¡Feliz Navidad y Prespero Año!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! It has been a crazy and abnormal month. I had all of 17 patients in the Clinic the whole month of December, I had visitors from the states (Krista and Alyssa), and had vacation for the holidays!

In my time that I was not seeing patients I spent cleaning the clinic. All meds and the front room were stripped down, freed of rat messes and bleached! I now know where almost everything is. Surprisingly the clinic is very large in compassion to all other buildings on the Finca and in compassion to how many people use the clinic and what is actually stored there.

As far as interesting cases I have a couple. One of the pregnant women who has been coming for check ups finally had her baby. We were unsure of her due date, the doctor had told her anytime in November. We brought her to the hospital Saturday night around 9pm and saw her the next morning walking around Trujillo when we arrived for mass at 8am! These women are fearless!

A  young man came in asking for an antibiotic be cause sometimes he reacts to spider bites. I was not going to give him meds just for saying that, then he said "well look like this" and showed me this sweeled bump on his neck the size of a golf ball. After removing the moton de pus or mountain or pus I could see the large bite marks and how the infection had created a tunnel down into his shoulder! So I cleaned it really well and did give him the antibiotics.

Christmas here is very simple and very beatuiful, how Christmas should be. The holiday was celebrated by decorating the houses with Christmas trees. Here that means paint large twigs from the forest white and decorating it with lights and ornaments. Under each tree is a nativity completed with whatever we have, not the Willow Tree matching set. Some nativity scenes had dinosaurs, lego men, sea shells, plastic and wooden animals, you name it we probably had. 

Posadas occured the 9 nights leading up to Christmas day. Posadas are the representation of Mary and Joseph passing Inn to Inn looking for a place to stay; this is a very common Latin America tradition-celebration. On the Finca one of the girls dresses as Mary and one of the boys dresses as Joseph and lead the rest of us to the first house. There we all sing asking to be let in, those inside the hoiuse sing back and reject Mary and Joseph. This happens at the second house as well an on the third try they are let in. The third house is then hosts everyone providing a small mirienda or snack and tema or talk for that night. There is something beautiful about the Posadas and it is hard to explain without experiencing it for yourself.

Christmas Eve everyone on the Finca is cooking, and I mean EVERYONE! We had our last posada which lead us to the chapel for a obra or skit-play by the younger kids. Chirstmas Eve Mass  was then held and the great Feast began. We had Tomales, chicken, salad, carrot cake bread, rice, veggies, fresco or pop (I am the only one who calls it pop here, everyone so kindly reminds me it is soda or soda pop....right!). We danced the night way like every big celebration here. You can bet money that they will always play Justin Beeber  and "Stand By Me". During the dance Amanda, Alyssa, and I acted on Santa{s behave and helped put the appropirate gifts in the correct houses during the dance. Just before midnight we all walked out to the Campo or soccer feild and prayed and sang one last song before it was Christmas morning. Once 12am hit we hugged and wished everyone a Feliz Navidad.

Christmas day everyone had an hour to chat witht heir families. I was able to hear my the beautiful voices of some one my cousins and my aunt and uncle as well as my mom and dad and Jesse. It was sooooo wonderful to hear them all! It had not felt like Christmas till I talked with my parents and Jesse and could picture them sitting around the kitchen table in their PJs eating monckey bread and hearing about which gift this Christmas Dad was going to return. Ther is no snow here it is so warm it feels like summer all the time! After my 60 minutes of Minnesota Christmas talk all  the vols relaxed together by going down to compamento a resort about a 10 minute walk on the beach, drank some pop, cervesas, or voka and spirte (Amanda), while we sat around the pool. It was so beautiful. I am excited to be here for one more Christmas though, it will never be like this in the states. 

The new year was bright in much quieter. Many of the older volunteers are on vacation and so there has only been about 8 of us here at a time. We all miss our community in many different ways for many different reasons.

Some funny stories: Cesar, 12 years old house 5 boy told me he was having pain in his eye. I asked if he wanted eye drops and he said no, it was probably from winking at the girls all the time! Sigri 19 year old house 6 girl with cognitive impairment asked when my friends were coming back so she could play with them and not me! House 1 girls cannot say my name so they say Di-di-ly, and so some of the vols have started that. But it was even weirder to hear Krista and Alyssa to call me

D-Day and nick name Phil started in Guatemala that really stuck I don{t even know how it started!

