hair is to recap as baseball is to old hat

I have been meaning to write for some time.  I finally have the time as I am in the middle of a rather active 24 hour period.  When you do not sleep, it is amazing how much more you get done! 

I did not send out a January update, so consider this filling you in on the goings on here lately. 

December...we had the May family here with us for a week, they were helping in the milk project and clinic while just observing and seeing if possibly long term overseas service would be for them. 

And then December also brings trying to get things done before the end of the year and all that fun stuff with impending holidays and the like.  We were not able to get the electric fence done before the end of the year, but not for lack of trying and extra days worked.

Late December also brought interviews with the clinic staff.  Why?  Well, we have been talking about the major changes coming, and that started with Valerie stepping down as clinic director and Dr. Darwin Pineda taking over that charge, as well as seeing a few patients now and then on the general medicine side of things.  Valerie will still be there every day, but working more on just optometry and no more trying to balance so many things at once. 

Darwin interviewed all the staff, asked for CVs and made a few hard decisions about changes that had to be made for the good of the clinic and the patients.  One is letting Dra. Reina go.  She has had issues with her license since we hired her, and finally with someone like Darwin taking the reigns, we could see this could not continue.  The other is with the changes needed in the pharmacy, our long serving nurse Marlen had to be let go so we could hire an actual pharmacist. 

Darwin will be implementing many changes over the coming months, not just changes for change, but hoping to be reaching and impacting our own staff, challenging them in their witness and spiritual walk, as well as getting the staff out into the neighborhood more. 

He grew up in the Church where we go, and to have him now graduated with his FAME scholarship help and now back serving, and leading is very cool to see.  The changes are not all just easy, but we can see this is going to be a good thing long term for Valerie, for Darwin, the staff, and ultimately of course for the patients.  Watching him take control and worry about the big things and the little things (the clinic needs painted to look more inviting, Justin needs some proper entrances made in front o the medical containers!) could be seen as annoying from a boss perspective, but I enjoy seeing him see it all from a different perspective and want to see things that are good get even better. 

There is more to come in the fairly near future...possibly a specialty micro roast of Hill Climber coffee, a big donation enabling us to get going on the second floor of the clinic, Justin hitting it hard on inventory control, architectural plans and more.

Prayer requests...the ongoing coffee harvest in full swing in Sampedrana and Las Botijas (worker safety and a good crop), the CIY conference going on this week here in Honduras, Oscar on vacation in Panama and Costa Rica visiting family and hoping to be back by the 15th (has to get a new passport while in CR as well), and for the clinic staff during this transition period.

I am signing off...I got so much done sitting down here at the desk last night after everyone else went to bed that I did not sleep last night, I just worked through the night.  Now that it is mid morning...I need to get some coffee, pushups or find some candy to keep me going until next bedtime comes before I start getting incoherrhencorherent.