İMerry
Christmas, dear friends!
Thank you, as always, for your support and your
prayers along this journey. It’s hard to
believe that I am 1+ years in, with a little less than a year of my service
remaining. But then when I think back over
these past several months and how many things have happened, and all the stories
I have to share, it seems plausible.
With the scarcity of internet and the busyness of
life here, keeping up with this blog has been something that has fallen to the
bottom of my to-do list for the past several months, but I thought that the
Christmas season was the perfect time to update you all on what has been
happening here in Trujillo, Honduras.
Now with a year of nursing at the Finca clinica
under my belt, I realize how much I have learned and grown as an NP! Of course clinic days hold many typical
situations (lots of respiratory infections and interesting,
not-common-in-the-U.S.-skin infections, and intestinal parasites and amoebas,
high blood pressure, and ingrown toenail-removing…I never would have guessed
that that last one would become commonplace!) but then there have also been the
out of the ordinary stories. A few weeks
ago three-year-old Jairo came in with what started as a mosquito bite in his
armpit and then progressed over the course of a week into a large, angry
abscess, basically a collection of pus the size of a baseball and surrounded by
cellulitis or inflamed tissue. His
father told us that he was not sleeping, eating, or moving his arm. I realized immediately that I would need to
open and drain the pus collection, although performing such a procedure on a
little person is always a daunting prospect.
With the help of my co-nurse, Natalie who held him down and calmed the
poor little guy, I administered the anesthesia injections and was able to
successfully drain the abscess. (Don’t worry, I won’t describe the mountains of
pus that come out!) After two days of
packing the wound and antibiotics, the abscess was drying out and Jairo was
once again a happy, active child. His
father and he had walked about 3 hours from their home up in the mountains, and
I was thankful they made the journey, before the infection became even more
serious. Thanks be to God that he is
doing well now!
The days that we visit our home-bound patients in
Buena Vista, the town up the mountain, continue to remind me why I love nursing
here…because of those opportunities to form relationships with people, be welcomed
into their simple homes and spend time with them. Some of you have heard about my patient,
Bertila, who has severe diabetes and high blood pressure but has improved
greatly now that she is injecting insulin and taking her medications
faithfully. This past month when I
visited, she had just returned from Trujillo (the bigger town) where she was
visiting two of her daughters. She
happily shared that she would never have been able to visit them at this time
last year, but now had the energy to make the trip. Every month she proudly shows me her insulin
bottle (still staying cool in her outdoor stone sink or “pila”) and reiterates
how she is watching her diet (few tortillas and only small helping of rice,
more beans, eggs, fish and vegetables).
Then our conversations turn to talk about her children (she had 18 in 20
years!) and grandchildren and neighborhood gossip. When I check her blood pressure and glucose
level and oftentimes congratulate her on the results, she never fails to respond
with “Primero Dios”, translated more or less “to God be the Glory” or “I owe it
all to God”. What a beautiful outlook…it’s
one that I hear expressed so often around here but that never fails to humble
me.
A few months ago I was blessed to be asked to be madrina,
godmother, for three neighboring children, Ysmary (3), Levis Isai (6 months),
and Selvin (18 months). They all have
visited the clinic frequently over the past year and Selvin’s father works as a
watch guard at the Finca, so I have had the pleasure of getting to know them
and being welcomed into their families.
I learned about Honduran baptismal traditions along the way as well (it
is the madrina’s role to buy the baptismal clothing for the children and decorate
white candles…luckily one of our Franciscan sisters let me in on these things a
few days before the big day!) The
baptismal Mass was beautiful and I’m glad I have a year left to love my little
ahiadas – godchildren. I love that I now
have actual “family” here in Honduras, even more of a connection!
There are so many nursing stories, and so many of
them revolve around the beautiful people around here that I have become blessed
to call my friends. There is Don Nicola,
the older gentleman with a twinkle in his eyes and a heart of gold who survived
a severe case of malaria and continues to battle severe asthma, who came down
the mountain the last clinic day before the holidays especially to wish us a
Merry Christmas and thank us for our friendship. He is currently helping another dear neighboring
elderly couple to rebuild their house that tragically burned a few weeks
ago. A few months ago we were surprised
by a visit from the mom who gave birth right outside the Finca back in April
and her beautiful, curly-haired, bouncy baby girl. (Ashley and I say that we “half-delivered” a
baby that day, as she had actually already slipped out about two minutes before
we arrived, but was still attached to the cord and everything). I will always feel a special bond to that
amazingly strong young woman and her darling daughter.
Life at the Finca with the children, especially
during the Christmas time, has held many blessings as well. Whenever the challenges of being far from
home and family, friends and the comforts of life seem to be overwhelming the
good moments, spending time with children, reading books, or playing Monopoly,
or swimming at the beach, always helps me out of the doldrums. One of my favorite memories from the past
year was putting together a running club.
Getting the kids to enjoy distance running and to train for a Turkey
Trot was something that I and one of the other missionaries, Kevin Kuehl, had
talked about for a while. We started
practicing in September with a group of kids age 7 to 18 and continued pretty
faithfully three times a week. At first
getting the kids, who are used to soccer and sprinting, to run the lap around
the Finca fence (a little under a mile) was difficult and we heard lots of
complaints (“running is feo- bad”) plus there was the distraction of plenty of
fruits just waiting to be picked from the trees along the way, but by then end
of November we were conquering the roads outside the farm and running along the
beach. Race day was a great event, with
14 runners, plus some missionaries, and the other kids and adults helping out
to mark the course and cheer the runners on.
18 year-old Juan Carlos earned the first place medal, beating out a
couple of the missionary guys, but 11 year-old Brayan, who has always been 100%
dedicated in every practice and has really learned what it means to find the
rhythm, came in right behind the older boys.
Coaching a group of young runners was something
that I had always wanted to do, and never guessed that it would take coming to
Honduras to make it happen. Along with
learning every day in my nursing work, I cannot even begin to name the number
of things I have learned over this past year…driving a huge stick-shift vehicle
without power steering through crazy roads and rivers, Spanish, cooking over an
outdoor fire, learning to live in a community of 11-20 people, surviving 2+
weeks at a time without internet or much connection with the outside world, and
learning to trust in God in the daily moments of life. I certainly am not an expert in any of these
areas, nor maybe will I ever be, but I know God will continue to give me the
grace to continue each day. Your support
means so much to me too…more than you will ever know! Watching Yadira, our littlest child
here, gleefully enjoying her first visit from Santa on Christmas Eve, I know that in spite of
all the challenges, I am blessed to be here.
THANK you all and blessings on your new year!
Love,
Laura
PS- I couldn’t
get any pictures up this time, but look out for them soon!
