Hospital Escuela

Yesterday, Jason and I went to Hospital Escuela to visit Xiomara. She is the lady in our church who gave birth less than a month ago. She has problems during pregnancy with blood clotting in her legs. She managed to advert it this pregnancy, but Tuesday evening we got a call saying she was in the hospital. She has a good sized blood clot in her leg and several small floating clots (not sure of the technical name) in her brain.

I talked to her on Wednesday night and she was pretty discouraged because of her baby. She is in the worst hospital in Tegucigalpa. It is the public hospital and proof that socialized medicine doesn't work. The 6th Floor is where all the adults with non-life threatening illnesses go. It is made up of many wards with 4 beds each in them. Each ward is made up of plywood walls that go 3/4 of the way to the ceiling. The floor is tile that is so broken you would cut your foot on it if you were brave enough to be walking without shoes on. The beds are old and to lower or lift them you must go and ask for the special tool to operate it. The sheets that cover the bed may be washed (who knows), but have blood stains and holes in them. There are no pillows, air conditionings, fans, tvs, or anything to do. You just have to lay there. The doctor comes once a day in the morning. After that there is nothing to keep you occupied. I wanted to take pictures, but I was afraid I would get kicked out. There was even a sign on the window that said, "Please take care of our hospital, don't throw trash out the windows."

Anyway, when I talked to Xiomara she was pretty discouraged about not being able to have her baby with her. This is her second baby, but her first one to nurse. She told me how much she was enjoying this time with her baby. Since she had been in the hospital (over 24 hours) she hadn't been able to see her baby. I decided to bring her a pump and some bottles so she wouldn't lose her supply before she went home.

We got to the hospital on Thursday morning and tried to get in to see her. We got as far as the elevators and a guard came running in trying to get me to go to labor and delivery. I know I look much bigger than most pregnant Honduran women, but this guy refused to believe that I was not in labor. I told him that I still had 10 weeks to go and finally he left me alone. He then told us that we had to use the stairs as the elevators were just for patients. You must understand that while the floor Xiomara was on is numbered the 6th floor, Hondurans have a funny way of numbering floors. You must first go up the lobby and lower level stairs before you get to the 1st floor. The man at the stairs stopped us and told us that we would have to get a pass. In the many times Jason has been in the hospital this is the first time we have ever had to get a pass. He told us the pass was from 2:00 pm on, but he would let us in at 11:30. It was 10:30 and I still had school to teach, but I was just relieved that he was going to let us in . We asked where do we go to get a pass. He told us to ask the guards at Porton 1 (Gate 1) and they would issue it for us.

Another problem is that while they may know where Porton 1 is; we, who don't come to this hospital have no clue. We tried following his directions and ended up at labor and delivery (I think these people don't believe me). We asked a nurse there where to go and she told us outside. We went outside and asked the guard and he told us in the back of the hospital. Needless to say, by the time we actually found Porton 1, I was about to go into labor from all of the walking. We were able to get our permission easily and went over to Dunkin Doughnuts to wait the extra 15 minutes we had. Normally this would be great, but there is nothing worse than a woman that can't have sugar sitting for 15 minutes in a doughnut shop. I did get a egg sandwich so the torture wasn't too bad, but Jason helped me out of my dilemma and ate two doughnuts just so I wouldn't feel bad. Sometimes his kindness amazes me (for those of you who don't know me that was pure sarcasm).

At 11:30 we got back to the hospital and were actually let in and allowed to ride the elevator. I was so thankful for that. We got to visit Xiomara and I showed her how to use the pump and by the time we left she was feeling much better about the prospect of nursing her baby again when she left the hospital.

Because of the much rain we have been having there have been many mud slides and many retaining walls have fallen. I took a couple of pictures of one that had fallen into a pharmacy the night before. It is a blessing that the heaviest rainfall has happened during the night and no one was in the building. We are supposed to get at least 5 more days of rain before this front is over. Most of the rivers and towns are underwater. Many say that this flooding and rain is worse than when Hurricane Mitch came through Honduras. The only difference now is that things are happening a bit more slowly as the rain has been falling all day, every day for almost two weeks now.

After today I am so thankful for the Honduras Medical Center and for a home that is not on the side of a cliff.

