Would you like to meet the team in Honduras?

Hello,

Would you like to meet the team behind the scenes?

When a team gets to Honduras, they arrive and ask: What's next? All of those details are already arranged. I've been asked "Who does the arranging?" with some effort, I didn't say anything about divine providence or magic. I've been asked this enough, that it is time to introduce the team who arrange the details in Honduras.

I've mentioned Cindy Ceballos in several other posts. Cindy is the UMVIM medical coordinator for Honduras. She is a registered nurse with extensive experience in nursing, pharmaceutical sales and missionary work. Prior to coming to Honduras, Cindy and her husband David worked as missionaries in Barcelona, Spain. Her official biography is here. Her husband, David is pastor of the Methodist church in Danli, Honduras. His biography is here.



A reminder: many potent things come in small packages.
Cayenne pepper, UMVIM Medical Coordinators and dynamite all come to mind.
She gets things done. If you are headed that way, make the time to get in contact with her.
Her biography has her e-mail and other contact information.

( Advertisement posted by Blair w/o Cindy's knowledge: )

Please note that the biographies have information about donations to help Cindy and David with their work in Honduras. It's tax deductible and literally in Cindy's job description to make sure it gets used well. Just a thought, but worth a moment of your time.

( End Advertising, back to the blogging )


Cindy arranged the translators we worked with in Honduras. Rigo, Alejandro and Fernando worked with us for the week. Rigo is the pastor of a local church. He joined us after church on Sunday and staid the week. His English is from Chicago. It is quite good. Being a Cubs fan, we make sure to bring him St. Louis Cardinals stuff every year. He is a good sport about it though. Alejandro lived in New Orleans as a boy. He likes just about all sports. Both of them have exceptional language skills. I wish my Spanish were on a par with their English. Fernando is a university student. He is going to a the bilingual school. His English is very good with minimal accent. He will complete a degree in International Business in December. Some of his ideas regarding micro finance sound interesting.

Here are a couple of pictures of them with Abby and Laura.



Laura - Rigo - Abby - Alejandro




Fernando - Abby - Alejandro


While we were there, we worked at the local church.

Pastor Luis is the pastor of the United Methodist Church in Talanga. Here is a picture of him and his family.



Pastor Luis was a welder for many years prior to becoming a pastor. He is working his way through seminary at this time. His wife Norma and family are very warm and welcoming when we come to Talanga.

Well, that's the Honduran home team.

Thanks for reading. Next post is about our US supporters. Stay tuned folks.

Blair

2009 Jan 27 - from the Patient's point of view

Hello,

Last week we posted about the work we did in Honduras and how much it was needed. I've had several people ask about what it was like and what I thought about the trip. I'm going to do some follow up posts talking about this.

To start with, there is a great need for medical and dental care in that part of Honduras. Every morning there was a long line of people waiting for us. In a city of about 18,000 people, this isn't surprising. What surprised me was how far people were traveling to get to us. I think the winner of the "I came the farthest to get this dental care" award goes to a family of four who got up at 4:00 am to walk 3 hours to catch a bus for a 2 hour ride to see the dentists. When that story got out, closing time got pushed back a bit to help that family.

As a translator, I spent a lot of time talking to both the patients and the dentists. All of the patients were appreciative of the work being done. That is not too surprising. What surprised me was the comment "Gosh, these guys are easy to deal with." I heard words to that affect from every member of the team, at least once in the week. I'm a translator not a medical professional, so this did not make much sense to me. I asked for more details. Everybody replied that in a US clinic, if you made somebody wait 4 hours before seeing them, you probably would have a handful on your hands when you did see them. Not here. Every one of these people knew that you were there to help, every one of them appreciated the work you were doing and every adult tried to cooperate with you as much as they could. That was a nice change for the dentists.

To continue on, let's take a walk through the clinic and see what the first patient of the day would have seen. You already know what the line they stood in would look like. Once the clinic started, they would go to the registration desk. There they would fill out a form that would give the Dentist the information needed to do the work safely.




From here, you would spend some time waiting to be examined.

After a dentist had seen you, you would probably get some x-rays.
Here is one person getting x-rays done.





This is a fully portable system. Here we were using a digital receiver to capture the image and put it onto a laptop computer. It can as easily work with photographic film. The emitter runs on the same battery as a DeWalt 18 volt drill.

