Mayo trienta y UNO ( may 31st)

Hola!
was another busy day which started with another very hot walk to the clinic, however today we we're in sandals, and tank tops and changed into scrub tops once at the clinic. I was so surprised today how much I caught on to yesterday! I was a mean lean Spanish speaking machine - my main phrase being "tomo uno cada para ocho horas x cinco dias" (take one tab every eight hours for five days" !!!! I bet I say that 50 times a day!!!!! The people at the clinic are good to work with - no troubles there. And I don't really have any funny stories from the clinic today. Ash and Dan did some extractions, cleanings, etc. They are off to the schools tomorrow to start an island wide dental screening on all the children in school.
Today we also got some intense lessons at the clinic today on how NOT to get ripped off by taxi drivers - we started practicing our new rules today and are no longer paying ten times the amount we should be paying for a ride. We ran into the same taxi driver we had yesterday who over charged us who was very excited to see us again(obviously) but armed with oiur new know how we told him "we know you overcharged us" and made him drive us back home for a proper amount - he was very quiet after we started talking and I think a little upset.
After clinic we went to the blue Bahia resort to register for our scuba certification classes and got flicked off by some local children after we refused to give them money, then went to infinity bay resort which we get access to for being with the clinic. While at the resort we had several intense down pours which cooled the the air off a bit during but then the sun instantly came out leaving it more humid an ever! We then took a water taxi home past all the vacation homes - beautiful. It so hard to believe that behind these lavish resorts and homes an entire world of poverty exists - kinda sad. We were going to settle in for a quiet night of a frozen pizza And scuba homework, but when we unwrapped the pizza we found a frozen mound of moldy cheese - ewwww, plan B = homemade tostadas which were really quite good. We are a pretty tired crew in the evenings - all of us looking for bed by 8 ish so that being said nighty night all!! Hope all is well at home!



-infinity bay resort


Water taxi












Vacation homes






Floating bar



Shops in west end


Dan with his rustafarian hat!!

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Mayo trienta (May 30th)

Hola!!
Well today started off well, with a good breakfast and off to work. The dentists of the group were pretty upset that they had to get up at 6:30 to be at the clinic for 7:30 - they were even more shocked that I normally get up at 5 am for work. We headed off on our 10 min walk to the clinic which comprised mostly of beach walk ( which is also the road btw) then a straight uphill climb to the clinic - whew!!! It was some feat to accomplish this in the blistering 28 degree morning sun! I learned one thing about uniforms and extreme temperatures though . . . . . They SUCK, by the time I made it to the clinic I was sweating like Kim in a great call at the hospital - I really didn't know my brow dripped!!! In 10 quick minutes I went from fresh showered prepared Andrea to some sorta greasy sweaty mongrel off the street. The only thing worse than uniforms in this heat is rubber duty shoes ( damn crocs) screw them I am wearing sandals tomorrow.
Once at the clinic we were quickly swept into our duties, and I realized that yes, just as I had feared - I am totally inept at speaking with these people, I realized that I could memorize all the medical phrases in the world like "tienne doler" etc but that does not help me when they try to answer me and I have no bloody clue what they are saying. Picture this, I am all ready to tackle one of my first patients took a deep breath and entered the room, my task was to explain to this lady how to take birth control - it was particularly stressful because she had two young children both breastfeeding at this exact time, so already I'm thinking I have to do a really good job because she obviously missed the message the first time around. So away I go with half assed Spanish spoken with a combination French Italian accent and flamboyant arm gestures trying to get my point across. The lady is looking at me like with a smile saying ci, ci, ci, and I am thinking "I am doing pretty good - excellent, this lady obviously gets me, and my accent isn't even throwing this teaching moment off"! I then finish my speech and walk away the lady is still smiling and I figure this is a time to celebrate my success until I hear the same lady asking one of the Spanish speaking volunteers who I was, what I was trying to tell her, and how long I was going to be at the clinic!!!! So tonight we are learning Spanish at our little apartment - we started with counting to ten!!! Meanwhile at the clinic Ash and Dan embarked on there first root canal in Spanish! Quite a lot to accomplish before 2pm.
After clinic our mission was groceries which took a good hour to accomplish, we carefully made our way down each isle, phrase book in hand and ended up with a cart full of carefully decided upon items!! I am not sure where I thought I was going but i had visions of these lavish fruit and vegetable markets with plenty of the most wonderful fruit and veggies one could imagine - instead we found our selves with plugged noses and a little green around the gills trying to make it through the produce section. I honestly can not tell you what the smell was - but it was a cross between rotting meat and rotting sewage - at first we thought it was the meat department which was located quite close to the produce until we entered the meat department and realized the smell was much improved. (I am sick just thinking about that smell). After getting thoroughly ripped off on our cab ride home we decided to celebrate with beer on the dock, we topped the afternoon off with hotdogs and arrow chilaxing with our Spanish dictionaries close at hand.

