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. 

Rocky Roads and a lot of new photos!

We had a really great balance of work, sightseeing, and learning today. At the brigada clinic this morning, we had a more steady flow of work than we did yesterday, which was nice. e saw about 100 patients during the 5 hours we worked today. We were abel to give out a lot of glasses and V íctor referred several patients for free surgery at the ZOE Clinic in Teguc. A couple of fun stories from our last couple days of brigada work:

-Today, two ladies came in together for eye exams and were both prescribed reading glasses. When Elisabeth and I helped them pick out and try on glasses, they were ecstatic. As soon as the first woman slid on her glasses, she was extremely excited at how clear the hand-held reading chart was, "¡Tan clarito!" Then, they both started gabbing about which styles they liked the most, "¡Tan bonitos!" They were quite the pair - it was fun to help them out today!

-Yesterday there was a slight confusion with a patient's visual acuity testing. Because cataracts are more common in elderly individuals, when older patients come through, their visual acuity scores are not always very good. When beginning the exam, patients understand that I am about to test their vision and usually pipe up to tell me that one eye is worse than the other or that they have a certain ailment that affects their vision. When a person says "I can't see with this eye," it could mean a lot of different things, so you cannot simply assume that they are unable to see anything at all and the visual acuity test is still performed. Covering one eye at a time, we start by asking if they can distinguish the shapes on the "E" chart. If not, we ask if they can count fingers at varying distances, starting at 3 meters and moving in to about 20 cm if they still have difficulty at a distance. If there is still difficulty with this, we test their perception of hand movement. If no movement can be seen, the very last step is asking if the patient can perceive light with the eye in question. Patients who can only see hand movement or perceive little or no light often have severe cataracts. A man came into the brigada yesterday and told us at the visual acuity station that he could not see with one eye. Like we would with any other patient, we went through these steps until we got to the light perception question. Upon asking him this question, he clearly told us that he could perceive light with that eye. Today, Víctor told me after a patient passed through our visual acuity station yesterday, he visited with him and discovered something eerie. A man with an ocular prosthesis could "perceive light." What the man failed to tell me when he said that he "couldn't see," was that he REALLY couldn't see because it was a false eye! 

Around 12:45 today, we finished up our brigada work, found somem lunch, and began making our way out of Marcala. About a year ago, when Víctor took volunteers to a brigada in Marcala, they visited the beautiful waterfall, La Estanzuela, which I mentioned in my previous post. We got to visit it this afternoon! It was absolutely gorgeous! La Estanzuela is definitely a hidden gem - even most natives of Marcala don't know of it. So, when we visited the waterfall today, we were the only ones around and got to explore the grounds near the waterfall at our own leisure. Check out some of the pictures below!

After our refreshing afternoon at La Estanzuela, we hit the road for La Esperanza, another city in the departamento of La Paz. It was the bumpiest ride I have ever experienced. I felt as if I was in a Jeep commercial featuring a huge, masculine car in four wheel drive, clambering over rocks and rough terrain with a caption saying "Professional drivers on closed course. Do not attempt." Another one of Víctor's many talents: driving. 

La Esperanza is a quaint town nestled in the mountains. The weather here feels wonderful! Tomorrow we'll be meeting up with another group of volunteers and we will be listening to some public educational talks about eye care and health, and we will also give a demonstration on how to perform a visual acuity test. Sounds like it'll be fun!

The first few pictures in this set are from a couple weeks ago when the other two volunteers were here. They just shared the pictures with me, so I thought I would post them!

Me, Leah, and Sraavya at the Pre-clinic station in the clinic in Teguc

Ryan, Me, Leah, Sraavya, and Nayasha at Tatumbla

Ninoska, Nayasha, and I working in the Archives in the clinic in Teguc

A beautiful view from our drive from Teguc to Marcala

The view at the hotel in Marcala. We enjoyed eating fresh mangos out on the porch! 

A coffee plant. When the green pods turn red, it's time to harvest them!

Elisabeth working the glasses table at the Marcala brigada

Víctor hard at work at the Marcala brigada

This is the road we took to get to the waterfall. The road from Marcala to La Esperanza was almost entirely like this as well. We drove on this rough stuff for nearly two hours!

Our trustworthy brigada vehicle. It's about time we give it a name, especially after the trip we made today!

Víctor leading the way on the hike to the waterfall

La Estanzuela

An overlook on our drive from Marcala to La Esperanza today

Pulperías don't make juice, and ferreterías don't sell ferrets

Elisabeth and I have had a really interesting day with Víctor! During drive from Teguc to Marcala, Honduras this morning, our brigada work, and afterwards, Víctor was an encyclopedia of interesting facts about Honduras. Here is a list of some of the things we learned on one of my most informative days yet!

1. Honduras is split into 18 departamentos, or "states." We passed through three of them on our drive today. We traveled from Teguc, which is in its own district, much like Washington D.C., through Francisco Morazan and Comayagua, and now we are in La Paz. The drive was absolutely gorgeous! Víctor told us that we were lucky because today was so clear; hardly any of the views were covered by clouds or fog!

