This made us all cry

This morning an 8 year old, first time AF student, returned to the clinic for his second session of restoration.  ALL of his teath required fillings or removal.  He sat in the chair yesterday and again this morrning without any fussing.  When he arrived this morning he brought us a letter which Allen B translated.  Everyone of us had a tear or two in their eye when it was read.  THIS IS WHAT MAKES TRAVEL TO HONDURAS.

Dear sponsors,

  I am very glad that you came to do this collaboration for the benefit of all the children.  I'm very grateful to you and God that He allows you all to be here.  Thanks to God and to you for having taken out the molars.  Thank you for everything you do for Honduras and I hope that you will continue to remember this country and that God brought you to me.  Many blessings on you, and may God help you with everything you want to do.  May He care for the health of your families and give many years more of life to protect them in all the places they go to.  God bless you and keep you and thank you for all that you do.

 Many blessings.

Dental Clinic Opens!

          Yes, the dental clinic opened the door about 8:15 a.m.; with a 45 minute break for lunch (about 3:00 p.m.) we locked the door and went to dinner at 9:30 p.m. Yes, it was a long day, and this will be a short blog.  The pictures will be uploaded tomorrow. And yes, we were busy.   

          We treated 27 AP children plus 7 others.  Many extractions were made and lots of cavities were filled.  The Agape Promises No Cavity Club poster was hung in the dental clinic with the pictures of the 17 children from last year who were cavity free.  Five children, the first day, had gold stars added to their pictures for being free of cavities for two years in a row.  We sincerely hope that more stars will be added in the next two days.

Moving and housekeeping and the full team assembles

                Wednesday morning was spent moving all the supplies and equipment in storage from Maynor’s office, the “ranch”, and Sam’s storage building to the hospital.  We also had to move some of the hospital equipment out of the clinic room, carrying the two dental chairs from their hospital storage location.  Do you care to guess the weight of a dentist chair?  The answer is VERY HEAVY.  

                 All the surfaces were disinfected with wipes.  After Randy, Charlie, Karen, and Erin arrived and had lunch and returned to the hospital to set out all the supplies and made ready for the first of our patients Thursday morning.   It may have appeared to be mass chaos but Karen, Erin, Charlie, and Randy—with some able assistance from Patty—made the clinic just about ready for operation with the exception of the mobile dental unit.   

                 We interrupted our work to visit the Wednesday feeding at Tejeras.  Our traveling dental team always enjoys assisting in the feeding.  Once again, some Aiken friends sent a large duffel bag of clothing for distribution to the children.

                After returning to the ranch to clean up, Charlie and Randy went back to the dental clinic to finish preparing the “MASH” unit.  Allen and Gail returned from Santa Clara after attending a meeting of the Advisory Board of the White Dove multi-language school.

                The entire “clan” gathered for dinner and fellowship. 

   

              Once again, the uploading of pictures to the blog was not sucessful; however a full file of all unedited photos is available at: https://plus.google.com/photos/100849174068312221158/albums/5988427143032353169        

A pleasant repeat of yesterday, but closer to home and a treat

Tuesday was generally a repeat of yesterday but with a surprise.  The drive in the morning was less than an hour to Banderas, west of Quimistan, which was quite pleasant.  Upon arrival we set up the hygiene clinic and treated 55 students, leaving supplies with the teachers to treat the missing 8 children.  While the vision clinic team was examining the adults and dispensing 36 pairs of glasses, the traveling missionary thespians entertained the children with the story of Jonah and the whale, teaching their audience the North American version of “Where is Jonah?”  The children responded with a local Honduran version of the same song and then with pride sang the national anthem of Honduras – what a special treat!  The team presented all the children with sunglasses.

We enjoyed our traditional peanut butter and jelly sandwiches–this time with bananas and fresh fruit available—for lunch “back at the ranch”.  Back in the busito we traveled to the nearby Luz del Valle to treat the 32 children.  Tooth brushes and de-worming tablets were left for the absent 8 children.  Following the hygiene clinic our traveling acting troop again presented the story of Jonah and the whale along with the sing fest.  Sunglasses were again handed out to all the children.

On the way home to the ranch we stopped by Maynor and Jessy’s new home.   As Jessy was at work, we were greeted by the babysitter and invited in.  Maynor proudly gave us the special tour of the house, and then we were introduced to his mother, who lives nearby.  We all marveled at what has been accomplished in such a short time. 

Finally back at the ranch the team rested and rearranged all the supplies to facilitate the moving of the dental equipment to the hospital Wednesday morning.

The story of the Whale in two versions

          Monday was an exceptional pleasant day.  We drove for an hour west of Quimistan to the village of El Pinal where we were well received.  On arrival, the team unpacked our busito (read “a van stuffed with supplies, 7 missionaries, a translator, 2 AP student helpers and a driver”) we set up the HAF hygiene clinic.  Seventy students experienced hand washing, de-worming, teeth brushing, and fluoride treatment.  Using the de-worming tablets this year is so much better than the previous method of using a liquid.  Allen B actually tried one of the tablets to understand whether the grimaces we were seeing on the children’s faces were from a bad taste or simply from the anticipation of one.  His judgment: It really doesn’t taste bad at all.
 

          While the vision clinic was being set up, Patty told the children how God facilitated Jonah’s trip to Ninevah via the belly of a big fish.  Using questions interspersed with sound effects of the wind and waves and imaginations of being in a dark, cold, wet fish’s belly for three days and nights, she was able to persuade them that even when things are the darkest, God still cares for us and can accomplish the purpose intended for us.  With story completed, mini-whales with flippers, spouts, and smiley faces were constructed by the students using a paper bag, a balloon, and assorted accessories.   The project ended with the children learning and singing a simple short round about Jonah.  While the Jonah project was ongoing with half of the team, the vision team examined 23 patients, fitting 21 with a pair of glasses.

          Departing El Pinal we drove for three quarters of an hour to a shady stop near a creek just outside of El Jicaro to enjoy our picnic lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches al fresco.  After lunch we drove into El Jicaro and set up the hygiene clinic treating 25 students.  Our missionary dental member (Patty) performed a random field examination of 15 students.  The results indicated that 100% of the children required one or more fillings and about half require one or more extractions. The concept of a HAF sponsored traveling dental team for these mountain top villages will be an ongoing discussion when our dentists from Aiken arrive on Wednesday.  Naturally a board of director’s discussion and approval will be required before that would be done—not to mention recruiting a dental team.

          Patty, with a lot of help from Daniel, our translator, retold the story of Jonah, and Allen B led the classroom full of children and parents learning and singing the Jonah song.   

         Thus ended a most fulfilling day.