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Rus Rus is a village 60 miles down a winding dirt road. However, what you find there is quite amazing. Below is an aerial view of the approaching village. (It looks even better if you click on the photo to enlarge the view) What looks like a long path in the open area of the trees actually is their grass runway, which we used to land the plane. You may also notice some of the buildings near that runway that are used by the American mission family that lives there. Some of the buildings can not be seen due to the trees. The main buildings there that the mission family use are: medical/dental clinic, duplex house, airplane hanger, guest house, one-room elementary school, a small store/storage building, a generator shed, and other out-buildings. Most of these buildings are cement block structures, unlike the villagers’ houses which are wooden with thatch or tin roofs. Most of the village houses are out of view to the left of this photo. The village has no specific boundary but the population is about 200 people.
Although the village has no commercial power, the mission family has one large and one smaller generator available to distribute power to several of the buildings that they use, to include the clinic, hanger building, and their two houses. Power is on for the times that it is needed. Also, the mission family has some good communications capabilities for such a remote location. They have a satellite dish for internet use. They also have cell phones and other data systems that can connect to a distant Nicaragua cell tower.
In the upper right corner of the photo you can faintly see the mountains of Nicaragua. That is the area where most of our clinic patients come from. From Rus Rus it is a 5+ mile walk to the Coco River and then further on to their villages. The Coco River forms the border between Honduras and Nicaragua.
(click on photo to enlarge)
When the team arrives in Rus Rus, the first thing they do is go to the clinic area of the hospital to unload and sort all their medical, dental, and pharmacy supplies. As shown below, many patients are waiting there to be seen by the doctor or dentist.
Many people walk many hours from other villages. For a few who live near the road, if they are lucky they get a ride on a passing truck.
Once the team is set up and ready to go, they will have someone register each patient to go to the needed clinic (medical, dental, glasses).
The triage area will send each medical clinic patient to either a doctor or an experienced nurse to be seen. Sometimes a doctor will see a whole family at one time.
Here a doctor is using a fetal doppler unit on a pregnant lady.
Nurses will see some of the patients, too.
Some minor surgeries are done using a local anesthetic.
The team brings many strengths of reading glasses plus sun glasses to hand out. They make a huge difference for many patients who have no other way to get glasses to read and do work.
When the team encounters a serious patient requiring critical surgery, we often send them to our PLP surgery team by plane or truck.
The dental room has 3 work stations, so a lot can get done at one time. That means many instruments need to be ready.
After the patients are seen in the clinic, they go to the Pharmacy area to get the meds they need. On the right vitamins are being put into bags and labelled.
A big reason why things go so smooth in a remote village is all teams will bring equipment for communications (radios, etc) to talk with each other. With this gear the team can even do e-mailing with their families back home.
Here are some of the reasons why we go ! Last Year we had over 1000 reasons to go.
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About the Rus Rus village…… Here are some typical houses in the village.
There is just one store in Rus Rus. It has just one room and this photo shows most of it. Many of the nearby villages do not have a store.
Missionary Air Group (MAG) is the organization that supports the clinic’s operation. This photo shows the water pump that the entire village can use to get water from MAG’s hospital water purification system. Purified water has greatly helped the village’s general health.
Laundry day for a villager…..
Here is the 2020 team that made it all happen !
There is a LOT more info for the Rus Rus team site. Below are two places to see more photos, info, and a great video clip…
* * Click here to see a lot more photos showing the team site, village scenes, school, food prep area, sleeping areas, and many miscellaneous support work areas. This info is great for all to see but especially for someone planning to go there.
* * Click on 2018 Video to see a short video of the IHS Rus Rus team site. The video starts after a few moments and shows the team working along side Missionary Air Group (MAG) personnel to provide quality medical and dental care to the local people. This is a YouTube video created by MAG personnel
…… If you have more good photos of Rus Rus or other IHS team sites, contact Communictions@IHSMN.org