Acceptance

Eleven years ago over Christmas I was feeling ill in my stomach. I had to be convinced to go to an emergency room. I drove myself up there. Seven hours later I was waking up in an operating recovery room with the loss of about sixteen inches of large intestines and my appendix and the gain of a colostomy bag. I had a perforated bowel. Who knew? The colostomy bag was successfully reversed some two months later, thank God. Then about five years ago, I was diagnosed with kidney cancer. A kidney along with the cancer was removed, and I have not had any further difficulties. My first thought in reflecting on those experiences is how grueling and anxiety provoking were those periods of my life. My second thought, a little less self-pitying, is to be grateful for the treatment that in both instances saved my life. Imagine how fortunate I am. Two professional surgeons with years of training and experience were readily available to cut out significant organs from my body. I had health insurance to cover the extreme cost of such an important intervention. It is an incredible world we live in when such highly specialized skilled services can be channeled with ease in order to benefit someone who suffers great physical discomfort even to the risk of death.

Surgery in Honduras by UHMLA
Surgery in Honduras by UHMLA

But, this is not so the world over, and it is certainly not the case for us here in this isolated and often forgotten territory of Honduras. For people here, there simply is no access to surgery. The closest hospital might be six hours away. Even so, the surgery may not be available there and the cost would be absolutely prohibitive. Many simply have to accept living with great discomfort, and in some cases there are much worse consequences including shortened life-spans. Having lived in a land of such fortune as the United States, it bears heavy on one’s conscience to witness such inequity. Some might shrug their shoulders and say that things are the way they are, and there is little to do to change it. Others find it unacceptable to shrug their shoulders, but instead shoulder the burden. They provide the witness that the inequity does not need to be.
UHMLA / StoS Team
UHMLA / StoS Team

Such a witness is Dr. Rolando Rolandelli and his surgical team from Unidad Hospitalia Móvil de Latino América (UHMLA). Sixteen persons (four surgeons, three anesthesiologists, one assisting physician, three recovery nurses, three operating nurses, one floating nurse, and one translator) came to La Esperanza, HN to provide gastro-intestinal surgeries through the week of March 20 through March 26. They united their good-will with Shoulder to Shoulder and the hospital surgery team and staff. They performed sixty-two procedures (50 surgeries and 12 office procedures). For these sixty-two persons this was not even the most remote possibility, and yet it has happened.  Many of these persons literally owe their lives to this incredible undertaking.
Dr Rolandelli with young patient
Dr Rolandelli with young patient

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men (sic) do nothing.”
It is not clear who first said this, but John F. Kennedy often cited it. It is a very interesting quote in its premise. It does not attribute the triumph of evil to a lack of good persons, but rather to the lack of good persons’ actions. Most of us are good, but too few of us actually act. Dr. Rolandelli and his team do not accept the inevitability of inequality. They are unwilling to do nothing. What they did, and what they continue to do, actually changes the world. It is not our goodness that is laudatory; it is the willingness to act. Perhaps someday even the people who live in the Frontera of Intibucá will also not need to accept living in physical discomfort and the threat of death when the resources to treat them are readily available in other parts of the world.
Dr. Rolandelli with Dr. Susan Kaye
Dr. Rolandelli with Dr. Susan Kaye

There are at least sixty-two persons who have benefitted because a few good-willed persons did not accept inequality.
 
To discover more about UHMLA, or to become a good person of action, go to
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UHMLA/?fref=ts
Website: http://www.uhmla.com/
photos courtesy of UHMLA via Facebook page

Familiarity Breeds…

Aesop is credited with the first use of the idiom ‘familiarity breeds contempt’ as the moral in the fable The Fox and the Lion. This past week I pondered that adage as each morning I drove out to the small village of Guachipilincito to pick up a few of the Brown / Wingate residents and students and transport them to our clinic and our health center in Concepción. The drive is only about seven kilometers either way, and yet it takes over one-half hour out and in. It is not exactly a road as one normally considers a road. The jagged ledge designed to puncture tires, gaping holes, loose gravel, and boulders to be circled about, demand maintaining the vehicle in first gear and four wheel drive for the entire trip. Beyond that, there is the frustrating, anxiety creating long pauses behind herds of cattle or the inability of two vehicles passing in opposite directions. By the end of the week, I knew that Aesop had got it right: my familiarity of the road only heightened my loathing of the trip.
Brown built the clinic in Guachipilincito and has been coming to the secluded village for years. Wingate School of Pharmacy has partnered with them in more recent years. Though for many of the students and residents, their present brigade is their first experience of the town and its residents, for the leaders and the institutions, Guachipilincito is familiar territory. The townsfolk know them and appreciate their visits. Here, familiarity has not bred contempt, but rather something truly amazing that defies a simple explanation.

