Christmas Angels

When I was small and the school or church did a Christmas pageant, I always wanted to be an angel. I thought they got the prettiest costumes. In this post I am going to introduce you to a year 'round angel and maybe you'll get some ideas of how to be a Christmas angel.
On Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, Kori and I go to Equity House in Hopkins to help Nurse Judy in whatever way we can. Nurse Judy is a Belizean lady that was educated in the States. She worked there for years as a critical care nurse. Her husband is a Dr and was the epidemiologist for the Belize Government before he retired. When they moved to Hopkins, they built a large house with two garages. In one of those Garages, Judy has built a pharmacy and clinic that serves the people of Hopkins and surrounding area. She is available 24/7 for emergencies and will always come out if the patient can't get to her. She is out for emergencies at least two nights a week if not more and has open-door clinic during the day. If she runs across a situation she is unsure of, she googles it and treats it. She gives away medication to those that need it for donations, if she knows they can afford it, or free if she knows they can't. Besides this, she runs diabetes and hypertension information sessions out of her home once a week. She has an AIDS awareness group and does AIDS testing and counselling. Recently she was awarded a $9000 grant to do a project in Hopkins to try and derail stigma and discrimination against HIV+ people. Kori and I are heavily involved in this right now. Kori is in the process of making two different information pamphlets and I am designing t-shirts. We will have information sessions early in the new year. Judy also works one evening a week at the Dangriga hospital and volunteers once a week in the mental health unit doing counselling. On top of all this, people have started giving her children that they won't or can't care for themselves. She has found a home for four of them and is in the process of raising money to buy land and build an orphanage in town. She also manages to get to all of the schools in our district once a year and give each child a complete physical, including medication they may need and referrals to other agencies and doctors if necessary. She and her husband, Rich, are also raising a lovely 10 year old daughter, Victoria. Oh, and she has vet clinic the third Saturday each month. Now for the clincher: she is not paid for any of this and all supplies must come from donations. She gets supplies from her nursing and doctor friends in the states and from others that know about her work here. She is the medical saviour of this area. She is trying, along with some volunteer help, to get a web page up and running (www.equityhousebelize.com) if you want to check it out. There is also hope for help in the form of a non-profit organization that builds small hospitals in third world countries. They are called the world hospital project (http://web.mac.com/themikans/Site/Home.html) and they are planning to build a small hospital in Hopkins to get Judy out of her garage and get doctors and nurses involved in volunteering on a rotating basis. Now I'm going to ask for some simple help for this amazing woman who is just full of love and charity. If you want to help us out, the world hospital project will be selling t-shirts for about $20 each off of their web site. You might consider buying yourself one. Or, if you are coming to visit us, think about bringing some cough medicine (especially children's) or anti-fungal cream or benedryl of any sort. Those are the meds she is most in need of right now. Don't send money through the mail. It likely won't get here, but if you want to help with money for the orphanage, let me know and we can find a way. One definite change in our attitudes and values that has come from living here is that we now understand the true definition of poverty. (that is a really awkward sentence, sorry) The girls often say they will never take anything for granted again. And yet, these people with nothing (think of your definition of having nothing and subtract from there) will give you anything they have if you need it. They are so generous, happy and kind. It is a very humbling experience living here. I will never again be able to say 'we can't afford' now it has to be 'we don't want to afford'.