It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood

Yesterday was an overwhelming day in the clinic, especially after being worn out after this week's brigada. Once things slowed down in the afternoon, we finally had the chance to talk with the techs after missing them during our brigada. They told us that the entire week was super busy. While Rolando and I were running pre-clinic on Friday, the waiting room area filled up, patients were lined up all along the main hallway, and they even began to encroach upon our pre-clinic work space. It felt almost claustrophobic at times, but at least there was plenty of work for the volunteers to do!

The two new volunteers, Elisabeth and Christine, arrived yesterday as well. We took them grocery shopping, to the ATM, and cooked a big spaghetti dinner to welcome them. We spent a couple hours chatting and began giving them the low down on what to expect as a volunteer here. It's weird to think that just two weeks ago we were in their shoes! They're both sweet girls and I'm looking forward to working with them and getting to know them better.

Alex gave the five of us tickets to a mini-carnival today, a charity event put on by Teguc's Citi Bank in honor of its 200th year in business. There were a lot of food stands, games, live music and entertainment, some cool handicrafts, and informational booths about various charity organizations. We spent time there this afternoon to eat lunch and enjoyed some of the entertainment!

The rest of the day was kind of slow and relaxing. We walked to the lavandería to drop off our laundry and picked it up later, all clean and neatly folded (and without loosing a single sock!). The family who runs the lavandería gets a lot of business from the volunteers who come through, so they always love to see new faces and ask us how things at the clinic are going. Lourdes, the owner of our apartahotel, is also very familiar with UFS volunteers and she is a godsend! We enjoy talking to her every once and a while, and we can count on her to help us with anything. Another "neighbor" we've befriended is Eric, a young guy who runs a small pulpería on the street corner by the clinic. We go by his store often to by snacks or lunch during our work days. He loves to hear about our brigadas and to practice some of his English with us.

Leah and I watched a couple movies on TV this afternoon; there was even a thunderstorm for an added "surround sound" effect during the scary, stormy scenes! There are often American movies on TV either in Spanish or with Spanish subtitles that are fun to watch. We're trying to get all the immersion we can, especially sometimes we're bad about talking in English when we're not in the presence of a native Spanish-speaker. At the clinic yesterday, when we finished our work for the day, Leah and I were having a conversation in Spanish when Alex walked by. He gave us a weird, surprised look and made a silly comment about our Spanish speaking. At least we're making an effort!

A cool view we discovered from our apartment balcony: the Honduran flag flying on a hilltop. 

Midway, bittersweet.

Phew! This week has been exhausting! On this week's brigada, over 500 patients came through our clinic station to receive examinations and eye glasses. If us four girls feel this tired from running preliminary examinations and distributing glasses, I can't even begin to imagine how Dr. Víctor feels after visiting with so many patients, not to mention doing all the driving there and back (and in the pouring rain no less!). But we know that all of our hard work was really appreciated, both by the patients themselves and the community. The politician, Luis Berrios Segovia, who we figured out is a congressman for the province of Olancho, presented each of us with a certificate of appreciation this afternoon after we packed up in Juticalpa. We were extremely grateful for his hospitality and generosity this week!

Most of our work this week was a little monotonous, especially to write about in a post, so I thought I would share a couple highlights:

Because we were working in a small room, post of the patients were waiting in line outside until they were called in to begin there exams. There was an elderly man outside, who had a couple people helping him walk. When we performed his pre-exam testing, we took extra care to make sure he did all of it while sitting, and provided him with water so he could take his mid-day medicine. When it was his turn to see Dr. Víctor, two of us, one on each arm, helped him walk in to the examination room. After finished the exam, the man waltzed right out of the room, completely unaided. Dr. Víctor followed him out of the room, and gave us the most hilarious look, as if we were crazy for thinking that this man needed so much help. We  joked the rest of the week that Dr. Víctor was a true "miracle worker" with a "magical touch."

