I saw this on one of the boat trips to Roatan. It was a very large fishing vessel offloading to a barge. We are getting more and more larger vessels in our area these days.





















Pastor Teddy, along with a few islanders, and
a visiting team from WA rebuild the walkway in the pond that was falling into the swamp. Projects like these are plentiful on Helene, and we need visiting teams to get them all done.













Bentley Bay from the sea, the furthest west village on Helene.












Learning from Dr Tony, DDS my latest ministry area of interest, emergency dentistry. So far I have just assisted, but my turn will come to numb gums and pull teeth!

























This was a sad and strange sight to see! Overnight, these 'wee wee' ants came out of the bush, making these pathways you see, straight for the Hibiscus bushes! Every leaf was devoured, leaving one little wilted flower. Believe it or not, all the leaves came back within a few days after Jerry, our "gardener" followed the tracks into the bush to kill the ant nest. But, alas, they have struck again since then.










Joe and Willis refinishing the cabinets for the medical clinic remodel. This has been quite a process, of course taking much longer than we hoped it would. When done, we will have 2 private patient rooms, a reception area, and a pharmacy. It will have a computer desk with reference materials, and a lab area. I can't wait to show more pictures as the process continues!

Miss Sheila with Zachary









































Here are a group of ladies on the Northside in front of Miss Zula's house. We were gathered for a Bible study.

Here are Paster Teddy, his wife Heather, and their 3 kids, Jahari, Jadiri, and Zachary in front of their new home.

Here I found Sharina doing her homework in the Pond, sitting in front of an old shed, surrounded by mud, chickens, and garbage, but she had found shade and a quiet spot to get it done.

Argarta and her son, Daroni with Marian on the right. We were having Bible study on Miss Zula's porch.


















I snuck into the kindergarten room to get a picture as they were working on their favorite project, coloring. They were making cards for us to send back to WA for Miss Marjie. We hear she just loved them!










This is in the oldest classroom, the 5th-6th graders of the HEC (Helene Education Center). Compulsary education only goes to 6th grade in Honduras, and that is the extent of the English school, too. Anything beyond that, basically 7th and 8th grades, is called college. There are some trade schools, and some 'university' courses on the mainland.








Tannie and her 2 week old son, Rodney. This was another birth I missed, he was born while I was away to the states in Febuary.



















OK, so did you know that cockroaches are next to impossible to kill?? We have poured bleach on them, tried many sprays and powders, but the one thing we finally did learn (almost by accident) is that hot water kills them almost instantly!!! It is inevitable that you will have these scavengers in abundance when you live over sand or dirt, in a tropical environment, where there is food in abundance that they can manage to gnaw into somehow. Thank the Lord they are mostly nocturnal!

Church of God Convention, April 11-15th, 2007

I only attended the last 2 days, which was plenty to get a good taste of what happens there. There are 4-5 meetings or services a day, from the 6am prayer meeting daily, to the evening service at 7pm, that went until 9-10 pm. There were breaks for meals, they provided breakfast and lunch, free of charge. It is a tremendous undertaking for a church, the majority of the work seeming to be the meals, which ladies from other churches did help with.

Here I am with sweet Tamika, Kiera's daughter. She was so good for all the sitting we did!

Here is the choral group from the Helene COG, minus Mr Rowlands, who made it in just in time to sing Sunday morning.

Front row from left: Aileen, Marian, Zula, Bonnalee, Liolyn.

Back row: Amalia, Pastor Teddy

It is quite an honor to get chosen to sing at the convention, so they get matching "suits" for the show. Even Miss Liolyn said it's "much about the clothes you wear", people bring a different outfit for almost every service and meeting. I didn't have enough, so had to buy a new skirt/shirt!

Here they are, up singing their hearts out on Sunday morning. They did a great job with Amalia leading the choir. You can just see Aileen peeking over Amalia's right shoulder, but Mr Rowlings is directly behind Miss Liolyn on the left side.

A few of the ladies and kids who I attended the event with:

Henry, Marian, Kiari (Marion's youngest) Marixa (Marian's sister & Henry's Mom), Tamika, and Kiera. (Henry lives on Roatan with Miss Liolyn so that Marixa can work more. Its been that way since shortly after his birth. Not an unusual arrangement for many of the kids)

The kids were sure better behaved than I can imagine may American kids being at something like this!

Here were my hostesses for the weekend, Miss Liolyn and her sister, who's house we stayed at. She had AC in her bedroom, which is where she spends 90% of her time since she lost her legs to diabetes. She is so grateful and gracious, and made me feel quite welcome. It was just a difficult night because they kept waking up every hour or so to talk! Then dear Miss Lili woke me up at 4:30 to ask what time it was, then said "oh, good, then we can lay back down for another 1/2 hour! Ug, it was good to get home and sleep!

