Las Estufas

           One of the highlights of our trip was participating in the stove installations in some of rural village homes.  ENLACE and Kaiser have partnered to raise funds for the installation of over 75 stoves, reaching nearly all the village homes in the communities we serve.  These stoves are beneficial for a number of reasons.  First, they consume 80% less wood than the traditional stoves, saving families more money, consuming less natural resources, and producing less smoke pollution.  Also, healthcare providers have already started to see a reduction in asthma exacerbations in home with the new stoves due to the chimney ventilation that reduces smoke in the homes.  This is a major health accomplishment as reducing asthma exacerbation frequency can lead to reduction in chronic lung disease. Here are some photos that illustrate the process involved in installing the stoves:

Carry the very heavy concrete stove from the truck to the house

Place the stove in the kitchen

 Carry in dirt and pack around the elbow where the fire will be lit

Continue packing and compressing multiple layers of dirt

Add layer of ashes on top of the compacted soil

Drill hole in roof for chimney if there is none already

Install the chimney pipe

 Add the metal stove top and hammer into place



Light fire in the elbow

 Wait a few minutes for the fire to heat up the stove

Splash water on the top and watch it evaporate quickly, indicating the stove top is hot

Place kettle on top to boil water!






-Christina Kinnevey, global health fellow

Being more present in the moment

I really have a love/hate relationship with that small metal box a.k.a my cell phone, that is glued to a 2 ft radius of me at all times.  On the love side, it helps me stay in touch with loved ones despite living far away from some people, or in this case, traveling thousands of miles away.  It also makes my job easier.  I can look up drug doses within seconds, calculate BMI easily, access a calculator for math I’m too busy to do by hand and when connected to the internet, I have the whole world of medical research at my fingertips.  It also allows me to digitally immortalize memories – thousands of them if I wanted by taking photos of the people, places and things I see.  For the most part, these are positive attributes of those cell phones we all carry around and probably the reason we justify never being without them. 

Now onto the hate part of my relationship with that inanimate object… First off, I feel too dependent on this thing.  I get worried when the power level starts to fall below 30-40%... thoughts race through my mind like “what if it dies and someone tries to call me?”   Or “what if I get lost and my phone dies and I don’t have the GPS to get back?” Second, I’m increasingly aware of how distracting my phone is.  Have you ever looked around a room and counted how many people are on their phone at a given moment?  Whether we are in a meeting or a restaurant or a lecture or the line at the grocery store, it’s rare that I don’t see at least a few people on their phones.  There are TONS of things to distract us from e-mails to social media to news articles to stock market trends to games.  It’s easy to pass time on those small boxes.  And I’m as guilty as they come when it comes to this.  Today when I got in the back of the truck to go to clinic, the first thing I did was grab my phone to start doing who knows what to occupy my time.  And for a few moments my head was down and I was focused on the shining light emanating from that little box again.  But then I happened to look up and realize what beautiful scenery I was missing!  I’m in another country for crying out loud!   What could possibly be more important in this moment in a small little box than absorbing the new sights of the new landscapes around me?!  There are native Hondurans sitting next to me that I could talk to and learn about their country, culture and personal stories.  I put my phone down and started to observe my surroundings more. 

This addiction to our smart phones is not isolated to the first world.  As I looked around in the evening at our Honduran colleagues, I saw many of them passing the time on their phones as well.  Only in the rural villages did it take some effort to find people on their phones.  On more than one occasion I passed by groups of kids playing soccer and people just taking time to sit in front of their homes and gaze out.  There is something refreshing about this simplicity.  I decided that going forward, I would focus more on putting aside that pesky device I have a love/hate relationship with, and just work on being more present in moment.

- Christina Kinnevey, global health fellow

Initial musings on our September 2017 trip

Introducing our fall team! Our team this fall consists of 8 people- small, but mighty. Each of us offers a unique set of skills. Together, we make a great team, even evident today on Day 1 of the trip.

Today was day 1 of seeing patients at a church at
Palamichal Carmen. We saw a total of 21 patients. Today I worked at the well child station. Of the 2 "well children" that we saw, both of them were not your regular well child visits as both had stunting. One family with a boy with major stunting reported food insecurity 50% of the week and greater than 50% of the week when their family wasn't working. My heart broke for these kids as I felt helpless in my ability solve their situation. They reminded me of how much we take for granted in the United States. In the US, there is SO much food waste. It's not uncommon that after a lunch time noon conference, there will be containers and containers of food leftover that is immediately thrown into the garbage. Imagine if all the kids and families here in Honduras could even receive a small portion of the amount of food we waste in the US.

The art station 

Speaking of food. My Asian self could not help to document all the dishes we've had so far for our meals. Pictures below.

Rambutans are so delicious!

Our lunch on our first day of outreach clinic 

Breakfast for champions

Our first meal, which was my favorite thus far

Afterwards, a few of us had the privilege of helping to install a stove in a house nearby. The stove is designed amazingly and it was so neat to watch (and help) it being put together and watch it in action as it boiled water. Apparently this stove uses a lot less wood and of course also helps prevent respiratory problems given that it has a chimney that lets out the smoke :)

One of my favorite things thus far has been connecting with the community here. The first day we arrived, the kids next door were already in front of our gate asking us if we had a ball to play soccer with. We played a bit with them and boy do they have energy. Each of them were only wearing clogs or socks, yet were running around with full energy and determination trying to kick the soccer ball. We played until we could barely see the ball because it got so dark. The next morning, the first thing I saw when I walked outside early in the morning as I was headed out for a run were the kids yet again at our doorstep with a soccer ball waiting eagerly to play with us. Unfortunately, it rained that day so we weren't able to play with them. The following day, they were YET AGAIN waiting for us when we got back from the clinic, ready to play soccer with us. Despite it raining (pretty hard at first), they continued to wait for us in the rain soaked.  This time, we were determined to play with them. 2 of us went out in the rain to play with them for 10 minutes. Even though it was just 10 minutes in the rain, they had expressions of happiness on their face as they kicked our new ball around.

Waiting for us to play futbol in the rain 

Well, it's time for me to help out with some preparations for tomorrow.

Until next time,
Jen