Honduras 2008---Take #2 (Outside of Tele)

This little guy came to see me regarding an infected sore on his elbow. I cleaned up the wound, put some antibacterial ointment on it, covered it with a Band Aid.....and added a little smile just for kicks. He thought that was funny, so I snapped a picture of it, gave him some extra Band Aids and sent him on his way.

The first clinic we held was in a tiny village located outside of the town of Tele. It is located in Northern Honduras, right along the Caribbean Sea. Our first day there, we traveled right from the airport in San Pedro Sula to Tele and sat on the beach that night in 80 degree weather; it was a far cry from the 8 inches of snow and 10 degree weather we had left 14 hrs. earlier. I was in heaven because it was the warmest I'd been in months and my body enjoyed the thaw. We worked one day here with the Garifuna people. They are indigenous to Africa, but set up a colony there in Honduras back in the 1600 or 1700's after having been transported across the Atlantic on slave ships. They speak both their native African language and Spanish as well. Their skin color, for the most part, sets them apart in that it shows their heritage. Some have intermarried and their skin is lighter. As the pictures show, they live right on the beaches of the Caribbean in bamboo huts with banana leaf roofs. They were excited to have us come and allowed us to hold clinic in a currently unused building. Some of the people carried their own plastic tables from their homes in order to give us something on which we could set up the pharmacy. We saw 75 people that day, and it was a blessing we were able to be indoors during the heat of the day.....the thermometer topped at 102 degrees.