A year ago, one of the FOB medical teams was supposed to visit a local village. The night before the visit, there were heavy rains, cutting off access to the village. Still wanting to send a brigade out, Nury and her staff started calling places needing/wanting a clinic for that day. The Army base in La Bolsita said “yes,” and the team went there that day. Now, once a year a team goes to the base to provide health care services to military personnel, their families and people living in villages within the base. The people came in a steady stream throughout the day and we provided care to both villagers and military personnel. Having celebrated Veteran's Day on Wednesday in the US seemed a fitting tie as we honor veterans in all places.
Paul saw 58 patients today in the eye clinic, with many being Honduran service men and women. Even the commander came in and received both reading glasses and sun glasses. Henry saw 19 patients in the dental clinic; one of the youngest being a 5 year old boy.
Pastor Brad shared his favorite story of the day. As a back story, we have attempted to learn phrases in Spanish that we use on a regular basis. Examples include "open your mouth" (abra la boca) and "this will not hurt" (esto no duele). Some of us are better at speaking Spanish than others. Brad does a good job. He was speaking Spanish to a women receiving deworming medicine, which is taken with water. After the woman has taken her tablet and was in the process of drinking her water, Carlos, our translator told the same woman (in Spanish) to speak Spanish to Brad because he was Honduran. The woman was in the middle of drinking her water and almost had to spit out her water because she was laughing so much! The entire scene was very comical.
As the crowds died down in the afternoon, a small group of us visited the base obstacle course with two of the soldiers. They explained the type of physical fitness they are required to complete and they allowed us to try some obstacles on the course including monkey bars, climbing over a wooden wall, and running around a grass/trail/cement track.
During devotion time, Pastor Brad talked about Imagination. Reading the story of Habakkuk, he asked us to imagine what God can do if we took discipleship seriously. Brad encouraged us to live out dreams that God puts on our hearts, and said that God shapes our imaginations and allows us to dream big dreams.
After devotions, Nury shared some history and information about Honduras. Honduras means “deep water,” and it was named by Christopher Columbus when he touched land after almost drowning. Honduras has 18 departments (states) and 7 ethnic groups. For tourism, the Bay Islands are very popular for diving and the Copan area is known for its Mayan Ruins. Honduras is also known for many things including bananas, mahogany, tilapia, Asian vegetables, chocolate, coffee and pineapple. However, the greatest treasure in Honduras is the people. We have witnessed this each day as we've visited different villages and met these wonderful people, and we look forward to experiencing this greatest treasure tomorrow when we visit our final village for the week. May God grant all of us the ability to dream big dreams.
