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Sunday, June 12, 2011

I've only dones this once before... and the man died....

After a hot and muggy two hours of class, like usual, I was helping out at lunch time, when I realized a bunch of girls were missing.  I found them in the kitchen frantically huddled around one of the girls.  I moved them out of the way and to my horror saw the girl's hand, and a really purple greasy finger. A couple days earlier she had shoved another girl's ring on her finger, but because of a combination of things and the heat, she not only couldn't get the ring off, but it was cutting off the circulation to her finger!  We tried everything, canola oil, soap, lard, ice and then oil, and nothing seemed to help.  The situation seemed pretty severe to me, because her finger was only getting purpler and purpler.  The only thing would be to cut it off... I told her the finger would have to go so we could save the ring. hehe
     Being  in charge at the moment, we left in search of a jewler.  The first place we went into was a watch shop.  An old mostly bald man with a lot of missing teeth stands up barely taller than the counter.  I ask him if he could cut a ring off a finger, and he looks at me quite worriedly, and approaches us.  and in his old crackly voice tells us, " I've only done this once before, it was more than twenty years ago..." he looks off into space, and then looks intensely back at the girl, and says "and the man died with ten minutes...But I'll try."    While I was holding back the laughter,  the poor girl was holding back her tears as she extends her hand shakily.
      The viejito takes out an equally old pair of pliers, and with hands equally shaky hands.  During this time he continues to tell us how the man man died.  He was the biggest "Patron" in Santa Rosa, in every sense, ( aka he was fat and rich).  He got to fat, and was too proud to tell anyone his ring was to small.  He waited more than a week to go to the jewler(this guy), and when he cut the ring off, the man died**.  I knew my girl wouldn't die when her ring got cut off, but the combination of this man's old tools, his shaky hands and the strory, I had to stop him.  He was obviously not going to cut the ring off without hurting her too, so I ask if he knows any newer jewlery stores with newer tools, and he looks up like it was a great idea, and tells us where to go.  hehe.
     Long story short, we got there and got the ring cut off with some fancy shmancy electrical tool in the back work area/ closet of the jewlry store, and all was well!
    Thanks for all your prayers, you've helped save a finger!
    In the meantime life goes on as usual, giving classes and laughing at the adventures of daily life in Honduduras. God Bless you for your support!
Prayer Requests,
--Pray for the internas and this institution here, that there can be changes made where needed to adapt to more modern times, without losing their core Salesian values.   
--Pray for the country which is in a bit of political turmoil. 
--Pray for me, my fellow VIDES volunteers throughout the World, and the future volunteers that are in training camp right now, that we can keep our goals in sight everyday and be the light of Christ in any situation. 


** My own medical deducement was that the man's finger must have died and gotten infected, and when he cut the ring off the infection or a blood clot or something the ring was keeping in the finger went to the heart, and thats why he died, however the girl wasn't on the same train of thought.  Poor thing!


*Below are some photos of the launching of the Microempressa (small business) that the Senior girls run their last four months of their time here.  They sell baked goods, some of which are on display below.  Its a huge deal, because they have already had to do all that one normally needs to do to start a business, business plans, finding capital investments, test trials to see what people like, and now they get down to it, with the production, selling, keeping books and managing employees on top of their other classes! 

   




Sor Mirna the head director and Profe Carlos supervise the girls, but the girls do everything!
We even had news coverage at the launching of the event, because its a big deal!