A learning moment: Juan Carlos 14 year old house 5 boy apologized after a long drawn out confrontation with me. It started with him putting another kid on his shoulders and riding the bike. I told him to put the bike back for the day he threw it at me and said some choice words, and the disrespect continued for two more days. I walked away crying and thought why did I ever think I could be a parent. I then was also very thankful for my parents patience through my teenage years and beyond as well as sorry for everytime I was disrepectful. He came over to the vol house right before dinner and just stood by me till I asked if her was ready to talk. His simple apology said "just want to say sorry it will not happen again cheque"!

This next month brings: JAMIE, another good friend from camp and nurse! Physical exams for the kids, they hate doctors, glad I am not one! And the return of the whole community! Sorry this was a long one, thank you to all who still read this I really do appreciate the time you take to stay connect in what little ways I can! Much love and prayers!!!! Deirdre

Thanksgiving at the Finca

Our Thanksgiving day started with Holy Hour at 6am! My part of cooking...mashed potatoes or papas de pura...began the night before with scrubbing 30 lbs of potatoes. Thursday Morning we peeled and boiled them all in one large pot and I mean LARGE pot. Football game started at 10 but kick off didn´t actually occur until 11am! People take this game pretty seriously and the kids all think we are ridiculous, most of them have never seen Futbol Americano. Dinner was served at 4pm on the menu: Stuffing, most Hondurans hate it, two salads, sweet potatoes, garlic potatoes, veggies-green bean casserole wanna be, turkey, and gravy. The food was absolutely wonderful, plus we have apple and pumpkin pie!!!

 

I also had two`emergencies throughout the day, Mary Kate and I killed a rat in the Clinic, the first one wa-hoo!!! Then we listened to Christmas music and wrote letters to family, it was really nice. Though I definitely missed the fam. I thought about all the jokes I was missing between the uncles and all the beloved questions about school and what the younger ones were-are doing with their lives.

 

The oldies leave in less than a week and I am starting to freak out a bit since there is still a lot I don´t know about the clinic and where things are and what not. New exciting things I have seen include more pregnant women, eye injuries, and lots of allergies this time of year.

 

In less than a month Krista and Alyssa two good friends from Camp will be coming to visit and will be staying over Christmas, so I am very excited for that, and so is everyone else here. Tami literally marked it in her calender! This month I will also be traveling to get my residency card, wow, who would have thought!

 

Well I hope all is well back home with the snow and cold, I wish some of that would come our way! Love you all very much, Deirdre

Hello friends!

There has been many new and exciting things which have happened. I experienced my first Quincenera (a 15th birthday) last weekend, which is like a wedding! Everything here is celebrated with a mass. The girl gets a new dress, she has a court and then everyone makes a ton of food to share. She recieves a ring and her shoes are switched  at the party all of which are to symbolize the girl becoming a woman.

This past weekend I traveled to La Ceiba, about three hours away, to meet with Dr. Black a physician from Texas who has been here the last 10 years who we reference a lot. Beth and I also had some medications which we were not going to use that he could. Nothing builds relationships down here like "regalo-ing" them things, or gifting them things. Also one of the finca kids graduated from high school, one of the top three in the country, I didn't realize it was such a big deal till we got there and everyone was wearing their prom dresses and I was in my black capris and sweater and my chacos, oops!

I saw quite a few pregnant women in the clinic these past couple weeks, and I even saw a new baby, well a couple months old, but we share the same birthday! Things like that also bind you pretty close to families, who would have thought. I haven't had any other crazy machete stories since.

One story that brought tears to my eyes, lots of tears actually, happened this past week. A woman whom I know pretty well now, I have seen her each week, stop by the clinic the other day. She needed some money to get her grandson out of the hospital who had been in for 8 days, and also needed help to pay for the injections he would need for an infection. We had giving the last of our money to another man a couple days before for an x-ray he needed, so we didn't have anything to give to her. She also didn't have the perscription so I couldn't even give her medication. I felt terrible sending her away empty. She didn't even have money to get back to the hospital and I couldn't even help her there. I felt so useless, I felt like I wasn't or couldn't do my job. It was a terrible feeling: here I am, a capable body and I couldn't give anything. I know we can't do everything down here, but I think I also felt the reality of the situation of poverty our neighbors are in.

