What a Greeting!

This was the greeting that our team received as we arrived at the Mission on the Move compound on the last day of our trip.  We were able to play with these beautiful children and instruct them on teeth brushing as well.  Thank you, Ernesto y Allison, for a great week!

Superlatives

This is the trip that just keeps on giving.  On our final night together our our two leaders David Dekle and Scott Wingard shared with the team the superlatives from the trip.  These will probably mean more to the team than to anyone else, but even the inside jokes are funny.  Enjoy!
disclaimer:These are funny. No one was or should be offended by these rather creative categories that were apparently revealed to Scott and David even before the team was formed.

Most likely...

to have bug spray- Rebecca Elkin
to have lice- Laura Altman
to NOT have lice- Scott Wingard
to be mistaken for the owner of the Honduyate- Bobby Turner AKA "The Mule"(see below)

Can you guess who is who?

to provide patients with a "good" experience- Ruth Crews
to NOT provide patients with a "good" experience- Bill "Guermo" Trotter
to miss a plane trying to take a photo with the delayed timer feature- Andy Jones
to cause and explosion in LaGuama- Chris Fox
to be the dentist on Extreme Makeover Honduras- Randy Arnold

to bring EVERYONE she knows the next time she comes to Honduras- Kim Willingham

to be featured on the most Honduran Instagram photos- Erin Willingham

to choke a Honduran Interpreter if they don't leave her daughter ALONE- Kim Willingham

to do pilate at the Honduyate- Nan Watson (see what they did there? <====)

to pray Bobby does not return to Gracewood- Mia Williams

to lead someone to Christ on the trip- Marvin Goodin

to apply topical anesthetic before injections-Nan Watson

to share a patient spit cup- Ryan Galey

to learn a new trade/best utility player- Julie Brooks

to say, "Bring me my brown pants."- Chris Fox

to need a new boat motor- Richard (owner of the Honduyate)

to stroke out trying to get us all on the bus before the storm hits- Allison

to chase girls- Grahmbo Sizemore

Best end of day perm-Kaye Simpson

Best looking- David Dekle (Remember, these are supposed to be funny)

least likely to be able to fix his own car- Ernie

Best clinic hefe-Scott Wingard

Best hug-Madi Sizemore

Best Smile- Chase Sizemore

Most likely to get the bus stuck- Gustavo

 Most likely to make an impact on Honduras for Christ- The whole Sizemore Family!

On the ground in Augusta

   What a great experience this has been. From the early planning stages

to the work being done, 

from the morning and evening devotions 

to our last meal together 

and planning to come home. 

This has been a great team to work with. Thank you, Ernesto and Allison, for your leadership and preparation to get things ready for us on the ground. Thank you, Scott, for coordinating the dental supplies and equipment and directing our clinics. Thank you, David for pulling this great team together. Thank you, dentists and assistants for giving us time away from your practice, your job, and your family. And thank you, to our families for allowing us this time to be away. It has really been an amazing week!

     The final tally is in. I don't mean to insult your intelligence as I'm sure you could and many of you already have added up the figures from the week. But, I want to do that here to show just how hard this team has worked. Over the course of this week we saw 307 patients. Our team performed 146 fillings, 387 extractions, 98 cleanings, and 36 teeth brushing instructions. There were an additional 37 patients seen (9 cleanings and 30 brushing instructions) seen at the Mission on the Move facility. Ruth cleaned the teeth of the staff and the team demonstrated for and taught the children how to brush their teeth.

     I hope you have been blessed by the pictures and the stories found here. To God be the Glory!

La Guama clinic, day 2

   We have tabulated the results from the last couple days of clinics. Yesterday in San Bartola we saw 60 patients and did 33 fillings, 113 extractions, 9 cleanings (I think there were more and I have been told they were not "simple" as previously reported), and teaching a  few children how to brush.

   We had a great day at LaGuama, which is right down the street from Santa Elena where Ernesto and Allison live. Today we saw 73 patients and did 45 fillings, 78 extractions, 29 cleanings, and had five with good looking teeth that Julie Brooks taught to brush. Julie stepped in today and did some cleanings as well. I am blessed to serve with a flexible team. In the pictures below you may notice some different pairings of team members doing different jobs.

We had a great breakfast this morning. I will let the Trotter family figure out which meal their daddy had this morning. 

