Can we even do this much on Roatan!

If you are on Roatan and you don’t read this shame on you.Having said that, Happy Holidays everybody! But seriously please read this, it’s important.

When you or a family member is ill or injured, where do you turn?

If you’re like most in our community, you go to a hospital or a clinic.

Why?
Because you know you will receive medical care that only a qualified Professional can provide. You probably go to Clinica Esperanza or as we islanders call it, Miss Peggy clinic, because you know that you’ll be treated like a real person, by dedicated, compassionate health professionals in a warm, caring environment.

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As most of you know I am a local islander on an unlikely journey, fighting against all odds, to become a doctor. If there is somebody that knows and cares for the people of Roatan both tourist, expats, and local it’s me.  Being a doctor with a message of hope and change in my community is something that I badly want to do, it is what I believe my purpose is in life and is something I will continue to work hard for if given the chance. To do this I need your help.

While having medical brigades is awesome, when you train a local doctor that knows and is a part of local communities, you are helping touch the lives of thousands– whether patients are facing an urgent need, a devastating disease or seeking to improve their quality of life. Your aid can help make the difference

I want to be the vehicle thru which you can make a difference.  I want to serve you and your loved ones – to provide hope, healing and recovery. Your gift for this next year of schooling is extremely important because it will enable me to learn the clinical skills that can one day make a real difference in the lives of many.2015-gift-never-waster-graphic

Your gift of any amount to my fundraising campaign at https://www.gofundme.com/esa4t2b7 will help me continue on this journey,  and will help make an immediate impact on urgently needed health services for our community.

I am committed to working hard to honour your gift by being all that I can be – for you, for your loved ones, for every person in the community.  Please help to make this possible with your contribution.

I need your support. You and I can make a difference. Right here. Right now.

Thank you so much for your help.
Natan Webster
https://www.facebook.com/medstudenthonduras/

Calling out the village people: Yes YOU!

margaretmead101283 (2)This week thanks to our governments eternal love for holidays… for being such a poor country boy we sure do have a bunch of holidays but this post is not about that it’s about you…. As I was saying because of the holidays I got to come home to Roatan for this week, it has been great to spend time with my mom and sisters, meet with some people who have been helping me in my journey and see old friends. I LOVE my country and I love my island, Roatan is a very unique place filled with many wonderful people. People from all over the world come here to call this place home, or to get a view of the beauty that is found here.

Today I am calling some of those people out and I´m putting you on the spot.
I have seen some of the reporting concerning the local hospital but I refrained from commenting till I came home and could get a close up look. My friends what is going on with the hospital is a damn shame but it’s our fault. We have made great investment on this island our infrastructure is getting there we have some beautiful resorts we have some awesome restaurants yes our roads are awful and our hospital is …. Well I don’t need to tell you, but we have not invested in our human resource, education is a huge problem for us. Now I am not saying that we do not have highly educated people here because we do, but we need more. I was telling a friend, don’t you think this situation would be a lot different if the minister of health was someone from the island or if we had somebody in the minister´s office? Dr Raymond is an awesome doctor but he was left to hold the forth alone, but he couldn´t he needs reinforcement. we need Highly qualified people with a passion for our community and only then things will change.

Here is the good news, the cavalry is coming! But your help is needed!

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Consider this a shameless plug because well…. that´s what it is. See, for the past three years I have had a village of friends who have helped me on my journey to become a doctor with a message and a mission here in Honduras. Thanks to them next year I will be taking my last semester classes then I will start my rotations, But to do that I need your help I need you to dream with me.

I am running a fundraiser to raise 8000 dollars to cover a full year of medical school, without raising the money I would not be able to fulfil my calling. I have tried to tell some, it is great for us to have missionary trips and medical brigades and I sure appreciate the people who are willing to take the time and money to do that they fill such an important role that someday I hope to become one of them, it’s largely because of their influence in my life that I have a much different view on life than other guys who grow up in extreme poverty the way I did, but the best we can do is to help train people in the community our effect would be much greater and the ripple effect in doing so is really immeasurable.

I would like to one of those local strategic investments you can make today, I am asking you to help me on this journey. Please go on over to http://www.solsite.org and click the donate button today.  I cannot do this without your help. Please also consider sharing my story with your friends via Facebook. I greatly appreciate any action taken to help me. I know trying to raise 8000 dollars is hard but I must try, I am trusting God and YOU to help me get there.

