Thanks to those of you who supported our trips this year: everyone who prayed us there (and back!); those of you who cared for my kids on long days; those who gave money for our plane tickets; those who prayed; those who had the catalyst conversations, turning vision into action… I can’t count you all.
Future plans are percolating in our minds, but for right now, we’re talking soap.
In Tegucigalpa, Sam gave a lecture (kind of a Pediatrics Grand Rounds) at a public hospital. Then they took him on a tour of their hospital, and he met many of their infectious disease faculty. It was a great connection, and one we hope wll be revisited in the future. But while he was touring their hospital, they shared that they have no soap.
Wait, you think, I read that wrong. How could a hospital have no soap?
The hospital has no soap. Patients are supposed to bring their own for the doctors to use, and that rarely happens. As a consequence, infections are spread from patient to patient through the hospital, in an [almost] entirely avoidable fashion.
Sam wrote letters upon letters to different soap companies and medical suppliers to find a sustainable source of soap… we’ll see what comes of that– it’s a very slow ball to start rolling.
So until then, we’re having a soap drive. We have contacts traveling to Tegucigalpa in September who agreed to take a suitcase of soap to Sam’s colleagues in this hospital, and we’re going to fill it.
If you have any bars of soap you can spare (you know, the case you bought at Costco a year ago and keep forgetting you have…) drop them off at our house or bring them to church (or email me at momco3 (at) gmail (dot) com if you want to mail them) and we’ll pass them on to these folks in Tegucigalpa. We’ll make this win-win contest: how much soap can we as a group send to Tegucigalpa?
Learning As We Go 
Forwarded on via Facebook. When I worked in an office, there was a lady who had all the people who traveled collect their free hotel soaps for a charity – she kept a box under her desk. I’ll see what we can come up with!
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Awesome! Thank you!
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Shoot me an address. I have some homemade stuff laying around as well as the remains of a Costco mega pack I don’t use anymore. I’ll send it your way.
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The ladies at the coop want to know if any particular soap is better than any other: and if we start collecting mid September, will we miss the suitcase? Should we mail our own package?
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I don’t have the exact date on the trip that’s scheduled, but I assume that there will be another trip in the future… after Sept 15 (or so) it will end up being stored in my basement for awhile till we figure out another trip or shipping method.No particular soap brand is better than another– it’s the actual sudsing of any soap that kills the germs (ooo… I feel an experiment coming on!)
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Did you see this one? I read a book about ancient medicine, the Egyptians used to scrape copper oxide onto wounds as an antiseptic. http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/story/copper-surfaces-kill-97-hospital-bacteria-cut-infection/2011-07-05
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Wow! Thanks for sharing this! I’ll mail some bars to your home address, I hope they’ll make it in time.
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Thanks!
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