It's a Jungle Out There, cont.

The four nursing students and the Adam family left December 26 from Lehigh Valley International Airport. They changed planes in Atlanta and again in Miami, then landed in San Pedro Sula in north central Honduras. There they caught a prop plane to La Ceiba, about 150 miles from Ahuas, and finally arrived in Ahuas itself. The photograph they took of the “landing strip” there is eloquent: two dirt tracks, churned into red mud by a rainstorm.

They carried not only their clothes but a full load of medical equipment, drugs, and supplies. Allen brought along the only cell phone that worked. (“It was a godsend,” said Jen Wagner’s mother.) They also bore crayons and coloring books, clothes and school supplies for the Honduran children they were going to meet.

Some of the materials came from kids in Taylor and Jared Adam’s school, who wanted to send presents to the children of Ahuas. Medical supplies and much of the nursing students’ expenses were paid for by Central Moravian Church and the Rotary Clubs of Nazareth, Bethlehem, and Allentown.

The kids greeted the presents with enthusiasm. “One day we gave them each a pack of gum. That was a mistake,” Jen said. “They ate the whole pack at once.”

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Allen Smith preparing for thyroid surgery. He said, “That was the first time I’d scrubbed up in 20 years.”