30.6.09

Public Hospitals Taken over by Military

Well, here's the latest update - while I was uploading that last post, the nurse I mentioned walked past and told me that indeed the consults have been canceled for tomorrow. And well, I guess the subject of this email says it all. The public hospitals have been taken over by the military, and the doctors are not working.

What madness has come over this country?

Update on the happenings in Honduras

It’s difficult to get a feel for exactly what is happening in the city – you’ll hear one thing from one person and something different from others. Around noon yesterday I spoke with one friend in Tegucigalpa, who said things were calm for the most part. Late last night I spoke with another friend who told me things are quite “feo” – pretty ugly – in the city. He said people have been going crazy in the streets – riots and protests all over the place. Then I spoke with a long-term visitor here at NPH who was just in the city today, and he said he wouldn’t have known anything was going on just based on what he saw in the city. So, I guess the intensity of it all just depends on where you are and when.


We are all still fine here on the Ranch, but we are beginning to feel the burden of what is taking place in the city. Our office has been closed since Friday. All child care workers that live in Teguc that had the weekend off remain in Teguc, as all public transportation has stopped running. Our bus from the orphanage is not running either. This also means the teachers from our school are not coming out from the city, so our kids aren’t in classes. The child care workers are getting anxious to get a break, and get back home to see their families. And well, some of us are running low on supplies and it would be fantastic to be able to get in the city to go to the store. Especially since we have/had a nice 4th of July part planned for this weekend. Happy Independence Day, huh??


One of the nurses from our clinic that has been in Teguc since Friday showed up this afternoon to organize charts to take a bunch of our children into the city tomorrow for specialist consults. She has been in the public hospital in the city for the past two days, taking care of one of our young children who had a small operation yesterday. She said that when she was getting ready to leave the hospital yesterday afternoon, she ran into complete chaos in the streets. She said the HSBC bank just across the street had all of its windows shattered, and the protesters in the streets had gone crazy – throwing rocks and who knows what else at the other surrounding businesses. She said the door of the Dunkin’ Donuts just across the street had been shattered – and an armed guard was trying to prevent people from rushing in. Why Dunkin’ Donuts???


She said as she was walking through the hospital preparing to leave, there were protesters running in off the streets from every corner– with bandanas on their faces and Che Guevara t-shirts on. The idea was to run into the hospital because they thought the police wouldn’t be able to take them that way. Let me tell you…that certainly didn’t slow the police down. She said the emergency room was overflowing with injured rioters and police officers. The doctors of course are on the side of the protesters, therefore denied attention to the police and only took care of the injured protesters. I can only imagine what a mess that was. Well, the nurse decided to stay a couple of extra hours in the hospital until things calmed down a bit.


I suggested to the nurse that maybe we just cancel our appointments in the city tomorrow, especially after hearing the stories of what was going on there today. Luckily she was able to get a hold of the doctors and got the consults postponed until a later date.


So – news. Mel’s plan is to return to Honduras on Thursday along with the leader of the Organization of American States. However, the new foreign minister has warned that there is a warrant for the arrest of Mel Zelaya if he returns to Honduras. The UN is backing the president, and is not recognizing the newly formed government, under the “control” of Micheletti. They are calling for the reinstatement of Zelaya as President of Honduras. Zelaya has made a pledge that once he is put back into power, he will not attempt to run for a second term in office as President, as he had previously hoped.


In response to the illegal removal of President Zelaya, several countries have removed their ambassadors from the country. Guatemala, Nicaragua and El Salvador have all agreed to close off commercial transportation across the border of Honduras. This supposedly will last 48 hours. From what I hear, it is just that – commercial transport. All private travel and tour buses are still passing – as of this afternoon.


From what I have heard, international aid also is being cut off until Zelaya is put back into power.


That’s about it for now. I’ll do my best to keep you posted. Our electricity is pretty hit and miss, which means internet isn’t always working. But, I’ll do my best.


Thanks for all the continued support. The Honduran people are getting pretty down about their country these days…

29.6.09

Political Unrest in Honduras

For those of you who have not heard about the military overthrowing Manuel Zelaya, president of Honduras, yesterday morning, consider yourself informed. Sunday morning at dawn the Honduran military (between 200 – 300 troops) took the president from his home and flew him to Costa Rica. This was all in response to Zelaya’s plan to hold a national vote the same day, where the country would be asked their opinion if a referendum should be held to change the constitution. Polls were to open just an hour after he was taken into the hands of the military.


Zelaya’s presidential term is up in January 2010. He would like to run for a second term, that which is not allowed under current Honduran law, which is why he was pushing for a change in the constitution. The national vote had been ruled unconstitutional by Congress and the Supreme Court, and was not backed by the military. In response to the lack of support from the military in organizing the vote, Zelaya canned the head of the armed forces, who was later reinstated by the Supreme Court. Since Zelaya was going to push forward with the vote, Congress and the military took drastic measures, and took him out of power.


