's center ready to go on a trip! |
Sunday, June 8, 2014
Sunday School classroom dedication
Today we dedicated our 3rd Sunday School classroom and it was ready for use. It only took one week to build it, but not without lots of help. This is the class for our preschoolers and kindergartners. They got to enjoy their new classroom today without the teachers having to worry about if the roof was going to fall on top of them.
Sunday, June 1, 2014
Public hospital
So, I want to record my first experience in the public hospital. When we arrived at the Pediatric emergency room, it was just a small waiting room with several desks for doctors to see patients. The line was on a bench and that was how you were seen. If you arrive around lunch time, forget being seen for at least 2 hours. If it's a true emergency, you will probably die before anyone gets around to seeing you. They have many medical students all over the hospital to help, but they all have to be supervised in what they do, even-though they are a huge help since there is such a lack of personnel. They lack so much staffing for as many patients as they see. If you don't know how the system works, you can be yelled at easily by the secretary, and even called a liar.
When they brought us to see the oncologist, the medical student took us through the actual pediatric ER where all the patients were. Yajaira started crying hysterically as I wanted to as well. There were so many kids on ventilators, someone breathing for them, tubes going everywhere and screaming constantly. They only accept 3 children in the pediatric ICU, so the rest are admitted to the emergency room, where they have way less than ICU type care. Also, the pediatric unit upstairs was full as well as the cancer ward. So many sick kids that sometimes they are 3 to a bed. 3 sick kids in one bed!!! Horrible! The doctors start the IVs, draw blood for labs, etc. They have like 2 nurses for about 30 inpatient kids in the ER. This is where they wanted to admit Yajaira to keep her overnight. I am so glad we got to take her home. I think just the stress of being there would have made her even more sick.
The general ER overflow is in the hallway that goes to the lab and X-ray area. If you have a bed, it surely doesn't have sheets or a pillow. If you don't want to sleep on a plastic bed mat, you have to bring your own sheet. There are many sick patients and just not enough staff or space to attend to them.
So, my perception of the public hospitals was that the healthcare was free. This is not the case. If you are poor, this is where you go, but it is not free. Many things that the doctors order require money, and sometimes lots. Any hardware for orthopedic surgeries, you could pay up to $1000 for. An x-ray we had done cost like $2.50. The CT scan they ordered costs about $70. They had one done in La Ceiba at a private hospital and it was like $225, so it's significantly cheaper, but not free. Medications that the hospital doesn't have, you have to purchase. Honduras doesn't have many medications right now, including no medication in the entire country to treat Tuberculosis, so patients are having to buy more than usual.
So, many people bring their family members from far away (3-4 hours) to the hospital and they admit them. Only one person can stay with the family member on the ward, so everyone else lives outside sleeping on cardboard boxes or straw mats under the trees until their loved one is release from the hospital and they can take them home. Many of the bathroom stalls have no doors, and sometimes the shower stalls also. You can't find toilet paper or soap anywhere, so if you have to go to the bathroom, you better bring your own.
If there is a woman in labor, only she can go into the hospital, mothers, and husbands, etc have to wait outside to see the list of deliveries to see when their wife delivered and their child was born.
There are guards at every entrance and they only let people in if you have a specific reason to be there. I didn't have any problems with the guards thankfully and they let me in usually whenever I asked.
With Yajaira being associated now with the Children's cancer foundation, her Chemo drugs will be free and they will also help her with bus fares, and testing. It's a wonderful program that I am so happy to see that it exists. This is truly a wonderful gift to the children of Honduras.
This is just a small glimpse of what I saw that past week. I am sure it doesn't even begin to touch the reality of what is.
When they brought us to see the oncologist, the medical student took us through the actual pediatric ER where all the patients were. Yajaira started crying hysterically as I wanted to as well. There were so many kids on ventilators, someone breathing for them, tubes going everywhere and screaming constantly. They only accept 3 children in the pediatric ICU, so the rest are admitted to the emergency room, where they have way less than ICU type care. Also, the pediatric unit upstairs was full as well as the cancer ward. So many sick kids that sometimes they are 3 to a bed. 3 sick kids in one bed!!! Horrible! The doctors start the IVs, draw blood for labs, etc. They have like 2 nurses for about 30 inpatient kids in the ER. This is where they wanted to admit Yajaira to keep her overnight. I am so glad we got to take her home. I think just the stress of being there would have made her even more sick.
The general ER overflow is in the hallway that goes to the lab and X-ray area. If you have a bed, it surely doesn't have sheets or a pillow. If you don't want to sleep on a plastic bed mat, you have to bring your own sheet. There are many sick patients and just not enough staff or space to attend to them.
