Monday, June 21, 2010
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Day 7- Friday
We had to wake up at 3:00am, which was so miserable. We just packed everything up and left Rapaco for the last time at 3:30am. The kitchen staff made us fruit bags to take on the road with us. We all went to sleep as soon as we got on the road and I slept till about 6 or 7. The ride was fun once we all woke up because we had gotten so close spending the whole week together. When we got to the airport we had to get our bags checked in and go through security, which was a lot more slack than in the United States. My flight left at 1:00pm and arrived in Atlanta at around 4:00pm. When we got to Atlanta it was raining and foggy so the airport was MADNESS with all the flights being delayed or cancelled. We first had to go through customs which was very packed with people so that took about an hour. Then we found out about all the flight crazyness. It was pretty frustrating to deal with all that without my parents, but I survived! Whitney ended up having an earlier flight than mine so I put my name on the standby list for hers which was supposed to depart at 8:00pm. Mine wasn't scheduled to depart until 10:30pm. At around 12:30am they finally started boarding Whitney's flight and they called some standby names, but then stopped. They started calling a few more names and mine was called! I was so relieved. The flight was about 56 minutes and then we landed in Raleigh. Whitney and I were waiting for our bags and I couldn't find mine at all and then we realized that I switched planes at the last minute so my bags probably didn't make it on the flight. My mom came and picked me up from the airport and when we got back to my apartment it was 2:30am. I had traveled for 23 hours and was absolutely exhausted. My mom said my bag arrived at around 6:30am with the guy delivering it banging on the door. I had an amazing trip and I'm glad I got to end my week with my mom in Chapel hill for a few days!
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Day 6- Thursday
Today we woke up at 6:00am, even though originally we were going to wake up at 4:00am to see Sister Santa Rosa speak in person (she is like the Mother Theresa of Honduras). We didn't go see her because the kitchen staff would of had get to Rapaco at 1:00am to make our breakfast and lunch, and we didn't want them to have to do that. We had watermelon, omelettes, and cheese for breakfast. I woke up feeling terrible and ended up being sick for the rest of the day. The brigade was about 1 1/2 hours away, even though originally we thought it was 3 hours away. Since I was feeling sick it was a great surprise to not have to be in the van for 3 hours. When we got to the brigade I saw the doctor the medical staff brings with them. He told me it sounded like I had food poisoning so he gave me some medicine to take. I felt a little better, but I had continuous stomach pains for the rest of the day/night. I was supposed to do extractions and cleaning this day, but since I wasn't feeling well I just did data and post op for the day. I had PB&J for lunch. We had to be very careful with what we touched and wearing our masks and gloves even when we weren't working with a patient because this community had lepercy and scabies.. very scary! While I was working at the desk by the door I made friends with some of the children who were so precious! I was being a pushover and the kids kept asking for toothbrushes so I gave them a lot even though I wasn't supposed to do that lol. We left the community around 3:30pm and did our typical stop at the gas station. I got back to Rapaco and read on a hammock for a little while. Dinner at 6:30pm was steak, pineapple, rice, and tortilla. After dinner we had a meeting and unpacked the bags because we were done with brigades. At the meeting we all reflected on our experience and it was really sad to realize we were leaving Honduras and all of the wonderful people we met and helped. We then all packed our bags so we wouldn't forget anything. There was a fiesta for the last night that I had to miss because I was still feeling bad so I went to bed around 10:30pm even with the blaring loud music and people yelling.. I was very tired.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Day 5- Wednesday
We had to wake up really early, at like 6:00am. Breakfast was at 6:30am and I had eggs and a PB&J. We left for the brigade to El Escarbadero at 7:15am with UNC Medical Brigades. It was about 2 hours away, but we got to drive through the capital of Tegus! Tegus is what the locals call Tegucigalpa. For the morning shift I got to do extractions again! This time I did them with the dentist Adan, which lets you do the most. He literally did nothing while Krista and I took turns with the patients. We did the anesthesia, escalating, and extracting of all of the teeth for the morning shift! Before coming on this trip I had no clue that we would actually get to do everything, I thought we would just be cleaning teeth the whole time, but I was pleasantly surprised! The longest time it took me to get a tooth out was about 15 minutes. It was a tough one, but very rewarding after I was successful. I kept the first tooth I pulled and it is currently sitting on my desk at school. Lunch around 12:30 was PB&J of course. In the afternoon I did the cleaning station. I flossed people's teeth before they went into Charla to learn how to properly brush their teeth and they also got a flouride treatment. It was kind of stressful since I don't speak fluent Spanish because they kept on talking to me and asking me questions and I would have to get Churri to translate for me, so thank god he was there! We had to leave that community at 3:30pm even though there were still patients waiting because that community has a lot of gang problems so we had to get out of there in plenty of time before it got dark. Also, it is dangerous to drive in Honduras at night so we wanted to get back to Rapaco before the sunset. We got back to Rapacco in time to have the meeting and packing before dinner so that was nice. Dinner was at 6:15pm and we ate fried chicken, toaster bread, fries, and salad. I bought plantain chips from the kitchen staff for my Mom and Dad. I also bought a Global Dental Brigades t-shirt. We all just hung out and drank a few beers before going to bed around 11:00pm.
