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!