Thursday, November 9th 2017
Today was the fourth day for the Dinwiddie Team. The village we were visiting was called, “Los Globos,” in the county of Meambar. “Los Globos” belongs to Comayagua department and was founded in 1920. The population has 200 inhabitants with 50 families and 40 houses. There is a potable water system but most villages still need to gather water from a natural water well 5km away. There is no electrical service and 95% of the families cook their food on firewood stoves.
This village was the most remote so far. We started our day off 30 minutes earlier than usual to compensate for the more difficult mountainous drive. The mountain views, with the crops woven right into their sides, were sublime. It was hard to imagine how one would farm and harvest crops on such vertical land, but the people of Honduras don’t let steep slopes get in their way. Luckily we have Marco, a Friends of Barnabas Staff Member and world class driver. Every day he makes the impossible possible and I am so glad to have him on our team.
Once we arrived in Los Globos, we unloaded the truck and set up the clinics for the day. We decided to let some non-medical team members switch positions again so everyone could experience as many different aspects of a medical mission trip as possible. Thomas Green moved to the eye clinic to assist Marco. The eye clinic saw 63 patients today. Francene Green, who had been working in the deworming and fluoride clinics, moved into the general clinic and assisted Beverly Smith with the dispensing of medicine. Francene really worked hard filling almost a hundred bottles with assorted liquid medicines. She literally worked until she had blisters on her hands. She said it was completely worth it.
The general clinic received 218 patients today. Courtney Harrison and Carla Torres worked in the general clinic as well. They treated a young woman with several issues. They were anble to support both her physical as well as spiritual needs. Taylor Collins also moved into the general clinic for the first time this trip. She treated a little girl with a heart murmur. Dr. Reddy, Shirley Woodlief, Yolanda Mohammed, and Carlos Munos also worked in the general clinic and observed how much larger the families were in this village. They also noticed that these people were generally healthier than the people in the previous villages. They determined that the larger families probably played a role in caring for one another, ensuring that everyone received treatment whenever possible.
The dental clinic saw 30 patients today. After a very busy day yesterday, Dr. Arita was able to catch his breath. He still performed 45 extractions with the help of Jay Harrison and Jason Millis.
McKinsey Pyle worked in the fluoride station and administered fluoride to 37 children. This was McKinsey’s first time working this station and she excelled. I, Alex Wolf, worked in the deworming station and passed out deworming medicine to 107 people. This station usually isn’t popular among the children because the deworming medicine and fluoride don’t taste the best; however, McKinsey and I got creative and let the children draw and play tic-tac-toe to entertain themselves. We had a crowd around our table all day.
Will Hilton worked in the measuring station and enjoyed his time interacting with all the kids. He too brought them joy by blowing bubbles and watched them chase the bubbles all through the school yard.
The day was great overall and I know that every single one of us felt God’s will being done through us.
-Alex Wolf
