Friends of Barnabas: Medical Mission to Honduras
May 10th to May 18th,, 2008
online journal by Nareesa Mohammed, M.D.

Team #5
Ellen Bruny, RN - Richmond, VA - Team Leader
Yolanda Mohammed, RN - Port Charlotte, FL
Krishna Rao, MD - Chesterfield, VA
David LeRoux, OD - Glen Allen, VA
Al Rogers, MD - Richmond, VA
Fred Groves - Richmond, VA
Shirley Woodlief, RN - Dinwiddie, VA
Dena Pelter, RN - Chester, VA
Mary Kay Jarrett, NP - Richmond, VA
Doriane Perkins, RN - Charlottesville, VA
Tommy Blain - Richmond, VA
Ashley Hackler - Ames, IA
Stu Blain - Richmond, VA
Diana Marsh, RN - Richmond, VA
Nareesa Mohammed, MD - Baltimore, MD

¡Hola from Honduras! Happy mother's day to all the mothers out there!

Our trip to Honduras thus far has been nothing short of wonderful and
adventurous all at the same time. God worked miracles in getting us
to Honduras safely. Dena got a full body frisk at the Richmond
International Airport because she kept setting off the metal detector.
My flight from Baltimore landed about 10 minutes before the
connecting flight to Honduras left Atlanta, GA. I got to the plane
slightly hypoxic but with God's grace. Despite such a late landing,
all of our duffels and luggage made it safely. We made it through
customs with minimal hassle and were on our way to Barnabas House!

At the Barnabas House, we relaxed our first night and got to know each
other and our surroundings. Barnabas House is as beautiful as ever.
The gardens were in bloom and they are harvesting sugar cane. The
mountain that watches over us is as majestic as ever.

Shirley had a wonderful devotion where we decorated the main dining
area with Christmas lights and every light has someone's name on it
whom we are lifting up in prayer.

After a well deserved night's rest, we awoke on Sunday and blended
meds, everyone's favorite chore. After several hours of blending
meds, packing and sorting, we took a break and went to Las Glorias for
a spectacular lunch. There was a buffet with fried tilapia, fried
shrimp, barbecue chicken, rice and veggies which Tommy and Fred
thoroughly enjoyed. For dessert, we had neopolitan ice cream! Ashley
had a wonderful time speaking Spanish with some of the visitors at Las
Glorias and relaxing in the hammock. Mary Kay had a great time
wandering around and exploring Las Glorias.

Then we went to Pulhapanzak, the beautiful waterfall near the Barnabas
House. Krishna, Stu, David, and Al all played in the water with the
locals and had a lot of fun. It was difficult to get them out of the
water when it was time to go! Doriane had a great time just relaxing
at the falls. Yolanda really enjoyed watching everyone having fun.
Shirley was making friends and networking with some of the locals.
She says that if she had had 10 more minutes with them, she would have
had an invitation for our entire group to their barbecue dinner!

After we got back from the waterfall, we finished up bagging some meds
and ate dinner, we had worship. Ellen led the worship and did a
beautiful job - a sure sign that it was her favorite part of the day.
Yolanda and I gave devotional; she read from the Qur'an the Ayat al
Kursi (The Sign of the Throne) and I read a poem by Sri Chinmoy about
peace. In order for people to remember our devotional, I gave out
Reese's pieces (my name is Nareesa and I was talking about peace).

We are spending the rest of the night bonding and catching up. Diane
said that the best part of her day was catching up with old friends
and meeting new ones.

On that note, I am going to bid you good night and catch up with some friends...

Monday is our first day and although many of us have been here before
and know what to expect, David, Ashley and Dena are newbies and are
excited to get started.

Our prayers are with you and we thank you for your love, prayers and support.
With peace and love,
Nareesa

Monday, May 12th , Day1 - Rio Seco
¡Hola from Honduras!

