You may not be aware of some of the strange pathology that exists in the world.  For instance, who would of thought that babies can be born without an anus?  Well unfortunately, “imperforate anus” is a not-so-uncommon diagnosis, and we see more than our fair share of these children, mainly because we can care for them—word gets out in Honduras when you are able to offer specialty care for certain conditions (if I had a Lempira for every enlarged prostate I’ve cared for…).

The incidence of this abnormality is about 1 in 5000 births, and has several different variations.  But the bottom line is that the baby can’t poop, or can’t poop normally.  (‘Poop’ is a medical term that uncouth doctors like myself prefer to use instead of the word ‘feces‘ or ‘excrement.’)

We are extremely blessed to have the services of a pediatric surgeon who comes and visits us every 3 or so months, with his lovely and hilarious wife.  We’ll call them Drake and Chrissy.  Drake happens to be very good at repairing this malformation, and because it is a procedure that takes more than one surgery to repair, we are very grateful that he comes down often.

Now, Chrissy speaks excellent Spanish and is usually the interpreter for Drake.  Invariably when they are visiting, Chrissy may pop in the room and help with other patient care, or help with a bit of translation.  And so it was, that after a routine delivery of a healthy little boy, I noticed Chrissy’s odd ritual.  I think she helped with some aspect of the delivery, and afterward, as the baby was laying in the neonatal warmer, I saw her zip over to the baby and flip him onto his belly.  His cute little bare bottom was sunnyside-up for a second, and then she nestled him back in his blanket and exclaimed, “yep, he’s got a butthole!—Nothing for Drake to do here…”

Oh Chrissy, you make me laugh.

One of the little guys that Drake did surgery on has still been struggling to recuperate, and we’re not exactly sure why.  He has been here for a couple weeks now, and we’re at a standstill.  His family diligently attends to him day and night in our infirmary, and they just joined our prayer and song night the other day.  I would ask you to pray for Eduar and his parents:  For patience, hope and stamina for his parents, for guidance in how to care for him, and for healing.

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I found out a little while ago that we have Africanized Bee’s here (AKA ‘Killer Bees”).  Apparently they make good honey.  One of our missionaries is keeping them.  I guess we can’t really visit the hive up close, as it appears that they’ll try to sting us to death…

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My brother and his family just visited us for 10 days and we had an awesome time together.  They really filled up our love tank–thanks guys!!  They led a Soccer camp in the little village of Lucinda for a couple days, and had a great turnout.  Through the medium of soccer, they were able to love on a bunch of these kids.

The ‘Cougar’ Moultrays

Allie and Mandi crossing the Pit-viper ravine of death

 

Soccer camp in Lucinda

Alison playing hard, Matt in the background

Miss Ashley and Miss Jordan, among others, also helped with camp.

Thanks Hannah, Val, Gus, Alexander boys, etc.

Owen, Isabel, and some local kids watch the finals of the tournament.

Otter pop break time.

Mandi reminds the kids that ‘So whether you eat or drink (or play soccer) or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

After the games and awards, we had a giant water fight.  Kids above, running toward the water weapons…

Cousins

Dr. Matt with one of his Honduran patients, Peta, in the LDL operating room.

The Rio Coco falls, we went here for a swim

climbing a waterfall

Sitting in a waterfall

Isabel, Matt, and a big rock.

Mia, owen and random pig

Mia, staring at a giant spider on the safe side of the window

Mia, during a Honduran sprinkle

Isabel and Jack

Pre-squashed scorpion

Roots…

This nice man is suffering from the most advanced case of Gout that I have seen.  Unfortunately, this could have been prevented with good care early in the process.  I am praying that our surgeons can alleviate some of his suffering.

Palm Tree Blossom–close up

 

Palm Tree Blossom

 

Purdy’ flower (loss of man points…)

 

I leave you with this.  This is a turd from a giant toad.  It was left by my new nemesis ‘Senior Bruno.’  He is a toad that lives somewhere around our porch.  He comes out every night in search of dinner, and leaves us with one of these slimy little packages.  He’s gonna pay…