Well I am sitting in the airport waiting for m flight back to America, which technically means my Honduran trip is over as long as my plane actually gets here and it doesn't crash into a mountain taking off. The crashing into a mountain is a real concern….google/you-tube Tegucigalpa landing, I've heard the videos are enough to never make you want to visit the country. Apparently, right now there's a dog on the runway and security is running around trying to catch it…I'll be sure to make sure everyone knows I made it back safely.
Brittney, Dupree and I took the Whites, Dra. Xiomara, Dr. Ayes, and Marco out to dinner on Thursday night. We went to La Cumbre which apparently has the most beautiful view of Tegucigalpa, but again it rained, so we only have pictures of fog and rain. I really think this "dry" season doesn't exist, it's just a myth to tell the gringos. The food was amazing, and the company wasn't bad either. If we could have made the rain go away, the evening would have been perfect.
Since Brittney and Dupree left on Friday, there was no clinic. Dra. Xiomara was also sick with laryngitis so you couldn't hear her anyway. Instead of Clinic we were able to attend the Baxter morning devotion. I haven't written much about the Baxter students, so I'll do that now.
The quick rundown of the program is…The students are in a 4-year ministry program. There are married couples and the single guys. We've been living in the married housing area, so we've gotten to know a few of the families. Douglas, who might be the cutest baby ever lives across the courtyard from us, and no I didn't try to pack him in my suitcase. J The married couples both go to class. The women go half a day, and then are able to spend the rest of the day taking care of their families. They don't get the bachelors degree but they get what's equivalent to an associates degree. The other dormitory houses the single guys. We eat lunch with them every day. They are so passionate about their schooling and of course about futbol. We had the chance to get to know a couple of them during our time at Baxter and they are just great guys all around.
They have a daily devotion after their first two classes every day. Seeing as we are in clinic at this time, we don't get to share that time with them, but Friday we were able to attend. They sang very beautiful songs about God and Jesus.. really that's all I could translate, but they sounded nice. They then have a short devotion by one of the third year students and then they have a prayer and concern time. It was very nice that they prayed for our safe travels back to America. After the devotion, all the students and faculty gave us hugs and thanked us for coming to help them. It was very sweet, they even prayed in Spanish and English for us.
Abraham was using the single guys as his test subjects for his PhD project. Something with a force plate and before and after effects of OMM. It sounds a lot like physics and math, which is just too much for my brain to handle. As part of the project to keep the boys involved he organized a futbol tournament for all the participants. Brittney and I were definitely cheering for the red team, even if they are kinda bad. Our favorite Baxter student is on that team, so we are all about the red team. We've promised to wear red on Tuesday in lieu of being able to see the championship games. We expect a full recap via email of the games.
Then it was time to say goodbye to Brittney and Dupree. The rest of the afternoon was pretty uneventful. I did get lots of knitting done… although it doesn't do me much good now. During the inspection of my luggage, my knitting needles were confiscated. I can take them out of the country but not into the country. I really should stop traveling internationally with my knitting, a similar experience happened in Nairobi the second time I went to Africa. If anyone knows my obsession with yarn and yarn related things you can imagine I was almost in tears as I took the yarn of the needles and handed over 3 sets of addi tubors (2 of them being my new lace addi's). All my knitting friends may share in my sadness because they know those are good needles. I've been working on a really hard knitting project that I put it in my checked luggage in case this happened, so hopefully it will be safe there, or I really might cry. At least the only projects in my bag are socks, I can easily put them back on needles when I get home, now I just need to buy more needles… I've heard there is a very nice yarn store in Gainesville (my next rotation site) so I might need to take a trip there ASAP.
I really hope I am able to return to Honduras one day. The clinic here needs so much help. We are working on getting them the equipment for a lab. They have some of the supplies just the machines to run the lab tests. Steve (Dr. White- President of Baxter) was talking about setting up a minor surgery room. I told him I'll be all over that as soon as residency gives me time off. I doubt I'll have any extra free time next year seeing as most of my free time will be used for interviewing again, but maybe the following year on one of my weeks off I'll be able to return… I'll even be an official doctor by then. These little things will benefit the community so much, I hope one day that they become a reality.
If you have never had the opportunity to travel international on a mission trip I highly recommend it. While mission trips at home are also very important, there is definitely a different feeling from an international trip. I am thankful that I've had the opportunity to travel to Kenya and now Honduras. Thank you for supporting these trips and the people that attended them. I hope you enjoyed reading our updates as much was I enjoyed updating everyone at home.
Allison
Link to pictures -- http://www.flickr.com/gp
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