Nueva Capital, Francisco Morazon, Teguscigalpa, Honduras
27 Enero 2015
0513 hours

Gehlen Mission Honduras Medical/Dental team followers.  Happy Tuesday.  Today is going to be much the same as yesterday.  The weather patterns are really strange this week.  Yesterday, clouds, wind (and I mean strong) along with a light rain later in the afternoon.  Today's high in Tegus is projected to be 25 C or 77 F, with a low of 13 C or 55 F.  The report says this day should be warmer than yesterday.  I wonder where the warm will come from.  Last night was very cool and very high winds.  I just can't image how some of these people cope with this type of weather when they live in a shoebox for a home,  But, they do and we probably saw many of them yesterday.

The team members are still in bed and I'm sure they will be a little slower in getting up today after a very long day yesterday.

I have read Ms. Kelly's post and I will agree with her about the internet connection last night.  We tried many times to sign on after originally being able to do this.  We also tried to upload photo's from Dr. Benzoni's phone but apparently that did no work as well.  Currently I am sitting in the kitchen area with the 2 cooks as they are preparing breakfast.  The coffee is warm.  It looks like pancakes this morning  The food as been really good here.  A complete Honduran menu. Like yesterday morning the internet connection is really good.  I'm sure the weather effects it here in the mountains.

Like Ms. Kelly said the medical element of the team saw 256 patients in clinic, the dental element saw  41 and pulled 45 teeth and then because of the large volume we had to do a "pip line" later in the afternoon.  This is where we give patients de-worming medicine, vitamins, both kids and adults and then Acetaminophen.  We did not count those forms last night but Diana and I are estimating we treated abut 75 or more patients.  So this leaves us with patient contacts of over 350.

We had various problems with patient flow because of the high winds.  Another factor was that the school gave out (in advance) 300 numbers, which to us meant 300 patients.  The problem, a mother would show up with a number but with 3-5 kids.  This caused confusion in registration forms because these kids had no forms.  We had to work around this and will probably have some of the same problems today.

During our nightly meeting the team members talked about the day, the flow issues and possible solutions.  We will change some processes today with the hope of having a smoother patient flow system.  We will want to treat each and every patient.  I thought the people were very patient with us.  They value so much the time to have an American doctor tell them that their children are doing ok and with certain interventions will do better in the days ahead.

I did not look at the forms yet, but I do not remember in all the clinic days I have been involved with - did we have so many kids, many under age five (5).  Ms Kelly and her mother Carol did the weighing and measuring of the kids and then compared them to World Health Organization standards for height and weigh.  They reported many kids were at the median Z score with many others with a - Z score which means undernourished kids.  Later after the team leaves I will summarize these data points.

Well I better quit for now.  Maybe when Ms. Kelly gets up we can send some pictures.  The team members have great ones.  Have a great day.  God bless and peace.

Mr. Francis

Hola from Nueva Capital!
I apologize for such a late post. Due to the wind our internet connection is horrible.
I am going to keep it short because of our time limitation.
Today was a great day at the clinic. As our first day I would say we did a wonderful job. We saw about 350 patients, pulled 46 teeth, and distributed hundreds of daily vitamins and deworming medication.
The pictures will not come through without good connection, so I hope tomorrow will be better.
Please continue to pray for us and the people. We saw a lot of malnourished children, and people with parasites today. I will do my best to get pictures up tomorrow.
Kelly
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Hola from Nueva Capital!
Today as you all know was the first day of the clinic. It started out as a beautiful morning, before turning into a windy, cold day. Patients began lining up early in the morning, and did not stop coming until around 5:30pm. We wish we could tell you how many patients we served today, but because of all the chaos we do not have an accurate count, but we know it was over 300 patients; at least 200 children under the age of 2 who were under-nourished, malnourished, or stunted.

The dentists pulled about 50 teeth, and were surprised by how well some of the patients' teeth looked, in fact a women in her 20's was found to have perfect teeth. The dental staff also had a nice time chasing a chicken that got loose. Toothbrushes cost $2.50 here, so the free toothbrushes were a HIT! 

The doctors saw everything: common colds, parasites, high blood pressure, heart murmurs,  stroke victims, dehydration, severe malnutrition, etc. 
 
We gave de-worming medication to everyone over the age of two that we saw today.

All of us are healthy and busy packing up medications for tomorrow.  We are being well fed by the wonderful kitchen staff!
"Our Faith ever sharing, in love ever caring, Embracing His children of each tribe and race."
Carol

Nueva Capital, Francisco Morazon, Honduras
Date:  26 Enero 2015
Time:  0515 hours

To all those that are following the Mission Honduras LeMars Medical/Dental I want to give you additional information that Ms. Kelly put on the blog yesterday.