Today was our first day of clinics in the lovely town of Rio Seco. In
the SIC clinic today, we saw 228 patients; in eye clinic, 36 patients;
and in deworming, 47 patients. Dori said that she had been to Rio
Seco before and had a sense of familiarity. She noted that there had
been improvements in the town since she had been there and she was
happy to come back. We opened clinic today with Ellen introducing our
team and Dr. Marco translating. Pascuala did a teaching session about
pregnant women and general hygiene. Shirley said that the best part
of her day was watching Dena's face when she saw the bathroom
facilities (This is Dena's first trip to Honduras)!

In deworming clinic, Dori, Ashley and Diana worked together. Diana
said that only 1 child cried and they were all quite proud of
themselves. She also said that it was refreshing to work with Ashley
who had never been to Honduras before and seeing the people and their
behaviors for the first time. Ashley said that she gave her cross
away to a little girl, Leyla, who followed her around from the time
that we arrived at the village, talking, playing and laughing.

In eye clinic, David, Stu, Fred and Elmer worked together. David said
that his best moment was when he was able to help a 66 year old lady
find a pair of reading glasses. The joy and thanks that she had was
overwhelming. She said that she was going to change her life because
now she can read her bible. Stu really enjoyed working with David and
Fred. He said that his highlight was helping an 89 year old man find
a pair of glasses so he could read. He was just so amazed at the
man's health and strength at 89 years old. Fred said that he was just
happy that the eye clinic ran so smoothly on the first day.

In the SIC clinic, we had a pretty exciting day. Al drained an
abscess in a young man with a large 7.5 cm by 7.5 cm area on his left
shin. The poor patient tolerated the drainage well with no
anesthesia! Krishna also had an exciting time at his station where he
helped a young lady Yesenia wear a pair of shoes. This young lady has
a genetic condition where she had extra digits on her hands and toes
(12 fingers and 12 toes). Her extra toes were located on the top
lateral edges of her feet and so she could not wear shoes properly.
Krishna amputated those extra digits under local anesthesia with
Dena's assistance and they bandaged her wounds (with duct tape no
less!). Dena said that assisting with the amputation was the
highlight of her day. Yesenia was able to wear shoes after the minor
surgery and Krishna gave her his cross. Her mother said that next
year, Yesenia would get her extra fingers amputated. Yesenia
tolerated the procedure really well. Mary Kay was really happy that
the children of Rio Seco were pretty healthy and had shoes and some of
them had haircuts. Tommy said that he really enjoyed working in the
SIC clinic. On Tommy's previous missions to Honduras, he always
worked in either eye clinic or deworming so SIC clinic was a great new
experience for him. Marco Antonio said that the highlight of his day
was when he was directing patients to my station, the patient said,
"But, she is dark!" (I am of Indian descent) and Dr. Marco said, "It's
okay. She's a gringa!" They came over to my station. The highlight
of my day was when I got to see a very chubby little baby. He was 6
months old and weighed 25 pounds! (a normal baby weighs approximately
14-15 pounds). We suspect that he has a hormonal disorder and he got
referred to an endocrinologist for further investigation. In the
pharmacy, Yolanda, Dena and Ellen worked together to make the SIC
clinic run smoothly. Yolanda was very happy that she was able to
dispense medications efficiently. Ellen was just happy to watch team
5 work together to serve the people of Honduras in our various
capacities.

And our devotions for today, the morning devotion was about cell
phones and what would happen if we treated our Bibles like we treat
our cell phones. As a reminder, we got little toy cell phones. The
evening devotion was about our hands and how we wanted our hands to
look (hands of strength, hands of prayer, hands of compassion, hands
of mercy, hands of hospitality, hands of love, hands of cleanliness).
As a reminder, we had delicious gingerbread cookies in the shape of
hands!

Tomorrow, we go to a village that Friends of Barnabas has never been to before.

Tuesday, May 13th , Day 2 - El Pelon
¡Hola from Honduras!

