In this town, the
doctor is never in
By Michael Lynch
mlynch@eastbaynewspapers.com
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John Ferreira has seen poverty and death. He has seen hungry children, run-down huts and the people lined up 20 and 30 deep waiting for emergency medical service.
The Bristol police detective has seen many things on his numerous missionary visits to far-off, impoverished countries. He recently returned from a week-long trip to Honduras, where he brought a suitcase filled with medical supplies to the impoverished people there.
It was there that he met a nurse from Ohio named Peggy Stranges — or Miss Peggy to the locals — who had opened a clinic in the small island town of Roatan two years earlier.
"She was like a godsend to these people," Mr. Ferreira said. "This area where Peggy is, there’s never been a clinic." In fact, Mr. Ferreira said, hers is the only one of three such medical clinics in a wide swath of the country.
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After watching Ms. Stranges treat hundreds of poor villagers from the tiny mountain town of La Colonia out of her own home in Honduras, Mr. Ferreira decided he wanted to do more.
He learned that the townspeople had gathered together and donated a small parcel of land to Ms. Stranges to build a new clinic so she would no longer have to treat people out of her home. Because Honduran money has less value than the American dollar — 17 Honduran dollars to one American dollar — the estimated cost of building the clinic is only about $15,000. Mr. Ferreira hopes to raise that money here in the United States.
"When you see the need, you just want to do something," Mr. Ferreira said. "You read about it, but it’s not the same as when you see it."
Most of the residents of La Colonia didn’t grow up there. They lived in low-lying parts of the island just north of mainland Honduras before Hurricane Mitch blew threw Central American in October 1998. What few possessions people had were lost in the storm. So they moved to higher ground, and created La Colonia, a town just outside — and above — Roatan.
"They built little lean-tos and covered them with tarps," Mr. Ferreira said. "All of the houses are up on stilts. They are very poor."
So poor in fact, that in some homes, the kitchen floor has rotted away. Mr. Ferreira said he saw a mother cooking dinner as she straddled a large hole in her kitchen. Ten feet below her, he said, the rocky ground waited to catch her.
He estimated that about 200 families, most with five to nine members, live in La Colonia. Almost all of them have made the walk down the mountain to Ms. Stranges’ home for treatment for anything from headaches to fever to worms.
"A lot of kids have worms because of the parasites in the water," Mr. Ferreira said.
Ms. Stranges’ clinic is only open two hours each day — from 9 to 11 a.m. — but her doors are always open, simply because of the number of patients who need her care. Being so isolated and with few other medical options, Ms. Stranges is their only hope, Mr. Ferreira said.
He told of a young girl, who ventured down the mountainside with her mother after stepping on glass and slicing her foot. Upon arriving at Ms. Stranges’ house, they realized she wasn’t home and trudged back up the mountain. They waited until the next morning to come back down for treatment.
"Now, she (Ms. Stranges) can’t stitch it up because of the time delay and the bacteria inside the cut," Mr. Ferreira said. "Things that we take for granted here can cause a big problem in their life."
Another problem, Mr. Ferreira said, is the inadequacy of Roatan Hospital’s facilities. Like many of the tiny villages around it, there is no running water. While much of the medication used at the three small area clinics is donated, the Honduran government provides medicine for the hospital. The problem, Mr. Ferreira said, lies in the fact that the government gives the hospital a two-week supply of medicine every four weeks.
Despite all these shortcomings, La Colonians are generally a happy people, Mr. Ferreira said. Mothers keep their children’s clothes clean and take pride in their cooking, but medicine remains the big drawback.
"If you get a cut, there’s only so much a mom can do," he said.
Now that Mr. Ferreira is back on American soil, he plans to immediately start his fund-raising drive. He said car washes and selling T-shirts will not be the order of the day. Rather, he plans on simply soliciting money from local residents and businesses.
"I hope it’s a real community effort," he said. "We’re a blessed country. I don’t see why we couldn’t raise $15,000."
He plans on raising enough money to help build the new clinic and even wants to go to Honduras and help erect it himself. Other missionaries will be there to help, he said, but he wants to be a part of it.
"If I can raise the money, I’m going to go over there and help, too," Mr. Ferreira said.
While he’s in Honduras, Mr. Ferreira also plans on putting on a clinic of his own with local police there. He has already talked to the Providence Police Department about donating their old uniforms to bring over to replace the old, tattered one officers in Honduras wear now.
"They don’t get anything," he said. "They’re poorly equipped and poorly staffed."