New Doors for the Office – Nov. 22

The carpenter has been here the last two days working on new doors. He made the doors from scratch and was installing them. This morning he brought his little two year old son, Japhet, along to help with the finishing touches. Japhet would wander back and forth by my office carrying pieces of wood and giving me a smile each trip. I could here his dad listening to the prattle with one ear and voicing that universal, “mmmhmm” sound that dad’s make when they are busy working. For me, as Advent season is just a week away, it was a reminder of how Jesus began his life – fragrant wood chips dusting his hair, leftover pieces of wood clutched in fat fingers and Joseph giving him the occasional ‘mmmhmm’ just to keep him interested and to let him know that he was a special son.

Several reminders this week of how close to the bone most people live here. While not as close to life and death as places I have lived in Africa, the reality of falling off a cliff is constantly present.

Several of us went to visit three Botoquines (little medical/medicine supply centres) that were begun by CPI over the last few years. We visited the ladies who are in charge of dispensing some of the medicines and doing rough first aid. They each have a small cabinet of supplies that is much the size of the cabinet in most bathrooms in Canada. They treat about thirty people a week and do what they can.

Most of their treatment deals with diarrhoea and colds/asthma. Since nearly every family uses wood fires to cook with, they are constantly exposed to smoke which does nothing helpful to general well being. Of course, it is the women and children who spend the most time in the smoky areas.

The cost of a Lorena stove, a fuel efficient stove that uses about 60% less wood and features a chimney to take the smoke out and away is too much for people to think about. The labour costs for a stove are $80.00 and the materials about (I’m guessing here) $30.00. I wonder if we can’t figure out a way to help different groups of people learn how to make a simple version and then move on up from there. Firewood is running about $0.10 a stick so it really wouldn’t take many months to pay for the stove in savings – let alone gains in health.

Another area of hard financial choice is in the area of birth control. The cost of the shots for a month’s protection is 30-40 Lempiras ($2.00). Of course, I think that the cost of a pregnancy is much higher but when there is no money, the risk is taken.

We spent a few minutes with one of the ladies going over the rehydration drink featured in “Where There Is No Doctor”. I need to try making it with some fruit juice added (or tea or coffee) for flavouring. I know that the tea is, to some degree, a diuretic but if we can find a way for people to sort of like the stuff, they won’t be as anxious for other treatments. The treatment that they really want is IV rehydration. That is just too scary for me. Especially when it is being administered by barely trained personnel. Don’t want to go there at all.

We visited a couple who have a small plant nursery. They have traditionally gotten a loan in November/December from CPI to purchase extra plants for sale during the holiday season. The loan was about $200.00. This year, CPI is in between projects and so the loans aren’t available. So, a major source of yearly income is at risk for this family.

Our visits to these small villages highlighted how quickly life changes metres away from the major highways. We were still within two or three kilometres so really hadn’t gotten into anything remote. It will be interesting to see what life is like further back in the hills.
Last night I checked my blog site and had a surge of hope. My readers had gone up 50%. I clicked on the space to see who had joined. Alas, “Sassy” had found her (his?) way to the site. How many people are out there with nothing to do but send Spam and what not to every site in the world?

Power is out, carpenter is gone and the battery on the computer is running down. TTYL

Bryan