From here, a patient would be looking at where the cleanings and fillings were done.
Here is what this person saw when they stood up:





The left hand chair was cleaning. This is the one that Norm Fryberger and I worked in 2007. The right hand chair was for fillings. Tammy Stelling and Paul Moore kept that chair again this year.

After the cleaning and filling, they may have to go out to the extraction area. On the way, they passed where Monica Moore was running the sterilization and supply area. This looked something like this:




The picture does not do justice to the mounds of donated tooth brushes and toothpaste just around the corner. Just to the right of this is the statum, used to sterilize the hand pieces for re-use.

If an extraction was in order, they would then go to the waiting area for extractions out on the veranda.
This area was separate from the others. It looked like this:



This could be rather ominous. Behind the curtain was a very cheerful lady by the name of Abby.




Between Abby's good cheer, Dr. Fetsch's skill and some good chemistry, things went very well here. Several times I had to explain that the extraction really was over. The teeth were gone. Many of the adult patients had been to a dentist when they could not afford the cost of the anesthetic, so they had work done with out any pain killer. That didn't happen here.

From here, the patient would spend some time waiting to make sure there was no bleeding problems from the extraction sight before they went home.

One thing to bring up:

Earlier I mentioned that the adult patients cooperated. The kids had to be worked with some. For that we had a secret weapon: Beanie Babies. Last year, Dr. Moore brought a few Beanies down for the kids. In the press of things, he forgot them until we had a kid who just would not sit still. This child needed most of her teeth removed. Dr. Fetsch described trying to do an injection as being like trying to sign your name on a basket ball while it was being dribbled. The child was reciting the 23rd psalm in her terror. It just was not happening. Dr. Moore remembered his bag of beanies and went and got them. Great idea! After some negotiation the little girl agreed to hold still in exchange for a white kitten.

After that was over, we got to talking with the Honduran translators. It turns out that Beanie Babbies are very popular with the kids down there. And also pretty rare. We decided that next year we would bring more. Ann Milster (my mom) heard about the need for Beanie Babies. She does volunteer work with Fish ( a local aide agency in St. Louis). She gets a few of beanies from time to time. She got to collecting them. She got others at Fish to collect them also. Dr. Moore brought down more beanies. Between the collections from Fish and Dr. Moore, we had a Beanie Baby convention in Talanga, Honduras. Here they are on the largest table we could find:



Every child who came to see the dentists got a beanie baby and or a prayer bear from the church. We still left quite a few of them with Cindy Ceballos for other teams to use in their work later on.

I hope this leaves you with a better idea of how the clinic runs and how much it is needed. I will post more about the team in Honduras.

Have a good evening,

Blair

2009 Jan 23 Friday Time to travel

Hello,

It´s Friday. Whew. We have re-packed, loaded and are now in Tegucigalpa. Most of us went to the Valley of the Angels for shopping. I believe Visa and Master Card are very happy at the moment.

Paul and I went ahead with the luggage. Paul had a meeting with some fellow members of Rotary International. I´ve been to the Valley of the Angles before, so I went into town with Paul. We got in sooner than expected, so we had time to explore before the Rotary members arrived.

We walked and explored some interesting nooks and side streets of Tegucigalpa. The main cathedral is getting a face lift at the moment. It was built before the US revolutionary war, so it is probably due.

On our previous trip, we had only a few hours in Tegucigalpa. This time we had a chance to walk a few kilometers and see the city. I enjoyed the walk. The traffic is intense. The city has a feel and rythm that is different from what I expected. You have a 270 year old cathedral getting a face lift two blocks from a modern hotel. You walk into a shop specializing in school clothes meaning to ask directions and endup talking with the owner about the good that the Shriner´s hositals are doing kids all over the world. Oh and by the way, he has the kind of stuff you want to buy at the shop you were getting directions to. Two shops later, you buy a soda. You leave. The shop keeper´s helper follows you out of the shop for the bottle. You find out that you didn´t pay the bottle deposit, so you can have the soda but they really want the bottle to stay. Hm. A little farther on you see what a local street band sounds like. Much like in the US but with more strings and a few more CDs for sale. The rythm and feel of Tegucigalpa is something else.

Once we were done with the afternoon meeting, we had time to clean up and get ready for dinner. It was a good dinner. Very good. We all got bacvk here about 10 PM. Time to sack out and get ready for the return flight home.

Sorry, no pictures for today. This internet connection won´t let me do much.

