Friends:

 

          Hello again after another rewarding mission to Honduras . Enjoy the pictures. Go to the website www.wheresdrrongone.com for  a presentation of pictures by Dr. Ron David and to www.trinityberwyn.com for pictures by Trinity photographer, Dave Reid.

           We appreciate your support.  Here is what we accomplished this past year in Honduras with your help. Our plans for the future include you.

PREPARATION FOR THE TRIP

            As usual, we spent a lot of time during 2008 preparing for the trip, fundraising, gathering supplies and making plans for how we can best conduct medical and dental clinics and do construction projects in Honduras. 

 

           We continue to work closely with Central American Relief Effort (C.A.R.E - Steve Mentzer) and with Mission Relief Services, (Jim Harrison) to improve the lives of the people in Honduras.

           During the past year we developed a relationship with a new partner, Engineers Without  Borders (E.W.B.). This is a university professor/student organization which is active in the U.S. and in many foreign countries. They will help improve the water supply in the communities we serve. Reverend Richard Streeter, formerly Pastor of Paoli Presbyterian Church, arranged for acontribution of $1,500 from the PAP fund for the development of the water improvement projects at Puerto Grande and Moropocay. 

           We received help from the Tully family at Southminster Presbyterian Church in Richmond ,Virginia who provided financial support at Christmas time. John Ward of Trinity arranged for his employer, ING, Inc. to make a significant matching contribution to the fund. This donation from John and fromING was sufficient to fund the participation of   Martha Suarez in the trip.

 

            The First Presbyterian Church of Port Jefferson collected material for the dental clinic which  Richard Graugh and Ken Draigh brought with them intheir checked luggage. Grace Immanuel Episcopal Church Foundation donated $800 for the trip andrequested that we identify and provide cataract removal for Hondurans in the villages.

           A record number of participants signed up for the trip. Our team of 19 gringos included two doctors, a dentist, two nurses, a pastor and fourteen helpers. We hammered out a budget of $27,696, not including airfare which was paid by each participant.  The budget included money for supplies for construction, for a dental symposium and for medical and dental clinics. 

           The budget was funded mostly by donations of $5.00 to $25.00.  A significant amount was provided by the Trinity Outreach Committee through the annual Spring Fling and by the Grace Covenant Outreach Committee.  Through the efforts of Peggy Owen of Trinity, the Presbyterian Women and Women’s Circles contributed $1000.  At Woodcock Washburn Law Firm, June was Jean’s Day. On Fridays anyone could wear jeans to work for a $5.00 contribution to the Honduras Mission.  We thank everyone at Woodcock Washburn for the contribution. 

 

           If I have missed anyone, I apologize.

             

WATER PROJECT

           Through Mary Westervelt’s contacts at the University of Pennsylvania , we have undertaken a long-term project to improve the water facilities at Moropocay and Puerto Grande. Engineers Without Borders will provide engineering services for this project. In September Marel Hernandez led a group of engineers from the Polytechnique Institute in Honduras to the village of Puerto Grande to review this project with the people of that community. We have a rather detailed plan of the improvements which must be made to the water treatment and distribution system in that community. The estimated cost of this project is $61,000. We have started fundraising efforts to raise money for this much needed project. Our medical team repeatedly treats water borne illnesses and infections that would not have occurred or spread if soap and clean water were available for bathing. We are also concerned for the lives of women in the villages who spend inordinate amounts of their daily lives carrying water and suffering from chronic neck and back pain as a result. Finally, clean drinking water is a problem which must be addressed in these villages. Now that we have a plan and an estimate of the costs we are exploring different options for financing this project.

 

           

Wells in Moropocay                    Pastor Vasquez, Community Leader In Moropocay

 

 

ARRIVAL IN HONDURAS

           We arrived safely on 2 different days on 3 different airlines from four different airports in the United States . The landings were smooth and safe at the infamous Tegucigalpa airport which had been closed for several months because of a crash early in 2008. Safety conditions had been improved tremendously at the airport. The air controllers and pilots now start praying when the plane is 30 miles from the airport instead of the previous 20 miles.