I proudly continue working hard to be a community doctor. I continue to dream of helping and healing people and with your help. Please go on over to SOL today and chip in to help get me accross the finish line.Make sure to type Natan Webster in the dedication line, and please make sure to share this post with your friends. Also remember that all donations made via SOL are tax deductible.

I need 150 people to donate 48 dollars to reach my goal, friend I am calling on you to consider investing in me today, and to sharing my journey with your friends. If I could get a loan I would, I don’t mind graduating with some debt I just want to graduate, I just want an opportunity to be all that I can be, I want an opportunity to prove myself and to be the change I want to see in the world.

donate here now help me get over the finish line.

I am thankful to my mentors, friends, and supporters who continue to share my story with others.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions.

I´ve had choices!

I’ve had choices , since the day that I was born.
There were voices , that told me right from wrong.
If I had listened , no I wouldn’t be here today.
Livin’ and dyin’ , with the choices I’ve made.

I received news today of a young man, named Crist, being murdered on the island. Crist and I grew up next door to each other, while he and I were never really friends we were neighbors. I knew him quite well and am saddened by what has happened to him. My thoughts and prayers are with his family.

Hearing of Crist´s untimely passing made me think of the past. I remember very well one night hanging with a few boys at the corner of our neighborhood, the guys there that night were Jeremy, Alstan, Fredy, Edmond, Crist, Murphy, Leroy, and Natan(me). we were between 9 and 12 years old, it wasn´t a school night so this is usually the nights we were allowed to stay out. I cannot remember everything but I remember we were having a wrestling competition as boys usually do. little did we know or even think about the turns our lives would take.

Fast forward to today. Oh what a different picture. Jeremy, the fun loving clown of the group,  is currently unemployed and has problems with drugs and alcohol. Alstan ,the shy one, has been in and out of jail and also has a terrible drug addiction. Fredy got involved in the gangs was in and out of jail until he was found dead in the woods. Edmond ,the bully, got involved with the gangs managed to keep himself out of jail but ended up murdering a young men earlier this year and last I heard was in jail. Murphy got on some very heavy stuff ended up brained damaged, he was a drug addict and a thief until he was too found dead in the woods earlier this year. Leroy ,the rich kid, moved to the U.S last I heard he had joined the army or something like that. And Crist , the too cool for school one, well he got in trouble and was murdered this morning.

Yep, these were the kids I grew up with they had almost the same opportunities and upbringing as I did. how did we end up on such different paths? How did these boys end up all messed up in life, and I…. well a little less so. I was talking to my mother this morning about how Christ Freddy and Murphy were my next door neighbors, these were they kids ,my age, that lived in the houses around us in Coxen Hole and they are all dead. All three murdered, that thought is surreal to me!

I dot know what the answer is, why things happened as they did. But I thank God for the mind he gave me to seek out a different path, a better path! I am thankful for the people and the influences he brought into my life.I am thankful for my mother and the way she raised me.
I have truly had choices along the way, and I have made some bad ones and some good ones. I remember the first time someone offered me a cigarette I tried it, bent over nearly vomited and decided never to try it again. I remember my dad and brother laughing at me when I went to visit him because I would not drink alcohol. Yea thank God he didn´t raise me. This is not say that people who smoke cigarretes or drink alcohol are gonna end up this way, it’s that at the age this was offered to me it would have been a very bad choice for me!

I choose a couple years ago to come into the capital to enroll in a medical program, a choice I did not make likely, the capital is a dangerous place and coming here would mean giving up a lot. I am very poor and medical school is incredibly expensive so I knew raising the money to finish would be difficult at best. my mother is in her fifties and a single woman so not working for eight years would mean me not being able to help my mother for eight years, my girlfriend, my church family, my job, these were all very hard choices to make. would I even be successful? what if I failed the very first class?

Again I thank God for giving me the courage to make good choices. One of the things I am most looking forward to is being able to look young people in the face, young men like Crist and Murphy , and say to them there is a better way, hard work and determination does pay. Here is how I did it, let me tell you my story ! And let me tell you if you make good choices there is an army of people, Dr Nate being number one, that will stand behind you. I am thankful for Peggy Stranges Over at Clinica Esperanza , Mark and Dave Elmore over at SOL who supported my choice to come to medical school and helped open a way for that to happen even when they knew very little about me.

