SECOND HONDURAS TRIPSusan Jean CleeremanDrSue432010-03-31T15:42:00Z2010-04-19T17:03:00Z1392422371 186522624311.0000SECOND HONDURAS TRIPSusan Cleereman, DDSI finished my trip to Honduras Friday, 11 March 1994. I had better describe it in writing before time fades the picture.It got off to a messy start on Friday, 25 February. We had a snowstorm that deposited about seven inches of snow right at rush hour. That was when I left for Battle Creek. The drive took four hours, normally takes less than two hours.Eventually reached Battle Creek, spent the night at the Howard Johnson’s. The next morning my car was plowed in, took about ten minutes to get it loose. I drove to the base, almost the first person there. I had put on my scopolamine patch to prevent airsickness. At the orientation briefing two weeks earlier, I had hit it off rather well with Deb. We sat together on the KC 135 flying down. The flight down was five hours, we had airline seats, but they faced backwards. I understand that is a safety precaution but it sure feels strange. We all got freezing feet. I can see two reasons for that. For one, we started from a cold climate. Also, under our feet was a reservoir of very cold fuel. We were flying at high altitude. We wore our field jackets all of the way down. It was a cold flight. After we had been on our way for a while, I partnered with Deb to play Euchre. We were unbeatable! Every game we played, we won.Finally we made it to Soto Cano Airbase, Honduras. The plane landed and the door was opened. Heat! Within ten minutes everybody’s feet had warmed up. We had been ready for an unpleasant wait before getting on base but it wasn’t bad. Within an hour we were on a bus to our living quarters. We were dropped off in front of the ‘Rammada Inn Hutch,’ (Notice the spelling). After some fussing, most of the officers were separated to stay in more standard rooms. The enlisted personnel stayed in the Hooches. When visiting them later, we found them much improved over five and a half years earlier. Some of the floors were tiled. The beds were beds, not cots. There were cupboards by the walls. The officers were put in bedrooms, with closets and drawers. Between two buildings were real bathrooms, not like my previous visit. There were toilets, showers and laundry facilities. I never found the old shower building. The bunkers and pit toilets were gone!What else had changed? The hospital was bigger. The parts from before were still there, but it was much more crowded. There had been a space between the dental clinic and the hospital buildings. Now they were connected. There was a rather modern bathroom right next to the dental clinic. There were two operating rooms, one in an air-conditioned tent. So much was the same and so much was different.The chow hall was the same. This time we weren’t even cautioned about the food , apparently it was safe to eat. It seemed that the Hondurans who cook for the military wash their hands regularly now. The bar was exactly the same. There was a recreation hall with pool tables, ping pong tables, games, and a new library. The old hooches were still there, but not all of them. I never did find my old hooch. The BX was the same but now in front of it there was some beautiful landscaping. The old barber shop was there. There were three places to eat on base other than the chow hall. Frank’s Franks, Anthony’s Pizza, and a Honduran restaurant. These were not guaranteed safe, but we were not forbidden to eat there.It was the same base, grown up.________________________________________________________________________Except for two excursions the first week I spent on base in the dental clinic. The first excursion was a trip into Comyaqua, the small town six kilometers from the base. All that day the air had smelled of smoke, we soon discovered why. The side of the road for several miles was on fire. I still don’t know if it was on purpose or accidental. We went as a group of four and gathered up a fifth when we got into town. We took a cab in and were let off at the local Mall. Hah! It was not worth hanging around so we wandered off to the other parts of town. There was a church that gave tours of its religious art. There were rows of sales stalls which sold everything. One of us was interested in haggling over a bag from Guatemala. While she was purchasing it I looked at the other items for sale. There were bottles and bottles of shampoo and other beauty products. There was an alarm clock with a broken face. After she finished her purchase we went inside a building that resembled an indoor flea market. There was food (which we couldn’t eat). There were blankets. I bought one. There were bags and belts and products of all kinds. It was incredible. When we were finally done, we found a cab. There were five of us and it could only hold four. I sat on Deb’s lap and felt squashed all the way home. The fires were out.One day the first week while my duty was at the base dental clinic Dr., Schlanser and Dr Conner were off at an orphanage. I was training Kenny Paxton in dental assisting. He is the most natural dental assistant that I have ever trained. He was interested in