First Weeks in Honduras!

As I sit here at our big kitchen table in the missionary house, distracted for a moment by a gecko running up the wall and the ocean waves crashing right outside the window, I can hardly believe that tomorrow marks 7 weeks of being here in Honduras (and 3.5 months in Central America!)  I want to apologize to anyone who has checked my blog out over the past several weeks and has been disappointed by the lack of updates…internet availability is definitely much more limited here than I had previously thought.  Now that work and life here is beginning to settle into some sort of a rhythm, however, I am hopeful that I will be able to be faithful to writing monthly blog posts!  Also letter-writing is definitely a much better option here than I thought.  I would love to hear from you if you have minute to drop a letter in the mail!  

These past 6 weeks have been a time of so many blessings and (good) challenges so far!  There is so so much to say (and luckily I have 2 years of posts to expound moreJ) but one of the greatest things so far for me has been getting back into my nursing—and practicing as a nurse practitioner here for the first time!  The other nurse, Ashley, and I are responsible for the health of all the 40 children at the Farm as well as the staff, including our Honduras house parents, maintenance and security workers, our Franciscan sisters, and the 20 current missionaries.  The kids have been pretty healthy overall but we have had our share of normal childhood issues such as strep throat being shared around the community a few weeks ago. We also follow some children on longterm medications and work closely with a psychiatrist and our social workers. In addition to our Finca community, we also serve the wider community of several small villages ranging from right outside the Finca gate to a good walk up into the mountains.  In the clinic Ashley and I function as receptionist, nurse, provider, and pharmacist!  I have been really pleasantly surprised by the variety of medications in our pharmacy, and that is all thanks to some very generous annual donations. We have a small lab in our clinic where we can check hemoglobin for anemia, blood sugar, and perform urine tests, and I am exploring our options for working with the local hospital to collect more samples and bring them in to their lab.  Our patients are mostly women and their children, and their complaints range from sick visits to well-baby checks to injuries.

It has been wonderful getting to know so many of our patients—our Finca neighbors.  We also take care of several patients with various chronic diseases who need closer care and follow-ups.  Some of these patients aren’t able to make the walk to the clinic (it took us about 2.5 hours roundtrip), so we try to visit them in their homes.   The other day Ashley and I drove up into the mountains to visit a few of our older patients.  We had to park the truck a ways outside of the village, because the road is so terrible and muddy during the rainy season (last week we got ourselves stuck in a rut and had to be helped out…but that is another storyJ).  Then we walked up this steep, narrow, rather treacherous path up the side of a mountain to get to our first patient’s house.  We sat down with her in the one main room of their house where all 8-10 people spanning 3 generations sleep together.  Our patient is a dear, loving older woman with uncontrolled diabetes and high blood pressure, but no matter how poorly she is feeling, she always makes time to talk with us and thank us for coming.  Today her headaches were much less severe, however, and when we checked her blood pressure, it was better controlled than ever before on her new medication regimen.  He blood sugars are still very high, even with max doses of oral diabetes medications and she should be taking insulin, but insulin is very difficult to find and expensive here in Honduras, not to mention our patient does not have a refrigerator!  I am exploring options for getting her insulin though- God willing we will get here started. We were able to talk in depth about good diet choices, but when usual diets consist of large amounts of rice and tortillas and few protein choices besides beans, it is difficult. After our visit we all walked outside her house, and as always I was blown away by the view of the ocean and the verdant green mountains- incredible!  Our patient and her husband thanked us profusely and sent us on our way with fresh bananas, but as usual I left feeling blessed and grateful for being able to be a part of these people’s lives here in Honduras.  

