Strike two

Ah, Latin culture. It takes some people quite a while to get adjusted to the strike mentality. I have grown to get used to them, although I still am not sure I agree with all of them. Sometimes it would see the powers that be do get lazy or feign indifference until people are pushed to the point of striking, so although it is not something I have an affinity for, it is at least understandable sometimes. Which of these times is understandable? Ah, ze question S O C K S (a little tidbit for Spanish fans...say it in English outloud and you get a sentance in Spanish)

So, for about a month we have been going through strike one, which is the public hospital here in the capital city. First it was surgeries and such, then even the emergency room was shut down, no nurses or doctors. Then the fifth and sixth year students filled in to try to bridge the gap, then they convinced them to join the solidarity movement as well. The beef? Some, or many depending on your definition, students that are going to medical school in Cuba (good indoctrination for the communist movement in case you did not know) are coming back to work, not having served a year in the public system. That is the main complaint, I am sure there are more if/when needed.

The taxistas decided to strike today. Protesting something noble no doubt. After it started, I heard through the ever dependable media outlets that the strike was concerning the price of gasoline, which just went up this past week (government controlled prices), but only another 1.40 Lempiras to L68.70. Granted, at $3.64 or so that is not cheap especially here, but all in all, it could be worse. Just don't tell that to the taxistas. I am glad I drive diesel, which is not exactly bargain basement, but if you have to choose $3.64 for gas or $2.80 for more efficiently burning diesel fuel (we diesels get 20-30% better fuel economy than similarly sized gasoline engines don't forget!), it is an easy choice....if you can afford to choose.

So, that is the latest in the strikes around Teguc. Oh sure, the teachers decided to cancel school today because it was too hot...but uh, deciding to cancel before the weather reports because of the angle of the sun hitting the country, when it was stated the temperatures would not vary that much is more of angling for a day off than a strike. Although I guess we could be protesting the sun being too close to us? Oh, and I guess the medical teachers at the university are now on strike too, and a small group of the students at the university are striking over security issues and such but really....that is all!

Say hello to Soren's little friend

Well, perhaps greeting his friend would be a little distasteful (pardon the future pun), if not unlikely.

Those of you reading this (there are people reading these things right? I am not jotting this down for my health! Hmmm, I suppose it could be considered cathartic. Well then, maybe I am doing it for my health). Anyway, those of you reading this that have been here in the last two months know that Soren was dealing with some powerful constipation, or just problems with his bowel movements.

Well, as this has been going on for some time, we decided to avail ourselves (Valerie's very good idea) of the laboratory services we offer in the clinic, to see what the problem was...too much milk, too many bananas, too much play-doh? the suspense was painful...especially for Soren.

And the winner was....a powerful parasite (name witheld to protect other parasites...whom I could mention for joke gold, but won't). So we have started him on some medicine per the clinic's direction, which of course he loves to take. Go figure...our kids 99% of the time love to take medicine.

They call me....Dr. Colby (not Mr. Tibbs, although either will do)

Shocking or not, I got the call this morning.

Not an actual phone call mind you, but Valerie was feelin' a might bit peekish last night, and so to be there ready to attend to my wife, I did not go out early to the gym/run to be there when she awoke, lest she was not able to perform her doctorly duties. She's got the viral conjuntivitis ye see? Well, she does not see, at least not very well out of that swollen eye.

I bluntly said, "well, you can not see patients today looking like that (and of course carefully added the part about her being contageous too)". She concurred and said, "but you can go for me and see patients." I chuckled but quickly noticed she was not laughing...and I remembered she did not feel well at all...thus not a time for jokes. I was taken a back, but made the necessary arrangements and off we went (Valerie had to stay home).

Then it hit me...what am I doing? I thoroughly enjoy optometry, everything I get to do and learn, even reading all the great magazines we get, etc. but actually giving exams...alone? Surely I can add along with those African villagers from the movie and tweak it a bit to say "God must be crazy!" Not to mention that the normal job of seeing patients is complicated enough, but Valerie informed me that her ret head (an important piece when our autorefractor suffered a TKO) was broken. Ah, ok, no problem.

The day started with the first picture you see, a referrel back for someone that needed a visual field (long story short (LSS)...a test for glaucoma). I had not used this machine before, but was familiar with the process in general. LSS, we got 'er done.

