Selling firewood is a full-time job for some men and women. This fellow has no gas bill, as the wood is cut by hand and hauled to town with horses. The horses are so well trained that they just walk along with him--no lead rope.

Inside the school is one room. It has one light bulb. The 'blackboard' is green. I can remember when blackboards were black; they changed to green while I was in school. Now they are white and becoming 'smart boards'.

Remember the days of one room school houses in our country? Still common in Central America. This was in the village that we conducted our medical campaign in. It has two outdoor toilets, a cistern, and a small storage building. Grades 1-6 go here. Few go beyond that because of the distance to a high school. Those who go on must find a place to live in town and stay there during the week.

A view of the sleeping area for men at the Ocotepeque prison. This room is about 18 by 24 feet and has 33 men in it.

Lots going on in this photo. Jorge is explaining to a patient how to take the medicine being given to her. Dea is doing QA work on the meds prescribed by Doc Harris and put together by Kristi and Sharon.

On the day we traveled to Honduras, the weather was bad and many flights were cancelled. One such flight was the one that Melvin and Juanita were on, so they had to cancel the trip. Juanita was one of our two translators. We concluded that God would help us out, and He did! The lady in stripes is Isi, a lady who works as a medical translator for a hospital in South Carolina. Her husband was the assistant bus driver on our trip from the airport in San Salvador to Honduras. She helped us on Monday and Tuesday and was terrific! We plan to try to go to Ocotepeque when she is there again.

This is the photo of the basilica that should have been in the previous post.

The basilica at Espuipula, Guatemala is a huge building and tourist attraction. One photo shows it from a distance and the other with our team on the steps in front of it. We arrived there on Friday at time for mass, so it was full of people--and the singing from it was beautiful.

One of the open sores on a prisoner that needed medical attention. This prisoner said it had been open for 7 months.

We had lunch at Tomasita's restaurant with Jorge, Gloria, and their girls. This is a great family to be with and very hard workers for the church.

Kristi K. with some of the cute children at the Ocotepeque clinic.

Our medical team was very successful this year by doing some things differently than we had in the past. We discussed the pros and cons of large teams and treating large groups and made a deliberate decision to go with the small team (8-12) concept. We looked at the advantages of this concept and found many, including the ease of transportation, ease of coordination, less space required to operate in, better ability to cross-train workers, and the ability to go to the locations that are typically denied medical care. It also avoids having so many show up just for free meds ---they travel from other areas when they hear about it. And a big advantage is being more personal with patients. The doctor can visit with them and spend time with them rather than seeing a huge line of folks and feeling helplessly overwhelmed by the masses.
Our first priority was to treat the church members of both congregations that we support. Our next priority was to treat the prisoners at the local state prison. They get no medical care otherwise. After that, we chose EL PIE DE LA CUESTA, a village accessible only by a very rough road. The name means ‘foot of the hill’, and it is an appropriate name. To get medical care requires a long walk or a long, uncomfortable ride.
We used local church members for registration and for explaining to the people how to take their meds. We used Bible Institute students to hand out literature and visit with patients. We used our ministers to teach Bible concepts to them. Those who were interested in Bible study were studied with on the spot. Those who wanted more Bible study were given a New Testament and contact information. We made sure that God got the glory and the church was recognized.
Because of what was done, the prison is now open to our ministers for Bible study, and the villagers said they would welcome the ministers for preaching and Bible study in the future.
We will use this concept in the future. It could be expanded into two teams if each had a doctor and a nurse. Translators are essential, and it is quite helpful to have some others on the team who are at least partially bi-lingual. We are developing a list of equipment, supplies, and medicines needed for the teams and will continually improve the list and the operating procedures.

We are home! After 10 days of work and fun, we had a long day of travel and arrived home.
The photo shows one of the many statues at the Copan ruins that we toured, and that tour was awesome.
Our flights home were challenging because of the severe weather. Kristi got home a little late, Doc was about 3 hours late to Fayetteville. Dea, Sharon, Tawnya and I were supposed to go to Fayetteville but were diverted to Tulsa where Melvin picked us up. Our luggage went to Fayetteville and was delivered to our house about 11:30pm.

I will be posting lots of photos over the next few days of what we experienced.

