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Missionaries Home!!

Here's the final blog entry.......

The team returned home safely on Friday evening, grateful for safe travels by air, bus, back of pick-up truck, and foot. Yes, there was a bit of "gastrointestinal upset," sunburn and a few minor scrapes and bruises, but nothing major that didn't clear in a day or 2.

The team is very grateful to the wonderful and generous people of Honduras for welcoming us as family when we were there. Their love fueled our work and made us even more committed to our work. Of course, their love is fueled by God and their enviable sense of community.

One last story worth sharing: on the bus ride to Copán, we stopped in a small town to refuel and use an ATM/bank (we had no need for money until the last day). Two of us used the restroom and a boy of about 8 followed us back to the bus. His shirt was filthy and his stomach was empty. We gave him some crackers, of which he prompty ate half, then left and turned to an elderly man who was begging just beyond the bus. He gave that man the other half of his crackers.

The day before we retuned to NC, we had a chance to tour the ruins at Copán, an ancient Mayan civilization which thrived from about 900-1500 AD. The site was spectacular. The (school) bus ride gave us a chance to see the Honduran county a bit more and to spend time talking with one another. Our last night was spent at the garden-filled Catholic retreat center where Padre Marcos received an unmistakeable call to the priesthood.

Padre Marcos will be in the US for the month of June. At that time, we will begin planning for the Diocese of Raleigh Young Adult Mission Trip 2009, when we hear what Padre and his people need. It all begins with an invitation to the team to come to Honduras from Padre Marcos. Consider yourself invited to be part of the team. .......Lori S.

Update from Honduras 2/21/08

Last blog entry before leaving Honduras...

Sorry we have not written in a couple of days but we have not had a chance to get to the internet.

Monday February 18, 2008

Medical Team:
Today was the second day the clinic was open. The pharmacy was equally as busy today as yesterday. We had two gringas in the pharmacy and another gringa working out of the pharmacy fitting people with eyeglasses. In addition to the gringas, there were four Honduran women, some nurses, working on filling prescriptions. The clinic was set up such that people would enter, get a number, be seen by one of the doctors, and then bring their prescriptions to the window at the pharmacy to be filled. We filled prescriptions for anti-inflamatories, antibiotics, hypertension, allergies, and- the most remarkable- scabies. I didn’t know what scabies was before I came on this trip, much less that people in the world still contended with the critters. I have been astonished at the number of health issues we treat each day that, in the USA, haven’t been a problem for decades. Not only that, but how grateful people are for something as mundane as vitamins. In the states, we get a headache or a stomach ache and we go to the local drugstore to pickup whatever we need, so standing in line at a free clinic from 0800 to 1400 to get some vitamins and some acetaminophen seems so remote; and yet, here no one complains- they thank you for the help you provided, even though they’ve been there for hours.

On another note- completely changing subjects, we are eating very well on this trip. The Honduran food is delicious. And although seemingly every meal consists of rice and beans and some meat, it never gets old. I’d never had beans for breakfast before, but having been on this trip, it is an everyday occurrence and does wonders at keeping you full and energized for a long day’s work.

Construction Team: After two full days in the church we have achieved light! There are eight bulbs now in the church powered by the sun! Today our team was powered by watermelon. We were able to stop at a road side stand and buy grapes, apples, watermelon, bananas, plantains and pineapple.
Many challenges have been overcome and many others await, especially wiring the retreat house and getting power to as many parts of the church as possible. Tom is taking the lead and Beckwith has been invaluable with his technical expertise. Dennis is best at communicating with Father Marcos and then back to all of us. Yesterday Brent said the he saw Jesus in Slack because of his patience and kindness. Today, Slack felt like Caesar standing on the bed of the truck looking forward as if riding a chariot and waving to his people. Brent and I fill in wherever we are needed weather it is sweeping the church after the workday is complete or rolling boulders for a short wall in the front of the church.

Progress at the school construction site has been slow. We could at least see some posts marked on the ground. Our project lead still has a bad back, but he was there directing his crew. The land surveyor was there and we roughly marked out the location of the building in the lot and got a better sense of where everything would be. At the end, things still need to be measured and marked out, so it won’t be until tomorrow that our team will be on-site doing some serious trench digging.

