I would like to thank all of you, my friends, family, and GHO for your support and prayers so that I could serve on another surgical mission trip. You gave me the strength that I needed to be able to overcome my fears about going on a trip to a new country with a new group and all new volunteers. I did not know or have any prior experience with Global Health Outreach or MDM Honduras. As I was preparing all I knew was that they had a great reputation and they were very organized.
The trip started out scary for me because I had some anxiety about my drive through Miami and catching a flight from Miami by myself. I was more afraid of Miami than of Honduras.
As soon as I started meeting up with the team at the Miami airport, all of my fears disappeared. The team of 15 volunteers had 6 hand surgeons, 2 Certified hand therapists (one of them was me), a nurse, John who stayed in the basement sharpening the surgical instruments, One of the doctor's 14-year-old daughter, a college student who looked like Thor and a spine surgeon and his reliable instrument rep and a general orthopedic surgeon. All very caring people, it was a great team!
The trip started with a bumpy drive up a mountain close to Tegucigalpa, Honduras to a town called San Mitias. Here we met up with 10 of the students who attend a little mountain school house. The average child on this mountain has to quit school in 4th grade because the family cannot afford books or uniforms and they may have to start helping their parents with work duties. MDM has a sponsorship program so that some of the children can finish school and even go to college. It started 15 years ago and now there is a graduate who is now a lawyer.
Four of the girls from the school wanted to show their appreciation by showing our team a traditional Honduran dance. Four children also spoke to our group to let us know how much our volunteering and MDM have helped their community.
The first Day at the hospital in the capital of Honduras, Tegucigalpa was screening day, over 100 patients were screened for surgery, and the Honduran orthopedic residents assisted with the screening and helped select the patients that they felt needed the help the most because the Honduran residents wanted to learn certain procedures from the Surgeons who were volunteering their precious time.
After screening day, I was able to go with the prayer group to the Pediatric ward and help hand out toys and see lots of smiles from children who had only one parent that was unable to visit the hospital for various reasons ie: had to work and earn money, lived too far away or had other children and couldn't leave them.
The six hand surgeons were able to successfully complete over 50 surgeries Monday - Friday.
Even though the public Hospital Esquela, with its cracked paint, crowded hallways with patients lined up on every floor, and plaster falling off of the walls, didn't look up to par, there was always a Honduran cleaning the floors and the Doctors and Surgeons were talented and cared very much for their patients. I was fabricating a lot of splints for the post-op patients and for the Rehabilitation clinic. Custom splinting is not available unless a special team comes with the special splinting materials.
The patients were very happy and appreciative of any therapy or splint that I could give them. They loved getting their pictures taken. I would ask in Spanish " Puedo tomarme una foto contigo". My Spanish is better than last year, but still very much a beginner, I made a lot of grammar mistakes and forgot words that I have studied. I was lucky and I did have a wonderful interpreter for this trip.
One of the days I was able to go back up the mountain to San Mitias and see more of what MDM does. Part of our group was able to get away from the hospital for a day. We had food baskets to deliver, inflation also exists in Honduras, and the food baskets went up to $45.00 each - it could feed the family for a month. The families prayed with the volunteer team and then told us what they were appreciative for:
- the first house with the cloth door, her children were playing in the dirt, while the husband was making bricks in the back yard, she had a dirt floor 1 room house. Families with dirt floors have more sicknesses and diseases than families with concrete floors. When asked " What do you want us to pray for, what do you need? she answered, "I have so many needs that I don't know what to pray for". One of her little boys started to cry and sob when he saw the food basket because he was hungry and hadn't eaten a full meal in a while. This was when I wished I had brought a Kleenex.
- the next house in the pictures, the Father came to meet us with dirt and mud all over his feet. He said that he used to pray with people and spread the word about Jesus, but now he is helping to raise 2 young girls who are not of his blood, and he loves them very much. He wants to be able to have a house of his own to raise his family. His wife was in the city selling corn tortillas while he was in the back making bricks out of dirt, clay, and water. He makes 700 bricks a day. Brick-making definitely looked like back-breaking work.
- We went to 5 houses and were invited into each home and the ladies of the house gave us a tour and showed us their kitchens and introduced us to their daily activities. In one of the homes, the lady of the house taught us how to make corn tortillas. She has to boil the corn and get the outside covering off of each piece of corn before she can grind the corn and make the tortillas. So much work that making corn tortillas is not a daily routine. The needs in this community and at the public hospital are overwhelming and unimaginable.
