One month down....Eleven to go

The Clinic: This past week in Honduras has been a busy one! It was my fourth week in the country, and third real week of work. I am still adjusting and getting used to my job at the clinic and surgical center, but all is going well. The external clinic is always an extremely busy. The majority of patients we see are seeking primary health care. Primary health care is not affordable for the average Honduran and is considered to be a luxury for the majority of people. Our clinic provides care at an extremely low cost, and if the patient cannot pay at all, they are not required to. We see many people with the typical coughs and colds, women seeking prenatal care, many people with hypertension, diabetes, arthritis, and other health concerns. We also get a large number of patients visiting the clinic with any variety of parasites or fungal infections imaginable.

This past Wednesday I worked in the Surgical Center with Dr. Cerna, a Honduran Doctor from the capital. We did four small surgeries such as removing cysts, lipomas, and other small masses. During the week we only do surgeries that require local anesthetic. Working with Dr. Cerna is a very interesting experience. He is a jolly, middle aged Honduran man who tries to speak English as much as possible. The only problem with this is that it is much easier to understand his Spanish! He generally makes up his own English words and phrases that mean absolutely nothing. For the most part I really enjoy working with Dr. Cerna, however in a professional sense it is very frustrating. The medical system in Honduras is very different than the U.S. It is extremely paternalistic, and hierarchical. This leaves little room for nurses and other health care workers to have any sort of autonomy. Also, the way that health care professionals relate to patients is very different. They rarely talk to the patient or explain anything at all. A patient is usually minimally involved in decisions regarding their own health. This is very difficult for me as a nurse, not only do I want to have autonomy and room to learn and grow within my own job, I want to do all I can to advocate for my patients. This is definitely one issue that I know will be a continuing frustration and challenge for me here in Honduras.

The Kids: All is going well in Casa Suyapa. The kids are still shaking it to Michael Jackson and singing "Beat it" at every possible opportunity. A lot of the kids are starting to realize that I am going to be a permanent figure in their lives for the next year and are begining to trust me. Trust is really difficult for many of them because they have faced such instability for the majority of their lives. The littlest ones are starting to call me Tia, meaning Aunt in Spanish, and always beg for lullabies before I put them to bed. I don't know any lullabies in Spanish yet, but I sing to them in English and the love it just the same.

On Monday night I had Proyecto. Proyecto is a project that the volunteers have put together that focuses on allowing sibilings at the ranch to bond. If the sibilings are of different ages they are generally spit up into different hogars. Once a month, each family of sibilings comes to the volunteer housing to make a special dinner and spend time together. I was with a family of three, Karina, Benjamin, and Demian. Demian and Benjamin are in Casa Suyapa and Karina is in the hogar for teenage girls. It was so fun to see them interact as a family and spend time together.

This week I had the opportunity to do a little bit more exploring around my home at the Ranch, and the surrounding area. On Monday I went into Tegucigalpa to explore the city a bit. Traveling to the city involves walking out the highway and waiting for a large yellow school bus, cramed with Hondurans, to slam on its breaks at the last possible second and pick you up. Once on the bus, anything goes. People sit in the aisles, on home made luggage racks, eachother's laps, etc. There is usually very loud regaton playing and occasionaly a TV loosely fixed to the ceiling in homemade fashion. with home made strapsAlso, it is acceptable to bring live poultry on the bus. This past week I rode on the bus next to two chickens and a duck in a plastic bag.

Tegucigalpa itself is really a sprawling citylocated in a large valley and mainly made up of slums. The majority of the houses are made up of cinder blocks, planks of wood or tin. There is no effective sanitation system for a large part of the city. There are more upscale parts of Tegucigalpa where the wealthiest of Hondurans live. The center of the city has markets, shops, restaurants, bars, movie theaters, and much more just like any other city. The people who live and work here may work in finance, business, or be government officials. It is a stark and sad contrast between the different areas in the city.

In other news, another volunteer and I went on an adventure this weekend to Guaimaca. A small pueblo about 50 minutes away from the Ranch. We went there to visit Eddie O'tool, an ex-Peace Corps Volunteer who never left the country and is a self proclaimed ex-pat. Over all Eddie is one of the funniest and most ridiculous people I've ever met. We came across him because he had hernia surgery at our surgical center, so naturally he invited Andrea and I to his house in Guaimaca. He and his family have built a community center that services the town. It actually was quite impressive. There is a library, after school programs for kids, high school programs for women who never completed their diploma, and much more. As it turned out, Eddie picked up and moved back to the States on Sunday so Andrea and I found ourselves in the midst of a large going away party for our new friend. We ended up playing a rousing game of pin the tale on the donkey, during which a small honduran boy told me that "if my mother didn't marry me off soon I would rot like a pineapple!" Aside from that, the party was very nice and the hospitality of the people in Guaimaca incredible!

