We’re back in the field!  Wow, it is so weird to be back here at Loma de Luz.  It’s like we stepped through a worm hole and were transported back into the Land of the Lost, and I’m sharing coconuts with Cha-ka and hiding from the Sleestaks…  Ok, not really.  It’s really nothing like that.  But, still, it’s weird. 

We had a wonderful, hectic time back in the states, as we worked on fundraising for the coming year (more on that later.)  We felt incredibly loved by everyone we were able to connect with (wish we could have seen more of you…  Man, the time flies…).  We appreciate all the care and support that you lavished upon us, and that effort will help carry us through the tough times ahead.

I’ve been back in clinic for a week now, and already have delivered some babies, seen a couple gnarly machete wounds, cared for a few moto accidents victims, and attended to one viper envenomation, among many other things

The latter injury was a 7 year old boy who Dr. Laura Smelter and I saw together.  A little about Dr. Laura:  She is on staff with Christian Health Service Corps, our sending agency, and was a missionary doc in Nigeria previously.  When we were in Texas visiting the team for some training, I mentioned to Laura some of my anxiety about our return to Loma de Luz, since we would be short-handed for physicians.   Lo and behold, shortly before our return to Hondruas I received an email from Dr. Laura stating that she would be headed to Loma de Luz in a short while to help cover the hospital’s doctor deficit.  Now that’s what I call being interruptable and available.  Thanks again Laura!

Back to the snake bite, the little guy had fallen on the ground previous to being bitten.   His hand must have found the hiding place of a dreaded Barba Amarilla, which is a very dangerous and poisonous viper found here.  The snake bit him on the finger, although when we examined him we really couldn’t see the bite wound.  This was due to the fact that his family had slit his finger open with a knife, in an effort to prevent swelling.  His hand didn’t look too bad, actually, except for his parentally-inflicted knife wounds.  Dr. Laura threw a few stitches in it, and we put him in the hospital for further evaluation.  Ultimately, we ended up giving him a course of anti-venom, and he did quite well.

Briefly about our trip home and fundraising.  I don’t have enough space to thank all the people who helped us, as the list is long.  So many people went above and beyond the call of duty to look after us.   Some of the churches that we spoke at included Grace of Christ Presbyterian Church in Yakima, Harvest Community Church in Yakima, Yakima Covenant Church, East Valley Foursquare Church, Restoration Church in Yakima, Moses Lake Worship Center, Christian Life Center in Yakima.  Thank you for having us!  The fundraising went pretty well, although we are still short of the budget we will need to stay and serve for the year.  We are hopeful that we’ll have a few stragglers send in their donations over the next month or two (cue subtle reminder…)

couple random things:

-before we left we introduced a weekly pickup Ultimate Frisbee game down at the orphanage, and apparently it stuck.  They have been going strong for the last few months, and it was fun to get back out there with some of the other missionaries and Orphanage kids and huck the frisbee.

-I have to become bug savvy again…  I was crossing the bridge to the hospital, in a bit of a hurry.  Usually I leave a stick at the entrance that I swing in front of me as I walk, whacking down any unseen spiderwebs that have materialized overnight.  In my haste, as I was storming across the bridge beligerantly, I took a fresh-spun web full frontal in the face.  I could see the spider bailing off, on a zip-line emergency plummet.  But suddenly he was reeling his web back in, his line anchored approximately to my nose.  I frantically tried to find the invisible thread to disconnect us, a race between me and him.  When he was inches from my face I suddenly found his web and severed the line, with desperate relief.  Spider crawling on my face–averted.  I was thankful, cuz he was icky…  Ok, loss of man points.