Day 2 was spent away from the Barnabas House in a new and different
area, near the El Salvadoran border in the state of Intibuca. We went
to a lovely village named El Pelon. This community was located in a
mountainous area similar to that surrounding Lago de Yojoa where the
Barnabas House and clinic is located. The people who were living in
this community were of Lencan (native Honduran people) descent. The
school where we did clinic was very nice and spacious and the children
were so friendly! Dori really liked the greeting we received as we
pulled up in the Barnabas bus. A small crowd greeted each one of us
with an ¡Hola! ¡Buenos Dias! and shook our hands individually. At
times, the children in the crowd were so intent on greeting us that
they crowded the door and we couldn't get off the bus!

We finally were able to get off the bus and set up our various clinics
and stations. Stu did a great job greeting the community and giving 2
crosses that were decorated by members of Reveille church.

The eye clinic had 55 encounters. Fred gave away 2 crosses. The
first was to a 9 year old little girl named Sandi who was the first
child to whom the eye clinic gave glasses. The other cross was given
to a young boy who had a congenital abscence of his left hand. He
helped to carry tubs to set up the clinic and also was very helpful in
the eye clinic with acuity testing using the Snell chart. David was
so impressed with this young boy because he actually understood the
importance of random selection in the Snell chart and really enjoyed
working with him.

In SIC clinic, we had 212 encounters. Dena started her day with an
adventure when she went to the baño and saw 3 sets of eyes looking at
her through the holes in the wall. One of them had the nerve to say
¡hola! Yolanda was very happy to see a 2 month old baby that was well
cared for, clean, healthy and happy. Mary Kay thought it was funny
that a patient came in, was talking to Tommy, her translator for the
day, for a good while and then Tommy turned to her and said, "Cough
and cold". Al saw a very unfortunate little boy Francisco Manuel who
was 4 years old. He was diagnosed with leukemia about 1 year ago and
got lost to follow up. His mother did not understand the disease or
the need for treatment. The child had severe anemia and a skin
infection near his nose. He was referred to Tegucigalpa for further
treatment and follow up. Krishna had a 3 year old little boy Maxi
Valderrol whose mother brought him in for cough and cold. The little
boy was a little withdrawn and wasn't behaving like normal children.
Upon further questioning, the mother said that he gets short of breath
easily and is a lot less active than her other children. Krishna
listened to the child's chest and he had a loud pansystolic murmur.
He was referred to the cardiac surgery team for possible repair.

In deworming clinic, we had 89 encounters. When clinics slowed down,
Tommy and Ashley really enjoyed teaching and playing frisbee with the
children. Ashley said that she made a friend in 8 year old Favio who
helped her all morning and would have gotten her cross had she had one
to give!

As we were packing up to go home, Ellen remarked at how wonderful it
was that this team was so resourceful and working together. When we
got to the wonderful hotel, Apart Hotel, we realized that Shirley's
luggage did not make it with us. We are not sure if it fell off the
bus at some point or where it disappeared. But we were able to get
her what she needed; she got a toothbrush from one person, a t-shirt
from another person, scrubs from another person, an undershirt from
someone else, toothpaste from another teammate, etc. She ultimately
was able to get enough stuff to make it through the night!

Wednesday, May14th, Day 3 - El Carrizal
¡Hola from Honduras!

Today we went to another lovely community called El Carrizal, located
in the state of Intibuca near the El Salvadoran border. This
community also had some Lencan influence. The school we worked in was
beautiful and spacious but the members in the community were very
poor. Unfortunately, the community thought we were coming Tuesday but
we actually showed up on Wednesday. We saw 230 in SIC clinic, 97 in
deworming and 37 in eye clinic. Dena was really happy at the turnout
considering we showed up on the wrong day! Shirley's devotional this
morning was about a spoon and how Yolanda curled Shirley's hair around
the spoonhandle using a hairdryer. She was saying how even though
Satan puts obstacles in our way, God will give us tools to overcome
them. Shirley's lost suitcase did not ever re-appear, but she is
really taking it in stride. I gave her my cross because I thought
that Shirley really kept her spirits up despite losing her suitcase
full with wonderful devotionals!

