Honduras Ocular Brigade
Well, the trip is over. I am home in the foothills, and the weather is a crisp Winter day. It has been 45 days since I was leaving Choluteca for the Airport and seems like a lefetime ago. Where to begin! Let me start with this was one of the most fulfilling adventures I have ever been on.
Thursday 13th.
I had to leave for the airport at 3:30am to make my 5:30 international flight, and that was a tough alarm to wake up to! Made the flight with no issues, and to my surprise in Houston, there was Dr Brinckman waiting at my gate with his Ipad open with my name on it, like I was some sort of important superstar! It was such a nice gesture!
We made our connecting flight in Houston with no issues and a few hours later touched down in Tegucigalpa, the capitol of Honduras. Jim was there waiting for us with the Honduran contingent. We got to meet our entire team, and promptly went across the street to Burger King, La Casa Del Whopper, for a tasty lunch! After a nice meet and greet we jumped back in the van for a 3 hour ride to Choluteca where Jim lives. We stopped by the grocery store for supplies for lunches for the next few days, and settled in for the evening. John and I stayed at a local hotel, as the accommodations were a little tight at Jims. We were very appreciative of our rooms, as we had air conditioning and our own bathrooms! The countryside is amazing in Honduras. It is a mixture of craggy mountain peaks, very rugged, very beautiful. The drive was just breathtaking!
Ocular Brigade Friday 14th.
Today was game face day.
We were out the door early and arrived at La Fortunita by about 10, and started the setup process. We organized quickly, and Dr Brinckman set up us into the individual stations, in order of how the process should work. I had no training on my particular station other than some YouTube videos on the tool, The Retinomax. This is a handheld device looking like an Original Series Star Trek Phaser, but wider. I look through a viewfinder, locate the pupil of the subject, and move the unit closer or further away from the patient to focus the tool for a reading. We then proceeded to get to know our specific stations and do some “OJT”. Each of us were assigned an Interpreter. I was extremely blessed to have a sort of “tag team” of sisters, Erlys and Karen. These two sisters are very intelligent and both School teachers in Choluteca, one High School and the other Kindergarten. Their brother, Manuel, was also involved as Dr Brinkman’s assistant. A wonderful family! We had a quick Pow Wow among the team and got ready for business!
The process really worked itself into an organized procedure rather quickly. All of us on the team honed our processes very quickly to move patients as quick as we could, but also taking the time to interact on a personal level. I took the time to ask each patients name and told them mine. My interpreters quickly pushed me to start asking the questions in Spanish to the patients myself. My Spanish is really bad, a the only two languages I speak are English and Redneck, but they were patient with me and wrote down a few sentences for me to commit to memory. Thank you Erlys for that, it made my interaction with each patient much more rewarding. Who would have thought that “Russ” was as difficult to say as it was.
We worked the morning quickly and fell into a very efficient team. Lunch came around and we had quick sandwiches and fruit then back at it. We saw around 65 patients that day. It was a long day, but wouldn’t be the longest. Then off to dinner at the “El Asador” for some local cuisine. I very rewarding day. The very first patient we saw, we were able to make a change in their lives because of sight. It was a great day! i should mention that rural Honduras is a tough place to live. Its a hard life for these folks. It takes its toll on many people. We saw many eye trauma cases that had happened years earlier and the effects they created.
La Fortunita
Cerco de Piedra and La Fortunita
Ocular Brigade Saturday 14th.
We started our day as usual with a Burger King Breakfast Sandwich, and hit the road. Today’s location was Cerco de Piedra. Our original plan was to see about 13 children and a few adults, then pack up and head back to La Fortunita to finish up the individuals we missed. We arrived at Cerco De Piedra and found out that we had quite a bit more patients to see than originally anticipated. Word traveled very fast that we were there. So the idea of seeing patients at two locations proved to be a touchy plan do to some outside circumstances, and we decided to stay as late as we needed to see everyone at this location, then on Sunday after the Church services we were to head directly to La Fortunita to see about 33 children and a few adults to round out the trip.
We set up quickly and efficiently and fell into a good routine. This was a long hot day. We saw about 80 individuals that day. It had the same good will feeling we had the day before, and we all enjoyed the experience once again. I was fortunate enough to experience a sort of local fruit that is now growing in Honduras, the Lychee. It looks like an angry hairy Strawberry, with a skinless grape inside, with an Almond sized nut in the very center. Peel it, pull the meat out, then remove the seed, and then eat! It was amazing! Tasted like a large grape! A great local experience! After we completed the day, it was off to Pizza Hut! We ran into a US based Medical Brigade out of I think South Carolina. They had I believe 3 MD’s and a Chiropractor with their team working in the same 50 mile range we were working in around Choluteca. Then back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep, as the next day would be a long one.
Ocular Brigade Sunday 15th.
Today was a mixed day of travel and adventure!
