Global Medical Brigades - Honduras 2010
This was definitely one of the best experiences I have ever had. When first hearing about Global Brigades I knew it would be something I would enjoy but it was not at all what I expected, it was so much more. Arriving in Honduras was a bit, how do I put this, uhhhhh... TERRIFYING, thank you Jesus, as in Christopher Jesus Gonzalez, not the Jesus in the statue below (I am a Jew, and yes a Jamaican, now wipe that look of bewilderment off of your faces). Anyways, Chris thought it was a brilliant idea to let me know, minutes before boarding, that Tegucigalpa airport was one of the most dangerous airports in the world to land in, it was on Discovery Channel and everything. Thankfully he was smart enough to lie about when the most recent crash was, or else I would have had to spend all my money on those mini bottles of alcohol American Airlines serves in order to knock me out for the duration of the flight. Obviously, we landed safely in Tegucigalpa, on Saturday the 6th of August, around 12ish. I expected Honduras to be a little similar to Jamaica, but not this similar, it was even a little more first world, we don't have Dunkin Donuts nor Applebee's in Ja (its ok though I can live without them). 
After a game of Mafia, may I mention that everyone wanted to kill me, the other half of the group arrived and we all got to know each other. Our group consisted of both NYU and non-NYU students, as well as doctors (Michelle and Saeed, as I like to call him, Dr Jenny and Vicky, whose signatures look exactly the same, Francisco and Rico Suave) and a team of in country staff. We also got to play some football with the boys at Flor Azul, right on the compound, I attempted then decided it was best not to. Instead, Juan, one of the boys made me a pretty bracelet, he was quite the businessman.
The first day of the brigade took place in Villa Santa, a village far far FAR away. Luckily DJ Jacob and Mansi, made the ride enjoyable in the Party Bus, between A- team's (I believe that is what they like to call themselves) dancing, Bowen's singing and Jennifer freaking out every time we took a corner in the bus, I had more than enough to keep me entertained.
There were a ton of Women and children lined up outside as we arrived. We set up stations of intake, vitals, triage, doctors, women's health, dental, charlas, pharmacy and of course the best of all Data Informatics. Originally I was assigned as a runner with Bubley and Nasseem, but somehow, sometime in the day I ended up switching with Eddie Kenny (love his name), who spoke way more Spanish than I did. So for the rest of the day we entered all of the patients, with the help of Kim. I had no clue Kim would not be coming back the following day and sometime in between the intense ride home (no longer the party bus, more like the intense conversation bus) and the following morning, Carter put me in charge of Data. All though it may have looked as if I depised the job, I really and truly didn't. It was a great way to see what most of the patients suffer from- dolor- a.k.a. give me some tylenol. No, but seriously besides the excessive need of tylenol, (which I see nothing wrong with, because I know I didn't pass a Walgreens or CVS on the drive) many people suffered from parasites, a lot of women had UTI's and the list goes on. Data also helped me learn what most of the medication is used for and how to decipher a doctor's hand writing... in Spanish.
We returned to Villa Santa on the second day, and my team and I, props to Brian and Tina for helping me that day, set up our Data section. Everyone ended up helping with data, which was amazing because staring at a computer screen for too long is enough to drive anyone coo-coo. After swithcing with someone I ended up in women's health, with Diana and Michelle (a.k.a. the doctor with the best writing in the world). Diana said, and I quote "I have seen more than enough flowers for today" so I was able to help Michelle with pap smears, which was really cool (yes, all you non pre-med students go ahead and cringe). Michelle is such a good teacher, so I definitely learned a lot. I also helped katy/katie (not sure how she spells it) out with glasses, where I learned two new words- mejor o peor- better or worse? It was awesome to see the smiles on people's faces when they realized they can see again.
