Sunday: San Jose de Pane...

Sunday started pretty early.  I was up at 4:20am and over at the Center around 5:00 to help Sandi prepare breakfast. Sandi was already there, and it was apparent she had been there for a while.  Since we were doing the day's medical clinic together with a team of Honduran doctors who do brigades every two weeks, we invited them to join us for a typical Honduran breakfast.  (Sorry, I didn't get any photos of that.)  That meant breakfast for about 60 people, including all the volunteers.

After breakfast, we started loading the pickup trucks and the chicken truck with medicines, supplies, new iron gates for the community building, and people.  San Jose de Pane is almost 1 1/2 hours away, and much of that trip is in 4-wheel drive territory.

Yes, you stand the whole way, hanging on, trying to avoid bumps and bruises.  Hey, guys, that truck's a little empty.  Looks like there's room for at least 10 or 12 more people.

We arrived in San Jose de Pane, and within 15-20 minutes the group was set up and ready to see their first patients.  For the day's clinic, there were 10 doctors available, plus dental and optical.  That made for an incredibly busy day.  But the people were so patient.  They would wait in whichever line you told them to stand in.

From this line, the next step is to see a doctor.

During most clinic days, the pharmacy is the last place to get busy since people have to first see the doctors.  But once they get going, it's non-stop for the rest of the day.  Many times, a mom and her 5 or 6 children will see the doctor.  The doctor is writing prescriptions for each person.  Everyone gets vitamins and most get worm/parasite medicine, plus whatever the doctor needs to prescribe for the primary reason they are there.  So, you can have one person receiving 3, 4, sometimes 5 meds.  Times 6 people in a family?  Conceivably, that's 30 prescriptions for a single family.  (The doctors try not to do this, but there are times when there are no other options.)

But it doesn't end there.  Then, our translators need to explain the medicine to the patient, or their moms ~~ telling them how and when ~ and why ~ to take the medicine.  They need to emphasize that it's important to take ALL the medicine, not just stop when they start to feel better, as so often happens here.  It can be an incredibly daunting task, but the pharmacy team makes it all look easy.

Pharmacy will have a super busy day, so it's important to get as organized as possible.

Each village has its own flavor and the doctors will start to see the same symptom or complaint over and over again.  Then the next day the chief complaint will be something else.  And, since this is also a teaching opportunity, the doctors do a lot of consulting amongst themselves.  It's incredible to watch them in action.

Here, Dr. Chad is helping remove an obstruction from an ear when repeated irrigation didn't clear things up sufficiently.

At the end of the day in San Jose de Pane, the doctors saw 352 patients.  50 dental procedures also took place and another 50 had optical attention.  And since this is also an evangelistic outreach, the best news of the day is that 42 people accepted Jesus as their Savior!

Thank You, Lord, for allowing us to show your love to the people of this community!