El Lanillal

Tuesday, July 14, 2026

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Today we went to El Lanillal, which has an estimated 136 inhabitants and about 45 family

groups. One would think that today would have been an easier day since there were only 45

families instead of 50; however, the families in this town tended to be bigger. Yesterday, the

families tended to only have around 1-2 children, but in El Lanillal, each of the families had

around 3 children.

The school in this community was too small to host our big group, so we set up camp in the community leader’s home. It was still a bit cramped, but it provided an interesting opportunity to see what people at other stations were doing, since we were all so

close together. The house was also surrounded by beautiful flowers, which was a treat.

The children today were adorable!

After the non-medical volunteers finished up with the weights, measures, and vitamins, we shifted to trying to entertain the children waiting for the clinic. The kids were particularly fond of the nail polish today, and there were many children who got multiple coats of different colors just because they enjoyed it so much. Coloring was also a big hit, but the biggest hit of all was paper footballs. One of our volunteers, Kandi, taught us how to make paper footballs and taught us to flick them across the table as a game, and the kids loved it! It kept them occupied for a while, even while it rained and rained.

And when I say it rained, I mean it RAINED. Around 1 p.m. it started pouring. This made it

particularly difficult to hear in the medical clinic because the rain coming down on the tin roof made the loudest sound imaginable. It also posed a challenge in the dental clinic because the dark clouds made it really hard to see in their make-shift clinic.

Another interesting thing that we saw today was a woman with Down Syndrome. It was amazing how even in a community so remote we could tell that she was well cared for. The woman with Down Syndrome was 25. One of our providers had asked her if she had any experience with Friends of Barnabas in the past, and she excitedly pulled down her shirt and told us that she had received heart surgery from us back in 2006! How wonderful to see patients from the past doing so well. Another wonderful and meaningful day in Honduras!

Dorothy McAtee