Oh I forgot to mention that about 20 or so of us slept in a room on bunk beds. Jennifer and I got stuck with one that was lean and at night I would pray that I would not wake up to realize that I had squashed her, but by the last day she became so annoying I prayed it would actually give way (just joking Jenn, you know I love you). After a great sleep on my top bunk we woke up and set out for Day 3. A much shorter ride away to Coyolito/El Coyolito, whatever the name on the data server was. I must say this day was extremely hectic, we made a new system for data entry that had its pros and cons, pros being CiCi, Annie and my gorgeous tan and cons being Brian's not so gorgeous t-shirt tan, I mean burn. The system, seemed more efficient, until the server crashed and all went downhill. But this meant less work for us the next day, however, a little more tanning as we sat outside and entered all the patients at intake. This is when my computer decided it would be a good time to shock me whenever I touched it. Luckily one of the Bullocks (I'm so sorry Ashley and Alysha, I dont know why it was so hard for me to distinguish between you two) came to the rescue with their computer. Aside from my computer's unacceptable behavior, Vanessa, Katina and I flew through intake and that left loads of time for us to explore the different stations.
I ended up in Dental, thanks to Rachel, with Rico Suave (who I think looks like the perfect combination of Richard Gere and Eric Bana), I watched him extract numerous teeth and I actually helped hand him tools, after CiCi and MJ taught me about cleaning and distinguishing between the tools. By the way, a flat elevator and a flagged elevator sound exactly the same with a Spanish accent. This day was the only day we ended on time, and it was our last day. Because we got back to the compound early, Jacob decided to lead us on a walk to the Quarry, which turned into a trek up a mountain, at first I wasn't going to hike up but then after everyone left us I decided to tag along with the cute couple Cesar and Lindsey. We did get a beautiful group pic out of it - thanks to my tripod! Going down was little bit harder than climbing up. I, myself, prefer the surf down method and, when in doubt, slide on your butt, it worked quite well.
We spent Friday touring Honduras. First we went to a beautiful park that overlooked Tegucigalpa, from which we could see that horrid runway. I also met Jesus (the other one this time), that is where I got the picture below. Also below are some awesome shots of the entire group. After the park we went to lunch and then to Valle, a little touristy shopping area. I bought myself a hamMOCK, and then everyone proceeded to tease me because I say hamMOCK, not hamMICK, Moto and Jenn really got a kick out of it, Im am sorry Kathy for ever saying anything about your accent. The funny thing is, they thought it annoyed me a lot more than it did hehe.
The party bus was back in full force for the final drive to the airport, we sang and danced the entire way there. And for some reason ended up tying toilet paper to various parts of our bodies, which caused some stares at the airports. We also serenaded our driver Melvin, pronounced Melbiiiiiiinnnnnn, by replacing Alejandro, in Lady Gaga's song, with Melvin. It went a little something like this: Melly Melly Melbiiin, Melly Melly Melllbiiinnnn. I only sing for you because that song along with Daddy Yankee's Llamado de emergencia have been basically glued in my head since yesterday.
Wow, that was a lot to type, it is basically only for my benefit so that I can look back on this trip and how many amazing memories and friends I made. Not only did this trip help me appreciate the glorious musical genre of Reggaeton it helped me to appreciate not even what I have in life, but that oraganizations like Global Brigades exist, in which people wholeheartedly give their time and money to countries like Honduras, Haiti and Jamaica.
Oh and just to let Rajshi and Brittany know, I now have no voice, I am guessing I caught a cold from one of you guys, now I can't say you never gave me anything!
Sooooo before publishing this post I was re reading it and realized I totally forgot to mention the party we had on Thursday night. I cannot believe I forgot to mention it, actually I can, drinking wine straight out of the bottle tends to result in memory loss. I am sure Anna and Jenn, along with everyone else, can attest to that. All in all the party was sooo much fun, filled with dancing, a live dance performance of Lady Gaga's Bad Romance by Jennifer, Angelo and Bowen and a few awkward appearances from GWU and Hunter College's brigade groups.
In conclusion I gained many things out of this trip, including; new friends, new memories, a new roommate and a new hamMOCK. =)