2. Honduran politics are very corrupt, in both major national political parties, as well as the smaller ones. Various parts of Honduras receive lots of money to go towards improving infrastructure, repairing highways, flood recovery efforts, etc., but the funds hardly ever seem to trickle down to these levels for implementation. There is also a lot of skepticism surrounding the actions of the national police. Víctor told us a story of how a small, private plane landed at an airport, owner unknown, and the police took hold of it. Soon thereafter, the plane disappeared.

3. It takes about 10 hours to make the drive from North to South of the country. There isn't a straight shot (by car) from East to West due to large areas of jungle and forest in the middle of the country.

4. La Paz is renowned for having some of the world's best coffee. The higher up the mountains the coffee is grown, the better the quality. Víctor also mentioned that one of his favorite organically grown coffees has a more clearish color rather than black.

5. Many coffee growers use banana plants to give shade to the coffee plants so that they receive an appropriate amount of sunlight. The "fruit" of the coffee plants are red when it is time to harvest them.

6. Blackberry juice, jugo de mora, is awesome.

7. The term for "dachshund" in Spanish is perro salchicha (sausage dog).

8. There are three terms for what we call "bananas": bananos, guineos (used commonly in the North and sometimes refers to the green, unripened fruit), and datiles. Bananas are not to be confused with plantains, plátanos. Plantains are significantly larger and are generally too tough to be eaten without cooking them first.

9. There are a couple varieties of mango grown in Honduras. During March/April, very small, sweet mangos are grown and the larger, more "run-of-the-mill" mangos are grown throughout the rest of the summer.

10. Whenever there are no UFS volunteers present, Víctor usually performs brigadas all by himself. He told us a couple scary stories about getting stuck on foggy roads late at night!

11. On long brigadas like the one we had last week, Víctor usually can survive the first three days fairly easily. But he told us today that by Day 4, after seeing so many patients, his eyes get so tired, the even he can't see letter charts he uses to test the visual acuity of his patients. However, he has every line of both his letter chart and number chart completely memorized, so it doesn't matter!

12. There is a cascada (waterfall) just outside of Marcala, that even many native Hondurans don't know about, even though its bigger and rumored to be more beautiful than some of the famous Honduran waterfalls. We're hoping to visit it tomorrow!

13. Víctor's son has accompanied him on brigadas since he was two years old.

14. We learned a lot of other new words for various kinds of fruits today... but I can't remember them all!

I feel as though I learned even more about the country today, but I can't recall all the details at the moment! As I remember more interesting facts and learn more with Víctor during the next couple days, I'll be sure to add them in!

Mimicking muñecas

Yesterday was the first work day for the two new volunteers! Leah and I each took one of the new girls to different parts of the clinic and helped them to get oriented and to learn more about the various volunteer duties. It was fun to show them the ropes! Other than teaching Elisabeth and Christine, there isn't much to report from our day in the clinic. However, in the sitting room yesterday, an instrumental CD of classic church hymns was playing and I recognized most of them, including my favorite, Beautiful Savior (a special shout out to my mama with this highlight!).

Today was Day 2 for Christine and Elisabeth. They finally got to jump into some of the work themselves after doing a lot of observing their first day. In addition to feeling more confident about my own responsibilities at the clinic, especially after showing the new girls, I feel like Spanish is coming a little more naturally as well. I fell like I've definitely gotten accustomed to the Honduran accent, so I can understand just about everything I hear. But, I'm still working on producing responses more quickly! Although, the phrases that I repeat often, such as the directions I give patients when conducting the visual acuity tests, come very naturally now, and maybe even with a slight "s-less" Honduran accent. There was a little girl who came through the clinic today when it wasn't very busy, so I had the chance to talk with her for a long time. We had a couple ups and downs in our relationship today. After befriending me, she had to go through a traumatic eye drop experience, pobrecita. After she forgave me for helping administer the eye drops, she loved hearing me speak a little bit of English, talking with me, and pointing out my unnatural Spanish accent. She even had me repeat a couple Spanish phrases back to her so that I could mimic her accent. She was an adorable muñeca (doll or darling). Hondurans use this term of endearment when talking to sweet little girls - I think it is so cute!

This afternoon, after our work in pre-clinic and the archives was finished, we needed to get things organized for this weeks' brigadas! We're splitting into two groups: Elisabeth and I (two blonde Lutherans - what a coincidence!) are going with Víctor tomorrow to a place up in the mountains and the other three are leaving Thursday to go to an island just off the coast with Dr. Bryan and Mario, one of the techs. We spent a couple hours this afternoon going through the reading glasses and sunglasses we brought, dividing them equally between the groups by style and power, so as to avoid another "pink glasses" incident. Once again, we won't know what the internet situation will be like until we get there, so I may not be able to post updates for a couple days. Víctor is expecting a good crowd at each location, so I'm excited to help out this week and to accompany Elisabeth on her first exciting brigada!

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!