Tuesday February 19, 2008

Medical Team:

Entry 1
The medical team ROCKS!! We were running like a well oiled machine today. It is absolutely amazing to see how we can beat as one heart and serve these beautiful people ... but of course, any service we do unto others we do unto ourselves. We are so blessed and thank God for this wonderful opportunity to come together and serve the medical needs of those in need. I think our oldest patient was 89 years old; a beautiful woman who got her first pair of glasses. Unfortunately, we cannot upload a picture of her until we arrive back in the states because of the very slow connection at the internet café. It is
basically dial-up on steroids J

Gotta sign off… Padre is waiting for the trip to the café before it closes.

Entry 2

We’ve been here for 5 days and the inside of my water bottle smells like the inside of my shoe and I don’t know why. It’s hard to feel clean with cold showers, even though I weaned myself off of warm water a few weeks ago. It’s definitely a blessing to be grateful for the simple things and to be in solidarity with our neighbors in Honduras and not see it as a sacrifice.

However, I spent the day reflecting on what the most important sacrifice I can make as a physician would be. I was thinking about this after I came across a pen in my backpack given to me by a dear friend whose brother was a policeman killed in the line of duty. I’m still reflecting on this, but it has to do with the concept of duty and how to perform it fully.

Tomorrow is our last of four days in the clinic. We’re all out of our comfort zones, but we have done a lot of good, learned a lot of things, and felt the presence of God in our midst.

I’m looking forward to tomorrow because the construction team is almost finished installing the solar panels on the church and we will have Mass there tomorrow night. To say it’s a Mass of Thanksgiving would be redundant, but it’s apt. I hope everyone who reads this will share our joy and know that we give thanks for the support we have received in all phases of this incredible Mission Trip----Lori S.

Construction Team:

Work continued on the solar panel installation and wiring. The team still had some questions about the voltage readings they were getting off the panel and were awaiting for a response from Otto. In the meantime, they decided to bite the bullet and bring down the solar panel and rework the connections. After some tinkering they had the voltage up to 30 and the pole back up and now firmly secured to the building.

Wiring continued into the adjacent house with lots of switches, light fixtures, and junction boxes installed. Looks like the team is right on track to have everything completed in time for the Mass and lighting ceremony tomorrow evening!

Also during the morning Brian and Dennis were dropped off at the school construction site for some foundation digging. The lot had been finally measured out with lines marking out the location of the supporting columns each requiring a 4x4 feet and 3 feet deep hole. About forty of these will be needed for the building, so we’re definitely going back tomorrow morning. Not much more to tell other than shovel comes in, dirt comes out. And the sun certainly makes things harder.

General:
Thank YOU for your prayers!!! We definitely feel them and they are so important to us!!

Do not think that love, in order to be genuine, has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired. -Mother Teresa

Honduras Mission Trip Update Late 2/18/08

Monday February 18, 2008

Medical Team:
Today was the second day the clinic was open. The pharmacy was equally as busy today as yesterday. We had two gringas in the pharmacy and another gringa working out of the pharmacy fitting people with eyeglasses. In addition to the gringas, there were four Honduran women, some nurses, working on filling prescriptions. The clinic was set up such that people would enter, get a number, be seen by one of the doctors, and then bring their prescriptions to the window at the pharmacy to be filled. We filled prescriptions for anti-inflamatories, antibiotics, hypertension, allergies, and- the most remarkable- scabies. I didn’t know what scabies was before I came on this trip, much less that people in the world still contended with the critters. I have been astonished at the number of health issues we treat each day that, in the USA, haven’t been a problem for decades. Not only that, but how grateful people are for something as mundane as vitamins. In the states, we get a headache or a stomach ache and we go to the local drugstore to pickup whatever we need, so standing in line at a free clinic from 0800 to 1400 to get some vitamins and some acetaminophen seems so remote; and yet, here no one complains- they thank you for the help you provided, even though they’ve been there for hours.

On another note- completely changing subjects, we are eating very well on this trip. The Honduran food is delicious. And although seemingly every meal consists of rice and beans and some meat, it never gets old. I’d never had beans for breakfast before, but having been on this trip, it is an everyday occurrence and does wonders at keeping you full and energized for a long day’s work.