what he was doing and learned very quickly. My patients were soldiers. It was kind of funny. One of them was sensitive around #19, it turned out that he needed a root canal. That was difficult, not because I don’t like root canals (I love them) but because I didn’t know where anything was kept. Once I found everything, it wasn’t too bad.One day about ten of us climbed in an ambulance and drove to a small clinic. In one room there were two dental chairs and some supplies. Reluctantly, they found me some gloves. The Honduran dentist numbed the patients and Dr. Schlanser and I filled teeth. The patients were children, cavities were rampant. There was no fluoride in the water. These children were privileged. They had dental treatment available other than extractions. Dr Schlanser had one young patient who was pregnant with periodontal disease and large amounts of tarter. It was sad to see.Just as a note, there was a Very large spider in one of the windows.Thursday we had a lesson in palletizing. Yuck. It was so windy and loud that we could hardly hear anything, but the army was in charge. It was rather stupid. My roommate had blisters on her heels, rather like mine after a three-mile walk in combat boots. When we were all done we were required to walk back to our buildings. Linda kept slowing down and finally admitted to having blisters. We were rather upset; the first sergeant would have insisted upon a ride if he had known. We were still a long way from anywhere. As soon as we got to an area somewhat safe to walk on we made her remove her boots and walk barefoot. We made her report to the hospital to get some moleskin for her blisters. She was so afraid that she would not get to go on our deployment to the Mosquito Coast if the doctors knew about her blisters. She finally decided to wear her black tennis shoes in the field. I don’t know if she did or not; we were not on the same missions.Saturday we split up. Those going to the Mosquito Coast took a bus to the City of Angels. The rest went to the Mayan ruins. We all wanted to go to the ruins, but it was a two-day trip and we only had one day to spare.The bus ride to the City of Angels was a revelation. We had been told not to drive anywhere and we soon found out why. Whenever someone didn’t want to travel at the speed of the vehicle in front of them, they passed. This sounds okay unless you know that the road was only two lanes wide. There were mountains and curves all over. That made no difference to those who were passing. If they were passing in the left lane and a car was coming towards them the bus moved, the car passing moved over, and the oncoming car moved over. After all, lanes are wider than a car. Lanes made no difference to the drivers in Honduras. I think that they thought the lanes were silly. Sometimes two cars would pass at the same time. Sometimes when two cars were passing each other, another car would be coming in the other direction. Everybody just moved over and made room for each other. Incredible! There are often automobile accidents. Now I know why and I thank God that we made it back alive.We drove through Tegucigalpa on our way to the City of Angels. Very spread out, very urban, mostly very primitive with some areas of extreme affluence.The City of Angels is sort of a tourist trap. All over the town there are artisans who make and sell things for tourists to buy. It was dirty, primitive, and cheap. I suspect that it was very expensive from the Honduran point of view. There were wooden boxes, bracelets, and furniture. There were ceramic objects. There was food, but we were told not to eat anything. I never found a bathroom in the whole village. It was hot and dirty. There were ‘surprises’, little objects, about two inches in diameter that opened and showed incredibly pornographic activities in three dimensions. All of the sexual organs portrayed were huge and painted bright red.When we were done we got back on the bus and went back to Tegucigalpa. We were planning to stop at a ‘very expensive’ restaurant where it was ‘probably’ safe to eat. The trip to Tegucigalpa was the only time on the whole trip that I got ill. It was terrible, hot and confined. After we got to the restaurant everybody helped me; rubbing my back, taking off my shoes, moistening a napkin and placing it on my forehead, making me unbutton the top button of my pants. I can just imagine all of the Hondurans watching and saying to each other, “Crazy Americans.” The bathroom had flush toilets, but only one toilet worked and it did not have a seat. This was a fancy restaurant and the toilets did not have seats! The price converted to about $10 for dinner, very expensive!After dinner, we hopped back into the bus and finished our journey back to Soto Cano. We go back right when we were supposed to, about 1800.The next day we flew to Oliver North’s base 20 miles from the Nicaraguan border on the Mosquito Coast. The base was Honduran. We ladies were warned that the soldiers hadn’t had any sex in months, so be careful. It was incredible. We all stayed in one large dormitory that had slogans written all over the walls. One of them said something to