Honduras 2008--Take #4 San Antonio del Norte (Round 2)

Meet Ramona and Ectos. They lived in a small home next to the schoolhouse in the village north of San Antonio. Ectos was gathering some cattle in a pen when I first walked by to say "Hola", and he invited me to his home. There I met his mom, Ramona, and I attempted (but failed dismally) to converse with them in Spanish. I did learn, though, that cows are 'bacas' in the Spanish language. Their family also owned some chickens and pigs; the pigs seemed to like to lounge right outside of the family kitchen window, which is where their pen was. Some scenery I'd rather not have outside of my windows, but thankfully there's hills to look at as well.
Back in the town of San Antonio del Norte: Paz is preaching the Gospel before we open up for clinic. We stayed in a small church in this town and the pastor and his 3 kids were very kind to us. They didn't have a church service this Sunday morning when we had clinic so the church members, as well as other townspeople, could come and see us. That day had the largest turnout of people who came through our clinic: 124. That was a lot for three Docs to see in one day. We had a small shelter in the back yard of the church where we set up our chairs and they kept coming, one after the other, from 9am-5pm. It was a long day, especially in 95 degree weather. But, the people were so thankful, and so many received medical treatment that they certainly needed.
Larry used me as a "Doc" for our clinics. Since I know a miniscule amount of Spanish, Paz served as my interpreter. We would set a couple of chairs up in front of us, which helped us interact with the people more easily, and showed them that we were listening to them and cared about their complaint(s). Apparently in the Honduran culture, the physicians do not generally sit down close to or maintain good eye contact with the people when they go for doctor's visits. Oh, yes... nice farmer's tan, eh? In 100+ degree weather, I 'fry', not 'tan'.
I did assist with some procedures, such as the one pictured below. Here I am helping Dr. Corrigan clean out the ear canal of a girl who had bad wax build up. We're using a tool called a water pick, which basically uses vinegar and water to flush out the ear canal.
This was my cot for the 2 nights we spent in San Antonio. The mosquito netting was an appreciated piece of equipment, but it's very stuffy. We did have electricity and running water intermittently in this town..... 'intermittently' being the optimal word here.
I don't have enough time or the talent to clearly express what I want to say about the many interesting people whom I met here in San Antonio. I wish you could see how they live, and how they go about their day-to-day business. They make do with so little, and are so grateful for what services we could give to them. One lady came back later in the night to give us some of her bananas and mangos, both of which were very tasty the next morning for breakfast.
One of my favorite memories from the trip occurred in this town. It was a Sunday night, our last one in San Antonio, and I walked out into the church yard (which was fenced in) to take a look at the stars, which are so clear where we were at because there aren't street lights and store lights. You could hear the songs of a church coming across town to where we were: people singing slightly off-key but quite loud, and an acoustic guitar being amplified over a small speaker. There was no usual city hub-bub noise or usual city brightness, so all I could see was a sky full of stars and Southern hemisphere constellations, and all I could hear was joyful people singing loudly to their God...... songs that I'm sure I'll hear in heaven, but will only then finally understand.