We have been busy getting ready of Thanksgiving, buying things we can't get in Trujillo in La Ceiba and what not. Two more weeks and it will be Thanksgiving, that is hard to beleive! It will give us all a small taste of home and the US!

An update about donations: if you would like to donate something or some way in any shape or form the best way to do so is to call Andrea McMerty-Brummer at (727) 475-4459 or e-mail at farmofthechild_usa@yahoo.com (more info about donating is on the website). She will let you know more of what we need and how to help as far as giving materials or money. Becasue sometimes if there is no one to bring it down and depending on how much is donated it is more cost effective to donate money verses materials. Thank you to all who have expressed an interest in helping, it is GREATLY appreciated!

I wish I could be with you all over the holidays! Thank you for all your support! Much Love, Deirdre

Month One

It has been almost one month since we all arrived at the Farm and much has changed within me already. All the newby´s have their jobs and have been shadowing mostly over the last two weeks or so. My full time job is being the nurse in the clinic, while my small jobs include: study hour (helping one of the houses two hours a week on school work), PAVI (a work program for the adolescents which I can kind of self design, I hope to do a lot of gardening with them), and Personel Committee (we review applications of volunteers plan retreats and orientations). I am very excited for all of these.


I have had two weeks in the clinic now and have seen quite a bit, everything from pregnant women to colds, to skin infections, to machette cuts to complet fingers cut off (yes that is right, we brought him into the ER, it was a close one too he had lost a lot of blood). Last week with a 24hour period we have taking four trips into Trujillo for emergencies and other clinic related work! I also had my first solo "emergencia" on the Farm; a patient we had seen before with asthma needed another neb treatment, and Beth the other nurse was in town, so I was the nurse. The mother of the child was asking for Beth and wasn´t sure I could do it. But then when she came back the next during clinic hours she was including me in her explanations instead of soley Beth as she had done before. Things here takes lots of time and having the neighbors feel comfortable with me is no exception.

I am part of the Thanksgiving committee which means I help decide what we want to cook and then how we are going to cook. We do not have ovens here like we do in the states. We have a fagon which is an outdoor sloid stove top like a big grittle, as well as a clay oven, which is extremely difficult and frustrating and time consuming to cook with. So I am interested to see how it will all go down. I guess Thanksgiving is a pretty big deal to the vols here and is an amazing day filled with food and american football, which I heard is amusing since the kids here know futbol or as we call it soccer.

Lately I have been missing home and actually have thought it would be nice to be in school right now! The weather here is getting to me. Yesterday and the day before I literally let the sweat drip off my face all afternoon while Beth and I did inventory in the Clinic! I don´t know what I will do when it actually gets hot-now it is rainy season aka winter so it is "cold".....

Thank you again to all those who actually read this and are praying for us all. I literally do pray for you all everyday in chapel at 6am!

Much love for the Farm,
Deirdre

What we need....

I know it is quite early to be thinking about Christmas, but the Farm could use any and all help. I know most people like to do the giving tree at Church but I would ask you all to think about giving instead to the Farm. We have 38 kids from the ages of 4 to 18, and all of their needs are provided solely through donations. The school also uses up their supplies of notebooks and pens very quickly. I will have more specific information coming later but I would like you all to start praying about it.That is all for now, TQM (Te Quiero mucho: I love you much!)

The Finca

I made it safe and sound with the rest of my crew! It is absolutely beautiful here and everyone has been really welcoming. I have been able to see the clinic and already go to the hospital with a young girl who reopened a pretty deep cut on her knee, hiked up the mountain for some Blood pressure and blood glucose checks, and filled some medications for some patients in the clinic. I am learning a lot about my self during these first two weeks of orientation. I go to bed each night in my room with 4 other girls listening to the ocean waves and watching the geckos eat the bugs on the walls! The food here is wonderful and I can tell I will really miss it when I return home. My spanish is being challenged as well as a lot of my views about where I come from what I have been taught about others and how I view myself in comparison. It is quite humbling actually. Right now I am living with about 30 people in the house which in two months will decrease to 16 or 18. Then I will be on my own. So please pray for me and the others as we need to have very steep learning curves in the next several weeks. Thank you for all your prayers so far it is really evident how God has been working and moving here everyday! Much love to the States from Honduras!