by Dr. Seth Berl ’78
Honduras day 6: This was a special day. We went to a new village “up in the mountains.” aren’t they all!! We had never been to this village. It was one of the most beautiful mountain drives you can imagine. Reminded us of the mountains of Colorado. We stopped many times to take pics but you can never capture the beauty in a picture. We had a great clinic. Everyone is so comfortable with there positions and work so well together. Just a few stories. we saw almost 400 patients yesterday and almost 300 today in medical clinic. we actually saw some very unusual cases. the pre-med students from UF, devon, casey and alex, have gotten a great experience. they were fortunate to be sitting with one of the great teachers in DW Adcock. believe me, they will not get this good of instruction in medical school, PA school or residency. they observed many procedures and saw things that are uncommon such as a person with 2 thumbs and a 6 year old with a severe heart problem who would have already had surgery if in the US. Mia Armstrong, a pediatrician from Albany, GA, also patiently explained childhood illnesses. She is great with the students and kids. The dental clinic was rolling today. they pulled 170 teeth today. that is a years worth for some dentists. hannah pulled many teeth this week and is excited about getting to dental school. When i say we allow those helping us to be hands on i mean it. even one of our translators pulled teeth today. the ladies in pharmacy worked hard but got a few breaks to play with the children. One of our highlights was Alex reading bible stories to the kids. even Alex will agree that her spanish needs improvement but you would of never of known it by the way the kids were around her. also kim tomlinson spent a good amount of time with the kids the last 2 days. when kim gets excited her voice tends to go from high pitched to higher and squeaky. kim would count the jump ropes the kids were doing and her voice would go higher and higher until they missed and she would scream “awesome.” by the end, whenever a child would miss the jump rope the honduran children would all yell “awesome.”
the last night is full of fun stories, thank you’s and tears. God is still in the business of changing hearts. there might of been more laughs and more tears this time than ever before. those of you who have been on this this trip understand what i am talking about. just look as the picture of DW Adcock below. we expect this to go viral. there are 2 things about honduras that DW has never been able to understand or accomplish. first he has never made it a week without having to go “fishing” in the toilet. for those of you that do not know, the honduras septic system can not tolerate toilet paper. this means that no matter what, you can not flush your toilet paper down the toilet. if you do, your toilet will back up and overflow. not a pretty sight. that means if you forget and drop the paper in the toilet, you have to “fish” it out. DW has always had to go fishing. this time, so far, he is perfect. Not one fishing trip. which brings us to his other problem. there are roosters everywhere. they start crowing at dark; they really get going at about 1 am; and they go from door to door serenading around 3 am. they drive DW crazy. DW has a little hearing problem and can not hear normal conversation on most days but he is acutely aware of the roosters. I thought he should “join em rather than fight em.” please refer to the pic below to understand the present I gave DW.
well week 1 is over. we did a lot of good but another week to go. I pray God will continue to bless this mission. seth