I went with several of the Helene team to a futbol (soccer in the States) game at Diamond Rock on Roatan. I was the official medical person there, it seems otherwise, there usually isn't anyone there in that capacity. Amazingly, this day there were no injuries or incidents, despite both teams playing for hours in 85-90 degree heat!

Marvin (left) and Ewings (right) getting some water on a much needed break during a period intermission.

Marvie and Ewings work closely with us here at the clinic. Marvie works with Clean Sweep, which is a program that travels the island path, cleaning up garbage and burning it, cleaning the beaches, and doing minor repairs on the bridges. Ewings works with us as a Clinic Assistant, he starts and helps maintain the generator, collects and burns the garbage, drives our boat, and generally assists wherever needed under the direction of Joe and Camas. Both a greatly involved in Bible studies and individual discipling.

This is the younger team taking a victory lap after winning 3-2!

The older guys, after receiving new "suits" from a generous donation from friends from America. This boosts their morale greatly!

Futbol is definately the most important sport here in Honduras, as well as much of the world over. Kids start playing almost as soon as they learn to walk, and it is played year round. It is just about the only organized sport I see them play, with the possible exception of basketball, which I believe the gringo's brought to Helene.

Its all about me..... AUBRIE alone

I like riding in the car, especially with Grammy entertaining me!

This is my lepord suit that I fit in, at least for now - I'm so cute!!

Being on my tummy isn't my favorite position, but the workout is good for my arms, I almost can turn over both ways now. I can't quite get my legs and arms under me at the same time to crawl yet - but soon!

I love my teddy, he comforts me when I cry, and sleeps with me all the time. I have to wear socks on my arms so I won't scratch, that excema makes me crazy sometimes!

 

My grandbaby Aubrie and others.... I am now 5 1/2 months old

My first moments hugging her at the airport since she was just 1 week old

Mommy Chantale, and I

Chantale, Ryan with Aubrie, and proud Grammy (or Nana?)

Daddy enjoying a moment of laughter with me before its back to work

 

Islanders photos, such beautiful people!
Here is Garnell with her 1 day old baby boy.... he was just under 12#!

Here I am with some of my Northside ladies Bible study, and baby Tamika in her Mommy Kiera's arms

just more kids hanging out, mugging for the camera!

Hanging out on the steps of a Seco home, can't believe they can hold their weight!

 

And to the highlight, the water balloon dousing on Christmas morning...

Cleo and I filling up water balloons in the kitchen, we did about 200 in all

The kids, anxiously awaiting.... we first lure them in close with candy....

Then pelt them with the water balloons! It is truly refreshing good fun!

Of course we end up throwing a few at each other, but save the vast majority to the sweating, excited, screaming kids down below!

 

A few Christmas photos

Just finished putting a few outdoor lights up and needed some evidence

Almost finished-we just added a couple more after this, but lookin' good! Alisa and I all decked out for Christmas Eve services
Here was our Christmas season team, but we did lose Michelle a few days before Christmas, and Ewings was included since he was invaluable help to us for the entire month of Dec. Paul, Ewings, Alisa in back, then Toshiba, Michelle and I in front.

 

Miscellaneous shots from Nov/Dec 2006...


Here is a beautiful evening shot at Half Moon Bay in West End on Roatan

A jellyfish seen from shore

Ever get to that "silly place" after working in a very hot room for much too long with other silly, silly girls??

Stitching up a very deep stab wound, on a very drunk man inflicted by his girlfriend. If it hadn't been for Dr's Scott and Trish, we would have just had to pack the wound and send him downisland.

 

A few last pictures before leaving Guanaja for now... we will be returning as other short term teams sign up. Eventually our hope is to have an AM team established there, Lord open the door!

This is the Guanaja police 'car'. There are 3 policemen, so they just fit into it when all are together. Notice the spare tire under the front seat?

Here is team Helene (minus Michelle) in Bresa de Mitch, love that fan palm behind us!

Savannah Bight view, it is pretty crowded(big city compared to Helene!)See the horse? Another somewhat common form of transportation. The children just loved to sing, both in English and Spanish

 

The next day we headed to Bresa de Mitch, a village built along an old air strip. We all piled onto this flatbed that doubles as a taxi and transport vehicle. Fortunately, it was a nice sunny day! Different laws than in the states, huh? Can you see the big ticket we'd get in the US??

This babe was, believe it or not, 2 months old. The mother had been given IM antibiotics her entire pregnancy as treatment for migrane headaches.... what??!! So babe was born with liver damage prematurely.

In this community, very few spoke English, so Joe, Elana and Silvia all doubled as interpretors in addition to the medical aspect. It really slowed the process down, but I did learn more Spanish, including writing prescriptions in Spanish. Gotta go to language school!

