Well, we have had a very busy three days. The large town of Santa Barbara was our temporary home, as we worked with two other organizations, Agros International and Child Fund (the old Christian Children´s Fund). Tuesday we were in Lempa. Child Fund had already found several children in need of more medical help and support. They brought their families with them , of course. Our day was very busy!!!, to say the least. Medical clinic-544, deworming-380, eyes-125, and we had....24 children referred for evaluation into the Barnabas extended care program. The staff here says that is the largest amount ever in one day! We had everything from heart murmers, to cerebal palsy, to deaf and mute children. The people from Child Fund has recruited townspeople to be volunteers for the day. They had bottles of cool water ready for us, coffee and sweet breads for snack, and made lunch for team and workers. Two doctors joined us today. One is Dr. Louis, who will work with us the rest of the week, and the other is a local doctor who just happened to be in the area Tuesday and volunteered to help out. It is a good thing.
Wednesday we to a trip up what most people would call a creek bed, high into the mountain and visited the village of Ilama. The school house was situated at the highest point in the village, so our view was beautiful. Medical-397, deworming-310, eyes-136, and 11 referrals for the day. Today we saw a 17 year old who looked as if she was 9. She was mentally handicapped and had a large heart murmer. We finished a little earlier, but had a 88 year old lady carried in at the last minute. She lived alone. On her leg were two ulcers, one of which was the size of a baseball. She had been treating it with¨"some cream" she had. Thank goodness it wasn´t terribly infected. It was scrubbed good with soap and water, cleansed with betadine and bandaged. A neighbor was given her medicines and agreed to help her care for the wound twice a day. Patti and Matt carried her to the truck to be driven home,since she couldn´t even walk on the leg.
Chld Fund again provided our lunch. They also took us out for typical Honduran dinners both nights. We have eaten well.
Thursday was in the town of Arenales, a short drive from the hotel where we stayed. Today we are teamed with the people from Agros International. We encourage you to go to their website and see what they are doing here. The building was set up in was large and open. We could all be together today. Eye clinic had a little dark room at the back of the building to use. Medical set up in the center of the large central room, with pharmacy set up along a little stage in the front of the room. Deworming station was up on the stage. It was really fun to see all the activities we were all doing. Medical-357, deworming-315, eyes-78 and 15 referrals. Today we were all touched by a young mom with 6 children. She was 7 months pregnant with with number 7. Her one year old was a failure to thrive baby. She weighed 7 pounds at birth and yesterday weighed 10 pounds. Mom´s milk had dried up and she was feeding the baby flour and water. She will be picked up by the Barnabas House staff on Monday for evaluation and nurtritional support. We ended early enough to get home for a dinner of fried tilapia! Yummy. As we shared around the table, we discovered the Matt has the magic touch in eye clinc. He can find a pair of glasses for anyone. He says, "I just have faith, bless the pair of glasses I think will work, and....TADA! They work. We all thought that was a hoot.
Will have our last clinic day on Friday. Will try hard to get some pictures up for you to see.
Thanks for your continued prayers.
One child at a time.
Patti, Bill, Matt, Kevin, Linda, Kindle, Pam, Jack, Sharon, Kelly, Sylvia and Eric
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