     Once we arrived at LaGuama today we had some excitement as the bus got stuck just inside the gate. We unloaded the bus into Hannibal's (pronounced Annibal) and then he carted it the rest of the way up the hill to the clinic. 

   This is the truck that was called to free our bus from being stuck.

   As promised I have some pictures of the chaos of the morning setup. Although I will say it was much less chaotic today than yesterday. 

     Once the clinic was all set up and running it was running very smooth. We saw a lot of children today. We were all glad that we could do a lot of fillings rather than extractions. It was a great day of serving The Lord and the people of Honduras.

     We covet your prayers tomorrow as you gather for worship. Please lift us up. Pray that our backs would remain strong, that our minds would remain sharp, that our hearts remain soft, and that doors would be opened to share our faith with God's people unto the uttermost! 

San Bartolo, clinic day 1

     Day 1 is in the books! The clinic today was in San Bartolo, which is about 20-30 minutes farther up the mountain from the Sizemore's mission compound. We started the day with a wonderful blueberry pancake breakfast. Then, we loaded the bus to head up the mountain. After we arrived and Scott Wingard got the lay of the land we began unloading the equipment and setting up the clinic per his instructions. We had five interpreters with us today plus two of the mother's of some children in the Mission on the Move program and our driver for the week Gustavo (Tavo is the on the far right of the morning group shot below).

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    I didn't get many shots of the set up as it was an all hands on deck affair.  I will intentionally so better as the week goes on. But, here are some shots of the station set up that I took once the dental chairs were set up. 

    Our process began with Erin Willingham and Marvin Goodin handling the registration outside.

The patients were then escorted to a triage chair to determine if they needed fillings, extraction(s), or just a simple cleaning. I am so glad for Ruth Crews, a hygienist, to be on the trip with us so we CAN do simple cleanings! Randy Arnold with assistant Ryan Galey and Kim Willingham with assistant Mia Williams focused mainly on the restorative elements of the day which again is much needed.  It is especially gratifying to know that we can fill the cavity of a 12 year old rather than have to pull the tooth out. 

     On and on the day went. I believe we saw over forty patients today! We learned some things and we will tweak for tomorrow. Of course, tomorrow is another day and the set up will be a little bit different. Since we are going to five different communities over the course of our five days in country the set up will always vary a bit from day to day.

      Naturally, we have to have a little fun along the way. While we did not have any novice teeth pullers today Bill Trotter did pull the longest canine tooth he could remember. I don't think that guy will ever have sinus problems again!

And here we are at the end of the day before we loaded the bus to come back to Honduyate. Thank you church for the privilege of serving alongside you unto the uttermost parts of the world.  Thank you Ernie and Allison for following God's call to the people of Honduras!

     

Beautiful country, beautiful people

     After helping to plan three trips to Honduras I am finally getting to go. Fourth time is the charm, as they say. We got an early start this morning arriving at the Augusta airport at 6:00 AM. We got all checked in very smoothly this morning. We each checked a team bag and had our carry on bags as well.  All in all not bad. 18 people and 21 checked bags. That is, until they made half of us check our carry on bags to our final destination. Luckily, every bag made it to San Pedro Sula airport (take that American Airlines and Rapid City, SD).  

     There was a long line at immigration but customs was a breeze. Ernie (Ernesto) and Allison met us just the other side of customs. We then loaded up the bus with luggage and supplies, took a necessary bano break, and headed to the restaurant for a late lunch. We ate at Las Tejas, which had an authentic Honduran meal prepared quickly when we arrived.

Can you spot the differences in the team photos above? 

     After lunch we drove to Ernesto and Allison's house and Mission on the Move campus where we will be hosting a clinic on Saturday. Below you will see some of the scenery along the way from San Pedro to Santa Elena. We drove past the bridge that is no more. It was destroyed by earthquake ten years ago. We stopped a ta fruit stand to grab some fruit for the week. We drank some coconut water straight from the fruit. We ate a fruit that looks like an eyeball inside a sea urchin and tastes like a dry grape. And some enjoyed frozen chocolate-bananas.

We are now settling into our home away from home: Hotel Honduyate. Tune in the rest of this week for more on our experience in and around Santa Elena, Honduras. As I type the rain is coming down on the tin roof of our patio and calling me to take a pre-dinner nap.