FREDERICKTOWN — In 1998, Hurricane Mitch devastated Honduras, a country already suffering from poverty and lack of medical care.
The following year, the Vida Nueva United Methodist Church in Indianapolis, pastored by former Honduran soccer star David Peñalva, joined forces with Iglesia Central Evangelica de Santidad, a church in the city of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, to organize and send a medical caravan to the country. The participating doctors would not only pay their own expenses and donate their medical and dental skills, but would also distribute beans and rice, used eyeglasses, school supplies, shoes, health kits and medications.
“My cousin, Bob, in Indianapolis attends the Vida Nueva church,” said Blackburn, “and their preacher is from Honduras. They started this project when Hurricane Mitch wiped out central Honduras. Bob said, ‘We need another doctor to go with us, who has certification as an emergency room physician.’ That’s how it started.”
Blackburn has tales of adventure to tell, of horses and mules used for transportation, of rats as large as cats running over the foot of his sleeping bag, of the pig whose grunting woke him early every morning and the tarantula that paid him a visit. Blackburn usually grows a beard while on the trip, as it’s not wise to shave, he said, due to the high risk of infection.
“The first year was pretty rough,” he said. “It was hard learning to sleep on the ground.”
The Hondurans sometimes walk three to five hours to get to the temporary clinics, Blackburn said, and they line up several hours before the clinics open. A school bus converted to a mobile clinic hauled the doctors and supplies to each site. This year’s Jan. 30 to Feb. 9 caravan included an oral surgeon, an ophthalmologist, surgeons, internists, a rheumatologist and other specialists. Interpreters bridged the gaps between languages.
Seven clinics were conducted by the volunteers, but some sites were easier to get to than others.
“Sometimes we have to travel a whole day to get there. One site is only 14 and a half miles away, but it takes four hours to get there,” Blackburn said.
Sixty percent of the common illnesses and complaints are symptoms of parasites — anemia, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea — and easily corrected with medication. Diabetes, arthritis, tooth problems, thyroid tumors and hypertension are common, as are pulmonary infections and eye conditions resulting from the dusty post-hurricane landscape. The doctors have stitched up machete wounds, removed bot worms from under patients’ skin and once even removed an insect cocoon from an elderly man’s ear.
“There isn’t as much heart disease as you’d think,” said Blackburn. “The people are still working until they’re 85 or so. They have sky-high blood pressure, but live to a ripe old age. They are very gracious people, very poor, very clean people, and highly intelligent.”
He explained that one group of people to whom they minister are the descendants of African slaves who escaped when the slave ship sank off the coast during a hurricane in the 1600s. Their language is a mixture of African, Spanish and Mayan.
“They are an unusual group of people,” he said, “very tall. By the time women are age 13 they are in excess of 6 feet tall.”
Honduras is a pretty country, said Blackburn, especially the mountains. Bananas and coffee are important crops, and grow symbiotically.
“For every banana tree, there are four coffee bushes. You almost can’t have one without the other. And the coffee is excellent,” he added.
Marijuana and cabbage are indigenous crops in Honduras. The average temperature in January is 85 degrees, dropping to 62 at night.
“January is winter there,” Blackburn explained, “which means it doesn’t rain.”
Grade school, through sixth grade, is free to children, but high school education requires a fee. However, Blackburn explained, if a student can get through high school, college education is free.
This year, the 22 volunteers treated 2,935 patients and gave away 3,500 pounds of rice and beans, 2,400 hygiene and health kits, 650 pairs of glasses and filled more than 9,000 prescriptions. The total value of the medications alone was in excess of $300,000, said Blackburn.
“Clinics are built up around what we do,” he explained. “We leave them medicine they can use until we get back. And thanks to the education work we do, we see far fewer people each year.”
Blackburn so enjoys his work in Honduras that he has already made plans for next January’s trip to the country.