Thats all from me for now. I hope life finds you well wherever you are.

Peace,

Anna

Chicken, Rice, and Michael Jackson

Hola from Honduras! I have decided to keep a blog about my year here at Rancho Santa Fe in Honduras. I have limited time and access to the internet so I thought a blog would be a good way to keep in touch with family and friends. I am going to try to update every week or so. Originally I was pretty anti-blog so we'll see if I'm successful.
For the next year I will be working as a nurse at Nuestro Pequenos Hermanos, Rancho Santa Fe. The ranch is located about an hour outside of Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. It is an orphanage for children who otherwise have no where else to go. We have a total of about 500 kids here at the Ranch and at satellite homes in Tegucigalpa. Most of the children are orphaned as a result of HIV/AIDS or other diseases. Some of them have lost their parents unexpectedly, and some have been removed from their homes because of abuse and neglect. Each child has a story that will break your heart, but from the outside they appear just like happy, healthy kids. Their perseverance is amazing.
The kids are split up into different "hogares" or homes according to age and gender. There is a K-9th grade school, as well as a school that teaches specific trades. The kids attend high school in Tegucigalpa. The Ranch will pay for their college tuition if the kids choose to pursue higher education.
Casa Eva and Casa Pasionista are two other important aspects of our NPH home. Casa Eva is a home specifically for elderly people that have no family and no means of supporting themselves. Casa Pasionista is a home for adults in the late stages of AIDS. Many of the residents of Casa Pasionista have children that live here at the Ranch. It gives them hope and assurance that their children will always have a save place to live.
My job as a nurse involves working in two different clinics, as well as a surgical center. Every morning I work at the external clinic that services the surrounding rural community. We provide health education, treatment, medication, and other resources at a very low cost. A consult costs 30 Lempira, the equivalent of $1.50. In the afternoon I work in the internal clinic with the kids from Rancho Santa Fe. We do normal well-child care, any kind of first aid, and any other kind of medical treatment necessary. We have a large number of kids who are living with sever disabilities. Also, many of our kids are HIV positive. Other common occurances at the internal clinic include Tuberculosis and parasites of all varieties.
Each evening every volunteer works with a different group of kids. I work with the youngest kids at the Ranch in Casa Suyapa. There are about 50 kids, ages 1 through 9 in this specific hogar. Most of the time they run around like crazy, and tackle me as soon as I walk through the door. I have only been here for about a month and I have already fallen in love with these kids. They are so adorable, usually uncontrollable, but adorable. They are so full of joy! All of them have been through very sad and tough things, but they are still able to play and just be kids. They always say and do the most hilarious things and I can't help but laugh! One common theme and topic of conversation in Casa Suyapa is naturally Michael Jackson. For some reason that I can't quite figure out, all of the kids and Tios (Aunts and uncles in Spanish) have an unnatural obsession with the deceased King of Pop. I often end up in heated debates with 5 year olds about whether or not he is actually dead. Its not uncommon for me to come to Casa Suyapa and find them all gathered around a tiny TV watching the "Beat it" music video. Their favorite is to imitate Michael's dancing which I find very entertaining. Overall they are a great group of kids and I really look forward to spending the next year with them!
Over all I have really enjoyed my time here so far! The other volunteers are fantastic and I love working with the kids. It is challenging to be in a new country, far from friends and family, and learn how to do a new job in a new language! I am still adjusting, and miss home sometimes, but I really think it is going to be a great year. I know that I'll continue to adjust over the next few months and face many new challenges. One of the smaller challenges includes the food! For the most part I am not a picky eater, but I have already had my fill of Chicken and Rice. We eat it every day in mass quantities. Right before I left the States I had a fantastic meal at Moody's Pub in Chicago with the famous Allie Markland. I often find myself dreaming of this meal when I sit down to savor my chicken and rice yet again. A Moody Burger with bleu cheese, and french fries with ranch dressing. Communication is currently another challenge. I can understand basically everything in Spanish and usually I can communicate and get my point across, but sometimes things definitely get lost in translation. It is hard adjusting to language and cultural differences. Also, one of the ways that I communicate most is through humor and lets face it, I'm just not that funny in Spanish. Some of you may argue that I'm not that funny in English. It is definitely going to be a challenge to be away from my family and friends for a year, but I do think that this year will be a good year of learning and growth for me. I especially miss all the Dutch folk in West Michigan, and the girls in Chicago! Right now a year seems like a long time, but to put things in perspective, a year from now I will already have been home for a month! Time will fly.
That's all from me for now. I will update every so often with lovely and humorous anecdotes from my life here in Honduras.

Peace,
Anna