Day 4- Tuesday
We woke up around 6:30am and had breakfast at 7:15am. For breakfast that morning I had bacon, cereal, some sort of sausage, and a plantain. We left for the brigade at Guanacaste around 8:00am with UNC Medical Brigades. After setting up the room, I was in charge of post op care for the morning shift. At this station I gave every patient a toothbrush, toothpaste, and floss, and I gave the patients that got extractions some medicine for the pain. Lunch around 12:00 was the usual Pb&J and chips. In the afternoon I got to do extractions! I got to elevate teeth, which is where you use a tool to get the tooth separated from the gums and have more of the tooth exposed. I also got to assist in actually pulling the tooth, and I eventually pulled one by myself, but it was just a little girl's tooth so it wasn't too difficult. Some teeth were easy to pull, but others took a good amount of time because of either the amount of decay or the tooth was just really not wanting to come out. One woman's tooth came out in pieces because of the amount of decay so when we tried to extract it, it just fell apart and we had to take piece by piece out. Another woman's tooth had 3 roots on her molar so that was cool to see. After helping all of the patients we left the brigade site around 3:30pm. On the way back we stopped at our favorite gas station to get some goodies. Before going back to Rapacco we went to a little building where they make plantain chips and I bought a huge bag for 30 limperas, which was about 1.50 dollars. Dinner was at 6:30pm and we had talapia, plantain chips with salsa (my new favorite snack food), watermelon, rice, corn, and green beans. After dinner we had a dental meeting and packed up the suitcases for the brigade the next day. The brigade staff had a surprise for us that night with a bonfire, s'mores, and a band which was a lot of fun. I was really tired that day so I went to bed around 9:00pm.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Day 3- Monday
We had to wake up at 6:45am for breakfast at 7:15am. Breakfast was banana pancakes and eggs== yummmm! We left Rapaco at 8:00am to go to our first dental brigade!! It was only about 30 minutes away- Sabana Redonda with Penn State Global Medical Brigades. The way we traveled everywhere on our trip was in el busito (a van) with Churri as our driver, who is the sweetest and most awesomest person/triage/security guard ever! We always felt safe with him around and he always helped us out if we needed anything. There were 13 people, including me, in the dental group and we had a global brigades leader- Kate, who was also awesome, a lot of fun, and helped us out whenever we needed her. When we got to the brigade site, we had to set up our room, which was one of the classrooms in the community-- the kids loved us because they didn't have school for the day! For the morning shift, I was on restorations. Restorations is the filling station and I got to learn the process pretty quickly by helping out the dentist, Adan. I got to give the anesthesia myself with was so awesome! I also got to hold the blinding blue light on the tooth after Adan drilled the tooth, put acid on it, bonded it, and put constructive glue on it. I was surprised with how much we were able to do within the first few minutes of working as dentists, but I loved it. We ate lunch around noon and I ate a PB&J with chips, which is what I ate everyday for lunch. After lunch my job was triage. In this station I filled out forms about the patient's history and what was hurting them. This was kind of difficult because I'm not fluent in Spanish, but Churri helped me out. We left the brigade around 4 after we had assisted all of the patients. We stopped by our gas station to get some wine to mix with the fruit we bought the previous day in the town and we made sangria! We only let it sit for a few hours while we were at dinner, showering, and meeting, but it was still pretty good. Dinner was around 6 and we ate ground pork, green beans, rice, avocado, pineapple, and tortilla. After all of the UNC brigades staying at Rapaco were done with their meetings, we had a huge dance party with lots of alcohol, drinking games, and even the dentists joined in on the flip cup! Global Brigades staff isn't allowed to drink at Rapaco but they wanted to join in on the fun so they played flip cup with water and gatorade.. it was a very fun night. We went to bed early, around midnight, because we knew we had to get up early the next morning.