Medical Team:
The medical team ROCKS!! We were running like a well oiled machine today. It is absolutely amazing to see how we can beat as one heart and serve these beautiful people ... but of course, any service we do unto others we do unto ourselves. We are so blessed and thank God for this wonderful opportunity to come together and serve the medical needs of those in need. I think our oldest patient was 89 years old; a beautiful woman who got her first pair of glasses and an assortment of meds. Unfortunately, we cannot upload a picture of her until we arrive back in the states because of the very slow connection at the internet café. It is basically dial-up on steroids J More tomorrow!

Gotta sign off... Padre is waiting for the trip to the café before it closes.

Construction Team:

After two full days in the church we have achieved light! There are eight bulbs now in the church powered by the sun! Today our team was powered by watermelon. We were able to stop at a road side stand and buy grapes, apples, watermelon, bananas, plantains and pineapple.
Many challenges have been overcome and many others await, especially wiring the retreat house and getting power to as many parts of the church as possible. Tom is taking the lead and Beckworth has been invaluable with his technical expertise. Dennis s best at communicating with Father Marcos and then back to all of us. Yesterday Brent said the he saw Jesus in Slack because of his patience and kindness. Today, Slack felt like Caesar standing on the bed of the truck looking forward as if riding a chariot and waving to his people. Brent and I fill in wherever we are needed weather it is sweeping the church after the workday is complete or rolling boulders for a short wall in the front of the church.

Update from Honduras 2/16 and 2/17

We were unable to get to the internet cafe last night, apologies. We´ve had an awesome two days and thank God for all our blessings.

Saturday February 16, 2008
Bandilleras (sp?) and cake rock! Bandilleras is what Hondurans call tortillas. On our way back at the end of the day - after setting up the medical clinic, going to mass, seeing Padre’s main church (San Francisco), seeing the lot where the special school will be built, making a pit stop at the hardware store (ferreteria) for the construction team to get a heads up on what supplies they had/could get – we were invited to make a pit stop at the house of one of the ladies/who will is one of the leaders for the special school. It was a riot! I thought it was just going to be a watch how to make tortillas, see their home type of thing. They had us all in their kitchen MAKING the bandilleras and had made a cake for us. I asked why they had not made one for us last year J Did they not like us then J They said that they had not known if they would only see us once. Now that we came back…. It was like they trusted us now and wanted to invite friends into their home, not like they just wanted to show their neighbors that the gringos had visited them. Of course then Brian tried to steal the rest of the cake…..

QUOTES OF THE DAY:
“Whoa gravy!“I have never been so grateful for a chili dog in my entire life.”
“He could be one with the earth.”

Medical Team:
This morning we took the medicines to the clinic to sort/set up in preparation for tomorrow. Unfortunately, no one found or even remembered seeing the GI meds box – which could be a problem considering almost every other kid we tend to see at these clinics has parasites. Padre thinks most stores will be closed tomorrow so we cannot buy any either. Stay tuned until tomorrow to see how that one turns out.

Construction Team:

Saturday February 16, 2008
After the medicines and medical team was dropped off at the new health center, Padre drove us to the new Church to plan the installation of the solar panels (Beckwith, Tom, Slack and Dennis). On our way there Padre’s lightning speed ended up blowing Dennis’ glasses right off onto the road. It took quite a while to get Padre to stop and turn around so Dennis was thinking that he would spend the rest of the week pretty much blind. Fortunately Tom kept an eye on the area where they had touched ground and within a couple of minutes we were able to find them. Thanks eagle-eyed Tom!

Once at the church we spent some time just checking out the amazing work they had done; it looks really beautiful! After some looking around we decided to place the panels on the church roof instead of a pole, and then planned and debated the location of light bulbs and switches and conduits and all sorts of little details. Before the day was over we made a pit stop at the local hardware store to get introduced to the owners and check out their stock. We couldn’t find everything we needed, but will pick up enough stuff in the morning to get us through the day. We’ll see what happens then.

Later in the afternoon we went to see the school construction site and check with the local teachers on their current status. The land has been cleared but has not been marked out yet for laying the foundation as they were still trying to procure the wood needed to mark the site.

The land may be clear but it seems pretty hard! Assuming we can get the wood there will be four volunteers from the town, including the construction ‘master’ or lead and we’re hoping to get three people from out team to get things started on the fast lane. The first building will include an office, two school rooms, and a kitchen with a pantry.

