Village Doctor

When I started taking my pre-requisites for nursing school almost 20 years ago, never did I imagine doing what I am doing now. As many times as I've told the small village where I work that I'm a nurse...in their eyes it doesn't matter. I'm "Doctora Teresa" (I use my middle name - Teresa is so common here - Erin - not). Nursing is what I wanted to do - I wanted to spend time with people, listen to their needs and problems, be an ear or a shoulder to cry on. That's what I did. I was good at it. I worked mostly in pediatric oncology, so I had a LOT of opportunity to do it.

Now - people come to me with normal stuff - aches, pains, parasites, wounds that need cleaning, ear infections, high blood pressure, diabetes. I've had to stretch myself. I've had to become something more than what I am. I'm not afraid to say, "I don't know" and direct them somewhere else. I'm also not afraid to tell them like it is. There is almost zero patient education here. Last week one of our workers had a mild stroke. He went to the doctor and they did not do any immediate care - they gave him ibuprofen and an antibiotic and sent him on his way. When I asked him what the doctor told him to do he said "He told me to take these pills." Nothing else? I asked? "No." So, I devised a simple change of lifestyle for him - AND his family - will be monitoring his blood pressure and blood sugar (both of which were high), and try and get him on a path of wellness.  But I did tell him - you don't change - you will die from this.

This is what my "job" is now. Meeting people at their level. Being the village doctor. Praying with and for them. Educating young pregnant mothers in how to live a healthy pregnancy and have a safe/healthy baby. Loving them as a whole.

Wound care of a sweet lady that comes every week to see me

Last week a young woman came to see me. She had a fairly bad urinary tract infection. She had already been to the doctor and had received medication - but she admitted that she stopped taking it because it made her feel "weak". After almost 30 minutes of conversation, some loving, then some severe lecturing - I stopped. Sat back, and told her, "I love this community, I love the people here, and am grateful that you came by today. But the only way to help you is if you help yourself. You must care for your body. You must have more than 1 glass of fluids in a day. You must eat vegetables. And you MUST take your medication." She looked at me so perplexed - I don't think anyone had ever told her that she has the ability to take control of her life and has the ability to be proactive in her health. Then I prayed with her, I kissed her on the cheek, and gave her some more medication with a promise that she would drink more water and take her meds.

Taking care of these precious ones...

So...Doctora Teresa I am. Helping with the physical and spiritual ailments of the community, and loving on people. What a privilege.

And this precious one

School Supplies 2012

On January 28th our mission team provided school supplies for 467 kids in the super-poor community of Armenia Bonito outside of La Ceiba, Honduras. Without this blessing many of these children would not be able to afford school in the 2012 school year.

Watch this 2 minute 30 second video to see the happy faces:

San Francisco 49ers / NY Giants Food Challenge

A week before last weekends playoff game, Mike challenged me to make a SF/NY fun meal to eat during the game. So, I had to think of what I could either purchase or make - most things you might think of you can't run down to the store to purchase.

So, the meal to represent San Francisco was sourdough rounds, scooped out the innards, and seafood chowder was put inside. Had to start the sourdough rounds a few days ahead of time as it takes quite some time. The only way I had even considered this was because about a month ago I had made my own starter, so it was waiting for me. Then the chowder - clams are all but impossible to find here - I've found some tinned clams before, but none this time - so instead I used shrimp, oysters, crab and potatoes - whipped up some chowder and put in the hot bowls...YUM!!!

The meal for New York - home made pizza! Thin crust so you had to fold it to eat it - and of course GINORMOUS size!

Those with a couple of beers...and we watched the game!

Fun times!

Puerta de Esperanza - Door of Hope - Honduras

On January 25th our mission team opened a home for young mothers and their babies in La Ceiba, Honduras. Puerta de Esperanza (or Door of Hope) is a place where these teenage mothers can escape the streets, violence and substance abuse and find the hope, love and mercy of Jesus Christ.

Watch this 2 minute 45 second video:

Piecaken

So...my husband gave me a food challenge.   Why you may ask?!  Because our friend Jamie (of the Very Worst Missionary) tweeted about it.  I don't know if she's still my friend after this challenge...

And so it began - piecaken.  You've heard of turducken, right? (a duck inside of a chicken inside of a turkey), same idea - just in dessert mode (pie inside of a cake) there are no instructions for this kind of thing so I just did what I thought would work.  And learned some VERY important things for the next time (I still haven't decided if there will BE a next time).  The idea is when you cut into it you get both cake and pie.

What did I do wrong?  Chose too gooey of a pie (apple definitely for the next one - or chocolate pie), chose too small of a cake pan (going for the BIG springform pan the next time), and used too much cake batter (bubbled over and made a mess on the bottom of my oven).  So - lots of changes the next time - but here is what it looked like:

blueberry pie made the night before

first layer of cake dough

pie removed from the pie pan and placed on top of the layer of cake dough

batter poured to cover pie

out of the oven - yes, it sunk

cream cheese frosting

first cut

plated

It Is ALIVE!!!