Eleanor Roosevelt said “in the long run we shape our lives and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility”

As most of you know I started my fundraising campaign for the following year of medical school in october with the goal of raising 1750 dollars to help cover the 7000 dollars needed to stay in medical school here in tegus.
Thanks to Generous donations from Karin Fehlauer, Janice Fehlauer, Caroline power, Averard D’Souza,Jess ica Pfeltz,Ma Barley, and Anna Boucher Moskowits  I have raised 1350 dollars for the next school year and step in this journey. I still need to raise 400 dollars to be able to come back next year and I need your help to do so.

If you would like to help me on this journey go on over tohttp://www.solsite.org and click the donate button today. I can not do this without your help. Please consider sharing my story with your friends via Facebook. I greatly appreciate any action taken to help me.

I proudly continue working hard to be a community doctor. I continue to dream of helping and healing people and with your help. Please go on over to SOL today and chip in to help get me accross the finish line.Make sure to type Natan Webster in the dedication line, and please make sure to share this post with your friends. Also remember that all donations made via SOL are tax deductible.

donate here now help me get over the finish line.

I am thankful to my mentors, friends, and supporters who continue to share my story with others.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions.

Will you be a part of this?

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Dear Friends and Family,
I write this post with excitement, great Joy and hope for the future, as I continue my journey into medical school. As most of you know with help from Miss Peggy Stranges and Sol foundation I applied to and passed the admission testing, making more than the minimum requirement to enter medical school in Honduras in the summer of 2011.

My road to medical school has been challenging at best, as few students in my situation have tried to gain access to medical programs and succeeded, and of those who succeed to get in even fever actually get thru the program. I was born in less than ideal circumstances and have had and uphill battle all the way constantly beating long odds to overcome the challenges of life. I am the oldest of four siblings, and while growing up very poor with a single mother who did and awesome job considering the circumstances, I truly am a product of my family and communities hard work and perseverance, there are so many people that have invested time and energy in my journey way long before they even knew I was headed to medical school, Like Ptolemy and Neysa Matthews, and Joelle Fehlauer who came down to Honduras to volunteer time in a christian school I attended,all of whom made and incredible impression on me at a time when I was really struggling, fighting battles they knew nothing about.

I worked for three years at the local hospital in roatan, it was here that I truly became  inspired me to dream big and go beyond the expectations of my neighborhood. I know that inequities exist, and my curiosity for healing and justice deppened. I have made it my personal mission to improve conditions that prevent others from having equal treatment and access to education and healthcare resources. I have made it my mission to ease human suffering I believe this is the reason I was born.

My friends and mentors have said that I am a trailblazer, that I have taken the road less traveled, and that in the face of insurmountable challenges , I have overcome the greatest of obstacles. The reality is that I have had much help to be where I am today, and at every step of the way, I have encountered and relied on the kindness of friends, neighbors, teachers, and mentors to teach me and guide me through the process.

Now once more I must rely on the kindness of others to help me through my next step in medical school. Because Honduras really does not offer formal financial aid programs, or student loans, especially for poor people in medical school who´s parent has no valuable assets . I must fundraise to cover my medical school expenses in order to see my dream of becoming a community doctor come true. While I worked to pay my own way through high school, I am unable to work as a medical student due to the high volume of classes and information I will be required to learn over the next few years. I receive a partial scholarship from the foundation for the advancement of people administered by SOL foundation. which comes under review each year. This agreements as most of you probably already know requires that I raise part of the funds I need from the community.

It takes about 7000 dollars per year for me to stay in the program. I have a formula thru which Sol and Rotary provide roughtly 75% of this which leaves me to raise 1750 dollars per year. I have done this the past two years online with help from many friends. Well it is October I am about done with this year and it is time to do it again friends. I will be meeting with rotary and Sol in December to determine plans for the next year and whether they will continue funding me or not. But how about we start to raise our share and exceed it by them. I got help raising funds for this year from so many of you. Tricia, Anna, Nicki, Jennifer,Mark, Roatan homes, Peggy, Dave  and so many others shared my story and helped me raise the funds I needed for this year in about two weeks.