A few semi-normal patients, and then the 85 year old you see above. At this point the projector "broke", and I had to wing several things at once until I could get time to get it fixed. She was nice...and we had the discussion I have had so often before LSS "cataracts... you... surgery... expensive.... worth it? ....glasses won't help much...etc."

I had a very nice man who needed some new glasses as he lost his (a repeat customer...we got his glasses from the US from help from a friend who does glasses for us there in such cases, as he could not afford to pay. He also happened to be my first declared HIV/AIDS patient). I had half my patients who for them today was their first eye exam.

My last patient was a six year old. My bag of tricks had run out. She needed a dialated exam, and the "ret" that was broken...I could not get around not it this time...I needed it. So I talked to the mother about coming back next week after we get it fixed. After of course I wrote her a note she requested for her school to tell them why her daughter had not been doing her homework very well (her prescription was very high...and probably needs a big bump to keep her seeing well).

So, things went pretty well with God's help, a few calls to Valerie, and the Wills Eye Manual. No deaths, no blindness, and actually some happy people at the end of the day. God provided just enough to keep me busy (six or so total) between looking at a car we bought for the mission in Sampedrana, helping coordinate plans for the new gate for the Church, and trying to fix what was broken, or not trying to break what was working, after arriving to work more than a 1/2 hour late due to some mysterious protests on the main road. Nothing to do with the hospital strike though....they stopped all surgeries and emergency room service today.

When I think about it...Yep, just another standard day in Honduras.

Gatebreaker finale, or so the Germans would have us believe

Well, the gatebreaker episode finally drew to a close, as it were, this afternoon with our new gate (the half of our two part gate that was damaged) being installed.

Whew, we are now safe. Well, at least safer.

Total cost? Ugh, with the entirely new system that was needed for our landlord's gate (figure about $725 total), and our little gate done by some more modest and clever guys ($130), we ran about $855 total for what seemed at the time a big inconvenience. At least appearances were not deceiving.

There was a "town hall" meeting at the US embassy today. I went as the focus was to be on people that host groups. I think I was among the very few that were alone, otherwise those other missions were well represented. The ambassador ended up sitting next to me with his #2 man, we made quite the threesome, what with them in very nice suits, and me in my cargo shorts (at least I wore a nice shirt!). Me being the huge hob-nobber that I am, I stuck around, handed out 100 business cards....or came home and helped finish up with garage door. Something like that.

Sampedrana weekend

Well, I am back from an intersting weekend getting the ministry in Sampedrana to the next level.

As you can imagine, everything went to God's plan, just not ours a few times along the way.

Picking up Gender and Lourdes meant that we had to go Thursday to make the five hour trip to Puerto Cortez, and then Baja Mar, which is kind of like a suberb of Cortez. It was my first time there, and I definitely had forgotten a bit of what the ocean culture is like here in Honduras. (By the way, lots are said to go for $15,000 per lot if you are interested in living the very semi-tourist area ocean front property)

After spending the night at Madonna Spratt's place (and making yet another Hoosier connection...go figure eh?), we headed back for Sampedrana Friday with the pickup loaded, semi-Clampett style with all their posessions, and some supplies for the ministry, most of which we picked up in Comayagua before heading up the hill (by the way, thanks to Mt. Gilead Church for the very handsome Buzz VBS shirt Oscar is fond of wearing).

We were to show the Matthew video that night, but when it began to rain, we decided to push it back to Saturday night. Saturday we kept busy by trying to finish some more of the bathroom floor, and get the plumbing closer to done, while still rearranging the house for living purposes while combining the tools/materials that have to be stored inside. Did I forget to mention all the visitors that had taken up residence in the house? Most were standard items....for the forrest outside. The most interesting was the "mouse/rat" I inadvertantly found while using the makeshift bathroom. After Gender and Oscar found the mommy rat, they decided it was terribly cute, and if they had a cage, I think it would have become someone's pet. I declined to help keep that idea afloat, but the locals tell us that they are in fact nice to have around, and they do indeed keep out the "real" mice. I did have to admit, for a mouse like creature, it was pretty cute, even with the two babies clinging to it. I agreed with Oscar's assessment that it was some kind of "mouse/squirrel" hybrid.

Saturday night we were able to go with the Matthew video, and it was very well received, with over 100 people there for over two hours (we finally had to cut it short at 8:00 as people in this rural area are used to going bed by then). Many people were excited and were welcoming of the idea of Gender the pastor coming to visit, etc.

