Lending a Hand in Honduras

7/6/2010
     For a long time, Sherry Oelkers felt the pull to make a difference in the world.
     The St. Catherine’s Middle School Spanish teacher fulfilled that need earlier this summer as an interpreter for the Friends of Barnabas Foundation's Mountain Medical Mission trip to Honduras.
     “I was excited about the opportunity to improve the life of others, to experience life in a developing Central American country, to improve my Spanish and cultural awareness and to grow spiritually,” Oelkers said. “And I wanted to practice what I preach so often at St. Catherine's (the school motto),  ‘What we keep we lose, only what we give remains our own.’ ”
     The 14-member team, which included Oelkers and current parent/alumna Hampton Ford ‘91, provided medical care to people in remote areas of Honduras over the course of five days.
     “Honduras is a place with raw, tropical beauty but the poverty is obvious everywhere,” said Ford, who is the mother to rising second grader Lila. “There is great need there. While I feel like we were able to help some, there is so much more to be done, both for the people and for the animals there.”
     Initially the trip was scheduled for this past summer, but was cancelled by the U.S. State Department following civil unrest in the country.
     Finally, Oelkers’ time arrived last month. She put her Spanish language skills to test as she translated the concerns of the people in Honduras to the doctors and nurses in the group.
     “As one of the interpreters, I felt a special bond with each of the visitors, due to the very personal level of our information exchanged,” Oelkers said. “Many times, just a simple smile, hug and chat lifted the spirits of those who came in search of medicine, vitamins, deworming medicine and glasses, but left with none.  
     “Being part of a group effort that could improve the life of others with medicine, a Bible or a smile was certainly inspirational and uplifting.”
     Ford assisted the doctors and nurses by handing out deworming and Vitamin A pills in the clinics, working in the pharmacy getting medications for the medical stations and measuring eyesight and then finding glasses in the eye clinic. She also served as the team photographer.
     But it was one moment with a six-month-old baby that remains with her to this day.
     “One day, we had a baby who was wheezing,” Ford said. “We had a nebulizer, which was very familiar to me because my second child had RSV. The doctor turned the baby over to me so he could see other patients. I gave the child breathing treatments until he was much more comfortable.
     “It was nice to know what I was doing and to be able to help in a very concrete way.”