4 Months in Honduras!

Dear Friends,

I pray you all are doing well!  I can hardly believe I have been in Honduras for over four months now (and in Latin America for six!)  Much has been happening for us at the Finca lately and I would love to share a few stories with you!  

Life with the children has been full and busy as always.  A new little girl is now calling the Finca her home.  Yadira is two years old and sadly had suffered abuse and neglect before coming to the Finca.  When she arrived a few weeks ago she was also suffering from some medical issues and was developmentally delayed in speech and walking.  Yadira and I have spent a lot of time together over the past few weeks as I have cared for her medical and nutrition needs and worked together with her social worker on her social and motor skills.  It has been such a blessing to be able to watch her progress and see her smiling, giggling, starting to form a healthy attachment to her house mom, and speaking a few words like agua and mama.  She is a beautiful, joyful little girl with a budding sassy personality… she definitely has the “clamping her teeth closed and wagging her finger ‘no’ at me” maneuver down when she sees me holding her medicine syringe! She is the baby of the Finca by about 4 years, so everyone here has fallen in love with her, especially the other little girls in her house.  Keep Yadira in your prayers that she continues to thrive at the Finca!

A few months ago I shared a story about one of our sweet, elderly patients who has uncontrolled diabetes while taking maximum doses of oral medications.  For a while Ashley and I didn’t know how else to help her, but finally we discovered that we could buy insulin at the hospital in town, and we designed a contraption to keep the insulin cool (she does not have a refrigerator)— the insulin is now inside a larger pill bottle attached to a rock, sitting on the bottom of her cool, stone outdoor sink, the “pila”.  I wanted to share that Bertila is now on insulin therapy and has been successfully giving herself injections every night.  Insulin injecting is a difficult concept for anyone, and as I started to educate Bertila in the beginning I could see the fear and anxiety on her face. At one point I doubted whether I had been crazy to be considering this whole idea.  At the end of our time together however she seemed to be growing more confident and with the support of her daughter, I decided to let her try injecting on her own.  When I made the hour and a half climb up the mountain to see her last week, she proudly showed me her 2-Liter Pepsi bottle full of used insulin needles (with the small bottle neck, no one can reach their hand in!), the small bruises on her abdomen to mark her injection sites, and she fished the insulin bottle out of the pila where it was still tied to a rock and staying cool. She has also been taking her other medications for diabetes and hypertension successfully twice a day and has been trying to maintain a low carb diet.  Bertila told me she now felt well enough to visit her two daughters and grandchildren who live in town (they have been asking her to visit them for a year now, but she has never felt up to it until now) and she is making plans to go this week.  Bertila's smile and new confidence warmed my heart…I am so proud of her!

Christmas was a while ago now, but many of you have asked about our holiday traditions at the Finca, so I wanted to share a bit about our Christmas as well.  Every afternoon leading up to Christmas Eve we prepared by holding the Posadas, the traditional reenactment of Mary and Joseph visiting the inns and asking for a place to stay.  The children took turns being Mary and Jesus and every afternoon included lots of singing, readings from the Bible, and a special snack.  The night before Christmas Eve we were joined by The Pescatore family, the original founders of the Finca del Nino—I will have to share their amazing story sometime—who were visiting this year.  Together we ran a regular Santa’s workshop, forming an assembly line to prepare presents for the kids and filling backpacks with little gifts.  Christmas Eve is the big celebration day in Honduras and we started out the day helping the house moms cook a big traditional feast and keeping the crazy, excited kids out of their hair!  Then everyone dressed in their best and we had a special Mass at the Finca, followed by the big party.  Everyone enjoyed mountains of food and then we watched a few Christmas plays featuring the kids and a dance by the older girls.  Next, Santa (a friend of the Finca’s) called each child up by name and gave them their backpacks full of presents…such big smiles all around!  The night ended with a dance (lots of Salsa and fun!), and then everyone forming a big circle outside on the campo (soccer field) at midnight for a final prayer and sparklers and fireworks. 

I’ve been staying busy making cakes for birthdays, holidays, and all the special occasions around here.  For one of our girls, Miriam’s Quinceaneara (15^th birthday) at the end of January, I enlisted the help of her 8 year-old sister Seidy to make the chocolate layer cake.  It was actually Seidy’s idea…she first asked me a few months ago when she saw one of the cakes I made for another birthday celebration if she could help me make a “beautiful cake for her big sister’s Quinceanera”.  Seidy was indeed a big help and when the cake was finished (decorated in her sister’s chosen theme of light blue and butterflies), Seidy was proud to have a special way to contribute to her sister’s exciting day.  Now all the other little girls—and boys too—want to help me make and decorate cakes for upcoming celebrations…I think I’m going to have to make a list!

There have certainly been some big celebrations at the Finca lately, but most of my happiest memories have happened in small moments…teaching a new mom of a two week-old and answering her questions about how to take care of her new baby, playing at the beach with the girls of House 2 and finding forty-two perfect conch shells, finishing an asthma nebulizer treatment for a little 10 year old girl with severe asthma and seeing the relief on her and her mother’s faces, reading books with a few of the little boys, teaching Wednesday evening catechism class and hearing the kids pray every time for los pobres (the poor people) and los que no tienen comida (those who don’t have any food) and for their families (many of whom have abandoned them), chatting with one of our Honduran house moms on a warm Sunday evening.  Although it can be hard to be so far from home and you all, it is in these moments that I am blessed to know I am supposed to be here at the Finca.  Every day here holds new adventures, challenges, struggles, and moments of joy with the kids, my patients, and our community.  Thank you all for your continued thoughts and prayers and notes or emails of news and support!  Keep them coming!

For those of you who have asked, my mailing address is:

Finca del Nino

Apartado Postal #110

Trujillo, Colon

Honduras, Central America

God bless and hope to be in touch again soon!

Laura