A movie is not exactly an everyday occurance there, and it was amazing how many people were really intrigued with what they were seeing, hearing, experiencing.

Sunday morning was a great unknown. We were planning on their possibly being just the four of us, and if so, just using that as a starting point, going from there. There is a Christian man who used to live in Comayagua that now lives above the area where the Church is, and after hearing about and coming to the movie, he was very excited about Gender and the services....so as of Saturday night, we knew we would at least be five.

Long story short, we ended up with six males in Church, and Lourdes and about 10 kids in Sunday school behind the house. I know there is some resistance still to the idea of a Christian Church there (one man who came...Juan for those that have been there and worked with him) said his wife was "not down with" him bringing their kids, as they were to go to the catholic Church (which operates...but with no cleric).

We had visitors, we had many conversations, made many contacts....sewed many seeds. Pray for Gender and Lourdes as they continue to plant, water, nourish those and future seeds, and for God to make them grow.

Typical day in Honduras, for some reason, rather long

People often ask what a typical day is like for me.

Short answer: There are none.

Long answer: Keep reading

Wake up 6:30 (going to the gym and running with the Ford not happening with the gate issues we are having...and more because I would have to deal with them at 5:15), help Valerie with the kids, get them ready, see them off at 7:30.

7:30 to 8:35, get showered, get ready, do some work email and print some paperwork for the mission. Forget to eat breakfast...no worries, I should be back by lunch. Forgot to bring water, again, no worries, I should be back by lunch....doorbell rings, no time for this now...

8:35, Oscar picks me up to go test drive a vehicle we are thinking about buying for the new pastor in Sampedrana. The pastor will need a vehicle to be able to get down the hill, get materials, etc.

9:00, arrive at shop/residence to test drive vehicle.

10:05, discover upon arriving in a village on our test driving route that the route served the purpose of testing....if the car would overheat. It did, but we discovered that it was not the motor, but rather an old hose, just which one we could not pinpoint.

10:15, with the motor cool enough, we add more water, and move on down the road.

10:25, we decide to stop to see how the water was leaving the vehicle. Why stop here? Well, this whole area is a very developed small-time agricultural area, and we stopped at an easily accessable....watering trough for the cattle in the area. I made a mental note not to eat until I wash my hands after both interesting water holes we have found, which reminds me again I forgot to eat breakfast. No wonder I am hungry. See beautiful picture for my wonderful work filling whatever used bottles we could find along the side of the road for en-route filling of the radiator (alternate version...we looked through the trash strewn about to find vessels to fill with somewhat clear water). Finding such a watering trough by the side of the road and accessable via a gate is not something we figure we will find again for quite some time.

11:30ish, arrive back at the place where we got the car. Explain the problems the truck had, tell him thanks for the drive, and leave to see other cars.

11:40, stop to drop off air filter that last group brought for the Defender at the shop where it is being worked on. Get terrible news about some of the Defender problems, nothing life threatening though, get shown the '68 Mustang they are restoring (being nice, not like I wanted to sit in the car or hear it rumble), Oscar sends me text message telling me to speed it up, Harold (our used car salesman friend) is waiting for us.

12:00, excuse myself from the stimulating car conversation (my mechanic is a car nut...very reassuring...really!), run to the car telling Oscar of the problems and potential solutions for the Defender. I do not expect to see me driving it for at least another week.

12:20, arrive at Harold's, meet some other man that knows Roger and Jim. He throws some English my way, and when I answer in Spanish, he compliments my command of the language. Little does he know.

12:30, get to finally use the bathroom of the guy we are visiting. His car is not quite ready for a test drive (read: many bolts missing from holding important pieces of the car together), so we go to see another truck Harold thinks might be right for us. Just around the corner.

12:45, arrive to see the older, more broke, but fully functional (what is not broken that is) vehicle. Decidethis is not something we are interested in, and leave. Stimulating car discussions with Harold on the way back to leave him where we picked him up.

1:00, drop off harold, decide to forgo buying any vehicle today, and praying for more guidance. (now Oscar will drop me off at home, I will eat lunch, and catch up on more work around home...how smart am I?)

1:10, not very, as Oscar and I come to the conclusion that it would be more efficient for me to go with him to get a new RTN card from the government that we need for the clothing container that has arrived to port.