So, my perception of the public hospitals was that the healthcare was free. This is not the case. If you are poor, this is where you go, but it is not free. Many things that the doctors order require money, and sometimes lots. Any hardware for orthopedic surgeries, you could pay up to $1000 for. An x-ray we had done cost like $2.50. The CT scan they ordered costs about $70. They had one done in La Ceiba at a private hospital and it was like $225, so it's significantly cheaper, but not free. Medications that the hospital doesn't have, you have to purchase. Honduras doesn't have many medications right now, including no medication in the entire country to treat Tuberculosis, so patients are having to buy more than usual.
So, many people bring their family members from far away (3-4 hours) to the hospital and they admit them. Only one person can stay with the family member on the ward, so everyone else lives outside sleeping on cardboard boxes or straw mats under the trees until their loved one is release from the hospital and they can take them home. Many of the bathroom stalls have no doors, and sometimes the shower stalls also. You can't find toilet paper or soap anywhere, so if you have to go to the bathroom, you better bring your own.
If there is a woman in labor, only she can go into the hospital, mothers, and husbands, etc have to wait outside to see the list of deliveries to see when their wife delivered and their child was born.
There are guards at every entrance and they only let people in if you have a specific reason to be there. I didn't have any problems with the guards thankfully and they let me in usually whenever I asked.
With Yajaira being associated now with the Children's cancer foundation, her Chemo drugs will be free and they will also help her with bus fares, and testing. It's a wonderful program that I am so happy to see that it exists. This is truly a wonderful gift to the children of Honduras.
This is just a small glimpse of what I saw that past week. I am sure it doesn't even begin to touch the reality of what is.
Saturday, May 31, 2014
Please pray for Yajaira
Please pray for Yajaira, Calix's little 3 year old cousin. When mom and dad were here in April, Yajaira was just a normal little girl who played with her brothers and sisters. Shortly thereafter, her family started to notice that her stomach started growing. They took her to the Centro de Salud (public health clinic), and she was treated for parasites. When that didn't work, and she kept getting bigger, they took her to the hospital. She looks like a little malnourished kid with skinny legs and arms and a very distended, hard belly. So after an abdominal ultrasound and an abdominal CT scan she was found to have a renal tumor, called a Wilms Tumor which is taking up about half of her abdomen.
Our Pediatrician made some phone calls and found a pediatric surgeon willing to do the surgery and the oncologist willing to treat her. (Thankful to have made these contacts with Dr. Judy about 2 months ago on a trip to explore options for our pediatric patients.) The family was sent one week later to San Pedro Sula to admit her to the cancer ward of the public hospital. I went with them to accompany them and help them get the care they needed.
Wednesday morning around 11:30, after a 6 hour bus trip, we arrived at the Pediatric emergency room of the public hospital in San Pedro Sula. The medical student that was attending patients, took us to see the doctor and they said there was no space, so she would have to be admitted to the emergency room. After waiting 4 hours to be admitted and nothing happening, we finally got her seen by a pediatrician (bc I went looking for help), who talked to the Oncologist and she was able to go home for the night. (So thankful they have family in San Pedro Sula) So the next morning we had to be at the Honduran children's cancer clinic at 7am. After review by the doctor, she was considered critical, because the tumor had started causing heart problems...tachycardia and a heart murmur. She was started on Chemotherapy that day (Thursday). They have to shrink the tumor with Chemo before they can take it out, because right now it is dangerously big to operate on.
Friday (yesterday), we had to go back to get a treatment plan. She will have 24 weeks of treatment. 10 weeks of Chemo therapy, with the surgery for the tumor around week 6 (if it has shrunk enough). Then every 3 weeks after that, she will need radiation therapy for the next 14 weeks.
So, please pray for the treatment to work, the tumor to shrink and for them to be able to easily take out the tumor. That Yajaira would resist the strong Chemo drugs she is being given and would have enough strength for the surgery in 6 weeks. Pray that the murmur they heard is just caused from the tumor, and she doesn't have heart problems as well that would require surgery or postpone the surgery for the tumor. Thankful I was able to go with them to help them get into the Honduran foundation for children with cancer and that this foundation exists and that they have wonderful doctors and nurses. God is so good and so faithful!
Our Pediatrician made some phone calls and found a pediatric surgeon willing to do the surgery and the oncologist willing to treat her. (Thankful to have made these contacts with Dr. Judy about 2 months ago on a trip to explore options for our pediatric patients.) The family was sent one week later to San Pedro Sula to admit her to the cancer ward of the public hospital. I went with them to accompany them and help them get the care they needed.