Jorge explained to the waiting people at the clinic that we were from the Church of Christ and would help them for the glory of God. Many told him they would welcome him for Bible study or preaching in the future.

It takes a tremendous amount of faith in God to put your family and friends in the back of a pickup driven by a stranger and send them off on a very rough mountain road with no guardrails or 911 !

As we left the prison, the guards asked to have a photo taken to include them and us.

Yesterday we traveled to Esquipula, Guatemala and toured the basilica with the statue of the black Jesus. Google 'black jesus' or 'black christ' to read about this place. It is impressive!
From there we traveled to Copan, Honduras and today will tour the Mayan ruins here.

We are well and enjoying some time off. Tonight we will be back in Ocotepeque.

This was our team from the US for the clinic work. We had several helpers from the local church as well. Kristi Burns was with us until Thursday night, when she went to La Palma to work with the other team for next week.

Kristi K. playing duck duck goose with the kids.

Our clinic went well today and we are finished with the hard work. Now to put things away and do some traveling for a couple days. We are all well and healthy. Kristi Burns leaves us tonight for La Palma.
The photo shows our setup in a hut with mud walls and dirt floor--but very adequate.
We all agreed that it was a great work to do for the people we served.

We had a great day in the mountains. Lots of school children and parents came to the site at about 4000 feet AGL. It is a poor community that has no medical people or facility.
Will post photos in a few days.

Kristi is back healthy and working again.

We really enjoyed today working at the prison! The guards were very courteous, and the prisoners also. Some of them badly needed medical help, and we were able to be of service.

Our team is wonderful! Everyone finds their niche and goes to work.

Even I found something to do. I found a box of glasses that Melvin had made up earlier and set them up like a Walmart rack so the older prisoners could try them and find ones that worked. An estimated 30 pairs were distributed.
Marcos, Jorge, and the institute students handed out literature and about 25 New Testaments. Marcos spent time with several of the prisoners teaching Bible lessons. The door is now open for them to come back and conduct Bible studies.
After we finished the clinic, we toured the prison and saw the living conditions.

Tonight we went to worship with the La Antigua congregation. They are a wonderful, loving bunch of people. Jesus from San Ignatio was there and it was good to see him.

We are now preparing for a trip tomorrow into the mountains to work with several small villages where medical help is not available.

Kristi Burns was sick today and missed work. She is better tonight. God sent Isi to take her place. Isi is from South Carolina and was here visiting her family. She is an excellent translator and was wonderful help. We look forward to working with her in June as she plans to be here then.

Continue to pray for us. Ralph

We are all well and healthy and busy--and having fun. Sunday was preparation day sorting meds and visiting, then worship with the local church. The congregation here is fantastic! They are probably the huggingest bunch anywhere in the world, and they sing their hearts out!
The carnival in town is quite noisy, but inside the hotel we hear very little except the random, loud fireworks--ALL NIGHT LONG!.
Monday our team set up in the church building and treated all of the church members from Ocotepeque and La Antigua. It was great to see everyone find their niche and be happy in their work.
Today we will go to the prison and treat both prisoners and guards. They get no care otherwise unless they are near death.
I cannot get my laptop to access the internet here so am using the hotel computer when it is available. I will post some photos with the iphone when I can.
Please continue to pray for our safety and success.

Here is our team this morning. We had a very long day yesterday with delays and other problems. Two team members had cancelled flights and did not get here. They will come on a later trip.
We had a long delay at immigration as thousands arrived just ahead of us. It is spring break and lots of groups are coming down now. The medicines had not received official approval so we declared them and prepared to pay the tax. After inspecting them, the customs people said to go ahead-no problem.
We were met by Jorge and Marcos with a bus/police escort. We enjoyed visiting with them on the trip up the hill. We stopped for PUPUSAs and had terrific service and food. Arrived at La Palma at 6:30, visited briefly with Trinidad, got some supplies from storage, and then came on to Ocotepeque.
The local doctor said he is the authority on who can do medical work and what medicines can come into Honduras, so we did not request permission in advance. He told us if there was a problem at customs he would come OK it. There was not a problem. We arrived at the hotel about 8:30. The town was alive with a carnival, and all but me went out for some fun. I slept.
This morning we enjoyed breakfast in leisure fashion and will sort meds and do home visits this morning. The worship here is at 5 pm and we look forward to that.
All are healthy and happy!