Another blog from Honduras...

Well, its been an adventurous few weeks in Honduras. I've been here for almost three months now, and I cannot believe how time has flown. Recently, life at the Ranch has been going well! I can now truly say that I am settled in and accustomed to the way things go here. Each day is still a learning experience, but there are less surprises and awkward situations. Plus, my Spanish has definitely improved in the time I've been here, making things much easier!


Things in the clinic have been going well. The most recent addition to the clinic has been two students, Luis and Nancy. They are finishing their high school community health education and have been assigned to work with me in the external clinic for one of their clinical placements. In a lot of ways, I really enjoy having the students. I love the opportunity to teach them and help them learn (and pass on my unending well of nursing knowledge...just joking). Also, they are hard workers and are helping me to work toward a lot of the goals I have for the clinic. One of these goals includes creating a program to provide more health teaching. Currently the patients come to the clinic, see the doctor, recieve their treatment, and leave. I'm trying to implement a program to provide more information and education to the patients regarding their diagnosis. Hopefully, in the next few months we will implement educational workshops for the patients with diabetes, hypertension, HIV/AIDS, and parasites. I am also working on education regarding hygiene and general nutrion.


My work in Casa Suyapa with the chiquitos is going well too. Every day with them is a surprise. I never know if I'm going to arrive at Casa Suyapa and find dancing children, screeming children, children watching Michael Jackson videos, etc. Regardless of the craziness that goes on when 50 children under the age of 7 live together, I have grown to love them immensely. This past weekend while working with my kids, we had mass in the cemetary on the ranch to celebrate the lives of all who are buried there. Many of the kids have mothers and siblings there who have passed away from AIDS. This experinece was joyful, but also very sobering. It gave me just a short look into the painful pasts that so many of the kids have had. One of my little girls in Casa Suyapa, Ruth Nohemi, has a mother buried in the cemetary. I helped her carry flowers and pictures to her mom's grave to decorate it. The whole ranch walked for about an hour, up into the mountains where the cemetary is. When we got there Ruth Nohemi just looked at me and said "Anna, this is my mom!" and began talking about her mom and memories she has with her. Nohemi's mom passed away last July in Casa Pasionista, the home on the ranch for adults in the end stages of AIDs and Cancer. It was amazing to see the perserverance that these kids had, and also the joy that they still carry with them every day. After cleaning and decorating all of the graves we had a mass for all the family members burried there. During mass it started to sprinkle a little bit and you could see a perfect rainbow over the mountains. The kids were so excited! It really was celebration of the lives of their parents and family.


The past few weeks, the entire country of Honduras has been in a tangible state of excitement because we qualified to go to the world cup! Soccer is religion here. People have an incredible amount of loyalty and love for their team. The first selection game we played was against the U.S.. As you can imagine, I was conflicted about who to root for. The night of the game my friends Danielle, Andrea, and I decked ourselves out in Honduran jerseys, painted our faces blue and white, and went out to a restaurant to watch the game. When it came down to it, I found it hard to root for Honduras. I wasn't expecting this. I wasn't aware that my love for America (or 'Merica) ran so deep. As it turns out, I have learned that I appreciate more about the U.S. than just cheese burgers a fantastic sanitation system. Regardless of my new found American Patriotism, I had to fake Honduran enthusiasm when they scored, and fake outrage when they lost, to avoid being assaulted! As you can imagine, it was quite a blow when Honduras lost to the U.S.. Luckily, they beat El Salvador the following Wednesday and still qualified for the World Cup. Celebration over this is still going on!


The political situation is still unresolved. The country has still been functioning as normal and its hard to hear any news regarding the situation. After my last blog, things with Micheletti's regime took a turn for the worse. They began suspending rights including the right to free speech, freedom of the press, the right to assemble, and the right to due process of law. The suspensions were lifted, but it is still evidence that Micheletti and his regime are not out to pursue democracy. I hope that the elections in November will bring some kind of end to the political unrest in Honduras.
Well, thats all from me for now. Please keep the Ranch and all the kids here in your prayers!

Peace,
Anna