Wednesday morning around 11:30, after a 6 hour bus trip, we arrived at the Pediatric emergency room of the public hospital in San Pedro Sula. The medical student that was attending patients, took us to see the doctor and they said there was no space, so she would have to be admitted to the emergency room. After waiting 4 hours to be admitted and nothing happening, we finally got her seen by a pediatrician (bc I went looking for help), who talked to the Oncologist and she was able to go home for the night. (So thankful they have family in San Pedro Sula) So the next morning we had to be at the Honduran children's cancer clinic at 7am. After review by the doctor, she was considered critical, because the tumor had started causing heart problems...tachycardia and a heart murmur. She was started on Chemotherapy that day (Thursday). They have to shrink the tumor with Chemo before they can take it out, because right now it is dangerously big to operate on.
Friday (yesterday), we had to go back to get a treatment plan. She will have 24 weeks of treatment. 10 weeks of Chemo therapy, with the surgery for the tumor around week 6 (if it has shrunk enough). Then every 3 weeks after that, she will need radiation therapy for the next 14 weeks.
So, please pray for the treatment to work, the tumor to shrink and for them to be able to easily take out the tumor. That Yajaira would resist the strong Chemo drugs she is being given and would have enough strength for the surgery in 6 weeks. Pray that the murmur they heard is just caused from the tumor, and she doesn't have heart problems as well that would require surgery or postpone the surgery for the tumor. Thankful I was able to go with them to help them get into the Honduran foundation for children with cancer and that this foundation exists and that they have wonderful doctors and nurses. God is so good and so faithful!
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| Yajaira-red shirt, picture taken last fall |
Yard sale = new Sunday School classroom
Last year our church had a yard sale and made over $500 and was able to build a new Sunday school classroom. This year, we didn't have as much stuff, but we did another yard sale. We made about $275 and added it to the money from other activities and had enough to build our 3rd classroom.
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| Trying stuff on to see if it fits! |
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| Yard sale...several tables of good stuff. |
Because we made enough money in the yard sale, a week later, we started building the 3rd Sunday school classroom. I love to see our church get together to do a project and accomplish big things. These are people who don't have lots of money. But they have seen when we do activities to raise funds, we can make the money to do the projects that we want to accomplish.
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| About 10 guys from the surrounding communities helping us build. |
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
I Love Bananas!
I love bananas, but even more ones that I planted and have taken care of for the last year. I now get to enjoy the fruit of my labor. I have the small bananas right now that are ripening each day. They are hanging on my porch.
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| Cutting the bananas off the tree with a machete. |
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| Bananas ready to hang and wait for ripening. |
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| My bananas hanging on my porch |
For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.
So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.
Galatians 6:7-10
Sunday, April 20, 2014
Happy Easter!!!
Today was very blessed. I got up at 3:50am to start making preparations for our sunrise service at church. We started the service about 5:40am with prayer and praise. It was a cloudy day, so sadly we didn't get to see the sun rise. We finished up about 6:30 and a nice breakfast together as a congregation. We ate breakfast casserole, beans, fruit, juice and coffee. It was so much food that I couldn't eat it all. Then we had our regular service and finished up about 9:30am.
After church, I went home and made a squash casserole for Easter lunch before heading to the missionary church service. Wonderful sermon with wonderful music. Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed! Thankful for the life I have in Christ's resurrection.
I had lunch with several of the single ladies who are here right now, some short term and some long term, and 2 of the Honduran girls from the girls home. It was a delightful lunch filled with good food and good fellowship. (sorry, forgot my camera, no pictures)
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| Everyone ready to start the service. |
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| The hike up to the top. |
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| Singing praises. |
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| Decorating a wooden cross with flowers...a missionary tradition here. |
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| Beautiful finished product. |
Then came back and watched the little ones from the children's center do an Easter egg hunt. They would find an egg and stop and eat the candy. They didn't get the concept that you are supposed to look for all you can find and then sit down and eat the candy. It was fun to watch.
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| If you didn't get candy, you got a little tiny toy chick. :) |
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| showing off her candy. |
Team came!
I had a wonderful time with my team a couple of weeks ago. They worked on fixing up the casitas (sanctuary housing) here at Hospital Loma de Luz. I live in one of the 6 casitas and so, they got to work in my house too. We also had lunch at my house two days on my porch. I got to work with them on Friday, which was a lot of fun. :)
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| Outside staff housing before leaving for church on Sunday. |
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| Painting the bars for the windows. |
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| Break for Baleadas |
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| Nancy putting up curtains. |
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| The kids from children's center helping Ralph to sand doors. |
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| Lars and Tim working in the bodega (workshop) making the bunkbeds for 2 casitas. |
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| Team after a full day of work on Friday...in front of one of the casitas. |
I can't wait to hear all the stories from this year of how God worked in everyone's lives. Thanks for all you guys did while you were here. I was very blessed by you guys this year.
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