Day 2- Sunday
We had to wake up at 7:30am in order to be at breakfast by 8:00am. We had a great kitchen staff at Rapaco so our meals were all really good. For breakfast I had eggs, a meat that was maybe sausage, fruit, and tortilla (beans and tortillas were offered at every meal but I steered clear of the beans because I did not want an upset stomach). This was our tourist-like day so we first went to Clinica Santa Rosa de Lima in Nuevo Paraiso. There was a hospital that had emergency, birth, dental, eye, surgeries, etc. and it was pretty big and very nice on the inside. The hospital used to have about 10 doctors and about 40 nurses working full time, with the hospital always busy with patients. Sadly, the hospital now only has 1 doctor who is American. This is because Cuba used to pay for everything for the hospital and provide all of the staff. Last summer, someone (I forget who) fought with Honduras and they happened to be Cuba's ally, so Cuba pulled all of their staff and all of their funds from the hospital. Hopefully the hospital will find funding from elsewhere because it really is needed. After we toured the hospital, we went to an orphanage down the road. It was very nice; the top notch orphanage in Honduras. It is gated in and there is 1 tia to 10 kids or less. Each tia with her kids has a house with a kitchen, den, tv, food, rooms, clothes, bathroom, etc. There was also a couple playgrounds and lots of room for the kids to run around. Most kids in Honduras have none of that, so the kids at this orphanage are very fortunate. There is an application process to getting into the orphanage because obviously everyone wants their kids to live there. It is sad because most of the kids that are chosen are because they have been abused. Also, if a kid is just left outside of the orphanage gates, they are automatically taken in by the orphanage. I was told there is a long wait list to get in to the orphanage. We got to play with the kids for a few hours and it was amazing. They were all so nice and loving; they would run up to us and hold our hands and take us somewhere. They loved hugs and to be picked up. I wish I could work at a place like that, I just can't describe how awesome it was in words. We would all take pictures of the kids and they would immediately reach for the camera and take pictures of us. It was so cute! We played on the playground, played soccer, played football or just hung out. After the orphanage we went to Valle de Los Angeles which was a small town we hung out in for the rest of the afternoon. We ate lunch at a cute outside restaurant under the trees, some of which were banana trees. Kids and adults walked around throughout the restaurant selling candy, DVDs, and CDs. We bought a couple of CDs and reggaeton is by far my favorite music to listen to nowadays. We all took some tequila shots to celebrate being in Honduras! I ate tacos de pollo and a pupusas (a tortilla filled with cheese) both of which were soooo good! It was so strange because our bill was about 1,400 limperas which came out to only 60 dollars, so 12 people ate and drank alcohol for only 60 dollars. After lunch we shopped around in all of the souvenir shops lining the roads in the town. They sell a lot of pots, artwork, jewelry, clothes, and knives (by the way, many people walk around with machetes in their hands at all times in Honduras.. kinda scary!). They sell ice cream as a type of popsicle bar and I ate a mint chocolate chip one and it was goooood. There was a band playing in the central courtyard that we listened to for a while. After Valle de Los Angeles we went to Santa Lucia to take pictures of the gorgeous scenery. Santa Lucia was also where some high class people lived- it had the nicest houses we had seen by far. Everyday we went to the same gas station to stock up on cheap alcohol and snack food. We went back to Rapaco and had dinner- potato salad, tomatoes, cantaloupe, and some kind of chicken. Post dinner we had a dental meeting for a couple of hours to talk about what we were going to be doing for the week, we met the dentists, and packed the suitcases with the supplies for the brigade the next day. I then took my first shower in Honduras, which I do not miss. They have a shortage of water, so you have to turn the water off in between washing and rinsing. There was also barely any water pressure and it was a gamble whether you got hot water or cold. We then got to relax and drink a couple beers before going to bed at about 11:30pm.