Buenos Noches!



Off to work!!!





The root canal!


Uploading donated meds into the pharmacy inventory


Trying to choose dish soap!


The all important tequila - decisions decisions !


Guards with machine guns at the gas station!





Chilaxing on the deck learning to count to ten!



This ones a little gross but yes it's the sweat marks on my bra from getting off the plane and getting settled in our apartment on Saturday - ewwwww! Gives the term "swits" a whole new meaning!!!!


Andrea
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First two days!!!! (may 28th and 29th)

My burn, this of course is on a cloudy day with block 30 on and after tanning for a month before I left!!! Money well spent!!!!!





A view of Our house ( far right) top floor!





Breakfast


Arriving


Having a beer and supper west end


View of the reef just as we were landing - can't wait to scuba


Arriving in roatan!


Hola seniors and senioritas!
Well we arrived yesterday at about 3pm no problems with our connections or anything, we celebrated the start of our adventure with a beer on board! We we're greeted with humidity and temperatures that reminded me of cairns in Australia! To put it bluntly - the canadians are melting!!!! We had a quick tour of the area and got settled into our accommodation then cought a taxi and went to west end for supper - we were starving!!!!
This morning we slept in and then had an excellent breakfast on the balcony - were by the way I was viciously attacked by a giant hummingbird. I swear it tried to land on my head and when I screamed it took off leaving me in it's vibrating wake - that was a great start to the day! we applied our sunscreen and headed out. We ended up in West Bay at a resort that we get access to as volunteers (called infinity bay) it's lovely!!!!! We met up with Peggy ( the clinic head) and some other volunteers, while chatting we felt something mysterious lurking around our feet in one loud simultaneous scream we all lept out of the water only to see a shadow swim away - hmmmmm I will keep you updated on it's identity.
We caught a ride home with Peggy tonight and we took probably one of the most sketchy drives of my life,(it's one of those places were you just know a white person has no business being in) we were in the colonia, this is were all the mainlanders came and squatted after hurricane Mitch, its straight up a mountain right behind the clinic.They live in tents and shacks etc and only have water for two and a half hours every eight days. They just got electricity. They were all just wondering around in gang like groups attending makeshift church ceremonies on the side of the road. The colonial is home to. Approx 3400 people who are the majority of the patients of the clinic. I was in the back seat of the truck and was glad to be there.
Anyway hope this meets everyone well. We have access to skype so use that if you want to get ahold of us. We start at the clinic at 7 tomorrow morning! Nighty night all or should I say buenos noches!!!!

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New Adventure

Honduras!

Just a quick note to mention about my newest adventure scheduled to start this saturday! My sister Ashley and myself are headed to Roatan Honduras to volunteer at a medical clinic for the month of June! Ashley will be working with the dentist and I will be working in the clinic triaging and treating patients to the best of my Spanish ability (which so far consists of Hola, and Como Esta)! I will be blogging on this site for the duration of our trip so stay tuned if you want! See you all in a month and wish me luck!

Andrea