Life is getting kind of hairy and scary around here. Two weeks ago, there were two confirmed positive cases of the coronavirus in Honduras. It was traced to a woman traveling from Spain to a family baby shower. This morning there are 26 confirmed cases. Last week the country quarantined its citizens, closing down public transit as well as nonessential businesses. Tomorrow the president has ordered all citizens to remain in their homes for a week, until 29 March. I have been stocking up on nonperishable beans and rice. The situation will of course get worse in the next couple of months. Last year my life was full of crises. This year begins with a gigantic existential tsunami of woe from which no one is immune.

Her presence is here. I have lived at the Children`s Home for almost a year. Once when I was in a rare depressive state she emailed - Animo, animo, animo, she told me. Cheer up. Be brave. Many days we would discuss the church and its philosophy. As the years passed, Sister Edith brought me back from an abyss to rejoin my lost faith. I miss her very much. https://youtu.be/Poqcf0vn0qQ This is how I said goodbye to my dear friend and associate, Sister Edith Suazo Fernandez. She has gone to heaven to sit at the right hand of God.

Sorry for my poor web page skills.

I returned yesterday night from Sister Edith’s burial. Hundreds of people visited the family home where everyone could say goodbye to my dear friend where she rested in her open coffin. The mortuary did a good job recreating her beauty and tranquility, even her small half-smile. You couldn`t tell if she was just asleep. More hundreds crowded into the local church for mass, people filling the doorways. When the pallbearers carried the casket to the cemetery, they plowed through the street crowded with more hundreds of trailing mourners as the sun set in shades of red and yellow. It was dark before the community that had come to pay their respects to a holy woman, a savior of children, dedicated to her God dispersed.
Edita once told me she had lived her life in 15s. She joined the Franciscan Congregation at 15 years old. She lived and worked as a nun for 15 years. Then she founded a missionary residence for at-risk children where she had taken care of unwanted and abandoned youngsters 24/7 for 15 years. And now, she said, what`s next. She admitted she was tired.

Hermana Edith died this evening. Rest in peace, mi querida amiga. Te llevo en mi corazon para siempre.

So much has happened since I returned to Honduras from the US on January 7th. Sister Edith returned home about the same date. She was being cared for by her mother and family at the family home. The Children’s Home is under legal attack by a government agency and an evangelical group seeking to take over the building for their own uses. I visited Sister Edith several times and saw she was very weak. Last night she was readmitted to the hospital with acute abdominal pain.

To make a short story shorter, I was referred to an Internist in La Paz and after a sonogram and lots of lab work, Dr. Torres told me I needed immediate surgery. I booked an emergency med flight to Seattle and on November 20th, 14 hours after my plane landed at Sea-Tac, a surgeon removed multiple gall stones and “sludge” that had clogged up my common bile duct thereby preventing a rupture. I am now scheduled for a colonoscopy, an MRI, and a cholecystectomy, the surgery scheduled for later this month. I may be here in Puget Sound until February. Sister Edith is still in the hospital. I have not been able to get word to her nor do I know how the children are faring. I am worried because her persistent coughing developed from a lung infection to a pneumonia resistant to antibiotics.

The Dengue docs referred me to an Internist after confirming that my platelet count wouldn’t rise to a level they considered normal and that my fasting blood sugar was elevated. After a thorough physical exam in his office, Dr. Torres ordered me to have done asap a total abdominal sonogram and a barrage of blood work. I returned the following week with the results. The sonogram confirmed a cirrhotic liver but the immediate problem were the gallstones and one large one lodged in the common bile duct. You need surgery right away, he told me. I am in the process of making arrangements for the cholecystectomy to be done at the Seattle Veterans Administration Hospital after consulting with my VA Primary Care provider. I’ll be flying to Seattle next week. Thank you Ms mosquito for the warning sign. I quit alcohol consumption 6 months ago.

Never underestimate the power of a bug. I woke at 11 PM with chills and fever and vomiting and excruciating pain in all my muscles. Even my eyes hurt. That was on September 11th. Thinking I was a macho man, after a couple of days in bed, I toughed it out. The symptoms eventually subsided. 3 weeks after that I had a relapse. Same symptoms. Same macho man attitude. Again I toughed it out. A couple of weeks later I had another relapse. Worse this time. I called my friend, a pediatric doctor and asked for help, I could barely get out of bed. Come to the Dengue Clinic: Now, she told me. I was hospitalized for 4 days. Discharged from the local hospital annex set up by the government to handle the epidemic overload, a week after discharge my body remains positive with the Dengue Fever antibody. It will take me longer to recuperate from the bug assault this time. I remain under the Dengue Clinic’s care.

Last night felt like Niagara Falls hit with a soppy vengeance. The deluge must have lasted all night. When I went to bed at 9PM the roar showed no sign of abating. It is after all the rainy season and usually rains every afternoon but yesterday evening Mother Nature showed her muscles. The kids love playing in the rain, the temperature was 80°, but the ear-splitting claps of thunder and streaks of lightning overhead scared them all into their dormitories. Our wet season lasts from May to November so we still have a few weeks of showers and drenchers to go. The mountains and fields revel in multiple shades of lush green growth in every direction.