Friends, today I humbly ask you to dream with me. I am asking you to once again support my goal of becoming a physician by helping sponsor another year of my medical education, It would be impossible for me to do this without your help. My goal is to fundraise at least the 1750 dollars in order to help meet the 7000 dollars I will need for the next school year. . I am doing what I can in applying to scholarships, finding alternative measures of funding, and now asking for your support.

I know there are many other needs and I have seem so many request for money lately on Facebook for so many good causes, I also know that while we would like to help everyone there is only so much we can do. I have lamented how politicians are able to raise so much money from so many donors while many charities are lacking funding. But the truth is  one of the reasons they are able to do so is because a lot of people know about them.

Friend one of the best things you can do besides chipping in yourself is making sure to share this with your friends. I know there are many people who would be glad to help if they only knew about my dream and my story. After all, all I need is 1750 people to donate 1 dollar.

As I have mentioned before I am only able to continue on this journey because of the generous support of people like you, I would really appreciate it if you would go over to sol foundation website and make a donation of any amount to help me thru next year and to help me complete this program. I assure you I will honor that donation in loving service, and by making sure I am doing everything I can to pay it forward. Just make sure to type Natan Webster in the dedication box. Every penny sent to sol with the dedication line Natan Webster is administered to my scholarship Program, and is a foundational stone in helping me become a doctor with a message and a mission in Honduras.

http://www.solsite.org/

Cesar words resonate with my life goals of community work — “We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about progress and prosperity for our community… Our ambitions must be broad enough to include the aspirations and needs of others, for their sakes and for our own.” I believe in the power we have as a community and hope that you can help me reach my dream of becoming a physician.
Thanks to the support of many I am about to finish and will soon be posting grades for macro-anatomy, neuro-anatomy,embryology,histology, and public health.

With your help next year, I’ll be able to finish physiology, bioquem, psychology, public health,microbiology, and genetics 

I proudly continue working hard to be a community doctor. I continue to dream of helping and healing people and with your help, I will be one step closer to creating a healthier, and more just world for all of us.
Please go on over to SOL today and chip in making sure to type Natan Webster in the dedication line, and please make sure to share this post with your friends. Also remember that all donations made via SOL are tax deductible.

donate here now

Please feel free to contact me with any questions.

Thank you!

The odds are against me!!!

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Having finished this semester( referring to 2014 semester, currently I´m in my second 2015 semester) and now back on the Island for a few weeks, Thank God!!!
I have a little time to relax and unwind, this semester was pretty tough and filled with many unexpected and unplanned events. But certainly one filled with many valuable life lessons.

One thing that I have been thinking about a lot the last few days is something that someone said to me a couple weeks ago. This person looked me in the face and said “You do know that the odds are against you right? The odds of you finishing this program are very low, and frankly I would be very surprise if you do.”
Now before you go all judgmental on this person remember I am not providing much context here, and I believe the person was not trying to be mean or anything, just stating a matter of fact, and get into an interesting conversation.
Also if you just look at me, This person was absolutely right. I am an african latino dude dude, raise by a single mother. I was born and have grown up poor, and I´m the product of the public education system in a Honduras (arguably one of the worse in the civilized world). Yep the odds are definitely against me!!!!
Alas what am I to do?

Well there is a hymn that I love it says ” Count your blessings name them one by one, count your blessings see what God has done, count your many blessings name them one by one and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.”

See the odds have always been against me. I have defied the odds and continue to defy them with my very existence. My mom did not have me till she was 24 years old, that was not by design. My mom had been trying to get pregnant for a long time, she thought she was unable to bear children and sought the Lord and begged him for me. See I was not even suppose to be here in the first place.
When time came for me to be born my mother was taken to the hospital where she was told I was too big and she would have to get and emergency C section immediately, seeing as there was no way she could have a natural birth. My mother was afraid and decided to run away from the hospital, she took a cab home, where my grandmother found her lying in bed with a 9 and a half pound baby . My grandmother then become my mom´s midwife on the spot, full disclosure my grandmother had some experience with these situations before. Yep, I came into this world with the odds against me. I was born in an old beat down house with no medical help and no preparation, my umbilical cord was cut with an unsterilized pair of scissors, and clamped off with clothespins that had been used to hang the laundry, no pots of boiling water, no doctor, no nothing and still here at 26 healthy as a horse and big as a hipo.