The last couple of days, we started running low on eyeglasses, especially in the higher powers. Today we only had two styles of +3.00 power reading glasses left... and they were both pink. The men, and even some of the women, complained about the lack of styles in this power category. We apologized and explained to them that we had had a lot of patients come through, and this is all that we had left. Some people were frustrated and a little upset, and some opted for a other styles in a lower power, but we had one patient in particular who deserves kudos. A man who was about 60 years old came in, and we all looked at each other, knowing we would have to apologize to him for the pink glasses. But after hearing the news, he tried on the flowery, pink lenses, had a nice little chuckle at himself in the mirror, graciously excepted the new glasses, and left our clinic just as tall, proud, and masculine as ever.

Most of our free time after work this week was spent laughing until our sides hurt. The four of us girls, and even Víctor, had a great time getting to know each other better, teasing each other for silly Spanish mistakes and mispronunciations, freaking out over little critters at the hotel, playing cards, and watching ridiculous movies on TV. Víctor is a fantastic and patient individual and doctor and I am inspired by all of the work that he does, all without a single complaint. I'm looking forward for the next two weeks as I can learn more from him and help him during future brigadas.

Tomorrow, we have to say goodbye to Sraavya and Nayasha. Their month here has flown by and I was glad to have spent part of it with them. They were great guides, mentors, and friends to us during our first two weeks, so I will be sad to see them go! However, as they leave tomorrow, two more new volunteers arrive in the afternoon. It will be our turn to be the "veterans" and help the newcomers learn the ropes of the clinic and of the brigadas. The first two weeks have been wonderful and I can't believe how fast they've gone by! The next couple of days will be days of transition, but by Monday I think I'll be geared up and ready to go for the second half of my time here. Can't wait for the adventures that lie ahead!

Greetings from Juticalpa

Yesterday we made the three and a half hour drive from Tegucigalpa to the city of Juticalpa in the province of Olancho.

Since it was a bit of a drive and there is a lot of need here, we'll be spending two more days in town to perform free eye exams. This brigada is being partially sponsored and publicized  by a local politician. He has loved watching us work at our clinic site, helping organize patients in line, and of course, taking pictures with us. He has made sure that we are fed well at every meal and that we're always comfortable! The hotel we're staying at this week is owned by his family and is very nice - good service, delicious food, beautiful views of the surrounding mountains, and a fun patio with hammocks. 

The last couple of days on this brigada, I've worked more with distributing glasses than doing visual acuity testing. The glasses table is usually the last step of a patient's visit, so after a long day of waiting in lines and going through strange exams, they are extremely grateful to receive glasses. It's exciting and rewarding to see how happy they are when they can read and see more clearly. Sometimes after helping a patient find a pair that suits them, they say "thank you" and give leave you with a blessing. I was always very touched by their gratitude and appreciation.

I met a fellow UNC fan today when he came through our clinic at the brigada! Go heels!

Relaxing day off and brigada tomorrow!

We had a nice and relaxing day off today, despite a soggy, rainy afternoon. We took a taxi to the mall to go shopping, eat lunch, and go to a movie. The movie theaters here are interesting! First of all, it only costs about $3.50 for a movie ticket, and second, there is assigned seating. If you buy your tickets early, you don't have to worry about finding a good seat if you don't come in until the previews!    

At lunch today, Leah and I tried some more traditional Honduran food: pupusas. Pupusas are stuffed tortillas, filled with cheese, meat and sometimes some vegetables. They were good, but I don't think they beat the baleadas we tried last week. Baleadas are similar to tacos or burritos. The most basic baleada is a flour tortilla with refried beans and a couple kinds of cheese. But at Coco Baleadas, a restaurant we went to for lunch, there were lots of different items to add, kind of like a Chipotle or Subway. I got a baleada with a freshly-made tortilla, beans, cheese, "coco pollo" (the house specialty - chicken seasoned with a hint of coconut), plantains, pico de gallo, and sour cream. Delicious!

Tonight, Leah and I had the other volunteers come up to our apartment for a potluck dinner. Tomorrow, the four girls leave for a four-day brigada, so we had some food to get rid of before we head out for the week.  Ryan is staying behind to continue interviewing patients at the clinic for his research project and to sign off on some of the free surgeries this week. I'm not sure what the Internet situation will be like on this week's brigada, so I may not be able to post updates as often, but no worries!