20Feb:  Saturday was a good news-bad news day. 

The bad news:The young girl we sent in to PLP yesterday to have her blindness diagnosed was examined last 
night. The reported this AM that there was no chance of restoring any of her sight. Her optic nerves had been 
distroyed, apparently by likely an infection she suffered during a bout  of disease a two years ago. They say 
that if she had been diagnosed and treated with antibiotics then, the damage could have been prevented. 
Of course, out here there is no such treatment available. This village clinic has zero supplies and there are none 
forthcoming, except for what we brought with us and what we can leave behind. I also checked their clinic 
two-way radio which is not working. It is emitting a loud alarm when you try to transmit and registering a 
low-battery alert. They have a large wet cell battery, which is a little low, but I suspect the problem is more 
than that. Possibly a bad controller that connects the rooftop solar panels to the battery or else something 
in the radio itself. Likely beyond my repair capabilities. I will check it further today when the sun is up and 
charging the solar panels. The local "nurse" said some "thieves" broke into the clinic a few months ago and 
ramsacked the place . They may have the damage by jerking wires in that room. The locals say there are 
some young men in the area, from another village, who have been stealing anything of value left unattended. 
We will try to repair the door they forced open so the clinic building can be secured again. A third "bad" thing
I learned was that there will apparently be no rice seed distributed  to the village this year. In the past, the 
government provided every family with a sack of good rice seed so they could plant the year's crop. Rice is
their staple food and is essential. But talking with the villagers, they  say they have heard that there will be
none given out this year. They grumble that this is typical of the neglect that this region (Gracia a Dios province)
receives from the central government.  They also speculate that the recent political turmoil in Honduras and the
change of government have disrupted the medical and agricultural agencies in Honduras so that none of these
agencies are working well at all.  A few of the villagers have "saved back" a little rice seed from last year's
harvest, but if the rice variety is a hybrid one, as I suspect it is, harvested hybrid rice usually does not grow
as  well as fresh seed from a nursery or commercial source. Several people told me that they were not starving
right now but that food was "tight" and they feared for the situation later in the year. They have quite a few 
animals -   pigs, goats, chickens, cattle  - which can forage for food for themselves, but with no refrigeration they 
have to completely consume very quickly  any animal killed, so they are not a good solution for sustained food. 
They need the rice, beans, and corn.

The good (more or less) news:  Dr. Tombers diagnosed a village woman with likely acute gall bladder attack. She
was carried into the clinic in a hammock slung beneath a pole carried by two men. Had not seen that 
arrangement used since Vietnam. We contacted PLP and arranged to get a plane to fly in late in the PM to 
evacuate her to the hospital.  I suspect she will need immediate surgery. Again, if we had not been here at the time,
she might not have made it. We also sent out two more women with OB/GYN problems. Village has only the
one male nurse (with no supplies and limited capabilities) and a few mid-wives. The women out here have a rough 
time under the situation, especially since many start having children at age 12-14 and have many children.  

For supper, we had seasoned (with spices) pasta, with the obligatory tortillas. Soft, thick,  slightly puffy tortillas 
maybe 6-9 inches in diameterThe later are actually very good and filling. Have discovered that you can take  
just about anything you have, like cooked vegetables, beans, pasta, cooked dish of any type, roll it up in a 
tortilla and have a pretty decent "sandwich".  Add a little tobasco or salsa if you have it. Easy to see why corn 
(maize) based tortilla, which can be cooked in a pan over an open fire, is a staple in Latin America. Slept well. 
Hotter this day (and night) but tolerable as long as you keep hydrated. We are all drinking a lot of water
with the addition of a little fruit-flavored powder to hide the taste of the chlorox drops used to purify the water.
Incidentally, they did some culture tests of the well water and the river water. Neither is clean and both have
a nice variety of nasty organisms in them, but only the river has a high-count of E. Coli bacteria, which are
supposedly the really nasty things. If any of us gringoes were to drink the water untreated, we would likely
get sick very quickly. So we filter and then use Chlorox. The locals have systems which seem less susceptible
to organisms, so they seem to suffer less. But they still can get sick from bad water.