Today

Many days are normal and occur without incident. Today, however was not one of them. We woke up this morning to 10 minutes of electricity. Normally my first half an hour is spent reading my Bible and praying. So in those few short minutes that we had, I didn't get my clothes ironed or my hair done. Normally I try to iron clothes the night before, but last night I was tired and had clothes to fold. After that I decided to be lazy and iron in the morning. That probably won't happen again.

For those of you who don't know me really well, my hair is very thin and fine. Being without a curling iron is a scary occurrence. I did have some pretty bobby pins that I used to secure my bangs back so I didn't look too scary.

The doctor thinks that I have gestational diabetes, but they don't test for it here. Because of this I cannot eat cereal or anything sweet. I don't feel well afterwards if I do. I usually have a bowl of rice, or toast and an egg for breakfast. Both of those meals require cooking so they were not an option today. Since there were no curling irons or electrical appliances to take up our time we were ready early for church. Jason took us to Burger King for breakfast. This is only a few blocks from our house and wouldn't take much time. We didn't realize though that all of Honduras didn't have electricity either and they were also at Burger King. We did get breakfast, but it took about 45 minutes. If I hadn't been pregnant we would not have waited, but I am so glad we did.

Thankfully this didn't make us late. We got to church on time and had a good attendance. We had 44 kids in attendance. This is good because there is a Medical Brigade going on in Ojojona today and that normally steals a lot of people from church. When we were picking up one girl on the way into church her mom and a visitor were with her. We were excited as her mom rarely comes to church. We had almost gotten to the church when her mom signaled for us to stop and she got out with her visitor. Her mom just used us for a ride so she could go the medical brigade. She tried to get her daughter to come with her to the brigade, but Alison told her mom that she would come after church got out. I have never been so proud of someone. Alison is only 12 years old, but she showed us how much she has grown in the Lord lately.

We have been having trouble with some of the kids we pick up for Sunday School. They have been coming faithful, but we can't keep them in the church for the adult service. Today all but one was quite and sat still the whole time. The one who was not so obedient only tried to run away once. I caught him by the shirt as he rushed past me to the door. It was during the preaching so I whispered in his ear "it is time to sit down now" and he went and sat down quietly for the rest of the service. It was a MIRACLE.

While today was full of incidents, we are so thankful for the miraculous ones that God brought our way.

Muddy Water

Ever since last Friday's rainstorm we have had muddy water throughout the house. We decided to clean our below ground cistern out. It filled with mud when our back rooms flooded. Since it needs to be done just about once a year and hasn't been done in a long time, we figured it was time. We turned the city water off on Saturday so we could empty the tank. We got it mostly empty on Thursday and Jason got inside. It is about 7 ft tall and 6 or 7 ft wide. He used a two buckets. One was put underneath the pump spout and the other he used to fill that bucket. We turned on all of the faucets in the house and started draining all of the gross muddy water. We had about 2 inches of mud in the bottom of the tank. Jason did a great job cleaning it out. Once he had it mostly clean he used the wet dry vac to get it really good.

Because of the amount of rain that has been falling lately we have been getting water every day (almost). We were hoping to get water that afternoon, but we didn't. We had to eat out for dinner. Normally this would not be a problem for me, but I was so tired I just wanted to stay home. I have to admit though, the pizza was really good.

Friday morning we still hadn't gotten any water. Thankfully we had the presence of mind to save several buckets of water aside for flushing toilets. We all bathed with baby wipes, but still didn't really feel clean. Around 1:30 pm we started to hear air flowing through our pipes and not long after water also started coming in. At 4:00 pm our tank had filled enough that we could turn on the pump. It was so wonderful to take a shower.

The only problem was that all of the muddy water that we had taken out of the cistern using the pump had been sitting in our pipes all day. We flushed our toilets more than 20 times before the water came out clean. All of the sinks were pumping out black water for a while.

Thankfully,the water has finally started coming out clean today. The little things we take for granted are sorely missed when we don't have them. We are very thankful for clean water.

Sunday Services

Today we had a great day in Sunday school. Our attendance has been low, but the kids that are coming are excited. We had 5 teenagers in Sunday school today which is a record for us. They are all so excited to be there. For the past three weeks we have been missing most of our regulars. Hopefully I can go and visit them next Saturday. If they were there we wouldn't have enough places for everyone.

