Hola from Honduras

Hi blog readers! I{m in Honduras on a medical mission trip. Been here for two days now. Seen quite a bit. I{m working with a ministry here in hondras that reaches out to street kids particularly boys. They have a residential facility for about 12 boys that works toward getting them off of yellow shoe glue (the highly addictive very cheap drug of choice for street kids) and getting them an education. Several of their boys have graduated from the homeschool they provide and are in college in central america and in the states. Some of their boys have gone back to the streets. But being with the boys has been a real highlight so far. They are extrodinary young men ywho have been through more suffering in their short lives than I can imagine. Yesterday we went to the bridge where lot os the street kids hang out and did a very rudimentary clinic. We saw lots of rotten teeth and untreated wounds. One guy came up having just been in a knife fight with a pretty good laceration on his hand. Unfortunately we had a surgeon but no sutures so we cleaned it out (cleaned by your favorite nursing student!!!) and literally put a bandaid on it. Most of the kids were sniffing yellow glue and were very very strung out. Unreal! Tomorrow we are doing a more formal clinic in a planned community for folks who were displaced after hurricane Mitch. Folks from outlying areas come in whne the clinic is open so we{ll probably see lots of people. Overall, the trip is going really well. I{m enjoying the medical aspects. I{m speaking more Spanish than I thought I could. Understanding very little that is said to me but a smile and a hug seems to go a long way here. It is hard to see such massiv eneeds and know the only thing we have is a pack of vitamins and some anti parasite medicine. When I get back I{ll ppost some pictures....

Adios.