Today is Sunday, and it was my day off. Knowing this, I stayed up a little bit later last night working on the blog and uploading some text and pictures. I set my clock, expecting to get an extra 2 hours of sleep, but had a wake-up call around 06:00 am from Daniel. Miriam’s mother-in law had passed away in the night. I was asked to take the day shift to cover her hours.

Fortunately, Mirna also agreed to come to work with me. Some of you may remember the PowerPoint presentation of Honduras. In it, I show a picture and short video of Maria Ester at the radio station, teaching a Sunday School class for children on the radio. Mirna is the sister of Maria Ester. She and her family are active in the local church.

Our only patient (so far) today is Dani, the young boy of 15 months who was admitted yesterday for fever, vomiting, and diarrhea. His parents attend one of the mission churches, and his mother is a Sunday School teacher there. She told me that she usually had a class of 26 children, but had to find someone else to cover for her since she was in the clinic with her son. She has also been sick with the same complaints, and we medicated her while she was here with oral medications.

Both are feeling better now. The little boy, Dani, will receive a second dose of IV antibiotics around 1:00 pm, and we will then call Dr. Maldonado for discharge orders if he is still feeling well.
So far, Dani is much better and is smiling, playing, and singing. He wanted to play with my stethscope so I gave it to him. As soon as he got it, he put it around his neck the same way that I had been wearing it. We told him that he was a “Future Doctor of Honduras.”

When we called Dr. Maldonado, he said that the little girl that we sent home yesterday worsened again during the night and that he had sent her to the hospital this morning.
I had another hand wound come in today for suturing. This one was fairly simple so I cleaned and sutured it by myself.
Immedicately after I finished at the clinic I went with Sarah, Zach and some of the students to the Children’s Services at Agua Helada. After the teaching portion the children finished their memory verse craft today and then we put away the visualizations. Larissa helped by picking up the items from the floor for us.
After the service, we walked down the road to the house of one of the people in the church. In order to there, we had to cross over a branch of the river via a home-made bridge. They had a dinner fixed for use of tortillas, refried beans, cheese, and a small piece of chicken. I couldn’t eat the cheese because it was not pasteurized, but everything else was very good.

After we got back we went to the visitation for Miriam’s mother-in-law. It is customary to have a wake with the body during the night followed by an early morning funeral. By law the person has to be buried within 24-36 hours of death because the bodies are not embalmed. The funeral is to be held tomorrow morning at 7:00 am.

Here is a picture of Miriam with her mother-in-law in 2001.