David greeted the community on our behalf today and did a fantastic
job. He gave 2 crosses that were decorated by he and his daughter an1
was decorated by Diana and her children. The crosses were well
received by the community.

In deworming clinic, Fred was really happy to be working in deworming
clinic (which was located near the SIC clinic) just to try something
different. Sometimes, he would wander over to SIC clinic (when
deworming was slow) and helped out. He really enjoyed seeing how the
SIC clinic ran. Dori said that she had a moment where she was worried
because there was a child who was screaming their head off and she
thought that this child would be difficult. By the time that it was
that child's turn to get deworming medicine, they were very calm and
docile and was the easiest child to medicate!

In eye clinic, Diana really enjoyed working there for the first time.
She really enjoyed the instant gratification. They were even able to
match a pair of baby blue glasses to a lady in a baby blue outfit!

In SIC clinic, Mary Kay was really happy to see that an unfortunate
child who had a dog bite near her mouth but it was very neatly
stitched up. Yolanda was relieving Al while he was taking a break and
she saw a young mother who had a child with congenital growth and
possible mental retardation. Yolanda was talking to the mother about
how to care for a child who had developmental delay and gave the
mother her cross. Ellen was moved by watching Yolanda (a mother)
taking care of another mother.

During down times, Tommy befriended Arnold, a boy who followed him
around and was very friendly to him. Tommy gave Arnold his cross.
Stu made friends with an 8 year old boy Edwin. Edwin really warmed up
to Stu and Stu gave him his cross.

After clinic, we went to the market in La Esperanza, the nearest big
city where the hotel was. Ashley, Krishna and Al made friends with 2
little street boys named Jorge and Cristian. They had 8 other
siblings and lived with their mother. One of the boys had shoes that
were falling apart and the other had no shoes at all. Ashley, Krishna
and Al bought the 2 boys new shoes and said that they would see them
tomorrow. Jorge and Cristian said that they couldn't see them the
next day because they had to go to school but they would look for us
the following day. We were all touched by the fact that despite their
poverty, they were very serious about going to school.

This evening, Ashley gave a lovely devotion about how each of us has a
talent to fix this broken world and how God guides us to do our part.

We are off to El Membrillo tomorrow! Thank you for all of your love,
support and prayers!
Much love and peace,
Nareesa

Thursday, May 15th, Day 4 - El Membrillo
¡Hola from Honduras!

Today we went to a lovely little mountain town called El Membrillo.
The ride there from La Esperanza was a very bumpy one but the views
were gorgeous. The area around La Esperanza has a large agricultural
production and a lot of the vegetables that are produced in Honduras
come from this area. It is located on a mesa fairly high up so the
temperature is cooler but the sun is bright!
El Membrillo had a little school with a very tight cement archway as
an entrance. Elmer and an army of angels got that bus through the
narrow opening with only a minor bump on the top of the bus. Yolanda
was amazed at the skill that he has in maneuvering that bus through
tight and what seems like impossible circumstances. We unloaded the
bus and set up our stations. This school was much smaller than the
previous 2 schools we had worked in earlier this week but they had a
great courtyard that we used as an extension of our SIC clinic!

In deworming clinic, Stu, Ashley and Dori had their own personal
bodyguard at the door to deworming - Herman. Herman did a fantastic
job of crowd control and only allowed 2 children in at a time to get
deworming medicine. They said that it was like deworming zen! All
the craziness stayed outside and they had a very smooth stress free
day. Stu gave Herman his cross in thanks for such a great job. Dori
gave her cross to a father who brought his little daughter who was
about 2 years old. It isn't very often that you see Honduran fathers
in the clinics alone with their children and so she felt that this
father caring for his daughter deserved special prayer and blessing.
Ashley said that she felt blesseed watching Dori and Stu give their
crosses away. Dori said that the strangest thing happened in this
community - something she had never seen before in all her trips to
Honduras. Each child receives a crayon or two and a coloring book as
they go through deworming. In this community, the children dutifully
received their crayons and coloring book, colored in the books and
then returned both the crayons and the coloring books at the end of
the clinic! The deworming team collected all of the coloring books
and crayons and left them with the teachers for the children.