 

           We held our breaths as we travelled down the 2 lane road from Tegucigalpa to Pespire. The big trucks and buses with Honduran drivers occasionally made 4 lanes of traffic passing on two lanes of hairpin curves, but we saw no accidents. We checked into the La Palmeras Hotel in downtown Pespire where things took a turn for the worse. We had booked the entire hotel for our group of gringos, drivers, guide/translators, local doctors, dentists and attendees at our planned dental symposium. Inexplicably, the hotel had booked rooms for a group of college students fromPurdueUniversity led by 2 Peace Corps volunteers. This resulted in a hectic reassignment of rooms with our local leader, Marel Hernandez and 2 of his drivers staying at a motel in Nacaome, a 20 minute drive from the rest of us. Things turned even worse on Monday, January 5^th, when Ken Draigh was bitten by a local dog.

 

MEDICAL AND DENTAL CLINICS

            After breakfast at La Casada, we left the hard road of civilization at Pespire and travelled up the mountain to the tiny town of Moropocay where the medical team set up their efficient medical clinic in which Dr. Ronald David, Dr. Susan Pillsbury and Dr. Adolfo Moreno checked out over a hundred patients, many of whom had gathered when we arrived. The crowd was processed efficiently through the medical clinic. Our drivers admitted people one at a time to the reception desk where Richard Graugh and Ken Draigh took their names and found their medical records, if they had been to a prior clinic. This is a cumbersome, time-consuming, procedure but amazingly an increasing number of patients had retrievable medical records. The records include a picture of the patient, the dates of prior examinations, a diagnosis of their affliction and prior prescriptions.

 

            After registering, patients proceeded to the triage desk where Reneé Gould and Elizabeth Russell recorded blood pressures and temperatures.

 

 

Dr. Ron With a Woman He Referred to C.A.R.E. for Cataract Surgery

 

            Prescriptions from the doctors were filled immediately at a pharmacy at the rear of the building staffed by Brian Baird, Stephanie Moreno, and Francis. Hopefully, each patient received enough medication, worm medicine and vitamins to suffice until the next clinic, staffed by Hondurans but supported from the U.S. by financial and medicine donations.

 

            In 2008 Dr. Moreno conducted three medical clinics at each of Moropocay and Puerto Grande. In 2009 we plan to conduct four clinics at each location. These clinics need a lot of attention to logistics during the coming year.

 

            The dental team set up their office in a vacant room of the new Sunday School Building at Moropocay, where Dr. Leonard Jensen of Philadelphia , Dr. Alex Moreno, and his lovely wife, Dra. Hortenzia Valladares, saw patients. The dental team operated successfully on the 30 or so Honduran patients who had dental problems. They also treated Amy David who had developed a painful dental condition which was successfully treated by Dr. Jensen. For the other 40 patients, it was mostly extractions. Dr. Jensen set the record by extracting 3 teeth from one patient, but the Hondurans endured it bravely with minimum dosage of Tylenol.

 

 

  

ACTIVITIES FOR THE CHILDREN

          The children’s school team soon had lots of Honduran children laughing, studying books and playing games.

 

          Abi Pillsbury, Amy David, and Candice Schwalbach were well prepared even though they had to make last minute substitutions for some of their supplies because the container shipped from the United States containing much of the vacation bible school supplies was still hung up in Honduran Customs. Most government employees were on a year-end sabbatical.

 

 

Sam, Ami, Abi, Candice and friends

This boy was happy having a good time transporting wood with his novel truck.

 

CONTRUCTION AT MOROPOCAY

            Bad luck continued for the construction team (Don Bovais, Denny Leeper, Sam Lowe and Cherry Corley). The Sunday School Building which was supposed to be painted as one of the first projects could not be painted because it had not yet been stuccoed. The construction team went to work on Pastor Vasquez’s new home. The building had been constructed out of concrete block, which had not been properly stuccoed. The team enlisted local boys to help move out all of Pastor Vasquez’s furniture so we could paint inside the house. Needless to say, Pastor Vasquez was not pleased with having all of her meager, but functional furniture moved out doors for the painting job, but she smiled and readily acquiesced to the furniture move with the promise that we would easily be finished painting the inside and replace all the furniture by the end of the day. We were wrong about that because with the first application of primer everyone knew that the building had not been properly prepared for painting. Within 20 minutes the primer paint was flaking off the walls.