Everyone is still sleeping and probably will be for about another 30 minutes or so.  I am here in the kitchen area with one of the cooks having a nice hot cup of coffee.  It's nice to just have something warmer.  Yesterday was a weird weather day here in Tegucigalpa (Tegus), Honduras.  It would rain, be windy, the sun would come out and then that cycle would repeat itself throughout the day.  We had a light rain from about 1500 hours in the afternoon until later in the evening.  The wind was really strong.

Most of the  clinic is setup with only a few items left to go over this morning.  The clinic opens around 0800 hours and will go until we see all the patients for this day.  The area has been organized in zones with people from that zone coming to the clinic on certain days.  This is the same procedure we used in la Montana de la Flor (MDLF) but would do it by village.

I know the team is excited to get started.  It was a very long and hard for them yesterday leaving from Omaha, NE and ending up in Tegus, then to spend about 2 1/2 hours sorting the various medicines and supplies.  I really believe we are all kids in grown up bodies.  We had two (2) nice meals yesterday and the cooks are preparing breakfast as I type.  We get our eggs from the chickens here at the school.  Believe me the team members heard the roosters all night.

It continued to be very cool during the night with light rain and winds.  Sometimes real strong.  I do not know the temperature but it is similar to what we have experienced in MDLF.  Today will be a high of 24 C and a low of 14 C.or around 70 F for a high and a low of around 50.  Currently it is not raining and only with a 10 % chance.  Of course this forecast is for Tegus which is at 1014 meters.  Nueva Capital is approximately 1500 meters so it will be cooler here.  I hope the sun is out for most of day.

Later I will get a feel for how the team members like sleeping on the floor on thin mattresses.  3 of the team actually had a bed.  I think we had enough blankets for each person to have 2 and I'm sure others wore other clothing, including this writer.

Today will be a day of challenges for the team as they begin the process, of weight, measuring, accessing patients, pulling teeth  and providing medicines and other care.  By tomorrow it will be a routine.  Many on this team have done this before.

It's time to start getting the team aroused for breakfast and then a fascinating day.  Kelly will post more on this blog later with more pictures.  The internet was slow yesterday afternoon when she was writing the blog.  This morning it is just like back home.

Ok for now.  I will usually report early in the morning and let the others talk about their thoughts and experiences of the day later.  God bless and peace.

Mr. Francis

Greetings from Nueva Capital,

We landed safely inTegus in the early afternoon, and made our way up the steep hillside to our final destination of Santa Teresa School.
All this afternoon we have been setting up for the clinic which is scheduled to open tomorrow. The whole team is hard at work bagging vitamins, setting up stations, and preparing for what is sure to be a successful clinic.
We are all overwhelmed by all the vitamin donations, and generosity of everyone back home who made this trip possible. Please continue to pray for us, and the people of Honduras as we begin this incredible journey.
We would also like to thank Spaghetti Works for their generous gift to us. They paid for the first $100 of our check when we ate there Saturday night.
Tomorrow is the first day of the clinic, so I am sure there will be a lot to tell!
Here are a few pictures taken today.
The first photo is of the house that the kids from Heelan Catholic students built 2 years ago.

The second photo is of the school where we will work and sleep.  As you can see it's a gated and safe place.  Everyone is so grateful we are here and very willing to help out.
The third photo is of our sleeping arrangements.
The last picture is of a cemetery that is frequented by vultures.

C  

Arrival in Santa Teresa de Jesus / Nueva Capital

The Med / Dental Team arrived in Nueva Capital, with all 34 bags of med's and supplies, about an hour and a half ago.
Just spoke with my brother Francis and the team has just concluded a nice meal and are currently unloading all the bags and separating medicines and equipment.
Carol and Kelly Cooper are scheduled to blog sometime tonight. Please stay tuned and keep checking the blog. They are all safe and eager to begin their mission tomorrow morning at 8:00 a.m.

Richard Seivert

Mission Honduras Medical / Dental Team Arrives Safely in Tegucigalpa

At 4:00 a.m. this morning the 17 member Medical / Dental Team left our motel in Omaha for the airport. The team finished checking all 34 bags of medicines and supplies at about 5:00 a.m. Shortly after that they went through security and wheels were up right on time.
They arrived in Houston a few minutes early but were at their next gate within just a short time. Their flight to Tegucigalpa left a couple minutes early and actually landed in the capitol city 22 minutes early.
I have just spoken with by brother Francis who is at Toncontin Airport to welcome the team. They were on the ground. Along with him are trusted associates Marta Sosa, Julio Rivera, and a crew from the ACOES Foundation, run by Fr. Patricio LaRossa.
Stay tuned for an update within an hour or so. All team members must go through immigration and customs before they can start their short journey to Santa Teresa de Jesus School. That can take up to about an hour.