There are so many other blessings here at the Farm too- the children for sure, the community of missionaries I live with, the Faith of the people, but I thought I would close by sharing a few interesting/fun facts!  There are many “creatures” around here, including inside our house…mice and insects you might expect, but what about geckos and scorpions?  (Yes, we have them!)  The other day I was walking down the road, which is heavily shaded by trees, to our women’s faith-sharing group in a nearby village, and I felt something brush past my face and then heard a “smack” on the road nest to me.  One of the other women started yelling my name and pulling my arm and I looked down to see a big, bright yellow-green snake slithering into the brush.  He had just fallen out of the tree and landed at my feet!  Whether he was purposely targeting me and my friend saved my life, I’ll never know, but my heart was beating fast for a long time afterward!  Many of the other interesting/shocking facts about life here, have become more commonplace to me now, and I can hardly remember a time when we had hot showers, dishwashers, and washing machines or could cook over a stove anytime we wanted.  We have to conserve our chimbo (don’t ask me exactly what that is, but it’s what lets us turn on our stove!) so we cook many of our meals over a fogon fire outside.  Speaking of which, I am cooking dinner tonight, so I need to go get the fire started and get the fish cooking soon, so I better sign off.  Living simply has it’s challenges, but it has been an adventure so far for sure!

I hope you are all doing very well and I look forward to updating you more very soon!  God is blessing me here!  Thank you for your thoughts and prayers and well wishes and for keeping in touch in whatever ways you can!  

Love,

Laura

Hola from Antigua, Guatemala!   

I can hardly believe I’ve been here almost 2 weeks.  Time has certainly been flying by, and with so much to do and see and experience, this is the first time I am sitting down to actually write a blog post!  So in case any of you are thinking “Guatemala? I thought she was going to Honduras?!”, I’ll remind you that I’m here for two months of Spanish language school in preparation for my mission at the Farm of the Child.  I’m studying at La Union Language school, where I have one-on-one classes for 6 hours every day.  The school, like many other buildings in Antigua, in made up of an outdoor courtyard, surrounded by a few offices and rooms, so that means that we have classes outside! Mi maestra, Brenda, is a great teacher and also full of life and fun, and I feel like I am learning more quickly than I had thought I would, thanks to her.  In the beginning I always joked that the only things I knew how to talk about were parts of the body (thanks to a few basic medical Spanish classes) and food (thanks to, um, Mexican restaurants?!), but I am happy to report that my vocabulary has lately been increasing.  Of course we devote a large portion of time everyday to grammar, and this week I am tackling the past tense…those irregular verbs can definitely be challenging! My favorite part of class is the conversations that my teacher and I share about our lives, families, and the culture in Guatemala.  It’s actually quite amazing how many things we have in common as well! (For example, she comes from a Catholic family with 6 siblings, she loved to swim in high school, and she enjoys adventures too:)

I’m living with a host family in Antigua, about a 10 minute walk from the school.  My host mother takes good care of me and seems to be always cooking up a storm.  Chiqui has 3 grown daughters who all live with their families in the houses right next door to our house, so that means that her 6 grandchildren, ages 4 to 15, are constantly in and out.  The three little boys (4, 5, and 6 years old) are hilarious, but I think I have bonded most with the youngest, Diego, who is always pretending to be a tiger or some sort of wild animal.  He was shy towards me at first, but while he was running through the house growling the other day I told him that I was a bear, and then we got along just fine! All of Chiqui’s family have dinner together at least once a week and are such a part of each other’s lives…the closeness of the Guatemalan families is really very beautiful.

When I’m not in class, I am loving getting to know my fellow missionaries who are taking classes at the same school and living with different families.  It’s been interesting to hear everyone’s different stories about how they came to know about and ultimately commit to the Farm of the Child.  We’ve already had some amazing weekend adventures, and although this is getting long, I’ll share a few with you.  On our first weekend here we traveled to Montericco beach, about 2 hours away from Antigua.  “La playa” (somehow calling it “the beach” now just doesn’t seem right) is famous for its tortugas—sea turtles—which can be sighted on the beach late at night.  We weren’t lucky enough to see any turtles, but the beach was absolutely breathtaking, with black sand and huge waves.  We stayed at a hotel right on the beach and only paid $8 per night.  Some of the highlights of the weekend included running on the beach with some local kids while the sun set ahead of us, taking an early morning boat ride on a nearby river through mangroves surrounded by gorgeous views of the mountains , and eating and drinking my first whole coconut.  Everyone at the beach hotel (and everyone I’ve met in Guatemala for that matter!) was so friendly and welcoming.  When I told one of the waiters at the little restaurant there that it was my brother Stephen’s birthday that day and I had really wanted to call him, he insisted I use his cell phone to call all the way to the US.  We also became friends with a few med students who were preparing for volunteer work in El Salvador, and it was great to talk to them about what the upcoming months in rural clinics might hold for us.

