19Feb:  Again crowded with patients. There is a never-ending stream. We are about 
out of many medicines. Could have used and dispensed many more, had we had them.  
Nurses want some disposable diapers since many infants come in with minimal 
coverings and things can get a little messy during examinations.  

We managed to repair the village well pump. Top of hand pump was a U-shaped 
PVC pipe mechanism; broken off. We took measurements, radioed them in to PLP 
and they purchased the PVC and assembled  the fixture there. Delivered it to 
us by plane yesterday when they transported patients and we attached it this 
AM. Perfect fit. Back in the water business. Water from this well is not 
drinkable as-is for our team; we filter and add Chlorox before drinking  it. 
Villagers use the water straight from the well and their constitutions seem 
able to handle it. 

I also had to go out to the airstrip to check on status of additional brush 
cutting at both ends of the strip. Pilots said they needed more visibility 
& greater length. A very tough dirt strip to land on. Always a scary,  bumpy 
landing  and takeoff.  Crew had done excellent job. They cleared  100+ feet 
of the taller  trees & brush at each end for more visibility and extended the 
actual usable taxi-way by maybe another 100 feet.  All done by 8 man machete 
crew. We paid them in local currency and some donated soccer team shirts. 

Encountered an old man walking down the trail with a rifle slung over his back. 
Talked with him and he let me examine his rifle. An old, rusty, beat-up .22 
automatic rifle, missing the magazine. He now loads one cartridge at a time. 
Had a replacement trigger guard made out of s strip of tin can. Unable to 
read the markings on the barrel. He said it was fairly accurate, even with 
the crude open sights.  He uses it to bag for 
his family anything "wild" he can that seems edible. Which is probably not 
much around this coastal plane.

Encountered  a young man from nearby village of Auka visiting Lisangnipura 
to demonstrate how to cook a reasonably nutricious "stew" from whatever 
available rice, vegetables, wild greens they could find. His aim was to 
show them how to improve their diet when meat was not available (which 
is usually the case). He spoke reasonably good English; he has been 
teaching himself English.  A lot of people here seriously want to learn 
to speak English and several have asked me to bring down some Spanish-English 
dictionaries to help in this. I brought down and gave away several this year. 
Problem is the space/weight limitations I have in my bags. 

 Doctor Tombers saw a new patient today with no vision. 8 years old and she 
had vision for 6 years but lost her vision 2 years ago for unknown reason. 
Blind now but otherwise healthy. Cute little girl. Eyes have some cloudiness; 
maybe some form of cataracts?  She and her mother and siblings had walked 4+ 
hours to our clinic this morning (maybe 8-10 miles) from a distant village. 
We are trying to arrange to get her flown out by plane to PLP to see an 
optometrist on the IHS team in PLP. He likely cannot do anything right now 
but may be able to determine if condition can be treated by a doctor in La 
Ceiba. All of this dependent on availability of money to pay for the flight 
there and the cost of operation. 1630 hrs:  We were successful in getting 
girl and her mother out on a plane to PLP. They have arranged for her to 
spend night in PLP and be seen by doctor there tomorrow. Her other kids 
will spend night here in the village. Hopefully they will be able to get 
her flown back out here by tomorrow evening.  The logistics of arranging 
all of this are complicated since many of the families have traveled 
(walked) far just to get to our clinic and they often have a lot
of kids, which complicates trying to make housing/care arrangements 
for the rest of the family. No hotels/motels
here.

Able to talk with Bob Rodgers again at 4:30 PM,  in Bakersville on 
20m. We wanted to try another phone patch using some different equipment. 
Very scratchy.