Okay - go with me on this...I KNOW you've done it!  I KNOW you've gone to Google and hopefully/prayerfully/wishfully typed in some totally ridiculous sentence hoping SOMETHING will appear, say, "Who was the brother of Mindy on Mork and Mindy who appeared in the third scene of the 5th show..." and somehow/usually SOMETHING shows up, right?  And you sit and are amazed at the incredible universe of the WWW.

Well...before we left on furlough, I had been saving $25.00 a month for quite some time so when I went back to the States I would be able to purchase a KitchenAid with a few accessories.  And that's what I did - Macy's was kind enough to have most of their kitchen stuff on sale and my BFF Mindy happened to have a discount card I was also able to use.  I walked out with my red (so me)  KitchenAid and several accessories, and a huge grin on my face.  Six months later I arrived back in Honduras and used it a bit - played with it - used my accessories to shred cheese in seconds...that kind of thing.  The time my mother was sick, and all but comatose, one of the things I did was read through the 600 page Bread Bible.  When I returned to Honduras I subsequently started making a new type of bread almost every day.  I blogged on several of them.  Then one fatal day...I was making pizza crust - LOTS of pizza crust.  Why?  It was our Lord-of-the-Rings-extended-watch-a-thon and we watched them all day and ate home made pizza.  Until I decided to put way too much dough in (instead of making it in two batches), and put the speed up way too high.  I know...I know... - WHY?!  do you ask?!  Because I thought I could!  It was a KitchenAid afterall!  I've beat it up, abused it, dropped it - whatever - and it just keeps on keeping on.  But suddenly it wouldn't turn my dough hook  Oh my gosh...and here is where I will admit to my weakness.  I cried.  Not like out loud, sobbing, "Dobby just died" kind of crying, but a huge tear ran down my cheek and my chin was dropped to my chest and I thought, "what in the world am I going to do now?"  Forget the 1-800 number - been there done that with other things and the second they hear we are out of country it's always "sorry, I can't help you."  Well, I don't need to tell you that there IS NO repair place here for KitchenAid's.  No one for me to turn to, no Sears department that can fix anything.  I already started thinking if I saved $25.00 every month again - how long would it take for me to save up to buy another one.  It had already become a part of my routine kitchen prep.  I was so sad, and couldn't imagine not having it.

So, in a desperate state - I sat down in front of my computer.  I went to Google.  I don't even remember exactly what I typed in, but something, I'm sure to this effect, "What do I do if my Kitchenaid doesn't spin and won't knead my dough anymore...." (like anything would come up - what was I thinking?!) and yet...there it was...what came up?!  A You Tube Video entitled, "How to fix a KitchenAid Mixer that isn't spinning."  Seriously?!  Can it be that "easy"?!  So I looked at the video, took a deep breath, got my hammer, screwdrivers, and put my head phones in and started the video.  I started getting farther and farther in it, my entire KitchenAid was completely apart, and then the fear began.

WHAT have I done?!?!

Are you freaking kidding me?!  I'm stupid.  What was I thinking?  Like I could actually repair this thing. There is NO way I'm going to make this thing work ever again!  There are so many parts!  But onward I went.  What was my choice?  And there it was...the CULPRIT!!!!  The "Worm Gear" - see...I even sound smart!  (because that's what the guy on the video said it was), but of course he pulled out his handy dandy replacement Worm Gear.

The culprit - the Worm Gear - see those smashed in pieces of 4 teeth - the gears would just slip and not turn

My next stumbling block...there was NO way I would be able to find one of those here.  So - I did the next cool WWW thing.  Amazon.com.  Typed in Worm Gear and sure enough!  There it was!!!  I ordered two!  Sent them to my sweet mother-in-law, then waited.  A week to get to her, and then over 2 weeks to get to me.  And today it came.

So there I sat...with ALL my pieces of KitchenAid.  Seriously?  OH my gosh...there's no way...the fear came back.  My heart skipped a few beats...okay not really...but it SHOULD have!  I pulled up my video that I first watched over 3 weeks ago and watched the second half of the video, "how to put it back together again."  And 30 minutes later, lots of huh? going on, a small plea to my husband to get the stupid pivot bar back in...and then THE moment.  Plug it in...I literally held my breath...this was it.  Start saving $25.00 a month or get back to bread making.  And?!?!?!.....

Final Product!

IT WORKED!!!!  I DID IT!!!!!  I was So amazed that I could do this with a little help (okay - a LOT of help) from the WWW - but I did it.  A fully functioning KitchenAid.  Now - time to get back to bread making!

What in the WORLD did missionaries do even just 20 years ago?!  Surely not fix their KitchenAid.

Sun dried Tomatoes

Before

If there is one thing to know about me if you don't, if there is something that I want that I can't get here I figure out how to make it!  I wanted to make a recipe that included Sun Dried Tomatoes.  Can't buy them here...so I was determined to make them.  Well...6 hours later I went from 10 full tomatoes, to a small container of sun dried tomatoes.  And OH are they amazing!  Yum!

After