This past weekend we stayed in Antigua and experienced one of the local adventures- climbing the Volcan de Pacaya.  This volcano erupted last in May of 2010 and has been one of the most active volcanoes in Central America over the past 500 years.  Climbing a volcano was definitely on my bucket list, and this experience was certainly no disappointment!  The surrounding areas and mountains were green and beautiful, but once we got to the crater, suddenly all the vegetation and even normal dirt were replaced by dark ash and old lava.  (If you remember the elephant graveyard scene in the Lion King, it looked like that!)  The morning of our climb happened to be very overcast, so at the top we found ourselves surrounded by clouds and mist, a very cool experience.  Occasionally our guide pointed out small vents through which we could feel the heat coming from deep inside the earth.  I got a picture crouching inside one of them, nicknamed “the sauna”, and sure enough it was very warm and moist in there!  We roasted marshmallows over another hot spot! 

All in all it has been an action-packed and learning-filled 2 weeks for me in Guatemala.  I keep thinking of more things to share, but they will just have to wait for next time.  I feel so blessed to be here—to have this chance to learn Spanish and prepare for the two years ahead—and am so incredibly grateful for the support and prayers and encouragement of you all, my family and friends!  I miss you all—don’t forget to keep me updated on what’s new in your lives!

Praise God!   

- Laura :)

Dear Friends,

I wanted to share some exciting news with you all! I’m preparing to travel to Central America, where I will spend two years serving as a volunteer Nurse Practitioner in a clinic connected to an orphanage called Farm of the Child in rural Honduras.

The Farm of the Child, “Finca del Nino”, is a community which serves 50 orphaned children, ages 2 to 18, as well as around 200 families in the surrounding mountain villages. At the Farm, the children who have survived poverty, abandonment, and difficult family situations, now receive a good education, health care, spiritual formation, and love, provided by international volunteers and Honduran house parents. As a nurse practitioner, my first priority will be to provide care for the children and staff of the orphanage, but I am also looking forward to serving the people of the nearby villages.

I know that I will receive so many blessings through my work with the people of Honduras which will officially begin on October 1, 2012. I would like to invite you to join me in this new mission as well! First and foremost I ask for your support through prayers for the children of the Farm and the good work being done there, and also for myself as I prepare for these upcoming two years of service. If you are interested I would love to keep you updated on my work through blog postings and pictures.

Additionally, I am in need of financial support to make this mission possible. As unpaid volunteers, we are asked to raise around $7000 which will go directly toward supporting our work, which includes medical supplies, basic living expenses, health insurance, language school, and transportation, as well as the expenses of the orphanage. It would mean a great deal to me if you would consider making a gift to the Farm of the Child in support of my medical volunteer work. A gift at any level is greatly appreciated and needed!

Donations are tax deductable. There are two options for making your donation:

1. Donate with a credit card by following this link to the Laura Shaw Mission Fund:
https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=56296
If that does not work, you may also follow these steps: go to http://www.farmofthechild.org/, click on Call for Missionaries on the top, click “Our Missionaries”, click on my picture in the bottom row, and then once on my webpage, click “Donate to support Laura’s Mission Fund”.

2. Donate by check- Please make checks payable to “Farm of the Child”, enter “Laura Shaw” on the memo line of your check and send to the U.S. donation coordinator at: Farm of the Child, 1616 Nottingham Knoll Drive, Jacksonville, FL 32225

If you have any questions about my mission or this organization, please don't hesitate to contact me!  I will miss you all while I am away but would love to stay in touch!

Email: laurashaw1@gmail.com                                     
Phone: 703-732-8847

My Address until July 31, 2012:
707 20th St S.
Arlington, VA 22202

Address starting October 1, 2012:
Finca del Nino
Apartado Postal #110
Trujillo, Colon
Honduras, Central America

Thank you for your support and prayers!