 

            On the positive side, we retained José, the church handyman, to work with the construction team for the rest of the week for the very reasonable salary of 250 Lempira per day. This is approximately $12.50 a day. Both Sam Lowe and Don Bovais have considerable building experience. They reviewed the report which Marel Hernandez had written about the construction needs at Moropocay and planned how they were going to make needed improvements. These included a new outdoor kitchen for the Manse, painting the Manse, painting the Sunday School Building, painting the inside of the Church and putting tile on all of the floors.

 

Pastor Vasquez’s new home

 

            The construction team departed the Moropocay Community early to stop at the Building Supply Center in Nacaome where they spent approximately 2 hours selecting tile, corrugated metal roofing, lumber, sand and cement for the construction projects which would be undertaken at Moropocay. With great anticipation, we wondered if the total would be within the $2,000 which had been budgeted for construction materials. The owner’s wife, Marel, and Fausto, who was our security person and also was born in Moropocay and had a great interest in the Church, conducted  seemingly endless conversations. After much calculator use, and many notes, the total came to $2,007. Someone at the building supply store must have surreptitiously obtained a copy of our budget because that figure is only $7 over what we had allowed for construction and supplies. 

 

            We quickly decided that we would go forward and seek the remainder of needed construction costs from other sources. Payment became an issue. The proprietress would not take a check and initially would not take our credit card. She wanted Lempira and not US dollars although we couldn’t have given her that either. Finally she did agree to take our credit card, but only if we would pay her the 4 percent fee which the credit card company would charge. By this time, I, personally, was a little annoyed by the proprietress but we wanted to get payment to her immediately so the material could be delivered and work could begin and be finished within the week we had allotted. We decided to try to get $2,000 from an ATM machine using the debit card which Trinity Church entrusted to our care. This was a bad decision because the first ATM machine we visited threatened not to give us a receipt and another had a large “Out of Order” sign on it. After much telephone checking by Marel we determined that the next closest ATM was in San Lorenzo , about 20 miles away which was out of the question. The offer to use the credit card with payment of the $40 fee now seemed more reasonable. That course of action was followed and the transaction was successfully completed about 6 p.m. , an hour after closing. The proprietress was anxious enough to complete the sale that we went to a credit card machine in a nearby hotel. We were told that they would deliver the materials up the mountain to the Church at Moropocay in the morning.

 

 

           

            Things began to brighten as we arrived back at the La Palmera Hotel where we found our missing luggage which had been retrieved from Continental Airlines and brought to the Hotel by Mark Mentzer, who was in Honduras with a Mission from the Lancaster Presbyterian Church. Things brightened still more when we learned that the dog which had bitten Ken Draigh had been identified, quarantined, and put under all of the procedures which would have been followed had the incident occurred in the United States . Ken was on the proper antibiotics and feeling fine. Amy David was taking Tylenol and was feeling fine after her oral surgery.

 

            Some of us had a cervessa, some of us had two, but after a good dinner preceded by a brief, but effective, grace and thankyou by Reverend Richard Graugh things seemed much brighter for the Honduras Mission Team.

 

DENTAL SYMPOSIUM

            On Tuesday, January 6^th, fifteen visiting dentists joined us for a Dental Symposium in Pespire. These Dentists and Dental Hygienists came from all over Southwest Honduras. They had coffee and breakfast at La Casada while the leaders of the Symposium fine-tuned the program. The leaders included Alex Moreno Sanchez, his wife, Dra. Hortenzia Valladares, Leonard Jensen, Maria Elena and Martha Suarez. They conducted a first-class, give and take seminar on dental practices in Honduras and in the United States. Martha translated from Spanish to English and Maria translated from English to Spanish. Alex led off the discussion by introducing himself and Dr. Jensen.  Each presented a short introductory statement about themselves and the nature of their practice. Each of the 15 visiting dentists then did the same introduction. Sometimes they mentioned particular problems they had and this engendered a discussion of the problem and sometimes a solution was offered.

