Interesting chats

(I warn you...this blog post includes some disturbing pictures of open wounds below in the Honduran health care system. If you are squeemish, better to navigate away now.)

The group departed yesterday, as planned. The airport was relatively empty for July, due no doubt to the ongoing political situation. My friend at Continental said there were only 51 going

back on the plane, out of 125 seats. I saw them off, thankful for the faith they had to come despite many things that could have just as easily made them decide against coming. I then proceeded back up to the clinic to sort some things before the kids got out of school.

I found Celeo waiting for Oscar to get some shoes (no clothes...not for another several weeks yet it appears) and we ended up having some time to talk (why? I will come to that.) We ended up spending most of the time talking about that pesky political situation. We like life so cut and dry, but in talking to him I was reminded yet again that things are not often as they would seem, and as much as we would want to back one side and ignore/reject/hate/etc. the other, the truth of the situation often lies in between. (pun intended) Disagree or not, but his position was one of blaming the rich of the country for controlling things, not really allowing the majority to help choose the leaders of the country, and for misinformation coming from print and TV media owned by those same rich families. Some even say this whole thing was cooked up by the richest eight families in Honduras. It was good to hear his point of view...even when he said he wanted information from an unbiased source....like CNN or one of the few pro-Zelaya TV stations here. I pointed out they were just as biased to the other side as he was accusing the others...then he said "that is why I just prefer to ignore it all and listen to Christian radio, music or sermons. And when it comes time to vote, I won't be participating in that either. We are to be set apart...there is no justice on this Earth, no fairness, only from God. So why do other religious people put their faith in the political leaders around them, or align themselves with those leaders instead of instead focusing on the spiritual crisis around us?" I thought that was indeed interesting. Instead of being so concerned about who is in power, what kind of government there is...how about remembering Who is in power, and what kind of government He is?

So, I had that time to talk to him because I had to tell him Oscar would not be coming....he was involved in an accident. No bodily injuries, and the Ford is still drivable (only damage to the license plate I believe he said) but the car he rear ended...not so good. Apparantly the car in front of him decided to stop in the road (the ring road that goes around the city...no stop lights, and he had a full load of construction supplies in the bed) and that did not give him enough time to stop. Ugh. So we will get to go through that process yet again.

I peeked into the clinic to say hi, but everyone was moving or working in one area or another...even with Valerie gone to Bible study, there were quite a few people waiting for the other areas of the clinic, and I got to see some of the health chat signs that the nursing students and staff have done and posted. Next step is to tape those chats, and then be able to show them in the waiting room every day...all of them. That will take some time and effort, but should be worth it, especially as you read the following about just a brief chit chat about health care here.

Darwin and his girlfriend Sandra stopped by the house. She is a doctor now going through the process to be a pediatrician, and Darwin is the FAME scholarship recipient who is in his sixth year of medical school. We were talking about a few things as he picked up a donated laptop for him to use for schooling, and talking about our group's latest hospital visit...how powerfully good and bad it was (seeing the children so excited....seeing the near death cases and in one case, the baby bundled in a trash bag that had died shortly before our arrival) and then he shared these pictures with me of patients he has seen.

This is a patient with advanced problems due to diabetes. Diabetes is so prevelant here, and getting proper care is not usually readily available. Taking care of oneself is not commonly found either as many of you already know. The education needed for those with diabetes is also sorely lacking. I am highly thinking of printing this picture for our clinic...people sometimes need to be shocked into knowing that what they may not see now can in fact produce terrible things like this in the future.

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This person had a bed sore. I know the nurses and doctors are overworked in the hospital, but this is...well, you can see what it is, I do not think I need to try to find a word for it.

We usually focus on the kids in the hospital and can sometimes see things that seem to be neglect, but this? His opporunity to ministry there is huge, and in cases like this, can be overwhelming. In the past we have received some hygiene kits he has been able to give to needy patients, hopefully we can get more in the future.

It was good to talk to them both, and also easy to see in their faces the toll taken on their bodies in working (and then coming from helping prepare a body for burial) such long hours and in such conditions. We saw a child that died when we were there on Friday...that had happened when Sandra was on duty and she had to help deal with that. Pray for both of them as they confront some of the worst situations day in and day out. At the clinic things can present sometimes that are bad, but at the hospital here it is even worse.