After six months of being in the States, I have finally made it back into Honduras! I was rather concerned about traveling because of flights into Honduras continuing to prove to be unreliable but thankfully everything went really smoothly! Honduras now requires those entering the country to have a negative COVID-19 test 72 hours before flying which means that I didn't have to end up quarantining for two weeks after all.
In some ways it is really weird to be back but yet feels like I never left in others. It looks the same and smells the same. The beach is still here and my dog, Paisley, definitely remembers me. We still communicate by radio and there is still an endless number of patients to tend to. The only thing that's really different is that the kids have all grown at least 6 inches this summer alone and then ... there is COVID ...
Who knew that a virus would unexpectedly turn my few week trip to see my family into a six month hiatus?? God knew. It was so clear that He had me there for a reason. Because I needed to be there. God used those six months to force me to rest and rely on Him which are both things that I am still learning how to do. I am so grateful for the time of rest and to be able to spend time with friends and family. To spend a lot of time with my nieces who have all been born since I left for Honduras. God is good!
Since the beginning of the lockdown in March, Honduras has been one of the countries with the most restrictions. All public transportation remains shut down. Adults are only allowed out of their houses once a week to go the grocery store on a specific day corresponding with their ID number. Police check points were set up all along the roads stopping vehicles to make sure that there were only two occupants (now there are allowed 4 people) per vehicle, that their I.D. cards correspond with the day's number for circulation, and that they had a legitament reason to be traveling. Vehicles were sprayed with bleach multiple times during the drive into the city when passing from one departamento (county) into another. Once in La Ceiba, only one of the occupants of the vehicle was allowed out of the vehicle at any given time and that people had to walk through bleach upon entering one of the very few open grocery stores in the city. Anyone leaving their house is required to wear a mask and can be fined for not doing so and even put in jail for multiple offenses.
It was so strict that one of my Honduran friends who is a taxi driver in the La Ceiba was unable to see his young son for four months due living in different towns.
Due to the restrictions in travel, thousands of Honduras had no idea where their next meal was coming from. The hospital stepped in and was able to provide food for hundreds of families in the surrounding communities who were suffering from the lockdown. The hospital was very slow due to patients being unable to get to the hospital for treatment. The usual schedule of having clinic 5 days a week was changed to three days a week due to the lack of patients and few doctors.
COVID has reached the hospital's surrounding communities. There have been a fair number of positive COVID cases admitted in our makeshift COVID unit behind the hospital and even more stable patients who have been diagnosed and discharged home to quarantine. A couple of the Honduran nurses tested positive but recovered well. Praise God!
The hospital has slowly returned to it's normal busy state over the past few months. Clinic has returned to it's normal 5 day a week schedule as of last week. Our new delivery room has seen a record number of babies born this year. We are expecting to greatly surpass the hospital record of 307 babies in 2018! I assisted in three of the five births that happened the day after my arrival in Honduras. So many babies!
Comments
Post a Comment