Today was one of the most difficult and tiring… but most rewarding

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by Dr. Tom Sullivan ’78

Day # 2 of Treatment… gotta say today was one of the most difficult and tiring… but at the same time most rewarding days I’ve ever spent here… Long climb into the mountain reveals the most beautiful views of Honduras … To the remote village in Santa Domingo… I’ll try to get some pictures from the others on the team and share them later…

Today’s patients were great !! … But their teeth were stubborn and difficult… My thoughts for today center on the Honduran team members who act as our interpreters and “assistants”, and the college students who spend their spring break here with us instead of on a beach with their friends…

First, meet Samuel and Mario from Honduras… Nice selfies !!! These guys are vitally important to our work… They communicate instructions, treatment and help triage their people with incredible passion and compassion ! And they try to teach me how to speak their language … Good luck with that !!! 10985401_796725810419654_6113040757626928944_n 11021162_796725787086323_2121545079598534293_n

And the “Gator Girls” have been able and willing to jump into becoming awesome assistants….. Whether it’s retracting a cheek, clearing a bleeding socket, cutting a suture, drying a tear or just holding a hand, we are a better team because of their work!
More team members to follow in next posts…!!11051829_796725863752982_7368300769941037289_n11038919_796725883752980_7452706708542210857_n

 

Tomorrow we take a break and reorganize for the last two days… Keep us on the prayer list…

Faith and Hope

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18495_796267873798781_4187268453291585845_nby Dr. Tom Sullivan ’78

Day One of clinic… Sure didn’t look like Illinois weather here today !! Picture perfect 70’s temp, blue sky and cool wind… We overcame a few obstacles early in the day as we were setting up the clinic… Electricity went out … And the generator had leaked gas… But, a couple of the men in the village went down the mountain and got enough gasoline to finish our day.. ( that was no easy task)..

This was Dr. Mike’s first experience extracting teeth in this type of setting..( by the way, he’s an Endodontist !!)… He was awesome !! Didn’t skip a beat… The Florida Gator girls proved they were up to the task… Sterilization, assisting and language interpretation was seamless !!! I think we may have switched their medical careers to dentistry !!! We’ll see… 11041790_796267910465444_3451022115938019929_nAnyway, the little ones tears turned to smiles ( eventually ).. And we cleaned up a lot of infected mouths… My take on today centers around two virtues: Faith and Hope… Our team has been to this village each of the last three years, and I have witnessed first hand the new construction, and the Faith these people have to build their community… On top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere !!!

11025821_796267893798779_922645665012482408_nWhat we can give them in the form of medical treatment is Hope… Hope for a better tomorrow without pain, without an itch, without a cough, without lice, whatever… Even if it’s just short lived…Their Faith and their Hope are what drives me
to forget any of my aches or pains and just “man-up”…. Tomorrow we return to a special village in one of the most picturesque places in these mountains… Be well…10846176_796267943798774_8144332239820122600_n

Honduras – Sunday

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by Linda (Jones) Berl (Dr. Seth Berl’s ’78 wife and Larry Jones ’75 sister and Gamma Zeta Little Sister

Honduras – Sunday
Today was our sleep late & preparation day. We have to basically unpack & then repack all our meds so we’ll have equal amounts for our 4 different villages this week. Tomorrow we’ll be at El Cerron which is where we’ve done VBS for 5 years. Because more of the roads are paved now it should only take us an hour and 15 minutes to get there. In the old days, it was three hours! we are expecting to be extremely busy there because we usually go 2 days traveling back-and-forth, but this year we are only going one day.
I wanted to write the update tonight because of two separate experiences I had today. Continue reading→

Let’s do it!

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by Dr. Tom Sullivan ’78

10384445_795737330518502_3243032753225711763_nOur small but mighty team has landed safely in this beautiful land ready to make a small dent in the health care needs of the Honduran people.

Travel day went very well… We’ve reconnected with our missionary hosts TR and Rhonda… Today was sort medication and dental supplies day. It’s the first chance we have to bond as a team. It’s long and tedious work, but necessary to be as efficient as possible. Generator fired up, autoclaves tested, instruments inventoried… We are a well oiled machine!! Each year my life is enhanced by meeting and interacting with the new “kids”, and rekindling the relationships of friends from the previous years.

Although many miles from home… Here I feel “home”… I’m blessed to be a part of this wonderful group… OK… I’ve got a date with a few Motrin, a little rest and an early morning wake up call for day #1… Let’s do it…

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Honduras mission day 1

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by Dr. Seth Berl ’78

sethreviewingpapers

Honduras mission day 1…. travel day. i know the term “God showed up” is used casually for about anything but today “God showed up.” Travel day is bad. no other way to describe it. but i am getting ahead of myself. last night 10 of our team members going to honduras were spending the night in an atlanta airport hotel. we had 21 duffle bags for 10 people. everyone was suppose to take 2 duffle bags on the plane the following day and i would take 3. i had brought a bunch of empty duffle bags in case we had some extra stuff to take. i knew the first duffle would cost each person $40 and the second would cost each person $125. we were looking at spending about $1700 just to get the duffle bags full of medicine to honduras. once we started packing i quickly recognized that i had underestimated how many bags we would need. when we got done, we had 9 more duffles filled with at least 50 pounds of meds so another $1000. in addition, some of the team was flying out of orlando and would have to pay for their bags. there goes about another $300. i drove the team luggage to the airport early this morning with 3 of the guys and the rest of the team took the shuttle bus from the hotel to the airport. i drove the truck and trailer back to the hotel and caught the next shuttle. when i arrived, all the luggage was gone. linda was waiting for me with a big smile on her face. i knew something good happened. she explained that our group was taken by the supervisor over to a place to check in. they quickly checked everyone in including me and i was not even there. then they charged everyone $40 for their first duffle. then the team started loading the extra duffles on to the scales and almost all of them were overweight. max weight is 50 pounds and many of ours were 55. that would mean another $125 per bag. the supervisor asked what was in all the duffles and the team explained it was medication for a mission trip. the supervisor stopped everything and let all the duffles, about 26 which should of cost us $125 each, on for free. she did not charge anything for the bags being overweight or the extra duffle bags. then i found out that exactly the same thing happened in orlando to the luggage there and, in fact, they were not charged anything. WOW!!!! what a way to start a trip. Linda then told me that a group in moultrie had gotten up this morning to pray for our travels including our luggage. WOW!!! let the fun begin… there is someone much much more powerful that me leading the team and that is so comforting. seth