1:15, we try to get the card, nothing doing. Of course we need more paperwork, blood tests, hair samples, etc. Since we are leaving for Sampedrana tomorrow, we have to put pedal to the metal...

2:00, pick up Jorge at the Church with the paperwork we (and the Church) need...get copies, head back downtown. Forget Petula Clark...instead of forgetting your troubles, just going downtown is trouble...traffic, people, problems. Ugh.

2:30, head downtown, do chinese fire drill (where did that start anyway?) so I can drive, and Oscar and Jorge can get the paperwork done.

2:35-3:15, I wait in the car on the street while they do their thing, waiting for a call to pick them up.

3:15, get the call, pick them up...no suprise, we needed much more paperwork, etc. Departure time tomorrow pushed back now as Oscar will have to take care of that (and find someone we know there since we can not get all the authenticated stuff they want), and get the materials to the customs agent for the container coming in.

4:00, arrive at the clinic. Take care of some minor stuff there, take over for Silvia (longer story) watching Soren so Valerie can take some maternity clothes to Dora. Soren and I enjoy watching Return of the Jedi (mommy would not approve), and he enjoys watching me eat two frozen PB&J sandwiches and some leftover chips from the last group (lupper as it were...yes, I remembered to wash my hands, proving just how dirty they must have been).

5:15, leave the clinic after Valerie gets back with Cecilia

5:50, arrive at home, kids try to find the cats as I inspect the latest work on the big damaged gate. Slowly but surely...well, at least I am sure about the slow part, the sure is yet to be determined. Our gate? Who knows when we will get that fixed.

6:15, finish loading the projector and other items from our house I am taking with us tomorrow for projecting the Matthew video in Sampedrana

6:30, supper! Left over lasagna (Valerie made it Honduran style, very good) and Irish soda bread (spray butter rules!). Wash dishes, get other items packed or charged and ready to go, kids go to bed, I get to work some more on the laptop, and then...

10:20, post this, get ready for bed. Another normal day tomorrow to be sure.

Holy week wrap up in review Batman!

Well, Holy Week this year proved to be quite different from years past.

Traffic did not drop until Friday (ironically the one day of the whole week most service oriented businesses were closed, versus several days years past) and even then it was not the ghost town as in the past.

Running for me was above par, even with the gate problems keeping me off the road on Monday and with some work to do on Tuesday. I finished the week with 7:02. Friday and Saturday were the most interesting, with the traffic down I was able to run downtown, see the Good Friday ceremonies and carpet layings (don't know what I am talking about? Look it up...very interesting stuff). I figure I ran somewhere around 47 miles. That is a big week for me.

It looked like rain a few times, and actually sprinkled/rained this afternoon. That is quit unusual, as is the non-sweltering temperatures.

We got quite a bit of work done around the house this week, and discovered while doing it so much more we can do...when we have time. I won't be holding my breath.

We also got to visit with Rex, Christine, and their family for our becoming-an-annual tradition of spending Thursday together for pizza (Domino's...a first in several years for us), and of course Survivor.

Call us homebodies, or just agoraphobics on a vacational level, we prefer spending Holy Week here, perhaps even more so since everyone else leaves, and the beaches become like fields of wheat when the locust decend. I am just sorry the traffic can not be like this all year.

I have found the meaning of life

You are no doubt wondering after reading the title for this posting, how I could have found such vital information that everyone is seeking.

I think many people over the years have known the answer to this puzzling riddle, but the answer is not glamorous or snazzy, or even popular in just about any secular culture that has been around since the beginning of time.

Here it is…the meaning of life is…..glorifying God. Yep, that is it. I’ve been learning about Christian Hedonism (look that up…very cool), and heard from pastors about the chief end of man being to glorify God, but it really hit me this past week as I was listening to a sermon from Common Ground Christian Church in Indianapolis IN (credit where credit is due…glory to God though that he revealed this to the preacher there).

I won’t re-preach that sermon, at least now, but to sum it up….God is very concerned with His glory. And if you get the impression that God is different in the Old Testament vs. New Testament….well that is because we normally think of “God is love”, and miss what connects God between the two testaments….He is looking out, first and foremost, for His glory. Yes, He loves us…but not more than His glory. If we see God only as loving us, then yes, there is a conflict between the two testaments that can not be resolved. If He is doing it all for His glory, well then the two start to come together.

