Coming Home

Some beautiful scenery on the way to Las Marias. And Meidy, 2 years old, a child in Nuevo Jerusalem.

Last night in Honduras. We're in San Pedro Sula, just 15 minutes from the airport in a hotel locked behind an iron gate with a guy with a machine gun guarding it.......The hotel caters to business travelers so there are hot showers, continental breakfast, WiFi, all a bit disconcerting. Re-entry sometimes is hard. But here are the promised pictures. We hope they begin to convey the beauty of this country and its people.

A little cutie - Maribel.

Two of the Red Cross workers who spent the week with us, in the back of the pick up riding to one of the villages.

Joel in Nuevo Jerusalem

A child at MAMA's nutrition center -- he's 3 and a half years old, and was brought to the center with almost 400 parasites in his stomach. After several rounds of medicine, he's down to about 85 parasites.

An older couple- he's 91 and she is 82- in El Cedral. She went around the room, hugging and kissing all of us. When she was done -- her husband asked one of us where his kiss was, a request she was not happy about!

Teenage sisters in El Cedral.

Friday in Nuevo Jerusalem

Fridays are hard. On the one hand, its good to be done with a very long stressful week. But on the other hand .... its very hard to say good bye to the Red Cross volunteers and all of the people that make this week possible for us. We spent the morning in Nuevo Jerusalem, probably the poorest and smallest community we visit. Two years ago ... our group met a little 10 year old boy in Las Vegas who asked our group for food on the first night we arrived. He found us every subsequent night-- quiet, never saying anything other than comida, very dirty, with huge eyes. We found out on our last day that he and his 5 siblings lived in Nuevo Jerusalem. So through the Red Cross we were able to leave enough money to pay for food for the family for that year. When we returned last year -- and maybe we just wanted to believe this-- he looked better, maybe not cleaner but smiling and talkative and bright eyed. We couldn´t wait to see him this year. But our first night in Las Vegas, Mila the Red Cross director told us that he had left school and was ¨on the streets¨ with his father...........We saw him today-- dirty, quieter, but still said he remembered us. We all asked him to please go back to school-- but doubt he really will make a change based on our recommendation. It´s hard. Like that story of the little boy who threw star fish back into the sea -- guess we all hoped this boy would be our starfish we saved. And it highlights the enormity of the poverty in Honduras -- and so many other places. Do we really make a difference? Guess you just keep trying and pray that you do.... but on our last night here, its hard to think that we do.
We´re now in Tela which is a pretty little town on the North Coast of Honduras. Tomorrow we´ll take a boat ride to Punta Sal which is Honduras´s national treasure--a supposedly beautiful penninsula accessible only by boat with monkeys and parrots. You wonder if the little boy even knows the Caribbean is there or will ever see it........
Before we left Las Vegas -- we gave money to the Red Cross director to provide care for several children that we saw... an 8 year old girl that we worried had been abused, an 11 year old who witnessed a horrific murder with a machete at 8 years old and continues to have nightmares and is failing school and has never received any counseling, an 8 year old who was kicked out of school FOR LIFE because he probably has ADHD, and several children who can´t eat because of their rotten teeth. We also gave money to MAMA project for school supplies and food for the many malnourished children with whom they work absolute magic. We are so grateful for all of your donations and the ability to provide this support down here. If you want to know more about MAMA project -- there is information on their website.
We will head back to San Pedro Sula tomorrow night for a flight home on Sunday. Maureen heads back to Massachusetts on Monday and we have promised ourselves that we will post one last time with pictures before she leaves. We have literally hundreds and we´re so anxious to show some of them off! Amazing mountains, beautiful children, a 91 year old man we all fell in love with.......we want you to see them!
Buenos noches! Hasta Domingo,
Maureen, Laine and Laurie

Hey all, Chuck here. They are having an awful time with the internet in Honduras, so Laurie may not get to post again till the weekend... but then she comes home Sun night, so we will see. But - all of them are doing well, Laurie has assured me. Thanks to all who are following their travails. If I hear anything new, I'll let you all know.

