Journal 4
Wednesday, January 25, 2017
Today we visited the community of Pimienta, San Jose de Comayagua. This was the first visit by the Friends of Barnabas organization. The community was founded in 1939, and has a population of 450 people. There are 120 families living in 100 houses. The school has only kindergarten and elementary classes. The community does not have a Health Center, and the nearest one is 2.5 miles away. To visit the Health Center it costs 300 Lempira for child (approximately $13 USD). People today walked 2 hours to come to the Mountain Medical clinic.
Our drive was not bad, and when we arrived we had beautiful mountain views in all directions. It was a gorgeous sunny day with clear skies. Drew started our day at the clinic with a beautiful message in Spanish to the community. Our interpreters said he did a wonderful job.
We found the people of the community wearing their Sunday’s best. Complete family units (dad, mom and children) were together, and the children were well behaved. Everyone was so happy to see us.
The Medical clinic spoke of the referrals they had today. Some of the referrals included a 5 year old boy who could no longer speak due to a bicycle accident. Another referral was a 6 year old girl who could only say Papa, Mama, yes and no.
Linda once again is the earwax champion bringing hearing to many children and even some adults. Linda also cared for a 15 month old infant that is getting ready for heart surgery by the Little Hearts Team.
A rare case of shingles was diagnosed today by Cheryl. Dr. Curry was very impressed with the diagnosis.
David had a 14 year old female patient come to his station. He asked her to come back with her mother. The translator indicated the girl was married. This surprised David; however, this in not totally uncommon in some of the communities that FOB visits.
During lunch we were entertained by our very own Pascuala who is our Honduran nurse and member of the team.
Today the overall consensus was we were not rushed and felt we could spend more time with each family getting to know them and serve them. It was an honor to be the first team to serve the wonderful community of Pimienta.
-Bert Norfleet and Jamie Eubank
