And so begins the homestretch!

We've had some finicky internet problems at our apartahotel over the weekend, so I'm sorry for the lack of updates!

Last Friday, Elisabeth, Víctor and I wrapped up our brigada in La Esperanza with an informational presentation about a general eye health and common eye problems. I enjoyed listening to Víctor's presentation. Even though I had heard most of the information through the required eye health course I completed before this trip, it was neat to hear everything described in a different way and in Spanish. He was a great instructor! After Víctor finished his presentation, we helped him teach the attendees how to perform a visual acuity test. Víctor hopes to have some local helpers on his next brigada to this area. We returned to Teguc Friday afternoon and rested for the rest of the evening to recover from a busy week.

Saturday was a pretty slow, lazy day. We took care of some housekeeping business, watched Spanish movies, played cards, did some reading, and swapped stories with the other group after they returned from their brigada to Amapala.

Sunday, after everyone had rested up a bit from their brigadas, we took a group trip to Valle de Ángeles for the the afternoon. Lourdes, the owner of our apartahotel and our go-to guru, helped us find a good deal on a taxi for the 30-45 minute ride. Nestled up in the mountains just outside of Teguc, Valle is a small, touristic village with lots of venders and restaurants. It was the first time that we saw a lot of other gringos! We all felt like we had a little more street cred than those gringos though... they were very blatantly foreign!

This morning the five of us and Víctor loaded up the van and drove south to Choluteca, where will have brigada until Thursday this week. The weather down here is infamously hot and humid - the humidity index today was 99%. Nevertheless, we had a successful first day of clinic work and we saw a lot of patients today. A first for me and Leah today: examining a policeman with a large gun strapped around his torso. It was slightly unsettling at first, but we kept our cool and everything was just fine.

Think gas prices in the US are high? Gas here is 83 lempiras/gallon - that's over 4 U.S. dollars!

The school where we made our presentation last Friday in La Esperanza

A shrine to the Virgin Lourdes in La Esperanza

Elisabeth and I sitting up front with Víctor on our brigada 

The city of La Esperanza

The surrounding mountains in Valle de Ángeles

Paletas at Valle de Ángeles

Our "welcome to Choluteca" feast

The hotel pet here in Choluteca

The famous paletas (popsicles) of Choluteca! These paletas are made in-house and contain large pieces of fruit. They are absolutely delicious. We plan on going here at least once every day this week...

 

And to finish off the update, I have a few more Víctor-facts!

1. Honduras is the most mountainous country in Central America.

2. The majority of schools in Honduras are either public, goverment-funded Spanish schools or bilingual Spanish-English schools. Spanish schools run from January to Novemeber and the bilingual schools' school year runs from August to June. Víctor told us that the problem with the government-funded schools are supposed to have at least 200 days of class in a school year, but due to the recent teacher strikes, less than half of this minimum is being met.

3. New fruits I've learned about (although, I haven't had the chance to try them yet!):
Toronja = similar to a grapefruit
Granada = pomegranate; We visited a family friend of Victor's in Marcala and they let us try some home-grown granadas!
Guanábana = one of the strangest fruits I've ever seen/heard of; Wikipedia describes its flavor as "a combination of strawberry and pineapple with sour citrus flavor notes contrasting with an underlying creamy flavor reminiscent of coconut or banana." That's one complex fruit!
Naranjilla = citrus-like fruit that looks like a red tomato on the outside and a green tomato on the inside
Nance = small, sweet, yellow fruit ; about the same size as a cherry tomato

4. Víctor told us about some unique wines that are made in the region we stayed in for our brigada last week. There are wines made from various fruits such as strawberries, oranges, and peaches, and others that seem a bit more unconventional, like potato. Víctor bought a bottle of potato wine for himself while we were in Marcala. He also told us that he is still hunting for a rumored wine made from coffee.

5. Huevos de amor vs. huevos (Eggs made from love vs. just plain old eggs)
Víctor asked us what we liked to eat for breakfast so we could put in a request at the hotel for tomorrow morning. Ryan mentioned that he like deating eggs for breakfast. Víctor asked him if he like huevos de amor and then hard to explain himself. Huevos de amor, according to Víctor, are REAL eggs because they are made naturally from a hen and a rooster rather than the "ordinary" eggs that are fertilized via injection. We had some giggles over this and Víctor's other instances of embellished storytelling.

I cannot believe I am beginning my fourth and final week here in Honduras! It has been a truly amazing and unforgettable experience! We're expecting big crowds here in Choluteca over the next couple days, so we're excited to help out these patients and watch our supply of reading glasses begin to dwindle! The group of us leaving this Saturday are definitely trying to make the most of every minute we have left this week, even if it means splurging on a couple extra paletas.