This was an extremely rewarding mission trip, and God willing, I would love to serve with GHO and MDM on this mountain to see the school's growth, the growth of the students, and hopefully, sponsor a child and serve at the public hospital again.
link to MDM Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/MDMHonduras/
Thank you again for all of your support
Connie Kurash
The trip started out scary for me because I had some anxiety about my drive through Miami and catching a flight from Miami by myself. I was more afraid of Miami than of Honduras.
As soon as I started meeting up with the team at the Miami airport, all of my fears disappeared. The team of 15 volunteers had 6 hand surgeons, 2 Certified hand therapists (one of them was me), a nurse, John who stayed in the basement sharpening the surgical instruments, One of the doctor's 14-year-old daughter, a college student who looked like Thor and a spine surgeon and his reliable instrument rep and a general orthopedic surgeon. All very caring people, it was a great team!
The trip started with a bumpy drive up a mountain close to Tegucigalpa, Honduras to a town called San Mitias. Here we met up with 10 of the students who attend a little mountain school house. The average child on this mountain has to quit school in 4th grade because the family cannot afford books or uniforms and they may have to start helping their parents with work duties. MDM has a sponsorship program so that some of the children can finish school and even go to college. It started 15 years ago and now there is a graduate who is now a lawyer.
Four of the girls from the school wanted to show their appreciation by showing our team a traditional Honduran dance. Four children also spoke to our group to let us know how much our volunteering and MDM have helped their community.
The first Day at the hospital in the capital of Honduras, Tegucigalpa was screening day, over 100 patients were screened for surgery, and the Honduran orthopedic residents assisted with the screening and helped select the patients that they felt needed the help the most because the Honduran residents wanted to learn certain procedures from the Surgeons who were volunteering their precious time.
After screening day, I was able to go with the prayer group to the Pediatric ward and help hand out toys and see lots of smiles from children who had only one parent that was unable to visit the hospital for various reasons ie: had to work and earn money, lived too far away or had other children and couldn't leave them.
The six hand surgeons were able to successfully complete over 50 surgeries Monday - Friday.
Even though the public Hospital Esquela, with its cracked paint, crowded hallways with patients lined up on every floor, and plaster falling off of the walls, didn't look up to par, there was always a Honduran cleaning the floors and the Doctors and Surgeons were talented and cared very much for their patients. I was fabricating a lot of splints for the post-op patients and for the Rehabilitation clinic. Custom splinting is not available unless a special team comes with the special splinting materials.
The patients were very happy and appreciative of any therapy or splint that I could give them. They loved getting their pictures taken. I would ask in Spanish " Puedo tomarme una foto contigo". My Spanish is better than last year, but still very much a beginner, I made a lot of grammar mistakes and forgot words that I have studied. I was lucky and I did have a wonderful interpreter for this trip.
One of the days I was able to go back up the mountain to San Mitias and see more of what MDM does. Part of our group was able to get away from the hospital for a day. We had food baskets to deliver, inflation also exists in Honduras, and the food baskets went up to $45.00 each - it could feed the family for a month. The families prayed with the volunteer team and then told us what they were appreciative for:
- the first house with the cloth door, her children were playing in the dirt, while the husband was making bricks in the back yard, she had a dirt floor 1 room house. Families with dirt floors have more sicknesses and diseases than families with concrete floors. When asked " What do you want us to pray for, what do you need? she answered, "I have so many needs that I don't know what to pray for". One of her little boys started to cry and sob when he saw the food basket because he was hungry and hadn't eaten a full meal in a while. This was when I wished I had brought a Kleenex.
- the next house in the pictures, the Father came to meet us with dirt and mud all over his feet. He said that he used to pray with people and spread the word about Jesus, but now he is helping to raise 2 young girls who are not of his blood, and he loves them very much. He wants to be able to have a house of his own to raise his family. His wife was in the city selling corn tortillas while he was in the back making bricks out of dirt, clay, and water. He makes 700 bricks a day. Brick-making definitely looked like back-breaking work.
- We went to 5 houses and were invited into each home and the ladies of the house gave us a tour and showed us their kitchens and introduced us to their daily activities. In one of the homes, the lady of the house taught us how to make corn tortillas. She has to boil the corn and get the outside covering off of each piece of corn before she can grind the corn and make the tortillas. So much work that making corn tortillas is not a daily routine. The needs in this community and at the public hospital are overwhelming and unimaginable.
This was an extremely rewarding mission trip, and God willing, I would love to serve with GHO and MDM on this mountain to see the school's growth, the growth of the students, and hopefully, sponsor a child and serve at the public hospital again.
link to MDM Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/MDMHonduras/
Thank you again for all of your support
Connie Kurash