When I was a over a year old my mother had left me in the living room playing with a toy and was in the kitchen preparing a meal, she heard a noise as tho I had fallen which caused her to run into the living room, sure enough I was lying on my back, but my mother was alarmed when she saw me frothing at the mouth. She immediately took me to the emergency room, after the doctors did whatever it is that they did. The referred her to a pediatrician which explained to her that I was way too overweight and would need to go on a special diet immediately, They said too much fat was covering my heart, and if it had taken her 5 minutes longer to get to the hospital that day I would have died. Yep the odds were against me, did I mention I´m 26 years old!!!!

When I was old enough to go to kindergarten my mother enrolled me, to her education was very important.She was not able to get very much herself, and she wanted make sure I got as much as I could. I went to kindergarten one day and never went back, because the teacher sent me home that day with a note to my mom. I have never been a troublemaker and while I do not remember that day very well, I do remember hoping I had not gotten in trouble, because I liked kindergarten very much. The next day my mom took me to kindergarten the teacher explained to her I was too smart for kindergarten and for her to keep me there would be a waste of time, I was then matriculated in first grade. Yep I passed kinder garden in a day. The school year starts in february and finishes in november. On a day right after my birthday in august the teacher, this time my first grade teacher, gave me a second note to take home, this time to my grandmother ( she was taking care of me because my mother had to work).My grandmother took me to class the next day where the teacher explained to her that she was moving me to second grade, because I was way too smart for first grade I was just wasting time. Yep I´m the only guy I know who did three grades in a year. My whole family could not be prouder, and I grew up all my life being told how smart I am. You wouldn’t know that from my english spelling and grammar ha?
But alas the odds have always been against me!!! See I was top of my class all the way thru elementary school, but by the time I got to high school my mom had three children ( me and my two sisters) and there was no way she could afford to keep me in school, and as is the case and tradition in all poor families especially single mother homes, my mom needed me to get a job. She did not want me to help pay the bills as is expected of most boys who are the first borns, she just wanted me to get a job so I could afford to keep going to school. Well she got me a job, I started working during the day and going to school at night. But the odds where still against me, there were times I had to drop out of school because even having a job, I couldn’t afford to keep going. Which resulted in both my sisters graduating high school before me, the genius in the family. By the time I graduated high school I was just glad to get thru it, and had a job in the local public hospital that I loved.
So when the Lord called me into medicine I knew that wasn’t going to happen, one my upbringing, and the odds where against me! ME getting to do something like that was impossible.There was no way I could afford it, there was no way I would leave my job, my family, my church, my girlfriend, move to one of the most dangerous places on earth, there was just no way!!!
When the Lord started opening the doors in the amazing way I have described in a previous post, I and everyone that knows me was just amazed. I am now completely done with first step( seventeen classes at the university), and will be starting at the faculty of medicine next year. Yep with the odds still against me!!

The odds have always been against me folks, from day one, Oh the stories I could tell, I suffered things that an adult should never suffer worse so a child, but I’m still fighting, fighting to survive, fighting to make my mark on this earth, I believe I was born for a purpose and I believe God has keep me here this long, yes even with the odds stacked high against me, to fulfil that purpose. I believe I have been blessed and highly favored.

I worry about the odds sometimes I must admit. I worry that the funding will dry up for this program. I worry that I will not be able to raise enough money to cover the cost for next year. I worry about the high crime rate in the capital and pray I am not a victim before I´m finished. I worry about my heart, it already almost gave out on me once. I worry about my mother, she is getting older and needs me to help her financially rather than her still having to help her 26 year old boy go to a fancy medical program in the capital. I worry about my sisters. I worry about the odds.
But I know that the same God that has brought me so far, and has placed many good people in my life, will lead me till my journey here is done. The best thing that God has given me is my mother she is the strongest woman I know, she taught me to work hard and dream big. She taught me to keep fighting and to never give up no matter how hard it gets. She always tells me I am a blessed person, and I believe her.

Next January I will be starting in the next step of this journey, and I would like to know I have you in my corner, share my blog with someone, make a comment on here, send me a message, anything you can do I greatly appreciate.