We started our day by going back to Cerco de Piedra for church services. We arrived around 10ish and settled in for the service. It started with Children’s songs, then on to older kid’s songs, then on to the sermon, started by Juan Carlos, a pastor that was local, but had been working with us from the beginning. A very moving service! We then had a wonderful local lunch of Chicken and rice before a quick walk around the location. We had the chance to really see a local homestead. Most all houses are set up the same way in the rural areas with the kitchen and toilets located outside the homes. The kitchens are basically a wood fired oven with the ability to cook above them for different dishes. The restrooms are kind of a double outhouse over a septic tank with a water basin attached for flushing. You grab a bucket, dip into the water, and pour down the toilet for flushing. I am guessing that a bacteria, like Riddex is used to keep the tanks at bay for long use. The homes are basically a big open floorplan, with sheets to use as walls for the sleeping areas. Everyone sleeps in the same big room, separated by sheets. Little electricity, and water, but the communities rally together to sustain everyone. We finished with our services and visit, and proceeded to return to La Fortunita to complete the last 40 or so exams we needed to do. By now we were really fine-tuned on our responsibilities, and our setup and tear down processes were like racing pit crews. We got a really late start and began our last set of exams. Things went quickly, as the majority of individuals were children, and they seemed to always go quicker. The tasks were catching up with us and by late in the afternoon we were feeling the weight of the last 3 days in country. We finished up around 8:30, well after dark and packed our things and said good bye to everyone there.
Now for more adventure!
The road to La Fortunita is a very long, very bumpy, water filled, water crossing, dirt road, barely passable during the dry times, and most likely unpassable when it rains. We had so many huge water crossings deep enough for the exhaust of our van to gurgle under water we lost count. Several low water creek crossings as well. Towards the end of the gravel road, the inevitable happened. We got the van completely stuck. We had to wade out of the van as it was squarely in deep water. We did have one vehicle coming with us from behind, a Chevy S10 pickup truck so help was close. The S10 did not have a tow strap, chain or rope, so they headed back to La Fortunita to rustle one up. We were stuck right next to a Solar farm, and the armed guards (ALL guards of any type are armed in Honduras) rolled up on a quad to see what was going on. We were able to communicate through our interpreters with them and they offered a tow strap for us to use! Outstanding!! It was a Semi Truck Trailer tie down, with a hook on one end a ratchet and a single strap on the other end. We hooked the one end hook into the frame on the Van, then tied a loop on the other end and fed it through the receiver hitch safety chain hole, then I used my Gerber Multi tool and fed it through the loop, pulled up the slack and had the S10 pull forward. After putting a quick jacket over the strap in the middle, we ready to start the removal process! John and I got in the back of the S10 (for weight…. Lol!) and took off. Absolutely no dice. The van weight way too much, the S10 not enough, and the van was setting on the frame in the mud. We unhooked the strap, and by the time we were considering the next plan, 5 or so locals, just started pushing with us on the front of the van and out it came! WOOHOO!!! Now to traverse the last few miles through the huge puddles back to pavement! When we hit the pavement we all clapped! We were so happy to get to pavement! Then simply back to town for a last dinner before the long trip back to Tegucigalpa the next morning. Hold on, it would be that simple…… about 3 miles down the road, BAM! We hit a HUGE pothole. Bent the front rim, and really bent the back rim and the tire lost air. There we are, stuck again on the side of the road. Race car pit crew into effect, and the spare was quickly cabled down from under the back bumper, and changed out. Now it’s on to town for dinner. We rolled in very late, and I think ate at the only place still open, the El Asador…. We had eaten there before, and the food was really good! We finished up dinner, all was in great discussion of the work we had done. It was a memorable dinner, so much friendship around the table. A Kumbaya kind of moment I will never forget. So then off to the hotel, and get as much sleep as possible, as the train is a leavin at 6:30 the next morning for the airport!
Ocular Brigade Monday 16th.
Bittersweet day, time to head home.
Of course, my alarm on my phone was not set for Monday, so my alarm was John knocking on the door telling me the chariot was ready to sail. 5 minutes later, my things are packed, ball cap on, ugg, and am out the door. We head back to Jims house to gather the troops and pack the van. All is well, Jim had the tires and wheels fixed the night before, and we were off to the Airport for our 3 hour ride to Tegucigalpa. The sights were a blur and we spoke softly of our experience. We arrived at the Airport with no issues, and started our good bye’s with Jim, Francis, Juan Carlos, and Dr Sandra. Attached is a picture of a tiny cup. This is perhaps my most cherished item brought back from Honduras. I will not go into details of this here, but the members of the brigade each received one of these, and to us, the value is priceless.
I want to thank each member of the team, Dr. Paul, Andrea, Meagan, Kathy, John, Jim, Juan Carlos, and to the extended team, Erlys, Karen, Manuel, Dr Sandra and all who helped to make this a smooth and rewarding experience. If you have never had the opportunity to do one of these, take the time from your busy life. This was one of the most rewarding experiences I have ever had.
