Flash Backs

(prepare your sing songy voice): WE'RE BACK!!!!

Zach and I made it safely back saturday night at 11 pm to the familiar welcome of our new home: two major highways were closed unannounced and it took an additional two hours to be picked up. You can bet we were missing Honduras pretty heavily at that time.

Now that I have had a solid day or two back in California, I wanted to do a flashback of some of my highlights:

1.

While one of the groups were visiting, we were given the chance to go into the local hospital, into the delivery ward, and see a baby be born. Despite earlier efforts, this was the first time I have experienced such an event. And let me tell you, I was warned up down and sideways by everyone, but let me tell you the truth: what I was not a real birth. It was a holly wood birth. These honduran women, I tell you something else... they all have the strength physically of Paul Buyan and mentally of Ron Swanson. Typically in Honduras, the women are taken to the delivery table only just as the baby is about to come. This woman in particular was on the table for about 8 minutes. There was no tearing... no screaming... nothing. She just moaned two or three times and voila, there was the baby. If I didn't know what was happening, I could have easily mistaken the whole experience for a woman enjoying a delicious pie. But that was NOT what was happening. So when all is said and done, I feel like I am walking away with the same way I entered: having an unrealistic view of what my birthing experience may be.

2.

These two! I mean, do people get cuter than this? This is a father and son who came in to the clinic; the son was deaf and so the father assisted him in communicating through made up sign language/charades. The only catch was, the dad was almost completely deaf as well. Dr. Martin would have to speak directly into the ear of his father while they both tried to communicate to the son. And the son NEVER stopped smiling. It was the best; he was the best! So happy!! Now when these fellas came out, Zach made sure I saw them. He told me the story of the older man needing sunglasses due to cataracts. To get these, he had to visit Zach in the glasses section... Zach said that once he got these fake ray bans, the posh attitude set in! He walked out of the clinic with those babies on and went right up to a table full of ladies. He just stood there. No teeth grin and all. Doing what he does!

3.

Across the street from the hospital, there is a high school that was established by missionaries from the states. While we were there, a group came to the school to give it a paint job. This above is, as you probably have guessed... part of the paint job. But what you perhaps did not guess was that the artist was blind. Cannot see, blind! I couldn't believe it. The outsides of the fish are done in puff paint, which he uses as a guideline and the rest is unexplainable to me. So magnificent! The fish are all spotted and he used that to create unity among the school grounds as each person that attributed by placing one fingerprint of paint  to help in the masterpiece.

4.

Down the mountain a ways, there is a church that is also run by American missionaries. The church they use now was built with the intention of being a three car garage (if that is painting you any kind of picture). It is complete with a thatch roof and three blue tarps for air conditioning (their purpose is to block penetration of the sun during the church services). Their new building is at least 10 times the size of the current one and has a stage, office, and storage area. We drove by the church one Thursday night while we were down there and the place was straight hopping! There were around 200 men there for the guys night playing soccer, being served dinner, and having a bible study. They also have a women's night and health promotion class. Church services and a soccer league.

 5.

 

This is Las Minas. Dr. Martin was insanely kind in planning a trip to this special village while Zach and I were out there because this is Zach's favorite place outside of the hospital. It takes about four hours one way to travel out there and you cross over many roads that look like the picture in the lower left hand corner. I know what you're thinking and yes, I am being quite generous with my use of the word "roads." When Dr. Martin was doing his residency in Med School, he was assigned the tiny village of Las Minas. He began to ask around, never having heard of the village, and quickly found out that he was in great company. No one else knew if it either. Finally, someone from Las Minas came into the city for a hospital visit and the doctor called Dr. Martin to let him know that he had a woman who knew where the village was. After that, it took Dr. Martin four tries to make it out there successfully due to the conditions of the roads (or lack there of). Zach is ultra fond of it because the hospital crew brings Christmas to the children; that experience alone captured Zach's heart. Because of this, Dr. Martin intentionally planned for us to visit this beautiful electricity free village for two days. During these two days, we had clinic and saw about 70 folks, some with the most incredible stories. For instance, this fella on the table came in complaining about not being able to work for an extended amount of time. While being examined Dr. Martin showed us seven bullet hole wounds. It turns out that two and half months ago while collecting bus fair money, he was being robbed by fellas who successfully shot at him seven times (four of which were in the abdomen). And here he is, two months later, working and shocked that he is having troubles. Man oh man we sure aren't in America any more.  Another woman came in and said that she had something hanging out of her between her legs. She went on to explain that she had five traumatic births and now she is suffering from this repercussion. Dr. Martin asked how old her youngest son was and he was over 2 years old. For TWO YEARS she had been dealing with this prolapsed uterus or bladder and went on living her daily life. These folks are champs! Something else that struck me as incredible was the way that they cooked. Because there was no electricity, they lived their everyday without a refrigerator. A lot of other things as well but a refrigerator most importantly. I simply can't imagine life without one. What do you do with leftovers? Leftovers alone is reason enough to have a fridge. And then in a close second is cheese. We had a family hosting us while we were there and let me just tell you, that woman could cook. Fried chicken for breakfast! I"M IN!!!! She made eggs and rice, beans and tortillas for every meal. (fun fact: the average honduran woman makes anywhere from 90-300 tortillas a day!). Above is a picture of our host family's husband who brought all of us coconuts. This is him slicing them open for us to drink. Oh they were spectacular! He usually spends his day tending to their farm (they raise and sell chickens) but was so excited to have the chance to bless us. 

6.

We had a busy schedule while we were down there- four straight weeks of hosting teams. But every now and then we would sneak in a zumba or insanity session and that was gold!

 7.

 This school was so fabulous! Our last group was an education group who came down prepared with skits, songs, and hygiene lessons as well as teacher gifts. At this particular school, I would have bet that they had a class on school yard patty cakes and songs. They had so many different hand shakes and merry go round type games. Poor chicas were trying so hard to teach us but we were too inbred gringos. We played these games for at least an hour straight while waiting for schools to start but once school started, we taught a hand washing lesson, a healthy eating lesson, and a teeth brushing lesson. there was a LOT of singing going on.... so, you know I loved that with all of my heart. #Americanidol

 8.

Just before we left, we scheduled a zip lining adventurama complete with a taste of hot springs. This was a highlight because of all of the breath taking views we saw. If you can get past Zach's smile, the picture really is beautiful ;). It was a lovely goodbye as we had already seen the heart of the country and also caught a glimpse of the outward majesty. 

It was a 10 out of 10. All of it.