the effect, “the only excuse for a soldier is death.” Another said that “training should be so hard that war seemed easy.” It was a large room with a large bathroom attached. The bathroom did not have a door. It had 15 toilets along one wall with urinals along the opposing wall. On the other side of the partition were ten shower heads. We were told that it was coed, but I sort of was hoping that it wasn’t quite that coed. The water wasn’t working.When the last group got there we discovered that the ladies (15 of us) all had one toilet and one shower in a building about 50 yards away. We were warned never to go there alone. We were told that power and water were turned on from 0500 to 0700, 1100-1300, and 1700 – 2200. We ladies wanted the group showers for half an hour each night. Took a couple of days but they finally agreed on it. They never had so many females there before. The Hondurans had two females, the commander’s secretaries.We had brought about ten chairs and three tables for about 45 people. There was definitely competition for them at dinner time. We had all brought cots and mosquito netting. During the day there weren’t many mosquitoes; at night we were glad to have the netting. Deb and I maintained our Euchre championship. We were so good that to get people to play with us we had to choose other partners. The first evening we took our first cold showers. I have never had a cold shower before. I hate to admit it but I squealed, several times. It was shocking!Each evening we were given our next days’ assignments. They were called medrets, (medical); denrets, (dental); imrets, (immunization), and vetrets, (veterinarian). The first denret was to be an overnighter to a village right on the Caribbean.The next day we got into the Blackhawk helicopters and flew to the village. It seemed like a rather long flight over mile after mile of unpopulated swamp. I have never seen so much area without any residents. The village was supposed to be about 1000 people. The first impression was that everywhere we looked and walked was covered with animal excrement. We didn’t walk in the new stuff but we couldn’t avoid the old stuff. The village was supposed to be primitive, but it was not as primitive as the village I visited five years earlier. Maybe they were improving. Everybody wore clothing they probably got from missionaries. The shirts had slogans in English written all over them. Affluence seemed to be designated by shoes. Most of the population was barefoot, a couple of families had shoes, even the babies. One little baby had patent leather shoes. The kids ran all over, barefoot, right through the excrement. Yuck. It didn’t seem to bother them. We were given the local ministry of health to work out of. It was quite modern, even to two toilets. They had no power, to flush the toilets water had to be poured into them. There was a pump right outside the building.The building and the pump are examples of what I meant when I said that there were improvements over the villages I visited before. There had been only three old buildings in the villages. There had been no pumps. We had been told that the Mosquito Coast was the most primitive part of Honduras. If that was true, they were improving.The medrets set up inside the building. The denret was given the porch to take care of the population. Each patient was screened by the Honduran dentist with us. He was from Tegucigalpa and only spoke Spanish. We had brought two Honduran soldiers with us to translate the local Indian language, Mosquite to Spanish. We had several people along who spoke Spanish rather well, so we managed. Lots of the people we saw didn’t need any teeth extracted; apparently going to the dentist was a prestigious event. The Honduran dentist would yell at the patients who didn’t need any treatment, but he would give them a toothbrush. He numbed those that needed an extraction, and set them on a bench to wait. Dr Conner and I would seat them where we worked and extract the teeth. Most of them seemed happy and excited to be having their teeth worked on. One young lady was dressed very nicely, there was lace on her blouse. She smiled and cooperated completely. She was a very nice girl. The next day, dressed in the same outfit, she sort of hovered around me. There were windows in the building with broken screens. One time, when I was bent over removing a tooth I suddenly felt a hand on my shoulder. She was reaching through the window, touching me. It startled me.One lady was sitting on the bench, bent over, looking very unhappy. I bought her to the Honduran dentist’s attention. He asked the Honduran soldier to ask her what was wrong. Apparently she was feeling faint; he cleared off the bench and had her lie down. They lifted her legs and calmed her down. After a bit she went out and lay on the ground with the other onlookers. Later she returned and had a tooth removed.She was a very good example of the different mores. Many of the male babies ran around naked. I didn’t see any naked female babies. Mothers would nurse their children wherever they happened to be. They would bare their whole breast and the kid would nurse. The