Wednesday, December 9, 2009

ECScelente

CHE is Community Health Evangelism. In Spanish that comes out ECS.

We did the first day of training in Talanga today. The turnout was about what we expected, with some people coming we did not know, and some we were expecting not making it. It went well, but there is definitely still room for this to take further root and grow. Today was about introducing the leaders from Talanga, San Juancito, Cantaranas, and another community where we do not have a Church but do have a connection, La Venta.

The location was beautiful, a new place that God has opened for Celeo to rent for the Church and clothing store. The parking area was covered and worked well with the warm Talanga day to keep it fairly cool while we all sat around and grew and learned more about God and what He wants us to do, and how to go about doing that. It was a beginning...it took a lot of work, and Oscar, Jonathan, Lesly and Celeo did great at doing the lessons with the people (about 15 total) but there is much more to do and see happen as we keep pushing forward.

Valerie at the clinic had the distinct "pleasure" of having dust throughout the clinic as Jorge "the welder" Irias (everyone in the Church just calls him Jorge the welder since there are several other Jorges in the Church) and Carlos started working to modify the windows to be safer. Unfortunate for our patients and staff for a few days, but in the long run will be much better for everyone.

Valerie just told me that this morning surprisingly Reina did not have her normal 17 patients, but rather just 10. An omen breaks the horizon right? As she was finishing her "last" patient, a small two year old was brought in covered with blood. Turns out a neighbor dog had mauled him. He had a severe gash over his eye, and one that started low on his forehead and went back over his head. Reina said she could she his skull as she put in 38 stitches that took 2 and a 1/2 hours. Just another average day in the clinic.

I did not have time last night to include any pictures, but this is just one of the interesting unloading opportunities we had....a huge baptismal from a supporting Church in the US. It is sooooo big, we are excited to have it but not quite sure where it will fit for our Churches. The Church in San Juancito...has the room outside but there is also the river right there and the old mining water collector that could be used...Cantaranas has almost as much covered space right now for the entire stage that this takes, and if it was not bolted down or buried in the ground, it would surely be "re-located." Talanga does not even really have the space since they are also renting and there is not a good spot for it to sit. There have been at least two jokes made about converting it to a jacuzzi for the mission house or a big cistern, but we are looking hard at what we are going to do and very soon because it is not only big for them, but huge for us to find a space to store it! Moving it was even more fun....in the dark....over everything in its path.


And how about two more pictures as a closing bonus? I have rarely seen persimmons in the US grocery stores...let alone see them for sale here, proudly labeled "product of the USA." Sometimes our fruit and vegetable selection here really is quite surprising, as we get great stuff from right down the road, and some things brought from farther away than you would think. Now they just need to import Rhubarb...that is not asking too much, right? I am sure people here would love it....then again, I would not have thought persimmons would be highly sought out either, so what do I know. I can tell you that they go for $2.64 per pound there...I wonder if that is a good price. Hmmmm.



I saw this plant outside a friend's home last weekend....those green spiky things hold thousands of seeds (so we are told...we did not open ours they gave us yet) and that they are ready to open when they get old and brown. From this plant comes the pretty flowers...called "copa de oro" or Golden cups. I wonder what they are called in English...have any of you seen them anywhere else besides Honduras? Remember that I do not get out much when it comes to botany or actually wondering about flowers/plants.

1 comment:

Terry Dalrymple said...

Hi Trevor and Felipe, Great blog! I'm Terry Dalrymple, coordinator of the Global CHE (Community Health Evangelism) Network. We've posted your content on our Facebook. Visit us and join nearly 1,000 CHE practitioners and 118 organizations members of the network at www.chenetwork.org.