Tres Dia

"The delicate balance Between human hardness

and the weeping of things. "

      -Roberto Sosa, Honduras Poet

Today was very different than the previous two days, although it started with a delicious breakfast like always. The van Traveled through a windy road all the way up in a mountain and arrived at a school yard. Were the children out in the yard playing soccer on a field. About a hundred people waiting outside the church Were as we set-up the table and chairs. It was a day of variety, and insights into the again of the beauty, hardship and resiliency of These people. We listened to Carefully Their Stories:  

   The 78 year-old woman who had pain in her side, who has worked for forty years making tortillas, who shared That When She does not Have the strength to go one she kneels down and prays to God for strength, and then she is able to get up and she has the strength again.  

The two children, 4 and 6 years old, who had poor appetite, one serious and sad, the other silly and laughing. On further questioning it was discovered That Their mother had abandoned them a few months ago and now being and They Were Brought up by Their aunt.

The forty-five year-old woman with the withered hand and an arm Which three inches above her wrist her arm came together narrowed to one-inch in diameter, the size of her radius bone, wrapped in tape. When asked she shared That was from raising her hand up to protect her face as her husband Toward a machete swang her head, instead slicing off the muscles of her arm, before she was able to flee. When asked if her husband went to jail for this she said I did not but That, "God will punish him."

A fifty-year old male who has been on dialysis for the last eleven years, disfigured with blotches of dark and white skin over his face and body from vitiligo, and huge bumps all over his arms from failed venous ports, who felt lucky To Have had discovered his kidney failure, and attributes his life to the "Glory of God."

The ninety-five year old woman with a wooden cane who had trouble walking from the door of the church to the medical stations When It was her turn to be seen. We picked up our chairs Quickly Brought to the medical station to her so She Could sit down. Her knees Were riddled with arthritis, her skin was dark and leathery, but her eyes and her smile bright Were beamed. Her only complaint, que was hard to believe, was a pain in the upper part of her back and neck. We asked her what she Might want to teach us as younger people with Less expeience. She said what she wanted to pass on was, "Healthy eating, hard work, exercise, and have faith." Not a bad lesson for the day.

Then the team, tired and hot from seeing approximately 400 patients, drove through the mountains to spend a half-hour acerca enjoying the beach, then drove back to the Andrew Clinic for dinner.

Another morning at Andrew Clinic, our home for the week, and another hearty breakfast.  In fact, our gracious hosts, Drs. David and Florence Yoon and their talented staff of cooks, have made sure our bellies have been full all week with delicious local fare and even a delectable Korean-inspired dish.   

On the way to the hospital, Dr Yoon shared with us a parable Which illustrated the ideas importance of our work here. His interpretation of this ancient Was That take even though at times we feel our work Seems of little Consequence in the backdrop in Widespread poverty and lack of healthcare, our service Provides a critical function in the villages in El Castano in. That it Gives witness to the messages of the missionaries who spend much of the year here, nurturing a fledgling hope for a better future.

After stopping at Dunkin 'Donuts (yes, they are everywhere) to pick up sugary sustenance for the hospital staff, we where off to work. Much to the chagrin of our staunch colleagues back home, an on-time start in the OR is a luxury in El Progresso. A 7:30 start soon Became an 8:39 start but from there, the day Quickly Became an exercise in distilling order from the chaos.      

Patients, toting x-rays and surgical supplies Purchased With Their own Lempira (the Honduran currency), lined the halls of a makeshift triage area Which was nothing more than a waiting room, some had been there for days hoping we could care for them.  

From hip replacements to toe amputations to c-sections to gall bladder excisions to hernia repairs to bone fixations to cystecitomies, we changed the course of lives and saved the Most lives of others.

And though we Accomplished so much today, so many still Waited on stretchers, in wheelchairs, leaning against the cracked-tiled walls as we made our way out of the hospital. We help as many as we possibly can. And though our time here is finite, Luke World Mission has created a lasting bastion of hope in El Progresso and we are privileged to be a part of it.