Breakfast at Guachipilincito
Breakfast at Guachipilincito

Familiarity here seems to have bred a sense of mutual respect and a profound sense of commitment in service. While medical treatment within the local community is the ostensible purpose of the service trip, the team is deeply invested in the wellbeing of the local residents and the larger population. The highly motivated Brown / Wingate team is assessing and treating all the children and adults in the community, offering dental services, feeding children under age 5 years through their nutrition program, and taking a census to discern service needs. Beyond the local community, Brown / Wingate is engaging the wider community. Students, residents, doctors, and other medical professionals are visiting the main clinic and health center in Concepción, working side by side with our Honduran medical staff, professionally sharing and developing more effective, meaningful models of care. At home visits, at the clinic delivering babies, in emergency situations, students and residents see what medical care entails, and Honduran professionals benefit from the knowledge and experience of seasoned and accomplished medical professionals.
In consult with mother and child
In consult with mother and child

A very special aspect of this brigade has been the presence of child psychiatrist, Dr. Horacio Hojman. Originally from Argentina, Dr. Hojman now practices in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. His treatment of Honduran children and adolescents with psychological challenges was ground breaking, as mental illness is not readily discussed in this area of Honduras. Beyond this, he has been offering professional workshops for medical personnel and teachers such that children will find help and support on a continual basis. We certainly hope that this will be only the first of many visits from Dr. Hojman.
Dr Hojman / Professional sharing
Dr Hojman / Professional sharing

Brown / Wingate has committed to three weeks in February for this brigade. Many participants have already left after the first week, yet much more is still planned for the weeks ahead. Another professional sharing day is scheduled and other meaningful work. What marvelous things they have already accomplished in their ardent commitment to a relationship with a small, isolated community in the backwoods of Honduras. The road to get there is challenging, grueling really, but they have not grown contemptuous from the familiarity of the journey. Instead they have recognized that familiarity, coupled with a committed relationship of service, breeds the dawning of hope.
 

Article by: Paul Manship and Angela McCaskill
Photographs courtesy of Paul Manship and Angela McCaskill

Celebrations of Success

Celebrations of Success

It’s a time of celebrating around the world. The celebrations are different according to where you are.  Thanksgivings are a bit difficult here as it is just another Thursday. Still, we celebrated it on the following Sunday with some friends from Colorado State University. They had the onerous task of picking out the live bird and carrying it to its sacrificial end. No presidential pardon in Honduras. Our celebrations have picked up since then. December 8 is the Roman Catholic feast of the Immaculate Conception, and as this is the feast day of the town we live in, we experienced a whole week of “fiestas patronales.” We began with a parade where our Shoulder to Shoulder car was one of six “carrozas,” or floats. We came in fourth for the competition (next year we’ll dedicate more energy to decorating), but the young woman who we sponsored as the candidate for town queen actually won the competition, the Shoulder to Shoulder Queen of Concepción. We had a “Rueda Chicago,” Ferris Wheel, in town that we rode upon. It was stacked up on tree stumps, and as it turned, it rocked a bit. The policeman standing next to it, however, told us it was perfectly safe, and why would anyone not believe a Honduran policeman. The Christmas season has officially started as of today, December 17, with the “aguinaldo,” the nine days before and including December 25. We weren’t aware of this until 4:00 AM this morning when we were joyously awakened by the sounds of sonic boom firecrackers, followed by a tone-deaf band. But there are celebrations here at this time of year that are truly joyous that simply don’t happen in the US.

Thanksgiving Dinner
Thanksgiving Dinner

Here, as the school year here runs from February through November, we celebrate graduations. The schools pull out all the stops to enliven their graduation events with extreme fest. Our kindergarten class held its graduation on November 28. Believe me, I have never seen anything cuter than a five-year old dressed in cap and gown proudly clutching a diploma. Our celebration with excessive pomp and circumstance looked about the same as hundreds of other kindergarten graduations throughout the Frontier of Intibucá. But, the difference between our public school and all the others is the superb education and the mastery of English amongst our students. This would not be possible without the commitment and fidelity of our donors. It is with enthusiasm and gratitude that our students, and their parents, realize the dream of securing an excellent education and an opportunity for success.

Proud Mom with Son
Proud Mom with Son

Proud Mom with Daughter
Proud Mom with Daughter

Graduations were not only celebrated at our bilingual school, but at many middle schools and high schools throughout the Frontera. Thirteen young men and women, having been supported by our scholarship program, graduated from High School this year. Education and a high school diploma are taken for granted in the United States. Here, that is not the case. Public education is said to be free, but when you add up the costs of materials, uniforms, transportation, and other incidental costs, education beyond the sixth grade is simply too great of a financial burden for most families. With the generosity of our donors, many families are given a priceless gift. Children are given an education, an opportunity to journey along a road that takes them from the despair of poverty to the hope of a successful career. The students who receive scholarships through Shoulder to Shoulder’s donor program are committed and intelligent. They have all the tools for success, but lack the resources to achieve it. But you and we have shouldered with these students and their families, and this year thirteen of them have realized a milestone that would otherwise have been impossible.

Graduation in Camasca
Graduation in Camasca

Congratulations High School Graduates – Class of 2015

José Milton Mejía Nolasco – Magdalena

Denis Antonio Ramos – Camasca

María Claudia Mejía Ramos – Camasca

Deylyn Yanory Amaya – Camasca

María Estela Vásquez – Camasca

Neiby Merari – Concepción

Dania Concepción Ramos – Concepción

María Fátima Orellana Castro – Concepción

Lesbia Suyapa Márquez – Concepción

Elmer Danilo López – Concepción

Jhonal Alejandro Torres Mejía – Concepción

Estenia Vásquez Pineda – Concepción

Enrique Mauricio Arévalo – Concepción

 
If you would like to read more about these graduates and the accomplishments of other students receiving scholarship support, please follow the links below.

Scholarship Graduation Update 2015

Scholarship Program Update 2015