For the future, I will be doing a couple more posts. One will be on the team here in Honduras, who they are and what they do. I have pictures and biographical information to post once I get home to a high speed connection. Another post will be about the work the dental teams are doing. I´m going to get some official numbers on services provided, do a comparison on what the costs would be for a person to get these locally and do a series of pictures showing what a patient would have seen had they come to the Sunrise team this year.

So, stay tuned folks, more to come once we get back to the US, take care of a few things and get all the pictures sorted out.

All the best from the team in Honduras,

Blair

2009 Jan 22 Thursday last clinic day

Wow !

It has been a very buisy week. Today was our last day of clinic.

The doctors got quite a bit done. The stats are:

Exams: 63

Cleanings: 31

x-rays: 42

Root canals: 5

Fillings: 45

Extractions: 75

Most of these people were in line when we got here at 0700.

Here is a picture of the morning line.

After the last patient was see, we went to the public health center and donated the extra vitamins and drugs we had. While there, the director of the public health program was available to speak with us and the UMVIM health coordinator for Honduras. It went very well.

After the health clinic visit, we returned to the church to wrap up.

There was a 6:30 prayer service and then we went back to packing.

While I type this, the rest of the team is at a local soccer park getting ready to play soccer with the kids. I'll be posting this and joining them in a minute. We did this last year and had a great time. Everybody is looking forward to it this year. I will post about this tommorrow hopefuly.

All the best from the team in Talanga.

Wednesday post from Talanga

Greeting from Talanga!

Things are going quite well. We are finishing our third day. The doctors have been very busy. Today's stats:

Cleanings: 24
x-rays: 48
Root canals: 4
Fillings: 60
Extractions: 142

When the team got here at 0650, there were 54 people waiting. 73 people got exams. Here is a picture of the line at 12:30







The group from Beccas con Bendiciones brought over several of the scholarshipstudents.
Here is a picture of Pastor Jim with Ana Lorena whose scholarship he sponsored. The lady in yellow is the Beccas coordinator.













Mid afternoon, we got a visit from the local police. A cleaning later, and he is on his way!




We had a few issues with power and compresors, but things are going well. After some adjustments, the generator did fine. The backup compressor is working like a champ.

All in all things are going very well.

A note for Jennifer: Next year, if you can't come, could you please take away Jim's roller blades? The guy is moving way too fast! We miss you lots.

All the best from Talanga,

The SunRise Dental Team

Tuesday January 20th

So here we go end of day two and things are going great. Yesterday was good we had some minor set back and ran behind just a little bit but today was smooth and busy. Today started out with a line of 25 people at 7am(we open at 8am). We also had 9 people coming back from Monday. By 4:30 we still had a line of 20 people waiting to get in that we had to send away. Here is today's report.
Patient exams 75
Cleanings 21
Fillings 50
Extractions 145
x-rays 62
root canals 4

We want to thank
Nomad Corp. for the use of the portable x-ray unit
Heartland Dental for the Digital x-ray sensors and laptop
Wentzville Rotary Club for all the equipment and continued support.

We also had a visit from a locla dentist to Check out our clinic. She was very impressed and tried to hide her amazement when she saw that we had digital x-rays and Dr. Paul was doing a Root Canal when she came by. I thought she would be upset with us, but she is in private practice and the people we are seeing could not afford her services anyway so there was no conflict.
Everyone is working hard but having a great time. Keep the team in your prayers as we continue treat our friends in Talanga.

Adios
Dr. Santiago (Jim)

19 January 2009 Monday

It is the first day of clinic. Things are shaping up nicely. There have been a few bumps in the road, but nothing too serious so far. There is an awesome need for the work the dentists are doing. The team brought tools for doing extractions, cleanings, sealants and root canals. They are focusing more urgent care type issues. There were 30 + people in line when we arrived. If this is like last year, then tomorrow we are going to have a flood of people as the word spreads.

Statistics for the day are:
46 people
72 fillings
17 cleanings
101 x-rays
115 extractions
4 root canals

A short message for Norm: Breakfast was awesome pancakes, hamburgers for lunch and dinner was fish with rice and mixed vegetables. We miss you down here.

Here is a picture from todays line. They were here when we arrived at 0700






The inernet connection is slow here, I will posst more pictures later.

Good night,

The Talanga Team

2009 Jan 17 We got to Talanga OK

Hello,

We got here to Talanga in one piece.
We have having issues with the internet and time to get to an open internet cafe.
I will upldate this post later this evening if possible.

