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Wednesday, February 12, 2014 • The Islands’ Sounder
Surgical brigade in Honduras Celebrate the legacy of Seeger
Nick and Phoebe Hershenow and Sister Kolbe, a nun who lives on “the Ranch.” by PHOEBE HERSHENOW Special to the Sounder
We spent the first week of the new year volunteering at a recently built surgery center at Ranch Santa Fe, a large home for orphaned and abandoned children near Tegucigalpa, Honduras. I am a nurse practitioner at the Orcas Family Health Center and I did pre-operative patient histories and exams, and my husband Nick (who works part-time for the Land Bank on Orcas) worked as an interpreter, facilitating conversations between patients and doctors. In some ways it was a step back into a previous era in our lives. In 2002-2003, with our two children (13 and 15 at the time) we lived and worked for a year at Rancho Santa Fe, which is one of 9 orphanages in Latin America and the Caribbean run by Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos. As the medical provider at a clinic providing basic health care to surrounding communities, every day Phoebe saw people suffering from operable
conditions that in a more affluent country would have been treated. But in Honduras, one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere, effective treatment is seldom an option for many people. The surgery center is an effort to address this situation. It was built and funded thanks to the efforts of a Minneapolis-area couple, an registered nurse and an orthopedic surgeon, and, like the NPH orphanages, is closely associated with the Catholic Church (though we are not). It has three well-equipped OR rooms and hosts three to four two week ‘brigades’ each year. Volunteer surgical teams from the U.S – orthopedic, ENT, general surgery, and OBGYN – perform a variety of surgeries at little cost to most patients. The rest of the year the center is staffed mainly by Hondurans (including a nurse and an orthopedic surgeon who grew up on the orphanage). The long term vision for the center is that it function as a kind of training cen-
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ter and teaching “hospital,” especially for kids raised on the orphanage and now entering medical fields, with continued input and teaching from specialists coming from the U.S.. For better or worse, medical ‘brigades’ – shortterm missions bringing health care professionals from more affluent countries – have become one of the main providers of health care in many underdeveloped countries. No matter how well-intentioned, such efforts often prove to be ignorant of the context that they’re working and poorly integrated with existing services, and therefore not necessarily very helpful to anyone. So it was good to participate in a brigade with a long-term vision and some cross-cultural awareness, providing people in need with a critical, concrete service that’s otherwise unavailable. Because the members of the brigade were focused not only on performing surgeries but on sharing their knowledge, we learned a lot. Plus it was really wonderful to rekindle a connection with the NPH orphanage, a unique and wonderful place in its own right. But that’s another story.
TeeJay’s
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Observatory, and Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, founded by Pete and Toshi Seeger in 1966. To request a song, lead a song, sign up to help with set up or clean up, or learn more about Pete Seeger, contact Sharon Abreu at 376-5773 or sharmuse@gmail.com.
CAO approval date postponed by STEVE WEHRLY Journal reporter
The long and winding road for the county critical areas ordinances is approaching a milestone, but the end is far from sight. If the San Juan County Council follows the plan it announced at the Feb. 4 council meeting, the date that the ordinances will go into effect will be moved from March 1 to March 31. If the CAO takes effect March 31, plans and permit applications filed before March 31 will be considered under the laws and regulations in effect before the CAO updates were passed in 2012. After March 31, plans and applications will be considered under the new law, including the new amendments presently being considered and which are expected to be approved March 5. The council will vote on Feb. 11 to move the effective date so that Bob Jarman, who has been hospitalized with a bacterial virus, can return to the
council to participate and vote on the package of CAO amendments now before the council. The amendments address the order issued in September 2013 by the state Growth Management Hearings Board, which portions of the CAO did not comply with state law. That order followed petitions for review of the CAO by the Common Sense Alliance, Friends of the San Juans and others. That GMHB order was itself appealed to the San Juan County Superior Court. The public hearing on the amendments that started on Feb. 4 will continue on Feb. 11, when the council will accept further public testimony and begin consideration of the amendments. Final council action is scheduled for March 5. The council and the county prosecuting attorney’s office are designing the amendments now under consideration to satisfy the GMHB, which must decide if the CAO as amended is
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The Feb. 19 edition has the following early deadlines this week:
at Oddfellows Hall
$3 and $5 Thurs and Fri from 11 a.m.
360-298-2007
A community concert celebrating the life and legacy of Pete Seeger on Sunday, Feb. 23, from to 3 to 6 p.m. at Emmanuel Parish Hall. Bring songbooks (like "Rise Up Singing" if you have it), instruments if you like, coffee/tea or snacks to share (gluten-free encouraged). Bring elders. Bring kids. Local musicians include Irthlingz (Sharon Abreu and Mike Hurwicz), Cali Bagby, Carl Burger, Marc Cohen, Carolyn Cruso, Bruce Harvie, Susan Osborn, The Olga Symphony, The Parking Angels and children from the Salmonberry School. In true Pete Seeger form, any and all are welcome and encouraged to sing-along. The concert is free. Donations are welcome to cover the cost of renting the space. If we raise more, they’ll donate it to two nonprofits: Indian Island Marine Health
376-6337
Legals: Due Wednesday at noon Classifieds: Due Friday at noon Press releases and letters: Due Thursday at noon
“in compliance” with the requirements of the Growth Management Act. The original update was enacted by the six-person council in late 2012 with an effective date in early 2013, but the three-member council elected in November 2012 extended the effective date until March 1, 2014 to allow the appeals to go forward. The present schedule calls for the council to file its amendments with the growth board on March 19. Objections to the amendments must be filed with the GMHB by Apr. 2 and responses to the objections must be filed by Apr. 14. The final growth board compliance hearing is scheduled for Apr. 24, possibly in Friday Harbor. The growth board can reject the council’s amendments and send the CAO back to the county for further action, although that is not an expected result. If the GMHB approves the county amendments, that decision can be appealed a second time to the San Juan County Superior Court. Meanwhile, the first appeal of the GMHB to the San Juan County Superior Court is scheduled for a hearing on the merits on March 19, which will be followed within weeks by a decision by Judge Don Eaton. After that decision, any party can appeal to the state Court of Appeals and then to the state Supreme Court. Final resolution may be two or three years away.