Honduras 2008, Take #5--- Village of Palagua

Viewing the picture of this tiny house as I post right now evokes a lot of feeling within me. The tiny man shown above is Norberto, and he asked Dr. Corrigan if someone from our team would come to this home and visit his brother who was ill. So, Jeff asked if I'd like to come along, to which I agreed, and we walked about 10min down the dirt road, over a fence, and down a valley to this very meager home. Norberto's brother was very sick. Jeff had treated him in Nov. 2007 for pneumonia, after which he felt much better. But, he never fully recovered. When we sat inside this home on a hammock, we saw a very emaciated, weak, and dying man. There wasn't much that we could do for him, and Jeff conveyed the severity of his illness to the man and his wife, and encouraged them to get to a hospital in Tegucigulpa ASAP. I wondered what would happen to this man's wife and his kids (some of whom are pictured below) when the Bread Winner of the family was no longer living. I believe God sees their plight, and that he called us to that home that day for some purpose, if not for the fact that Jeff was able to share the Gospel story to the man lying in the hammock, who had a body that was wasting away yet held within it a valuable soul. Just as we were leaving from our visit, some of the children came home from school, and they wanted their photo taken. I was more than happy to oblige.

The tiny village of Palagua is located along a rough, dirt-packed and rock-filled road roughly 40 miles off of the Pan-Am highway. It took us a little over 2 hrs to reach this remote place. We stayed in a tiny church that sits just off of the road, down a small hill. When I came to Honduras in Nov. 2006, the church had only its foundation built. It was exciting to see that the project was completed and that a body of believers meets there regularly. Our team stayed just one night in Palagua, and that was actually a blessing. There is no electricity, no running water, no air conditioning available; I've "roughed" it before, but the difficulty for me comes at night when it's still 80 degrees out, no wind present, and a stifling mosquito net is wrapped around my entire cot. All I have to say is "thank goodness for Dramamine." In all actuality, I got quite a bit of sleep on my 10 day trip. It got dark around 7pm each night, and when no electricity is available, there's not much else to do other than go to sleep. I slept from 8-9 hrs just about every night I was in Honduras.

I was able to see some children whom I recognized from my last visit; as was to be expected, they had grown taller and looked older, but they were still fun to have around during our short stay. Jeff Corrigan brought along a portable printer that corresponded to his camera, so after he took some photos of the children, he printed them off and gave copies to the children. They were SOOO excited to have a photo of themselves, and I'm quite certain they had never owned one before either. We had clinic one day and saw about 65 people. The school building was close to the church, so once a few kids got a pair of flip flops, the kids ran over quickly to see about getting some cool flops. Several needs were able to be met; one woman had an inguinal hernia she had been dealing with for about 2 yrs and it was causing her a lot of pain. She needed to have it surgically fixed, but lacked the $200-300 dollars it would cost for her to do so. Some extra team money was utilized to help her get to Tegucigulpa (the capitol) to have this done. There were also two young boys, ages 7 &9, who had obvious abnormalities with their ocular function. Neither one of these two little guys could see very well, they could not control their eye movements, and they had, upon closer examination, some sort of parasite infestation of their eyes. They could not look straight at you, and their eyes went whatever direction they so pleased to go. It was VERY sad to simply see this. The opportunity to have any sort of treatment for these boys would more than likely only be able to be performed in Tegucigulpa. Our Honduran co-worker, Paz, frequents Palagua regularly, and will be following these boys in order to try and arrange some plan as to how they can be healed. I cannot imagine how many things, even at their young age, they have missed because they simply could not see well enough. I also want to mention one other cool thing. There is a microenterprise that is taking place within the church at Palagua once or twice a month. A Honduran woman named Rebekah is teaching these women how to weave purses or bags using raffia, yarn, and some plastic sheets (the pictures may help describe!). The finished products will be taken into the city in order to be sold at a market. This is a way for these women to earn a little bit of money, which is an incredible opportunity for them since they would otherwise not have that privilege. It also gives them a way to use their hands to create things that they enjoy creating, and to give them an outlet through which they can express their creativity. I loved seeing these women being empowered with this endeavor. Enough of my lengthy commentary... enjoy the pictures!