Probably to most common form of transportation on the island, besides walking. One islander said that the roads are getting 'crowded with cars'. I asked how many cars are on the island now, the answer was "15".

 

We then headed over by boat to Mangrove Bight, where we met in a community center. This is a much bigger community, larger than any one area on Helene by at least 3 times. We saw 70 or so in 3-4 hours.

We had to get organized quickly, with some team doing intake, some triage, some seeing patients, some doing pharmacy duty. We saw everything from rashes, to colds, to stomach issues and heart problems. We checked vitals, blood sugars, lungs, skin, eyes and ears. It seemed endless, everytime I thought we must be clearing the place out, I'd look up and didn't see any less waiting than who I'd seen. It was crazy, but I also felt God's presence and need there, it was such a blessing to me!

While people were waiting to be seen by medical staff, other team members were doing dental teaching, kids clubs, singing, and here painting fingernails.

1/2 an exhausting day later, we're on the hill outside of the village, waiting for our ride back to Savannah Bight. This brand new road has been in progress for over 6 months. It doesn't go into town yet, so people can drive to the end, but then have to carry everything around the barrier and the rest of the way home. They cut the road out of a steep hillside, without putting anything against the hill, so it keeps collapsing onto the road again after the rains.... who knows if it ever will be usable.

 

We did a medical outreach in each of the 4 communities served by the Savannah Bight clinic, when they heard we were coming they started lining up early, then we would see just about everyone that lived there!

Here we are coming into NW Bight, accessible this day only by boat because the road was again washed out by the rain. It was a rough ride around the east end of Guanaja to get there, with waves as high as 8' in our 20' boat! There is only a few ways into the shore because it is so shallow as you come onto the beach.

We set up the clinic is someone's home, there are only about 10 homes in this small village, but we still were there 2 hours to see everyone.

This was quite a poor community, the people were very appreciative of our visit to them. The have the hardest time accessing the SB clinic.

This was quite a unique home style, 5 people live in this tiny A-frame

 

Our facility was well used for everything, from just having people in for 'play time' in smaller groups....

...to kids clubs that had a great turnout....

....to a bilingual, multichurch worship night....

to a medical outreach, in which we probably saw 50-60 people in 1 day!

 

Guanaja outreach, Nov 2006 with New Life Church

Here is a view of the village of Savannah Bight, where we stayed, out of the window of the building AM was given. Note the fact that they have "current", the poles really stood out to me, not being used to seeing that on Helene. It isn't exactly reliable, tho, we had a couple outages while we were there that lasted several hours.

The medical team from New Life, with Elena 3rd from right, she is the 'nurse' who runs the clinic in Savannah Bight. I learned during our time there that she really has very little formal medical training, mostly just 20+ years of on the job experience. There are only 2 medical clinics in Guanaja, which serve around 6000 people, they are government run, which means they depend on provisions that are very unreliable. She does officially have a doctor there, but only rarely in reality is he on sight.

The front of the building we have. It is a large 2 story structure that needs quite a bit of work to become functional for hosting teams, but any time the doors were open, island children came running!

View of Savannah Bight from high on the hill behind, this island has much more 'mountainous' terrain than Helene, and is 3 times the size.

 

More on the Procedure Room saga, finally getting done! Here is Camas with a team finishing the interior work so the finish work could start. It was very hot in there, thus had to be insulated.

Painting was not as fun as it looked! Besides being a sweatbox, the Honduran paint is terrible, it took 3-4 coats to cover the cement board. All the wood trim is made piece by piece, from a 1 X 6 board, then cut, planed, routered, sanded and stained - really makes one appreciate Home Depot!

But the finished product is a small, but usable temporary clinic, where we'll be until the main clinic remodel is done. Here is Alisa, with our 2 new receptionists in training, Saroli and Shamari.And so now the old clinic has been torn apart (scraping the linoleum and glue up was a very tedious 3 day job!) and the changes have begun. We'll have 2 much larger rooms, and the reception area is going to be out on the porch, which will be enclosed and floored. The cabinets are being rebuilt, wiring redone, new tile floors put in, new shelves in the pharmacy.... it will be wonderful! Much of this is done thanks to financial support from friends like you who believe in what we're doing in Helene!

 

Another project I was involved with was helping Paul to fix Tania and Bobby's front steps in Oct. They were sinking and the posts were rotting. Bobby was out of the country working on a ship, so she needed help making this safe for her and her kids.

The demolition! Its a fun part, except the fact that the fire ants were biting our feet all up! Had to keep jumping up onto the steps to get away.

Finishing up on the 2nd day, in the pouring rain, not surprising since it was rainy season. It was a great feeling to accomplish this job!

Tania and her kids, very thankful and pleased with their new steps.