Tuesday in Veinte Uno de Octubre

Yes, the name of the village is really 21st of October which is a famous day in Honduran history. It´s a small village but we guess the word must have gotten out that we were there because by afternoon we were just drowning in patients. At one point the room was so crowded with crying babies, chatting moms, playing children -- we literally could just not hear ourselves think. And the kids from the small towns -- who walk sometimes hours to be seen -- are so poor, often barefoot, dirty. But still smiling and laughing and truly beautiful.

When they said we would be here in rainy season --they were not kidding! It´s rained everyday -- or more accurately poured. But when the rain ends --it´s just amazingly green and the mountains would take your breath away. And if the view doesn´t -- the drive up & down these mountains in a truck would! Jammed full of people, everyone talking at once, Mila yelling out the window, a cell phone to her ear, talking with people in the truck bed......... Not something you´d try at home but somehow doesn´t seem to be a problem here.

The Red Cross volunteers that are with us are just remarkable. Often very young but so willing to do whatever is needed. Tomorrow will be our busiest day in the largest village we go to. But the potential clincher-- Honduras is playing Chile at 5:30 AM and if they win we´ve been told the party will go on all day........so maybe folks won´t be worrying about coming to our clinic!

We can´t upload any pictures tonight. The computers look like they are from the stone age. We will try again tomorrow night.

Monday in El Cedral

A long day in a very small village at the top of the world-- we were literally above the clouds. It is rainy season here and everything is gorgeous and green. We´re a very small group this year and it makes for slow going. We still saw over 100 patients but it feels like its not enough. This village is very poor, the children are so dirty, and their diets meager. But yet they are remarkably healthy and full of smiles and laughs. We did send two families to MAMA project- including a 10 pound 2 year old that was unable to stand or walk. Laine translated all day and was amazing. Maureen juggled between Cathy & a Honduran physician while also playing pharmacist. Brody & Amy Jo de-parasited it seemed like the whole village. The noise is just amazing -- dozens of families in the same room and everyone talking at once and in such rapid fire Spanish that your head is spinning.......

Not alot of time to type-- our session expires in 1 minute and they mean business when they say you´re done! Love to everyone. Buenos noches!

Maureen, Laine & Laurie

Sunday in Las Vegas

We just arrived in Las Vegas. Yesterday, Saturday, was a very long day. While we arrived in San Pedro Sula about noon --getting our luggage, shopping for school supplies to take to the villages, shopping for some other items we needed took most of the afternoon. We drove to San Francisco through a torrential rain storm and arrived at dusk-- but with enough daylight for Maureen & Laine to be amazed by how beautiful it is there. The mountains are gorgeous, everything is green, flowers everywhere. Today we spent the morning at the nutrition center getting a tour and playing with the kids. We´ve got gorgeous pictures-- but haven't been able to get them on a jump drive or found a way to upload them at the internet cafe. But we'll do our best - because the kids were beautiful.

The nutrition center does amazing work. Children who have been identified as malnourished are brought to the center with their mothers and siblings for an 8 week program that teaches them how to purify their drinking water, how to raise chickens for food and how to grow some fruits and vegetables. The kids were so beautiful - they showed us some birds they have as pets and they played ball with us (although we were melting in the sun!) We hope to get some pictures uploaded soon.

Hasta mañana
Laurie, Laine & Maureen

T-1

Las Vegas, Honduras

We leave Washington National airport 6AM Saturday. We'll fly into San Pedro Sula and from there go to MAMA's headquarters in San Francisco de Yojoa. Sunday we'll leave for Las Vegas which is in Santa Barbera state in the north-west part of Honduras. We'll begin seeing patients on Monday morning, working in conjunction with volunteers from the Honduran Red Cross. We don't know what our internet access will be-- it has been pretty spotty in the past -- but we'll try and post each evening. We are very unlikely to be able to do that before Sunday at the earliest.

We are very grateful to everyone for their support. And we will try and provide both stories & pictures about how your support was used.

These pictures are of some of the children from last year. The other is a view of the street in Las Vegas. The really wonderful thing about this trip is that we're very likely to see many of them again this year.

Hasta Domingo! (until Sunday),
Laine, Maureen & Laurie