Day 1- Saturday
We had to wake up at 3:00am to make it to the airport and get checked in before our 6:00am flight. I have never flown without my parents, but i successfully checked in and went through security by myself since I flew on a separate airline than the rest of the group (I did meet up with a girl named Whitney who flew with me on the Delta airline). Before we took off for our flight to Atlanta, the pilot came over the speakers and said that the plane had a faulty engine and that it needed to be fixed before we took off, so we were delayed about 30 minutes. Good thing the flight was less than an hour because the whole faulty engine stuff really freaked me out and I was not comfortable on that flight. After our 2 hour layover in Atlanta, we flew to San Pedro Sula which was about a 3 hour flight. I had never been through customs before since I had never been out of the country but it wasn't bad, they just filled out my passport. Honduras is only an hour behind our time, so at about 1 we met up with the rest of the brigades in the San Pedro Sula airport. We exchanged some of our American money for Honduran money (limperas) and the exchange rate was about 1.00 dollar to 18.88 limperas. I only exchanged $20.00 because at the tourist places we go to and where we were staying they took American dollars. I was in the dental brigade, then there was also a medical brigade and a water brigade. Medical brigades didn't come until the next day. Our 3 brigades loaded onto 2 buses to prepare for the 7 hour bus ride to outside the capital of Tegucigalpa. Even though the ride was really long, I'm glad we did it instead of flying into Tegucigalpa because I got to experience the gorgeous Honduran landscape. I had no clue Honduras was so beautiful, but there was a gorgeous lake and mountains surrounded us wherever we went throughout the whole country. Along the ride we also saw how the poor economy affected the people's way of life. It was really sad to see all of the barefoot kids running around without a guardian to watch over them, their dirty clothes, and the slum houses that were everywhere. We only saw a few houses the whole trip that were not slum houses; it was really heartbreaking. There were only like 2 roads we went on the whole trip, one went north-south and the other went east-west. We noticed that most people did not have cars, they either rode bikes, walked, or rode horses. Since the roads were only 2 lanes, there was no speed limit and cars passed each other all the time. At first I thought we were sure to get in a wreck, but after the first day my nerves about wrecking went away because everyone just seemed to know the unspecified rules of driving in Honduras. But if people drove like that in Charlotte, there would be many, many wrecks. A couple of hours into the trip we stopped at a little buffet, but I was nervous to try Honduran food so I kept it pretty American. I ate fried chicken, cucumbers and tomatoes, rice, and tortilla. Honduras has sewage problems, so you can't flush toilet paper down the toilet; you have to put it in a trashcan. That was hard to get used to at first so most of us forgot a few times but oh well. At about 10pm we made it to Rapaco (our home for the trip). I was exhausted and just wanted to sleep but they forced us to eat dinner and have a meeting. I still ate American with a PB&J, pineapple, and cantaloupe. Rapaco was absolutely gorgeous! It was by far one of the nicest places in all of Honduras, so I was lucky we got to stay there this year because last year they stayed in a not so nice place. Rapaco had a huge wrap around porch around the entire enclosure. There were hammocks, ping-pong, eating tables, laundry, and full bathrooms. The rooms we slept in were just divided male/female and we slept on bunk beds. There was no air conditioning but at night Honduras cooled down to the 60s so it was comfortable. Rapaco also had walking trails, a horse, and a dog on the property. We were safely gated in and guarded with a couple of armed guards at night so I always felt safe. Plus, Rapaco was off of a dirt road about 10 minutes from the paved road. The weather during the day was perfect in the 80s with a light breeze and it never rained; much better than the freezing cold and torrential downpours in Chapel Hill before spring break. Since it was the dry season there weren't too many bugs except for at night, but it was never really bad. We had to brush our teeth and wash our face with a water bottle because if you drink the water in Honduras you have a very high chance of getting parasites which would be terrible. I finally got to sleep around midnight.
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