strange part was the attitude toward the woman on the bench. It was terribly hot but when they lifted her legs one of the other women brought a heavy ‘shawl’ and wrapped her legs up completely and tightly. Nothing was showing, but apparently it was ‘wrong.’There was a four-year-old girl who had an abscess. She was practically the only patient who fussed all day. She screamed from the time the Honduran dentist numbed her until about 15 minutes after I removed the tooth. She was very unhappy.It was so very hot and muggy. We were wearing masks and gloves and we were bending upside down almost to the ground to reach the patients’ mouths. They were seated in folding chairs, not tipped back at all. This made me very dizzy. After most extractions I had to rest for a bit. Often I needed to suck on a sugar candy. It has been suggested that I may be partly hypoglycemic and the heat exacerbated the condition. It seemed to be true. Fortunately, MRE’s often have hard candies or caramels.We worked until about 1530, at which time we closed shop for the evening. There were no working showers, so we stayed dirty. Inside the Ministry of Health were four rooms, we all spread out and set up our cots. Kenny and I were in a small room with a ‘cholera cot’. He hadn’t brought his cot. He figured that he would find somewhere to sleep. Se chose the cholera cot. It is a cot with a large hole in the middle. It was plastic covered with a sheet on top of it. The sheet also had a hole. The hole had a tube extending down to a bucket on the floor. I guess it was lucky that no one in the village had cholera right then and the cot was clean. Ugh! I had my cot and my mosquito netting. Most of us had our cots. One person slept on the porch outside. He had brought a sleeping bag, lucky for him. We ate our MRE’s (yes, I actually ate most of it.) When the sun went down, (about 1800) there was no light. We all went to bed. A little later we were all roused to come outside and see the stars. Wow! Never before in my life have I seen so many stars. It was beautiful! The next day we worked on the remaining patients for a few hours. About noon we closed up shop and walked over to the air strip. It was the area that we had used to land the helicopter. It was also for airplanes. Shortly after we arrived a small prop plane took off in front of us. We figured that it was a drug smuggler. Can you imagine what a drug trafficker would think, stopped in a small village and suddenly a bunch of military personnel show up? He got out of there quickly.We had to wait for the helicopter for about an hour. It was hot and sunny with just a few trees. There were lots of children with us. They were having fun. I guess they were playing hooky from school.One of the army people was Puerto Rican and trying very hard to learn Mosquite. He had fun with the children. They were gathered around him, singing and playing games. He had a phonetic dictionary of common words. He would ask them to point out parts of their bodies using words in his dictionary. When he couldn’t communicate he would find someone who spoke Spanish and get the proper pronunciation. He had fun. The rest of us were hot.Finally the helicopter showed up and picked up half of us. I got the ‘gunner’s’ seat with an open window right in front of me. The ride back to camp was fun. A couple of time I saw fires on the swamp. I still don’t know if they were deliberately set. On the trip back, about 45 minutes, I saw two areas with houses. Not villages, a single house or maybe two. Makes me wonder how they survived.We got back before the water was turned on. We sat around and waited. At 1700 we all rushed for the showers. This time I only squealed a tiny bit. It was so good to get clean, even if it was only with very cold water.Deb was there. We took on the first sergeant and his partner at Euchre. After shutting our opponents out three times we split up. If we hadn’t done so nobody would play against us.Dinner was sort of big MRE’s heated by the army cook who was with us. I was getting used to bad food. I actually enjoyed it!Just before 2200 the lights and showers went out. Someone was in the shower; poor fellow had no water to finish. Then he had to find his cot, in the dark, with no flashlight. Lucky for me, I had gotten into bed a couple of minutes early.One time I came out from the ladies toilet and there was a guy waiting. He had heard me inside. After that, at night we ladies used the men’s toilets. It was safer. Fortunately they had draped a cover over the opening. It really stunk; after all, none of the toilets could be flushed until 0500.The next day my denret flew to another small village. It was well off the coast. This one was more modern. We set up at an old school, dental on the porch, in the sunlight. The classrooms were inside. We used some of the benches, tables, and chairs for our setups. It was an old school, just being replaced. It had bouncy steps climbing up from the ground. It was the only part of the steps that was supported. Whenever they were climbed they bounced. It was not safe. In fact, right near the top of the steps there was a hole in the porch. One little girl