Honduras - Mission Continued The most harrowing moment came Thursday, when the supply truck drivers got lost and were late showing up for a clinic. “That’s never happened before,” Myers said. It ended up being the longest day of the week. This year, Mike Blackwell, technical specialist for Lander’s WLG-TV, joined the delegation from the nursing department for the purpose of documenting their trip. The highlight of the week for him came on day three, when his friendship with Edduin Villela, a Honduran minister, created an opportunity for a visit to Villela’s brother’s home. Blackwell described the house, near Togopala, as adobe brick with a dirt floor and terra cotta roof. Although there was no electricity, hot running water, or heating and cooling system inside the house, he said the home was tastefully painted, clean and quite comfortable. He also said he was made to feel welcome. The woman of the house, who was cooking homegrown papas (potatoes) and frijoles (black beans) over an adobe fire pit, immediately stopped what she was doing when Blackwell came in. For the rest of the time that he was in the house, she, her husband and three children politely answered the questions their guest asked through a translator, and gave him their undivided attention. Blackwell declined an invitation to stay for dinner, but accepted the family’s offer of a cup of black coffee, made with coffee beans they had grown and prepared themselves. He described it as “the best cup of coffee I’ve ever had.” Blackwell called his hosts “wonderful, loving people” and said he saw “a tremendous family bond. The father was the head of the home. The wife deferred to him and the children deferred to both of them.” The visit reinforced his belief that “you don’t need things to be happy.” The Hondurans who came to the clinics the VIMM team set up may have been on the receiving end of the health care, but Lee said there was a payoff for the caregivers, too. She said the nursing students who made the trip gained experience with such diverse tasks as registering and educating patients, working in the pharmacy, sterilizing instruments, taking vital signs, giving injections and assisting with pulling teeth. She said, “There was nothing we asked them to do that they complained about. Their love for people really came out.” The dates for next year’s trip to Honduras have already been set, and Amanda Rostron, a junior nursing major from Darlington, is one of several participants in this year’s trip who have expressed interest in going again.
Right: Mike Blackwell, technical specialist for Lander’s WLG-TV, takes a break from documenting the trip to make some friends. Far right: The Honduran children who came to the clinics offered by the VIMM team were delighted to receive their own copies of the New Testament and a coloring book about nurses.
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Lander Magazine • Fall 2012
“This trip allowed me to combine two very important aspects of my life: my love for the Lord and my desire to help others,” she said. “Educationally, I was exposed to situations and patients that I would not see in the states. On a personal level, I found the trip very humbling.” She said she “would love” to do it again.
Lander mission team members pose for a photo in Monquecagua. Front row, left to right, are instructor of nursing Ashley Lee and nursing students Amanda Rostron, Heather Rampey, Kristen Davis and Amanda Belcher. Back row, left to right, are nursing student Lauren Johnson, assistant professor of nursing Leslie Myers and nursing student Christopher Chastine.
The sunglasses station at a clinic attracts a crowd.
In the Honduran mountains, scenes of stark poverty alternate with scenes of striking natural beauty.