Following are two pictures.
One of Jim Fetch and his 35 birthday cake, here in Honduras
The other is of the team just before we left St. Louis.

I´ll update more as time allows.

Later,

Blair

2009 Dental Team - Mission statements

Hello,

This post will be about why we are going on the mission and something about us.
Here are the mission statements in our own words.



Pastor Jim Blue:

As the Lead Pastor at SunRise UMC I believe it is very important to lead by example and traveling to Honduras is a great opportunity for me to speak first hand of the difference we can make for the Kingdom of Heaven. This will be my second time to travel to Honduras and my fourth international mission trip since 2000. I always leave with the belief I will be there to give and share my faith, however I always return convinced I have received more of Christ than I have left with the people. I am blessed to be traveling with a great group of dedicated Christians and am equally excited to be part of the dental team again this year especially having to miss last year because of sickness. Thank you for your prayers and your support.


Paul Moore wrote:

As a life-long St. Louis resident, I graduated from Parkway West H. S. and spent my college years in Kansas City. Upon return I set up my dental practice in New Melle. My wife Cheryl and I have Monica (17) and Chris (10) to call our own. Actually, they own us! When not working I enjoy fishing, sailing, and Scouting. My family and I have been given so many of God's blessings and to "give back" is what He would want. What I experienced on my first trip to Talanga was so life-changing and profound that I knew I'd be there again. We only realize how fortunate we are when we see how people live in other parts of the world. Children praying for food at the Sunday service puts it all into perspective. Being a dentist for 25 years has given me the ability to help these people, relieving their pain and restoring their beautiful smiles.

"He is no fool to give what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose."
- Phillip James Elliott 1927 - 1956 Missionary to Ecuador -


Monica Moore wrote:


I am so excited to be a part of this trip! I'm a senior at Westminster Christian Academy, and next year I'll be a freshman at Murray State University. God has given me a passion and a talent for music, and I'm excited to make that a big part of my studies next year. When my dad came back from the trip to Honduras last year, he told me everything about it. I knew I wanted to be a part of it this year. God has blessed me with the opportunity to serve Him on this trip, and I'm very excited to serve the people in Honduras. As my dad always says, the trip really "puts things into perspective." Now I'll really get to see what he's talking about. I'm sure it will be a life-changing experience, and I'm anxious to see what God has in store for me.



Abby Heath wrote:

Hi:) my name is Abby Heath and this is my first time going to and third world country on a mission trip. I was sooooo excited to be asked by Dr.Fetsch to go on this trip with him and the team. I have three brother's and 6 nephew's and 1 neice and 2 great:) sister in-laws, I also have a 2 1/2 year old son who's name is Noah and a Fiance. I am blessed to have so many people in my life who support me going on this trip and I pray that the lord will bless us and keep us safe. I also want to say that the lord has blessed me in so many way's and he opened this door for me to go and i am thankful.


Tammy Stelling:

BEING PART OF THE VIM DENTAL TEAM TO HONDURAS HAS BEEN A LIFE CHANGING EXPERIENCE FOR ME. IT IS SO TRUE THAT YOU ARE FOREVER CHANGED. THE FIRST TIME I SAW THE PICTURES FROM THE VIM 2007 DENTAL TRIP TO HONDURAS, I KNEW IN MY HEART THAT THIS WAS SOMETHING GOD WAS CALLING ME TO DO. WHEN I THINK ABOUT OUR CALL TO PROCLAIM THE GOSPEL TO A LOST AND HURTING WORLD, I HAVE TO
SAY THE PEOPLE OF TALANGA ARE NOT "LOST". THEY KNOW GOD, THEY LOVE GOD, AND ARE VERY THANKFUL FOR WHAT THEY HAVE. BUT THEY ARE HURTING AND THAT IS WHERE WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE. THIS TRIP WE HOPE WITH GOD'S HELP TO MAKE AN EVEN GREATER DIFFERENCE.

I HEARD THE VOICE OF THE LORD, SAYING, WHOM SHALL I SEND, AND WHO WILL GO FOR US? THEN SAID I, HERE AM I; SEND ME. ISAIAH 6:8


Jim Fetsch wrote:

Let me start by saying I have the greatest job in the world, I have had a dental practice in O'Fallon since 2000 and I truly Love what I do. I also love to talk with others about my faith journey and what God has done for me. So when God started calling me to do mission work it was an easy decision.