 

            The overall characterization of these presentations was that almost all of the visiting dentists worked a few days a week at a government sponsored clinic. The rest of the time they conducted a private practice. Invariably they stated that the government help was significant but was not entirely adequate. All of them needed supplies and assistance.

 

            After a brief break, we travelled to the clinic in Pespire. Early in the morning it had been discovered that the key to the clinic had been misplaced. Julio worked on the problem while we were having the talking seminar and by the time of the break, we had gained access to the clinic room by use of a crow bar. Several of us commented that this was a unique key and rather unwieldy. We suggested to Julio that in the future at least 2 of the guides carry a key to the clinic.

 

            We found the clinic barely functional for purposes of extracting teeth only. There are 2 dental chairs which are functional but of 1960 vintage. Len and Alex used these chairs to extract teeth from approximately a dozen patients coming to the clinic for help that day. These people had teeth which were so badly rotted, that the only alternative available, extraction, was preferable to doing nothing.

 

            The clinic in Pespire has everything necessary to do “drill and fill” dentistry. An operative compressor can drive the drill sets with burs which are available at the clinic. There is no water available in the clinic, but it is possible to work around this by using a carboy type water container. The patient spits the excess water and blood into a trashliner filled wastebasket. This technique of disposing of excess blood was used during the extraction procedures performed by the dentists.

 

            As we left the Pespire clinic, the caretaker expressed his dissatisfaction at our entry by use of a crowbar. We agreed and promised to use the new keys we had been given in the future. A completely unfounded rumor has it that the crowbar entry was reported to the police and they were looking for the perpetrator of the crime. I told Dave Reid who provided the money for the crowbar that under US law he would be an accessory to the unlawful entry. I did not think that his arrest by Honduran Police was imminent and in any case, he would be exonerated because of necessity in order to do a good deed.

 

            Len suggested that the 2 chairs presently in the Pespire clinic be replaced by more modern chairs which are readily available free in used condition in the United States . Len offered to donate the chairs and associated equipment. Dr. Alex Sanchez suggested that 2 chairs were not really needed and Leonard agreed. Leonard, Alex, Hortenzia and I returned to La Casada Restaurant for a continuation of the dental symposium. The afternoon discussion covered a variety of dental subjects. The principal topic of discussion was hygiene and cleanliness. Various techniques of disinfecting all equipment in the dental office were discussed.

 

            The symposium concluded at 4 p.m. with good wishes from all and a hope that the symposium would be repeated next year, 2010.

 

U.S. and Honduran Dentists Learned From Each Other

  

 

            On Wednesday, Dr. Jensen, Dr. Alex and Dra. Hortenzia conducted a dental clinic in Pespire with Dra. Carmen Aida who is the dentist/hygienist who regularly works in the clinic in Pespire three days a week. On Wednesday the medical team conducted a clinic in Puerto Grande. On Wednesday evening we all had dinner at the Bahiaa Azul Restaurant on the waterfront in San Lorenzo . The food was good and the camaraderie was even better.

 

ACTIVITY IN PUERTO GRANDE

            On Thursday, January 8^th, the medical and dental team set up their clinics in the government owned office building in Puerto Grande. We were greeted at Puerto Grande by Pastor Natali Posadas and by dozens of screaming children who knew us from previous visits. The government sponsored building is a short distance from the Puerto Grande Presbyterian Church. The government building is relatively clean and well equipped. It was stifling hot which made life difficult for the doctors and dentists to conduct their clinics.

 

            While the doctors and dentists were doing their good work in the clinics, Dave Reid and I spent some time with Pastor Posadas to review the progress that was made on his Church and its facilities. The Sunday School Building, which the Trinity/Grace Group painted last year, is a marvel of what can be done in primitive conditions with no good communications. Lights have been installed inside and out at a cost of $350 which was paid for from our Mission Fund for last year. This building is now being used as a Manse which is home to Pastor Posadas, his wife and 3 children. Work is proceeding on the old Manse at Puerto Grande. However, the interior walls and roof have not been completed. Dave and I had a good discussion with Pastor Posadas about how we will proceed to finish the Manse. The next step will be to put up the interior walls and put the roof on. We estimate that it will cost about 57,000 Lempira or $3,000, to do this construction using local materials and local labor. Dave and I committed to underwriting this work to the limit of $3,000.  We are sending $500 to Pastor Posadas as a deposit to start work on the project. The $500 will cover the first month of labor by the caretaker for the Church plus supplies and materials necessary for doing some of the work.

