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The adventures continue! |
| Bandits Lights and Sirens. We were now 8 days into the mission. Two days before I had just driven the first ambulance into Copan Ruinas. Now I was driving back from Cortes in the second ambulance "La Chupaneca". I smiled to myself as I recalled how one of the first things the Copanecos did was to give each ambulance a name. The first ambulance was a shorter sassy little van style Chevy. Because she was smaller, and more compact the Copanecos had given here the name of " La Gringa" ("the American lady"). The second ambulance "La Chupaneca" got her name when the volunteers watched in horror as I filled her up with fuel. "Chupaneca" is a big heavy ford unit sporting a big 460 cubic inch engine. Thus the name "Chupaneca" a mixture of the Spanish word chupa (to suck) and Copaneca ( a woman of Copan ) a reference I am assuming to the way she sucked down the gas at that first fill up..
For those of you who know Honduras, you know that driving late at night is a risky business. Some sections of Honduras are so remote that they simply are given up to the less friendly natives after dark. Because of this we had a little meeting to discuss our options. It was decided that we would make the attempt since we had strength in numbers. Hector, Juan, and Otto (some of the Copaneco volunteers) would run ahead of the ambulance in the pick up truck while Delmy Sabillon, and myself would follow in the ambulance with the emergency lights, and siren on. We hoped that this would convince any banditos who might be out that night that we were the good guys. Most of the run was pretty uneventful until we got just outside of La Entrada, a town about 40 miles from Copan Ruinas. Hector suddenly pulled the truck over, and strolled back for a little chat. He went on to calmly tell me that the next 30 miles were through the mountains, and this was the most dangerous part of the trip. He advised me to stay very close behind his truck, and not stop for any reason unless I couldn't help it. I asked him what I should do if we did in fact get stopped. Hector simply replied "be friendly ". Hmmm.. comforting thought. I had heard that a favorite "bandito trick" is to place a small tree, or large pile of branches in the road forcing a car to stop, or slow down. Once stopped the driver could be robbed at gunpoint. Another trick is to use a broken down truck, or bus as a decoy, and try get a person to stop when waved down for help. Sure enough after about ten miles later I saw Hector hit his caution flashers, and slow down. There in the road was a large pile of brush that some one had hastily piled in the center of the road. We were on it before we knew it. Hector swerved to the right, and I swerved to the left. We never slowed down, and the pile of branches faded in the rear view mirror. When I questioned the Copanecos later it was their opinion that this was the work of some mountain children, and not the real banditos. That was a another comforting thought. Later we did see a truck on the side of the road with two men working on it, but they made no effort to flag us down. The rest of the trip was uneventful, and we arrived into Copan Ruinas sometime around 12:00 AM. Our first ambulance call, and it was the president of Honduras! After our late night excursion in the mountains, I was in the ware house the next morning with some of the volunteers sorting through the supplies we had brought with us, when a Honduran Army Officer walked into the room. His rank indicated that he was a captain in the special services of the Honduran Army. In his left ear was a ear plug to some sort of radio, and over his shoulder he was carrying an M-16 automatic weapon. Needless to say he had my attention. He then addressed us by saying that "Your country needs you." He went on to explain that both the president of Honduras and the president of Guatemala would be arriving down at the national park of Copan Ruinas, and would we be kind enough to stand by, and ride in the parade to honor the president. How could I refuse? Besides I could never refuse anyone who asks for a favor, particularly when they have an automatic weapon on their shoulder. Sheesh! I hate guns! Anyway the captain seemed like a nice enough guy, so I had my volunteers slip into some of the donated uniforms so that we would at least look the part. I didn't think I should add to the captain's concerns that I was the only paramedic in Copan at this time, and that my three volunteers were totally untrained. Naw! it would probability just upset him. We then saddled up the ambulance, and headed out to the park to meet the president. We had just arrived when several helicopters started to circle, and then settle into a small clearing about 200 yards from where we were waiting along with the military, and the national police. It was all very exciting. We watched as the both presidents got out of their helicopters, shook hands, and started to walk our way. I took out my camera and caught the following pictures. Now that what I call a great first call!
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Once again I'll close by saying thanks for all of your support, and I hope you have enjoyed this report. I will
continune to add more reports as to what we accomplished on our last mission into Honduras in the near future.
In closing I would like to remind all of you that we are always in need of your finanical contributions. I urge you to please take the time to make a tax deductable contribution to Paramedics For Children. You can help us to save a childs life by simply taking the time to Donate Online From Our Secure Donation Form. This link will take to directly to our secure web server where you can give on line using your credit card. Once again thanks! |