See: Isaiah 42:8, 43:18-21, and verse 25: “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more” (for whose sake?) 48:9-11….” For my own name's sake I delay my wrath; for the sake of my praise I hold it back from you, so as not to cut you off. See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this. How can I let myself be defamed? I will not yield my glory to another.” (Oh yeah, for His sake)….Ezequiel 36:22-23 (excerpts) “not for your sake Israel, that I will do these things…Then the nations will know I am the LORD through you before their eyes” (they are in exile, and God is not bringing them back for cake and punch…but for Himself)

Our end goal is not to be loved, although we are loved and He uses that love to draw us to Him, but why does He draw us? To glorify Him!

Wow, this is all pretty self centered eh? God is only interested in Himself? But God is a trinity….that whole HS, Son and Father thing…each one concerned about the glory of the other two parts of the trinity.

Huh? Often in the Bible you will see one part of the trinity talking about the glory of the one or both other parts. See John 12:20-29 (Jesus focused on God, God focused on Jesus), John 17:1-5 (Jesus glorifying God, God glorifying Jesus), John 13:31-32 (same theme going here), Matthew 12:32 (Jesus taking up for the HS), John 15:26-27 (the HS taking up for Jesus)

Ok, so how do I apply this to my life? (very catchy in today’s culture, no?) Wrong way Corrigan! We might always be focused on ourselves in our nature, but that is looking in the wrong direction here. This is not about us!

So, you are smart…you say “but if God is all wrapped up in being glorified, what about those people that tell Him they could care less?”

Ah, they too will glorify God…one way or another. You can do it by God working through you, or through you rebelling. How so? Well, God will be glorified when you are punished, sent to hell as it will be, because that proves He is the sovereign judge and ruler over all things. Isaiah 45:23 “By myself I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked: Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear.” Yikes, that sounds mean! Yet God says in Ezequiel 33:11 “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked”

How do we glorify Him? Big subject. I will condense a bit here.

“Give thanks to the Lord for His love endures forever” 2 Chronicles 20:21 (thanks in all things…not just “thanks for getting me out of this mess”, but “how can I use this to glorify you?”)

“let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven” Matthew 5:16 (use what He gave you to give it all back to Him)

John 12:23-26 (it is not about me!)

Ephesians 4:1-3 (get together with the Church [a body of believers, not some building])

Holy Week

Well, we are past the half way point of Holy Week, and at least until today it was hard to notice the mass exodus normally associated with the week. In fact, almost all businesses (customer oriented at any rate) were still open yesterday.

It would seem that most people are now not really getting the whole week off, but rather just Thursday and Friday. I plan to run this afternoon to where we are visiting some friends across town (finally a day where I can run and not have to return home...just running one direction, imagine that!), so I will plan my route to see how much has changed.

For us though, we have been organizing, changing, and just generally working around the house on so many things that have been on the back burner for a month or more. Perhaps not fun, but rewarding to see things finally getting done, thrown away, or cleaned up ("oh, that is where I left that cheese back during advent season!").

Gate Breaker

Well, work continues here in gate-land. As you can see from the pictures, the damage was quite substantial, especially to our landlord's gate. They took it all in stride however, and as bad as we felt, they never let on that it bothered them tremendously, even giving Valerie her new nickname....the Gate Breaker. Sounds catchy...hopefully not for Valerie's sake however.

The gate you can see (at right) took quite the brute force (go Defender! unscathed in this incident) of the truck, and lifted both of the columns on either side of the gate.

This meant they had to be rebuilt from the bottom up, with some wood rigging on either side to hold up what is left of the gate (the damaged parts being sent off for repair...all approved by the Honduran equivalent of OSHA, with its saying "if it is broke, then fix it...however you can). They took the columns apart, took out the mortar, and re-used the rocks with new mortar to make the new columns. Facinating I am sure. What is rather interesting is knowing that these columns were put in place 45 years ago, give or take a year, and have lasted quite nicely...especially considering that by modenr day standards they are not up to snuff....no rebar was included, and the mortar was not cement, but rather lye mixed with sand. Cool eh?

After this week, we are hoping to then fix the other gate (our entrance) that was also busted up (go Defender again!...this time however showing a bit of battle scars), and be back to normal.

All of this happening on the one week a year most people are on vacation, and thus leave Teguc for the beach in droves, not to mention when the most house thieves are out, has not escaped our attention. Irony being what it is, I will make no further comment at this time.