fell in! It scared her quite a bit.Some of these patients here were interesting also. One 19 year old girl had a gold star in the center of one of her front teeth. She was rather proud of it.The most memorable girl, somewhere around ten, was not pleased to be there. She had an abscessed baby tooth that was really easy to extract. She didn’t want anyone near her. The Honduran dentist was trying to numb her but she wouldn’t sit still. She screamed and wiggled. Finally he placed her on her mother’s lap, had her mother hold her hands, and pinched her nose; I presume to get her to open her mouth. She was yelling, Mosquite, loudly. It was fascinating. I wasn’t involved. If I had been the dentist it would have been embarrassing. I asked what she was saying, it wasn’t swearing. She was yelling at him to stop pinching her nose and her mother to stop holding her so tightly. Sounds sensible, but she wouldn’t keep her hands down or her mouth open without being forced. Finally, at least an hour later, he got into her mouth and out came the tooth. Why is it that the patients that fuss the most often need the simplest treatments?There were no bathrooms at the school. When we asked, they pointed inside the classrooms, behind a plank of wood leaning against the wall. Finally my bladder was desperate. I got Kenny to stand outside the classroom to keep everyone out. I walked behind the wood, wondering what I would discover. The floor of the school was wooden strips, not touching. There was a wet spot, ugh. Apparently I was supposed to pee on the floor, most of which would drip through to the ground underneath. Oh well, I did what was necessary and was jealous of the guys with us. They have it a lot easier.About three hours after we started, we were done. We had to wait for the helicopter to return. We cleaned, ate our MRE’s, and waited. Dr Conner saw a horse being ridden by the Hondurans. She got them to let her ride it. One of the other soldiers tried to ride it too, but he got bucked off. Finally the helicopter returned and took us back to the base. We were done. All that remained was to go back to Soto Cano the next day and home to Michigan the day after.Deb had been on Imrets at different villages. One of them was having a cholera outbreak. She said that there was human excrement everywhere. She described the babies as emaciated. The immunization needles were too big for them. One baby had arms only half an inch in diameter. Deb was devastated. That evening was a rerun of the evening before. We played Euchre and took cold showers and ate a terrible Chili dinner.The next morning we had to wait for the airplane to pick us up. We were taken to the airstrip early. There was no shade where we were dropped off. Most everybody stayed in the direct sun, roasting. A few of us walked over to a wall with shade. Finally everybody came over. The sun was hot.We flew back to ‘civilization’ in the C 27. Soto Cano was great! Televisions in the chow hall, hot showers, power all day. It was wonderful. We hauled our stuff to our rooms and went to lunch. Ice cream! (Sort of) Hot food! Civilization is wonderful. We all took showers; I called Joel on the autovan. It was heaven. After lunch everybody did laundry. While Harvey (Clinic commander, LTC Yee) was doing his, he sat outside and polished his boots. I walked by and he invited me to sit down and use his polish to do mine. He only had a tiny bit left and didn’t want to bring it home. I sat down and was working on my boots when Deb came by. Harvey had her get her boots so he could polish them too. When he was half done he ran out of polish and went to the BX to buy a bigger can. Before the afternoon was over there were six of us all polishing our boots. It was fun. (Normally I hate polishing boots.)That evening we had a picnic celebrating our adventure. The hospital commander was there. We gave him a plaque and he told us that we were the best group he had encountered. The group before us, Air Force Reserve, apparently had been terrible. They had been unable to understand why each of their rooms didn’t have televisions.The next day started early. By 0700 we had to be ready to go through customs. We got to customs and had to empty our bags. They went along and checked everything. There is some kind of law about bringing pornographic material into the United States. When the customs guy told us that one of the lady airmen swore and disposed of several surprises, (remember them?) After the guards finished we put everything back in our bags and put them on the floor for dogs to check for drugs.Finally we got on the airplane for the ride home. We took off about 1230 and got to Battle Creek about 1830. It took a little time to get to my car. We had to unload the airplane and go to the clinic for our paychecks. (Mine wasn’t there; I was from a different unit. I still had to go to the clinic.) I called Joel from the flight line on my cell phone. That was handy. There was still snow on the ground. The drive home took two hours, Joel wanted to cook me a special dinner to celebrate my homecoming but I made him wait till the next day. I wasn’t hungry. It was great to be home!