Please feel free to join this blog and send a message to your family member or friend on the team.
Stay Tuned.

Richard Seivert

Message From Francis / January 1, 2015

01 January 2015

Tegucigalpa, Honduras 

Greetings to all Mission Honduras LeMars medical/dental team members.  Felix Anos Nuevo.

I arrived in Tegucigalpa, Honduras on Thursday 18 December 2014 to begin the in-county logistical coordination for the upcoming medical/dental team trip.  I want to share a few things with you at this time and will have more messages in the future.

Dick and I communicate almost every day either by email or cell phone.  We are both in contact with Marta Sosa here in Honduras from Fundacion Cerro de Plata.  She is and has been meeting and talking with the representatives at school in Nueva Capital.

Here are some facts that I know today:

For a perspective on Nueva Capital here are a few facts:  We think there are about 25,000 homes there and using a typical figure that each household has 5 or 6 kids, you can do the math on this area.  Now having said this, many of these people do not live close to the school and the area we will work in.  We have set our goal of helping the families and kids that attend the school.  Of course we will probably see others from other parts because they know we are coming.  Each day we will serve a different zone or sector.  This has already been decided.  The school administration will coordinate this.

Hopefully, we will have 1-2 more dentists to help.  These are Hondurans and bilingual.  I know one of them because she has helped with our 2011 mission with JTFB in Montana de la Flor.  She is also an attorney and she has expressed a desire to help as much a possible.  This is still a little fluid but it looks very promising.

The local translators will come from the University system along with Marta Sosa and her 2 daughters (they have also helped with Gehlen teams).  We will need to provide daily transportation to and from Nueva Capital.  I am still working on this issue but it will be worked out.

The local Bomberos (Fire department EMS unit) will also assist us.  We will probably leave some supplies and equipment with them once we leave.   You’d be surprised what they don’t have.

Other folks have offered to help.  I will find out more on this later.

We have hired a cook.  She is the same lady that did the cooking for the Gehlen Mission Honduras trip last March.  She is a real good cook.  The menu will be typical Honduran,  maybe will a sprinkling of American, but mostly Honduran.  We will eat all of our meals in the compound area.

The school has a large gate and a guard so this will really help with ground control because there will be pandemonium outside daily.  I would not be surprised to see some Honduras military units in the area like they are all over the city.

We have tentatively laid out the work areas for triage, pharmacy, medical doctors and dentists.  Dick and Tim, we will use those 2 dental beds we have used in the past.  If we have 3 dentists working at once we will have to improvise, which should not be a problem.  We will need to be flexible in this whole team process.

I am still working with Marta Sosa on whether we will have a Honduran medical student doing triage as part of the registration.  More on that another day.

We will use a medical/dental assessment form.  On the back of this form will be the drug list that we have available.  The doctors will use a highlighter to indicate what medicines they are prescribing along with the quantity.  We will visit about this once we arrive.

At triage the patient’s vital signs will be taken and added to the medical assessment form.  It is here that we will weigh and measure the height of every child between 6 months and up to age 5.  We will compare these results with the WHO standards using Z scores.  I have these with me and we will go over these data before the clinic starts.  It is at triage that we will also use a Middle Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) to measure for malnutrition and stunting on all children age 6 months to age 5.  Tasha and Diane have used these before.  We might also measure and weigh kids older than 5, but I only have standards up to a point. We will use a digital scale in kilograms (so practice the art of conversion).  We will have to decide if we want to give the de-worming medicine here or elsewhere.  This is always a process.

We will need to figure out where we would have the treatment area for nebs, sutures etc.  We will work on that at the scene.

We have arranged for bus transportation to meet the team at the airport, take us to Nueva Capital, pick us up and take us to the hotel on the last Saturday and then take the team to the airport on Sunday.  We may need to rent another smaller van for other people we will bring to clinic daily, like the translators etc.

ACOES will bring a large truck to the airport to transport the bags.  They will also help us get many of the supplies to the area in advance of the teams arrival.  We pay them for diesel and maybe a small stipend for the driver.   We will also have Mission Honduras LeMars Toyota 28-D Hilux double cab pickup with us at all times. Many of you have ridden in this pickup and know how tough it is.  I will also serve as our patient transport vehicle if necessary if the Bomberos are out of the area.

For those that may want to go to mass on Saturday afternoon we are checking on this but it should not be a problem.

Well, I think I will stop here.  I hope one day soon I can get a list of supplies that various team members have been asking for.  Also, we will buy certain medicines here in Honduras and they should be available next week.  I will also talk with Dr. Miguel Coello about the choice of de-worming medicine.  This is costly but is really a very important part of treating so many of these kids.

Felix Anos Nuevo.  See you soon.  Mr. Francis