This is my third dental mission to Talanga, and after my first one I knew it would be a yearly commitment. Our first trip was eye opening for me not only did I get to see how I can help others but I got to experience the amazing power of God and I was forever changed. I hope to continue my mission work in Honduras For many years to come. I have dreams of building a permanent dental clinic in Talanga that I can d send other teams to on a regular basis. The experience of mission work is so rewarding and it is such a needed work. I only wish more people could share in the experience that I have on every mission trip. God truly is good.

Luke 10:2 Then he said to them, " The Harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few: therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.


Laura Voss wrote:

This is my 4th mission trip, 3rd to Honduras and 1st with Sunrise. I feel truly blessed that I have been given the opportunity to return to such a beautiful country. I never thought after my first trip (and landing in Tegucigalpa) that I would want to return. Let's face it, the airport could use some safety updating, the work is tough, the weather is hot and with the stray dogs, chickens, and bugs the size of houses who would want to?

Well, after seeing the breathtaking scenery and having the absolute best coffee anywhere (note...even better than Starbuck's), I knew I had to return. But that isn't even the real reason why. After reading my journals from previous trips and seeing the pictures, really there is only one reason I would want to return to this place...THE PEOPLE! They take nothing for granted and are so grateful. They don't ask to make their dental visit more convenient, more comfortable, more available, more affordable...they simply smile and say "gracias" and make the difficult voyage home. Home to a place with dirt floors and a bed made from corn if they are lucky. Home with no bathroom in doors, most times with no running water, no television or other modern day technologies.

On my second trip to Honduras I met a young girl by the name of Julia. Julia was very, very dehydrated and malnourished, as are a lot of people. Julia just smiled and laughed at my broken Spanish as I tried to talk to her and her family. Julia was extremely sick and her family begged us to help her and get her to the hospital. They had finally saved some money so that she could maybe stay there a day. The saddest thing is that Julia, at 9 years old, was dying and even if we attempted to try to get her to the hospital later that day, it was simply too late. They family returned that afternoon and let us know of her passing. And even in their grieving brought us oranges as a gift for "helping" them.

I was only 19 then. I always told myself that no matter where life would take me and no matter what I did I would have to return to Honduras as a working adult to do something. I had the opportunity to go to college, to get my degree in a health profession and it is my obligation to give back. To give back to a community that needs it. I am so excited and so blessed to be able to go with the Sunrise group. As a registered dental hygienist I am grateful that life has taken me here and that I will be able to provide the best dental care that I can.

Laura M. Voss, RDH





Now for myself:

I'm Blair Milster. This will be my second trip to Honduras with UM-VIM. I will be going as a translator with scondary jobs helping organize the patients and as a general fixer. Last year I went as a translator and ended up translating, dental assisting as well as fixing headlamps and air compressors. The compressors and headlamps were pretty easy. Dental assisting was eye opening.

I am looking forward to this trip greatly. This work is an incredible mix of satisfaction and learning. It is difficult to describe. You see a direct result of your efforts as they impact the lives of people. We are helping build community and create better lives for people, one person at a time.

Thanks for your prayers and support.

2009 January Dental team and pictures

Hello,

It's two weeks until we are in Honduras. Wow! Time flies as we get ready to go. While we are down there, I'll be posting about what we are doing and who is doing different things. I thought you'd like a program for keeping track of who we're talking about.

Our fearless team leader is Dr. Jim Fetsch. He is team lead and general dentist. He is also our soccer forward.



Dr Paul Moore:
Paul is a general dentist.
He also plays soccer half back.




Pastor Jim Blue:
Pastor Jim will help with patient triage, supplies and running the sterilizers.
Jim is in protective custody until we go to Honduras.
He is not allowed near bicycles, people with pneumonia or sushi restaurants.
We want him healthy for the trip.
I think he's our soccer coach this year.





Abby Heath:
Abby will be dental assisting.
This is her first trip to Honduras.





Monica Moore:
Monica will handle the sterilizers, supplies and Fluoride treatments.
Monica is Paul's daughter.







Tammy Stelling:
Tammy will handle dental assisting and supplies.



Laura Voss.:
Also known as "The Cleaning Lady"
On her fourth international mission, she almost got the handle "The Veteran"
A Registered Dental Hygienist, Laura will be doing cleanings and sealants.
Don't worry kids, she will make it so the tooth fairy really really likes you!

Blair Milster. I'm your narrator for this trip.
I will also be translating, helping with patient flow and "Mr. Fix it" chores.
My caption should probably include "Have Leatherman, will travel"