Upon arrival at Toncontin airport in Tegucigalpa, we are met and helped through customs by our Honduras contact . We regroup and organize our baggage and arrange for rental vehicles for travel to the site. Teams destined for Los Encinitos proceed directly to the site. Teams to San Marcos and El Algodonal generally travel to the hotel in Jicaro Galan, about a two hour trip. The El Algodonal team stays at the hotel every night and commutes to the worksite each day. The San Marcos team spends one night at the hotel and then drives two to three hours over dusty and winding roads to San Marcos.

San Marcos Team outside the hotel enroute to San Marcos

In all sites, the workday begins before daybreak. The El Algodonal team eats breakfast at the hotel before leaving for work. The Los Encinitos and San Marcos teams bathe in unheated water and eat breakfast prepared by the local hosts. In advance of our arrival, village leaders organize the scheduling of surrounding villages in order to facilitate efficient care. Patients are triaged according to their medical or dental needs. This medical and dental care is provided free of charge by the Cape CARES volunteers. Some sites do not have electricity so all treatment must be given during daylight hours, and sometimes even then the light of a flashlight is necessary.

Grinding corn for tortillas

While in Honduras we adopt the Honduran way of life. Most Honduran meals, including breakfast, begin with red beans, tortillas, and fried plantains. There is some meat, and cooked vegetables, often in soups. The dessert is usually local produce, delicious melons and bananas. One of the benefits is the opportunity to enjoy the local surroundings on foot. The people are very hospitable and gracious and often invite us into their homes to share their family life. We have learned how people support themselves in a subsistence economy. We have met midwives, rope makers, hammock makers, and people who make woven mats. For the most part, these people are farmers who work small family plots. Much work is done cooperatively. The women join together to make jellies and hand sewn articles, and the men pool the crops which are not needed by their families and sell them in the markets. Because we live and work so closely with these people, we develop strong bonds of friendship.

Historically, most of the dental care provided was surgical—extracting badly decayed teeth. As the years have progressed, we have emphasized education and prevention and now we are able to provide fillings, dental cleanings and fluoride treatments. Dentists and dental hygienists visit the schools to provide basic oral hygiene instruction and distribute toothbrushes. Physicians and nurses teach the school children about importance of physical cleanliness and proper handling of food as well as how to prevent communicable diseases, including STDs. On the medical side, treatment has gone from primarily treating acute problems, to managing and preventing chronic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes.

Oral care instruction at San Marcos school

On every trip, there has been an occasion on which the outcome would have been dramatically different had we not been there and able to provide acute and emergency care. In one case, a man fell down a well and had to be rescued. He was extracted from the well using an ironing board for a body splint, was stabilized, and sent to Tegucigalpa for further treatment. Another situation involved an eight year old boy who had partially amputated his thumb with a machete. He and his father walked for three hours to reach the clinic. Fortunately, the team included a hand surgeon and she was able to reattach the thumb and administer antibiotics. Another patient appeared one evening having been treated at the hospital in San Lorenzo five weeks previously. She was unable to walk and had a high fever. Our physician discovered that she had a five inch piece of cane lodged in her foot. The cane had not been found at the hospital. He was able to remove it by the light of several flashlights and lanterns.

At day’s end, when it is no longer light enough to see and provide care, we clean up and sterilize our equipment, and relax and review the day’s activities. We update our patient records, which are submitted to the Honduran government at the end of our visit. We socialize with the children of the village and play games with them. We have a leisurely dinner and watch the stars come out. We are usually in bed early, because we know we have an early start the next day.

Moonrise in San Marcos