Michelleti, the leader of Congress, was sworn in as interim president until January, just hours after Mel was ousted. Presidential elections are scheduled for November. One of the first things Michelleti did was imposed a 9pm – 6am curfew in the city for Sunday and Monday. Supposedly a fake resignation letter, “written” by Mel Zelaya, was presented to Congress. Mel refuses that he resigned from his position as Honduran President, and in the eyes of Congress, Michelleti is now president.


Today Zelaya met with other leftist leaders from Latin America to discuss the happenings, where much support has been shown for Zelaya. There has been talk of Venezuela invading Honduras if Mel is not put back into the presidential position. The problem is that there is a lot of talk, and nobody really is quite sure what is going on.


The coup has had little effect on us here at the Ranch. We have been affected in small ways - our travel this weekend has been restricted, as travel across the country has been strongly discouraged due to possible protests and riots. Yesterday all morning the country was without power, all lines of communication had been cut (cell phones weren’t working, and apparently all news programs had been cut from the air). I initially thought it was due to the weather, since during the rainy season it is not uncommon to have frequent power outages. However, others were saying differently.


I have heard from friends that live in Tegucigalpa, the capital city, that overall things are “calm” in the city. However, there is heavy military presence, especially around the presidential palace and other governmental buildings. The military has blocked off several roads, and there are occasional protests and riots. Tear gas has been used on protesters, who have taken to throwing rocks at military, burning piles of tires in the streets, etc.


Well, I think this is enough information for now. I’ll do my best to keep my blog updated. But for the most recent information check either CNN or BBC.


I assure you that for now we are all fine here at NPH. Thank you to those of you who have emailed or call to make sure we’re all safe!


Much love,

annie

1.6.09

The "Advance Team" has landed

Thursday morning we heard on the news of the 7.1 earthquake that shook Honduras, Guatemala and Belize, along with warnings of a tsunami that was soon to follow. This just the day before taking off for our medical brigade to Honduras. Due to the concerns of the team, we elected to send the "advance team" to scope out the situation. The "Advance Team" was made up of our fearless leader Dr. Patrick Mason, in-country team leader Annie (myself), and our moral and spiritual leader Dino Tintin.

After another thrilling landing on the shortest runway in the world, the advance team was deployed on our mission. We quickly scoped out the situation, and decided to do some recon at the nearest Espresso Americano with a Mochacino in hand. Following an uneventful trip to NPH we determined that our immediate surroundings were safe. We received advance word from the priests up in Olanchito that the brigade sites up north were safe and uneffected by the earthquake. The only obstacle was one bridge that had been taken out by the quake.

After carb-loading with pasta the evening before, on Saturday morning we headed out on our first mission to Comayagua for a hearty Dunkin' Donuts breakfast - which consisted of a bagel sandwich and multiple cups of coffee. We then continued on our way to Hogar Tierra Santa (the Holy Land) - an orphanage near Comayagua. At the orphanage we met a team from the University of Minnesota and decided to join forces to evaluate the 130 children at the home.

We set up clinic in the school run by teachers that are employed by the orphanage. We had to be creative and utilize the facilities available to set up a make shift clinic. The outdoor hallways were used for signing in and pre-clinic, and 3 classrooms were used for the physical assessments. Our examination tables were a teacher's desk in one room, and in the other two rooms 3 student's desks were pushed together.


(Photo - Pat and I standing in the main street in town to get to the orphanage)

Over the next two days we were able to see over 80 of the children providing the first complete physical examination many of them had ever had. We helped to develop the first medical record system for the home. It was a great privilege to work with several global studies students from the University of Minnesota that organized the trip and helped to care for the children in the home. Overall, it was a great trip, and hopefully will lead to an ongoing relationship.

Having completed our mission, we returned to our home base at Hotel Honduras Maya for some margarita refreshments (Christine - no worries. Pat says "I did not partake in ANY of the margarita celebration")

Monday being the traditional day of rest for medical brigades in Honduras (that may or may not be true), we decided that day 3 of our trip should consist of intense brigade planning poolside in the morning (when Annie managed to get severely burned in the 10am sun...). This was followed by tracking down our medications we ordered from Germany which were stuck in customs, and then arranging the pickup from the office near Casa Angeles. While there we visited children in the special needs home.

To celebrate our success in getting our box of medications out of customs, we decided to make our cab driver swing by Espresso Americano so we could get our fix of Mochacinos. After stopping at the first one, we received the devastating news that their granita machine was out 0f order. Our advance team put our heads together, and found another Espresso Americano where we were successful in finding our delightful frozen goodness.

Fully satisfied, we returned to our base at Hotel Honduras Maya to continue our brigade planning.

Overall we feel our mission was successful. We found no significant earthquake damage, but did find numerous moccacinos which has kept us going strong until now. We are now anxiously awaiting the arrival of the main force to complete our brigade in Olanchito. The team arrives tomorrow, and we take off on Wednesday for our site up in the mountains of northern Honduras.

Advance Team here signing out for now. More brigade details to follow.

This blog was composed by Advance Team leader (Pat) and In-Country leader (Annie)

P.S. Wanted to send a shout out to my "little sister" in Maryland (Pat's daughter) Casey and all her friends who follow my blog.