Thirteen William Jewell students, alumni Kelcie Snyder and Professor Dr. Lori Wetmore traveled to Honduras over the 2019-2020 Christmas break to aid in the Village Partners mission trip. The first stop was in Ahaus, Honduras, where we all assisted in the healthcare clinic. This clinic was just one of two in the region of Gracias a Dios. The clinic was developed in 1946 and was employed by one doctor and one nurse at that time. Now, the health clinic in Ahaus is employed by two doctors, one charge nurse, and around eight other nurses. They see about four thousand patients a year. During the mission in Ahaus, we assisted with providing training sessions to go over procedures that the clinic felt they needed teachings on or areas that they wanted to improve their current techniques in. We touched on some procedures and techniques including CPR training with the manikins donated from the Jewell nursing department, ear irrigation and EKG monitoring with recognition of normal and abnormal readings.

Jewell students also dispersed throughout the clinic to shadow the employees to get insight on a different healthcare delivery system and practices that are implemented within their clinic. We were able to view the operation room, the intake of patients, the overall techniques of daily nursing tasks and troubles that they face every day, and infant feeding programs that assisted children in surrounding areas to avoid malnourishment. From Ahaus, we traveled to Boca del Toro, Honduras where the mission was to be a part of the community and experience everyday life in the villages of Honduras. Families within this village adopted each student and we were welcomed into their home every breakfast and dinner. This Village Partners mission trip allowed the group to be immersed in another culture and community to become more culturally diverse.  

Tuesday, April 2, educator and reenactor Gamal Castile led an event in Gano Assembly to explain ancient Greco-Roman war techniques. Castile used accurate replicas of the weaponry and armor – even purchasing some props from the movie “Alexander.”

Educating people about Greco-Roman wars is important to Castile, who stressed the significance of the wars.

“One battle in 490 BC [the Battle of Marathon] could arguably be responsible for the entirety of what we consider western civilization,” said Castile, noting that, had the greeks lost the battle, our collective history could have been fundamentally altered.

Another point Castile stressed was the ferocity of ancient Greco-Roman war tactics.

“Greek culture was based on challenge and struggle – on bravery,” said Castile.

It was this bravery that Castile demonstrated through an orchestrated war reenactment, using volunteers from the crowd.

Overall, this event was well attended, and those present utilized Castile’s knowledge of Greek history to learn more about various war tactics and how they affected the culture of the ancient Greeks.

Images courtesy of MacKenzie Roth