In eye clinic, David had a special moment when he took a break for
lunch. He was walking across the courtyard trying to get lunch when
he saw a young girl with her mother. The girl's eyes were almost
crusted shut because of conjunctivitis. He got a translator and asked
the mother if she had taken her daughter to any of the clinics and she
had said no. David then took her into the eye clinic, cleaned her
eyes, tested them and gave her antibiotic drops for her eyes. The
little girl tolerated this all very well and didn't cry at all! David
also had a perplexing case of a young woman who said that she couldn't
see. She did not do well with the acuity chart but her refraction and
her eye exam was completely normal. David just wasn't sure if she
wasn't cooperating or if she truly could not see. Fred befriended a
little boy who followed him around. Fred shared some candy and his
Coke with the little boy. The little boy put both the candy and the
coke in his backpack and later on, Fred saw the boy sharing both of
them with his friend. It was touching to know that even though the
children in this community have next to nothing, whatever they do
have, they share with their friends and family. Ellen gave her cross
away to an elderly lady who came to the eye clinic. She was a mother
to 10 children, lived alone and was very poor. She walked to the
clinic with no shoes. She left the eye clinic with 2 new pairs of
flip-flops, a new pair of glasses and the biggest grin she could
muster!

In SIC clinic, it was a very interesting set up. The room that was
designated for SIC clinic was too small to hold the 6 stations we had
assigned for the day. Krishna and I set up our stations outside under
a shaded canopy. It was fantastic! Unfortunately, Mary Kay, Al,
Marco and Diana were in a small classroom with the pharmacy and it was
hot and cramped. But they had some interesting cases pass through.
Shirley gave her cross away to a little girl named Dena who was one of
the first children to greet us as we arrived at the community. She
was a little girl wearing a green toboggan and was very sweet but was
very dirty and unbathed. Many children in the community were unkempt
but Shirley's heart went out to this girl. Diana had an elderly
gentleman who came in with aches and pains in his bones. But he was
also having trouble swallowing and so she asked Mary Kay to consult
who asked Al to consult and collectively they came to the conclusion
that there wasn't anything that they could do. The poor gentleman was
sitting there wondering why all these gringos were talking about him
when all he had were some aches and pains! Mary Kay saw a young girl
who was very shy and quiet and it turns out she had syndactyly - a
congenital malformation of the hand where she had no thumb and her
middle and ring fingers were fused together so in essence, she only
had 3 fingers. Al saw 15 year old Mirtalina who had juvenile
rheumatoid arthritis. Her joints were swollen and painful and she
could barely walk. Al gave her his cross and a pulse dose of
prednisone. Deborah, his translator, prayed with both the mother and
Mirtalina and by the end, everyone was emotional.

Because we only saw 187 in SIC, 59 in deworming and 55 in eyes, we did
have some down time during the day. Krishna was really happy because
for the first time in all of his trips to Honduras, he was able to
play with the children. He laughed and played and they were playing
with his stethoscope and equipment. All in all, they had a great
time. Tommy got to play soccer with the local kids and while they
were calling him "gringo", one kid stuck up for him and called him
"Americano". After they were done playing soccer, this young man
pulled Tommy aside and showed him his artwork - beautiful drawings of
various animals. They talked for a while and Tommy made a new friend.

We left this community and made our way back to Peña Blanca and
Alfredo's House where we relaxed and caught up on journals!

Thank you for your continued love, support and prayers.
Much love and peace,
Nareesa

Friday, May 16th, Day 5 - Buenos Aires
¡Hola from Honduras!

Today we went to a very community that was pretty close to Alfredo's
house - only about 20 minutes or so (Honduran time, of course!) called
Buenos Aires. It was a community that Shirley, Yolanda, Krishna, and
I had been to before. We learned that the last times that this
community had been visited was with our team the past two years! The
community looked the same as it was before and the school that we went
to was very neat and tidy. The roads to this community are very bumpy
and going up and down the mountain with hairpin turns which Elmer
maneuvered wonderfully. Progess was making its way to Buenos Aires -
there was a detour because they were paving a cement road!