 

Pastor Natalie Posadas

 

THE WEDDING OF THE MILLENIUM IN PUERTO GRANDE

            On Thursday afternoon work at the clinics tapered off and everyone walked over to the Church for the surprise wedding of Dr. Susan Pillsbury and Dr. Ronald David. The bride and groom wore their medical scrubs. Four lovely young Honduran ladies acted as bridesmaids in their Sunday best green satin dresses and a local boy of about 5 years of age was the ring-bearer. Dick Kurtz escorted the bride down the aisle. Reverend Richard Graugh and Pastor Posadas performed the nuptials.

 

Susan, Ron and Pastor

 

            Ron and Susan have dedicated the past 5 years of their lives to helping the people in Honduras . They have now dedicated the rest of their lives to working together on this project. We wish them happiness and health in their lives together.

 

OUR CONTACTS WITH EWB AND WITH THE U.S. EMBASSY

            Improving the supply of water for the communities of Puerto Grande and Moropocay continue to be a long term project which will require several years. Marel had escorted Ing. Luis Eveline and a group from Engineers Without Borders (EWB) to Puerto Grande last fall. EWB prepared an excellent report on the Puerto Grande water system. We met Ing. Eveline and representatives of EWB on two occasions while we were in Honduras . We established a good relationship with EWB during a Friday morning meeting with Ing. Eveline, his assistant, Caroline and Arvin who is President of the student branch of EWB. Even more exciting, we met and exchanged email with Jorge M. Aldana who is the Plans and Programs Manager for a group at the U.S. Embassy in Honduras . He is very enthusiastic about the water project and promises to have an answer about possible funding by the end of the year.

 

CHANGE OF NAME

            The mission to Honduras started with a few people and has expanded to many people from many different denominations and churches working together to improve the lives of people in Southwest Honduras. A name for this group was required and after much discussion, some serious, some not, the name KHISH was selected. This stands for KURTZ HUMANITARIAN INITIATIVE for SOUTHWEST HONDURAS. We hope to accomplish great things in the coming years. With your help we can do it!

                       

                                                                                    Thankfully submitted

                                                                                                                                   

                                                                                 Richard E. Kurtz                                                                                       for KHISH

  List of Participants

Abigail (Abi) Pillsbury -        Richmond, VA

Amy David -                            Richmond, VA

Brian Baird -                            Richmond, VA

Candice Schwalbach -            Honolulu, Hawaii

Cherry Corley -                       Richmond, VA

David Reid -                           Berwyn, PA

Denny Leeper -                       Berwyn, PA

Dick Kurtz -                            Berwyn, PA

Don Bovais -                           Berwyn, PA

Dr. Len Jensen -                       Drexel Hill, PA

Dr. Ron David -                      Richmond, VA

Dr. Susan Pillsbury -               Richmond, VA

Elizabeth Russell, R.N. -        Richmond, VA

Ken Draigh  -                          Port Jefferson, N.Y.

Martha Suarez -                      Berwyn, PA

Reneé Gould, R.N. -               Richmond, VA

Rev. Richard Graugh -           Port Jefferson, N.Y.

Sam Lowe -                             Richmond, VA

Dr. Adolfo Moreno -               Tegucigalpa, Honduras

Stephanie Moreno -                Tegucigalpa, Honduras

Dra. Hortenzia Valladares -   Tegucigalpa, Honduras

Dr. Alex Moreno -                  Tegucigalpa, Honduras

Francis -                                  Chaluteca, Honduras

Security

Rene Pulma

Fausto Mendoza Martinez

Drivers

Rigo

Isaac

Eddie

Julio

Translators

Maria Elana

Lyla