 

This is a 'Habitat for Helene' project. Teams can come down and provide labor and materials to fix a house that we deem in need. This home is Dean and Laverne's, they have 10 children, most of them live in this tiny 3 bedroom house. With rainy season upon us in Oct and a roof leaking from rust holes, it was perfect timing for this project to get done!

A new tin roof, the cheapest way to go, knowing that the sea air and humidity will cause it to rust again in several years. The noise from this type of roof in the rain is tremendous!

Here is Laverne, on wash day. She has both the 'old' way of washing with the washboard, and the 'new' idea, which is using a PVC pipe to agitate the laundry around in the bucket or basin. Either way, it is a laborious process to wash for a large household! Then on the line to dry.

 

Pictures from the Newport, RI team here in early Oct '06

Stephanie with some island girls on our front deck

The team went swimming on Northside, so did about 25 island kids!

Sarah and I during some visitation time up on Northside, lovin' on the kids some. Can't help it, they're all so so cuddleable!!

Stephanie checking out Linden's catch that day, he's out fishing most days of the week, weather permitting.

 

More Guanaja...

Here is the Savannah Bight Medical Clinic, serving 3 times as many people as we do here in Helene, but with probably 1/5 the supplies/meds. This problem will be helped tremendously by the team coming down.

The main street in Savannah Bight, which is where we will concentrate our efforts on our outreach in later November. They are getting "too many cars" on the island according to one person, now up to 15!

Michelle, Larry and Joe on Graham's Key, where we had dinner. He is a man from the Cayman Islands that bought this key and built a resort, quite a life if you ask me! He does a wonderful job with a classy spot.

A truly gorgeous sunset shot from the beach on Graham's Key

 

Introducing Guanaja, from our scouting trip there mid Oct, '06

Here's the airport, folks. 2 flights in and out a day, if there are enough fliers. There aren't any ferry boats or anything, so this is the way on/off the island if you don't have your own boat.
The is Low Key, a small but very crowded key off the main island. It is the main center of commerce, where the major's office, bank, gas stations, and one of the 2 medical clinics is located. Called Low Key because it is low in the water (at least that is what I've been told), or also known as Binaca Key (Guanaja is also known as Binaca)
The narrow streets can get very congested, but only from people and bicycles, no cars here. Houses and businesses are completely intermingled. The school sits pretty center on the key.
This is near the school and medical clinic. No hospital on Guanaja yet. You can hardly see a patch of ground here.

 

Some work projects around Helene...

Laverne and Dean getting a much needed new roof under Habitat for Helene funding, with the help from the Newport STM team

Procedure Room work! Its getting there folks, slowly but surely. It has to be ready to be used in January, when a construction team is coming to tear apart the existing clinic, for remodelling by a 2nd January team

Help from the Newport RI team here, too

Painting, painting, painting. It takes at least 3 coats of this Honduran paint to cover. Lots of practice on my house back in the states paid off!

OH come on! you're saying I missed just a SPOT??

 

We do take time to relax and have fun, too. This is on the mainland in Honduras where we went to recooperate from the week long meeting to plan the projects and priorities of the mission for 2007.

This is the vehicle that came to pick some of us up to go white water rafting, quite a sight! It was an old military transport 'bus'.

Me, Camas, Alisa and Emily...before getting wet

About to jump in....Paul, Emily me, Alisa and Camas

Just a birds eye view of a milder rapid we traversed, in fact, we jumped off this rock into the rapids - the guide said it was to remove our "fear of the waters power", it certainly was exhilarating!

 

!Quince! Sept 15th, Independence Day -
celebrated by a parade down the path, all schools participate in their groups, usually with some sort of new uniform if possible.

Being soldiers is a big part of the marching routines

The girls love to do batan dance routines, and practice a month ahead

The boys are the drummers, or in this case they carved wooden guns to carry

 

Emily playing the 'Hokey Pokey' with some of the boys on Children's Day

Out visiting one day, here I am with Tamika, she's 6 weeks old here
Heather has to do Jadiri's hair when she's sleeping or she fights too much. If she wakes up, it has to wait to get braided (or plaited)
I had SueEllen and Esslyn over for a sleepover one night. One of the greatest things for them was to be able to take a real shower, and sleep under a fan all night long. We really had a fun time!

 

Ewings took Camas, Alisa and I out iguana hunting (they do eat iguana, and yes, it tastes like chicken....sort of)

We tramped through some pretty thick jungle searching out those iguana

This was a tailor shop where Emily had some school uniforms made up for Quince. These kids sang songs to us while we waited for them to be paid for and picked up. They just flocked to our boat when we drove up.

Most of the team, minus Camas, plus Tom Hackett, outside Casa Calico

 

Harvest Celebration Sept 7th, 2006

They get all dressed up and go to the Methodist church for "recitations", children and adults alike practice and memorize a variety of songs, poems, Bible verses, or even something that they have made up for the occasion. Its almost as big an event as Quince, the independence day.