17 Surgeries later....

There was no doubt that we were in Central America yesterday morning as we began the day…it was about 80 degrees with 100% humidity at 7 a.m.! But I guess I would rather be enjoying the heat than the snow that’s hitting our neck of the woods. The heat didn’t stop us, and it surely did not stop the villagers at “Trial Farms” from coming to see the medical team and our ministry team!

The medical and ministry groups that traveled to close-by “Trial Farms” village yesterday packed up crafts, toys, pharmacy equipment, and other medical equipment. Over the course of the day they gave out 500 scripts and saw over 350 patients. They wrote about 2/3 the amount of scripts in one day that past mission trips have written in one whole week!



The ministry team worked hard in the heat entertaining hundreds of kids. The village children seem to have an endless supply of energy and without the 10 teenage members of our team, we would have fallen behind quickly. We provided bags for the children to color and fill with candy, bubbles and other gifts that brought smiles to every face.


The surgical team spent their day in the Orange Walk Hospital. We arrived at 9 a.m. and did not leave until 9:30 p.m. It was a full day of surgeries ranging from Tonsilectomy to partial Thyroidectomy. Most of the surgeries that are scheduled throughout the week are for the tonsils. The tonsils that have been seen here tend to be much larger than the ones that the doctors have seen in the US. This is probably due to the fact that when in the US, doctors do not allow children to keep their tonsils as long if they are too large. This is only one of health differences that we have seen between life in Belize and life at home; we have learned that the health problems in Belize are not necessarily worse than in the States, there are simply different means to approaching and dealing with them.

There are two more related mission teams that are coming to Belize over the next two weeks. A group with two plastic surgeons and one ENT will be working from February 4-11. The third group will be staying from February 18-25, which will be performing village medical and will be building homes. We have run into a few government officials along our journey and they continue asking if we can send more groups. They are so grateful for the work that we have done for their people and would love to have more groups visit. If you are in any way interested, even if you just want to know when other trips are coming next year, please contact the church. They would love to send more groups each year. It is an amazing experience.