Two of the teenage girls that come are so white they are almost albinos. They both have white skin (like mine) and very blond hair, but beautiful blue eyes. They are the sweetest things. Today I gave them some foundation (makeup) as the Lord blessed me with lots while we were on furlough. They were so excited. It is not exactly easy to find our shade here in Honduras.

Their mother hasn't been able to come for the past two weeks since her sister came and dropped her mentally handicapped little brother (29 years old) on her door step. They woke up to find him sitting there with a note saying that it was their turn to take care of him. Cristina, the lady who comes to our church and has the blond girls, has been staying home as Oscar (her brother) has been violent. Jason encouraged her to come. She was afraid of what he would do to a kid, but Jason told her that there were many men around to help control him.

Cristina came today and brought Oscar. He sat so good during the lesson and even though he can't talk, he tried to sing with us during son time. It was so cute and we were impressed to see how good he was. We just hope that he will continue to be good. The mentally handicapped are often unpredictable so we won't be surprised if he has problems next week.

After Sunday school I had to meet with the Teachers. We discussed the plans for Christmas and the kids' Christmas program. It was encouraging to see them take the lead. Several times I told them that I would help if I could, but they assured me that they were not planning on it. What a difference from a year ago when I had to do everything and trying to get someone to help me was like pulling teeth. I am so thankful for the maturing that God has brought about in the ladies.

We have had several ladies express desire to help and at this time I am still letting them grow a bit. One lady wore a dress to church today. This is the first time I have ever seen her in a dress. It is exciting to see how God is moving in the hearts of the people here in Ojojona.

Life's Little Joys...or Frustrations

Last night Jason was in Campamento for his once monthly preaching trip. It was a warm night and so the newly falling rain felt so good. I was exhausted as is to be expected when you are 7 months pregnant and Daddy is gone. I put the kids to bed and as I laid listening to the rain my brain was thinking of all the thing I wanted to get done the next day. I fell asleep, but was awakened about an hour later to very hard rain. Now if you know anything about windows in Honduras you will know that all of ours are glass shutter style windows and leak if it rains really hard. I checked all of the kids' rooms and thankfully no rain inside the rooms. So I went back to bed and tried to sleep, but it was raining so hard that I couldn't doze off until after 3:00 am. I did get some good prayer time in so that was a blessing.

This morning the kids woke me up at 6:00 am. Normally on Saturdays they can sleep in until 8:00 if I am lucky. This morning after a wakeful night, I was not to be so lucky. Oh well, I had a lot to do so I wasn't too frustrated.

As is our custom I made a nice breakfast for the kids. This morning it was crepes. This is the first time I had made them and they were quite yummy I must admit. While Audrey was doing the dishes, I started on my projects for the day. I went into the kitchen to straighten up as she doesn't do a good job on that yet, and found my counters were full of water. I seems that Jordan "helped" her a bit and then "tried to clean it up". In the process of cleaning all of the water up I had to take all of my counter appliances out and clean behind them. I had been wanting to reorganize my kitchen to give me a little more accessibility, but today it was not in my plans. It sure looks and works a lot better for me now.

After cleaning the kitchen I asked Audrey to take the dirty rags to the laundry room. She did and started yelling for me to come quick. It seems that the hard rain filled my laundry and storage room with about 1/4 inch of mud. We have lived here for quite a few years and have never had this problem. My thinking that I had never seen it rain this hard here made perfect sense now. I hadn't and my laundry and storage rooms took the brunt of the damage.

Once again, cleaning out these two rooms had been on my To Do List ever since we took all of the baby things out, but I cannot lift anything heavy so Jason had to have the time available too and that just hadn't happened yet. Well, tonight we were forced to rectify that situation. We had to take everything out and then get rid of the mud. Thankfully it was a very liquidy mud and so the wet/dry vac took care of everything. The rooms look so much nicer now.

I love spring cleaning. Unfortunately today there were several things that needed to get done, but couldn't as a result of other factors helping me decide to spring clean.

We also found out today that when it rains it pours. After cleaning everything up, I tried to wash and dry a load of towels and after 5 seconds my dryer stopped working. We are praying that it will be a cheap, easy fix.