Al did the greeting for our team today and did a wonderful job. He
presented 2 crosses made by family members of our team. We were
joined today by members of the Honduran Red Cross who helped out with
crowd control and helped out in deworming clinic. Before clinics even
started, Yolanda found an adorable little baby girl who was 3 months
old. She took a picture holding this happy, healthy little baby and
told the mother that she was doing a good job.

In anti-parasitic clinic (previously known as deworming), we saw 101
children. Dori said that she had the easiest day by far all week
because of the help of Alex and Tony - 2 of the Honduran Red Cross
volunteers. They helped with registration and administration of
antiparasitic medication. Dori supervised wonderfully and everything
went smoothly. She gave them each a cross for all their hard work.
Stu was working with Dori in the anti-parasitic clinic as well today
and had a wonderful day. Tommy really enjoyed hanging out and talking
with Alex, the volunteer who is the same age as Tommy is.

In eye clinic, we saw 35 patients. David gave away 2 crosses. 1 to a
young woman named Norma who had had poor vision since the age of about
10. She had profound nearsightedness which required strong spectacle
correction. Fred was lucky and very happy to find a pair of glasses
that mostly corrected her poor vision. She was very happy to be able
to see clearly but will have to adapt to the distortion caused by such
a high correction (she had fishbowl vision). David very kindly
offered to make her a pair of glasses specific for her needs and send
them back to her. He also gave a cross to a young mother who had a
son who had ptosis (droopy eyelid) of the left eye. She had a similar
prescription as Norma and David offered to make her a special set of
glasses and send them back. Krishna got to experience the eye clinic
for a little bit and learned how to use the refractor from Fred.

In SIC clinic, we saw 251 patients. There was one patient who touched
many members of our team. She was about 4 years old and was diagnosed
with acute lymphocytic leukemia just recently and was receiving
vincristine as chemotherapy. She was bald from the chemo.
Unfortunately, she had to have her eyeballs removed because they were
infiltrated with leukemia (or so we were told) and is now blind. Her
mother carried her around all day so her older brother was carrying
their younger brother (who was almost as big as he was!). When the
little girl was sitting alone, her older brother sat next to her, put
his arm around her and kissed her on the cheek. He was very sweet and
caring of her. Ashley gave this little girl her cross and Mary Kay
actually saw her at her station with the rest of her family. Diana
had a busy day in SIC clinic with a few referrals. One was a 21 year
old young man with migraine headaches. Another was a 60-70 year old
lady with epilepsy and another was a 66 year old man with prostate
trouble. I saw a little old man whom I had seen last year. He was
about 85 years old and had only 1 arm, his right arm had been
amputated when he was attacked many years ago. His right femur had
been fractured in this same attack and had healed but the bone had not
been set and remained separated. He used crutches to ambulate. He
also has prostate trouble and has a foley catheter (a plastic tube
inserted into the bladder used to drain urine) that was changed every
15 days at the hospital. Don Jose Domingo is an inspiration to us all
about adapting to and overcoming adversity and I hope to find him again next year
After clinic finished at about 4pm, we came back to Alfredo's house
and finished inventory. During this time, we had a visit from Jose's
family - Delila and Amanda Savannah. Ellen loved holding and playing
with Amanda Savannah and she is a beautiful, healthy little girl (who
looks just like Jose!) We also got to visit with Elmer's family -
Rosa, Karen and Emerson. Tommy, Stu, Krishna and Karen and Emerson
played football in the carport and fun was had by all.

Thank you for all of your love, support and prayers this week. We
were privileged to have 1398 encounters this week in our travels to
Rio Seco, El Pelon, El Carrizal, El Membrillo, and Buenos Aires.
Please pray for our brothers and sisters in Honduras and around the
world.
Much love and peace,
Nareesa