On the ride back on the bus Padre was telling me that after they had gone to the government agency with there development plans, it had to provide a proper foundation and prepare the site. But two weeks later they called back saying that it was too costly. The sad part is that Honduras has been forgiven their international debt on the condition that they apply the payment money to social development programs instead. However the money is still nowhere to be seen. That’s why the Japanese government chose to send their crew to do the repairs of the bridge torn down by Katrina rather than send the money to the local government.

The school teachers who have put so much into the planning of this project were there at the site when we visited and are so excited to see it get started. We’re really looking forward to get the foundation laid down and start making their school a reality.

Sunday
It was an early start with SOME of us getting up around 6am .
We were swamped at the clinic, which was no surprize to some of us. The day flew by, and as some of us are just learning, one day really feels like two. The patients arrived before 8. We arrived at 9, and worked non-stop until about 5.

Lori, our fearless leader, was busy at the clinic with the usual, patient-dr priviledge type interactions, as well as Mary who attended to a couple hundred children. Kelly saw mostly adults today and was dissapointed there were no emergency surgeries. We thought there might be something exciting at the end of the day, but turned out to be a bad back.
Our Pharmacy team ROCKED today, and must have been the busiest. Amanda, Heather, and Marge were barraged with hundreds of people in need of medicine and reading glasses that we brought for the clinic.
The nursing teams, Mariann, Marie, and nicki did blood sugars, blood pressures, and albuterol treatments for patients having trouble breathing.
Harriet painted teeth all day with tiny brushes, lucky there was no art required to painting on flouride and sealants. Most children had bad cavities and all the adults could have used a real dentist.

The construction team had great success with the solar panel project at the church. Tom, Dennis, Slack, and brent did part of the wiring, set the base for the solar panels and dug a trench for some the wires to connect to the house that also needs electricity.

We´ll have more on Sunday after we´ve had a chance to recooperate from the day. We left the clinic and church late and we´re going to bed!

Thanks for your emails and encouragement. We´ll include some pictures when we have time to wait for internet speed.
Love HT8

Do not think that love, in order to be genuine, has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired. -Mother Teresa

Message from the Honduran Mission Team Late Friday 2/15

Hello Family and Friends,

After leaving NC very early this am, we arrived in Honduras in excellent time.
We met Father Marcos immediately upon arrival and loaded up all of our supplies (there were many!!!) on a big yellow school bus. Along with Fr Marcos, we were accompanied by several Hondurans we will be working with and who will help build and teach in the new school.
It took about 2.5 hours to get to our hotel in San Juan Pueblo. Our accomodations are great and we are fully settled in. We are grateful for a safe journey and we are all extremely excited to be here to serve with open hearts and minds.

Saturday we plan to get our medical clinic organized for our opening on Sunday. Also, on Sat we will be surveying the school site and beginning work on installing the solar panels at the church.

If anyone wishes to relay a SHORT message to the team or a team member please do so by emailing: kecorr@hotmail.com
Please understand that we have very limited time and access to the internet.

You are all with us in prayer and spirit and we thank you for keeping us in yours.
Tequiero mucho,

Honduran Team 08 (HT8)

Young Adult Mission Trip to Honduras

Today, Friday, February 15,2008 the Team, consisting of 18 adults will be leaving for their week long mission in Honduras. This year's mission theme is: BE MY WITNESSES/DAR TESTIMONIO DE MÍ (Acts 1:8).

The Team leaves RDU on Delta Airlines at 7:15am, changes in planes in Atlanta, and will arrive at San Pedro Sula airport at 1:40pm. They will be greeted at the airport in Honduras by Fr. Marcos Ayalah Hernandez who had invited us last year to his pastoral region around San Juan Pueblo in the northern state of Atlantida.

This year's mission will still have a threefold emphasis: Medical, Education and Construction. The Medical group consists of doctors, a medical student from UNC, nurses and others. The Construction group consists of building contractors and engineers and others. They will be installing solar panels and equipment to provide light to some of the remote churches Fr. Marcos pastors. The education group will work with teachers and disabled children. One major emphasis has been the initiative to begin construction of a school building for disabled children.

The Mission Team will return to RDU at 9:54pm on Friday, February 22, 2008.

We are grateful for many generous donations and your continued support.

Please keep the Diocesan Young Adult Mission Team in your prayers.