As I have mentioned before I am only able to continue on this journey because of the generous support of people like you, I would really appreciate it if you would go over to sol foundation website and make a donation of any amount to help me thru next year and to help me complete this program. I assure you I will honor that donation in loving service, and by making sure I am doing everything I can to pay it forward. Just make sure to type “Natan Webster” in the dedication box. Every penny sent to sol with the dedication line Natan Webster is administered to my scholarship Program, and is a foundational stone in helping me become a doctor with a message and a mission in Honduras.

http://www.solsite.org/

Every donation made via SOL is tax deductible
If you have any question please feel free to contact me.

Thank you for your support
This Hymn has been on my mind a lot lately, thought I would share it with you.

Life is like a mountain railroad, with an engineer that’s brave;
We must make the run successful, from the cradle to the grave;
Watch the curves, the hills, the tunnels; never falter, never fail;
Keep your hand upon the throttle, and your eye upon the rail.

Blessed Savior, Thou wilt guide us,
Till we reach that blissful shore;
Where the angels wait to join us
In Thy praise forevermore.

You will roll up grades of trial; you will cross the bridge of strife;
See that Christ is your Conductor on this lightning train of life;
Always mindful of obstruction, do your duty, never fail;
Keep your hand upon the throttle, and your eye upon the rail.

Dressed in white, ready for service!!!!

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There is something about going to the faculty that inspires me.

When I was going thru the issue in my last post, and just feeling terrible. I went over to the faculty the other day even tho I didn´t have class, because I had to see my faculty director about planning for next year courses. I got there around 10 AM and sat in the lobby waiting for him to show up. As I sat there I started to notice the students in white, those 5th year and above ( yea we don´t get to dress like that till 5th year) walking in and out of the faculty administrative building for diver reasons. The faculty is right next to the teaching hospital (for obvious reasons). A man coming to the hospital with problems somehow ended up in the administrative faculty building lobby, the students that were in that lobby inmediately sprang to action, taking control of the situation and making sure the man got the help that he needed.  For that moment I forgot all about the issues, and problems I was dealing with, I saw the future and I was inspired. It was like no other place in the world existed.

There is something about seeing all those students dressed in white that always makes me hopeful. See all those guys were at some point where I´m at now, all of them had to go thru the hard work, and still have quite a bit of work ahead of them. All of them sacrifice 5 years, family ,friendships , relationships, etc. to get to that point. And that´s what its about helping people, about doing all that we can for our fellowmen, its a great love for all of God´s children, and I am glad that the Lord has brought me to this place.

Another thing that I noticed, and if you look at the picture above you´ll notice that there is not a black face in that group. One thing I have noticed whenever I go over to the faculty is that I have never seen another black student there. Even at the university out of 19 classes that I have taken I have only had one black classmate in one class, and that was a girl. Now, I won´t get into why there are very few black guys in medicine, because there are a lot of reasons, But, it does add a little more pressure.Its not just about me. I have to make it and I have to be the best. Because there are people like one profesor said to me who believe that black guys can´t cut it in medicine, you are here to prove that is not the case. Dr Ben Carson anybody? But yea that does add some motivation.

 

In my last post I was talking about a pretty terrible person that had done me wrong. But this event made me think about some of the great people I have meet along the way that have done me right. One of my conlusions in my last post was that there are some bad people in the world and some are worse than others. But you know what, there are also some pretty awesome people in this world and most of them are not dressed in white and in med school, but those of us that are, are priviledged indeed.                        One of those people is Mark over at Sol foundation, I have been truly impressed with how much Mark works with us to make sure things are going well, we can always count on him to help us figure things out. It is amazing to me how he goes out of his way to help us be successful. I really couldn´t do this without his assistance and guidance.

Very hopefull that  some day with God´s help I´ll be one of those people dressed in white, but for now I need to go bury my face in a biophysics book. 

By the way as you know I am on a partial scholarship and depend on good people like you helping to make my dream of becoming a doctor with a message and a mission in honduras a reality. If you would like to help me to this or would like to learn more follow the link below. Make sure to put Natan Webster in the dedication line. 

http://www.solsite.org/

Any action taking will be greatly appreciated, let me know your thoughts. Love to hear suggestions.