When Christ the King missionaries point to the success of the mission each year, they look to Suyapa Caballero as an example of what can be done when Catholics in Arkansas and Honduras work together.
Dr. Jerry Thomas noticed Caballero in March 2003 when he was serving as an orthopedic surgeon for the mission. The 10-year-old in a red dress was waiting in the Trujillo hospital clinic to be seen by a doctor. When she was hit by a car two years earlier, her right leg was broken above the knee and healed incorrectly. She was not able to walk properly and she dropped out of school.
With his connections to Arkansas Children’s Hospital, he was able to bring the girl and her guardian, Sara Garcia, to Little Rock for a surgery and rehabilitation from December 2003 to March 2004.
Caballero only had one mission: “I want to get my leg fixed.”
“It was tremendously courageous for a 10-year-old girl,” Dr. Thomas’ wife, Evelyn, said July 28, adding Caballero did not speak English and had never been away from home. “We recognized her confidence, we recognized her courage … Her persistence and determination.”
Instead of sending Caballero back to her small village of Palchimal, Dr. and Mrs. Thomas decided to support the girl indefinitely. Garcia agreed to be her guardian and they were given an apartment in Tegucigalpa. Caballero was enrolled in a private, bilingual school.
“We felt like we ought to give her a chance to get a good education and let her become bilingual. Her father told me he thought Suyapa would be better with us,” Dr. Thomas said.
Caballero has had to spend most of her past four years away from her parents and four siblings in order to pursue her education.
“(My family lives) nine or 10 hours away. I only see them two or three times a year. Each time for only one week,” she said.
Garcia has taken on the role of parent, getting the girl to school, helping with homework and taking her to church.
“It’s hard — to live with another person I don’t know,” Caballero admits.
“I think she appreciates the opportunity to go to school and if she had returned to her family, I am not sure she would have continued with school,” Dr. Thomas said.
Caballero, 15, has come to see the Thomases as her adopted grandparents, calling them Nonie and Papaw.
“They are excellent persons,” she said.
For the past two years, Caballero has spent part of her summer vacation serving as a mission translator in the Sante Fe clinic. Garcia assisted former mission director Lisa Nagel at the Carney Guadalupe clinic.
During each mission since 2004, Dr. Thomas goes with Caballero to visit her family.
“We always go to the grocery store and Suyapa helps me shop. We buy groceries for the family — rice and beans. I take out worm medicine and other medication for them,” he said.
“As we go back, I can see the pride in her father and mother’s eyes. They watch Suyapa translate. They have a great deal of pride in her accomplishments.”
Following the 2008 mission Caballero returned with the Thomases to Little Rock to spend six weeks with them. For two weeks, she attended a mini-nursing camp at Arkansas Children’s Hospital and got to reconnect with the doctors and staff who treated her. She also spent time with some of the Thomases’ children and grandchildren and other missionaries.
She returns to Tegucigalpa this week to begin the seventh grade.
“We love her dearly,” Evelyn Thomas said. “All of the family is excited when she comes.”
Dr. Thomas, who retired as a surgeon, is hopeful that he could bring Caballero to Little Rock to finish her high school education.
“If we could find a really close host family, I think that would really benefit her,” Dr. Thomas said. “Hopefully some day she could come back (to Honduras) as a bilingual, educated person and help her family and the people of Honduras. We decided to give her that chance and opportunity. So far she has done well.”
Born on Feb. 3, she is named after the Virgin of Suyapa, the patron of Honduras and Central America.
Click here to see a photo of Suyapa Caballero assisting mission workers in the Santa Fe clinic in the Trujillo area of Honduras.
