The trip to Honduras was a little bumpy…
- Early flight (1am) from Vegas to Miami
- 2 attempts to take off from Miami…both failed
- 1st: Mechanical Problem
- 2nd: Broken Runway in Roatan! (how often do you hear that happening!?!)
But the 1st rule of Global Medicine is Flexibility! So we stayed 2 nights in Miami and tried again Monday…with success this time! So we arrived Monday, just 2 days late, for our service and learning trip to Roatan. We were welcomed warmly at the Refuge and the clinic founder had a birthday celebration (Happy Birthday Peggy!) so we had a great first day!
Tuesday we started out going into the community and returned and did it again on Wednesday. Between the 2 days, we saw ~100 patients and met some wonderful volunteers and community leaders. While waiting for the truck ride home I did some magic for the children in the community which is always a big hit (or at least I have fun!).
After the community outreach, we returned today to the clinic and I was oriented to their system and met some great staff. Clinica Esperanza really works hard to make a difference in the community in a sustainable, culturally appropriate way. Just as one example, years ago there was a boy that visited the clinic as a patient, showed interest in medicine and was nurtured and guided by Ms. Peggy and others. Now that boy is one of the doctors that works there! Talk about impact! They have a simple but effective EMR and run the pharmacy very well to assure quality medicines are stocked and delivered.
After a few afternoon patients and teaching a student how to remove a nail, we returned to the Refuge for a great meal and some card games!
Can’t wait to see what the rest of the time brings!