June 7 th

Tuesday was probably one of the most fun days we have had yet in Roatan. After another very busy day in the clinic for both the dentists and myself a large group of volunteers including ourselves were off to swim and snorkel with the dolphins. The other volunteers consisted of two families from the states, they are excellent company and we spend the entire time laughing until our bellies ache. One family is a mother and father (nurse and a paramedic) and their two teenage children and the other is a dad (truck driver) and his two daughters (one a teenager and one just finished her nursing school). This was totally amazing, we got to play with the dolphins underwater - we would pick see grass or what ever and the dolphins would swim right up to you And take it out of your hands then you play catch with it by throwing the sea grass and he will bring it to you and then spit it at you under the water and on and on it goes. We did this for about an hour, was GREAT!
After the dolphins the two families came back to our condo and we had a few beverages while we watched the sun set, then we were off to a local restaurant for live music and supper. After a little hunting on the wrong property and some much needed direction by a local we found the right restaurant and settled in. We had tons of laughs, lots of food and even had a few dances. As the night progressed a heated "rock, paper, scissors" match ensued to determine who was going to jump from the second story restaurant into the pool below - an excellent idea by a group of well intentioned volunteers. The competition was between "who other than" . . . . Canada and the states!! And unfortunately our representative didn't show up with her best game and played scissors under a rock - damn it! So the jumping began. After the first few went the others thought it looked like great fun and almost everybody jumped! After that we (needless to say) kindly left the restaurant.
On our walk back down the beach we came across a group of local boys playing soccer so we challenged them to a white vs black game and they accepted (kindly lending there fellow "gringo's" a few players to even up the numbers). The whites started out strong with the first few goals but lost in the end. The game was tons of fun with a lot of shouting ("hey white guy - pass the ball"). For myself I caused the first and only penalty shot of the game for touching the ball and then decided I was better suited as the photographer. After taking a header to jaw by a little local (while trying to get an action shot) I decided I had the most risky job on the team. The night ended in great fun.
Our travel coach for the entire day was an old rickety van lent to us buy the clinic (it wasn't pretty but it got the job done) it was possibly the largest van of white trash the island had ever seen. We had 11 of us piled in it and people stared in amazement to see us all pile out. Our good hearted driver did a pretty good job winding his way through the roatan streets weaving through scary local traffic, using hand gestures out the window to signal our direction and we all helped him out buy verbally saying (beep beep) out the windows when the occasional horn was needed - which by the way is an essential part of driving here.




Swimming with the dolphins















Waiting for supper



The aftermath



Ashley losing the "rock paper scissors" match


Strategizing the jump!


The jump






Our way out of the restaurant


A truce after the jump


The soccer game












Our chariot



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A weekend in utila - June 3,4,5

On friday we got off From the clinic a few hours early so we could catch our catamaran to the small island of Utila. The catamaran ride was about 3.5 - 4 hours long. The boat was ran by a guy who lives on his boat and simply travels back and forth everyday carrying passengers to and from the islands. There was no hiding from the old sun that journey - she shone hard on us and we were lapping up the sun screen just as quickly. We arrived on Utilla with red shoulders and noses, it is such a neat little island (Deb - you and brad need to look at this island). It had a very relaxed feel, very safe and a great cultural experience. We stayed at a hostel - only they call them dive shops here, if you stay with the hostel then you get to dive with them for a discount. We stayed there for 6 dollars a night, and it was about as fancy as 6 bucks a night !! It was kinda neat cuz the whole thing was on a floating dock, only we couldn't quite figure out what the smell was until the morning when we realized that the showers and god knows what else drains through a little hole right into the water underneath us!!!! Yummmmm!!
After that I thought okay I can deal with this until we started finding cockroaches in our room so our plan of attack was my snorkeling flipper, after a huge smack we thought we conquered it then we argued for about 30min about who was going to clean up the dead cockroach but when we returned to the scene we realized it was gone, it had drug it's half dead body across the floor (tough bugger) - we picked it up and put it in an old pringles container and left it by the door to signal to all it's buddies that we are heartless bug killers and not to enter this dorm!
On Saturday we were up and off to dive and snorkel, went to some excellent dive sites and saw some great stuff but we were really hoping to see whale sharks seeing as it is the best dive site for them however we came up dry. The reefs here are basically untouched and third in the world for best reefs. The island was extremely hot and there was no escape from it seeing as our hostel had no a.c. It felt similar to a sauna that smelled of sewar with cockroaches roaming about - all these things added up does make Andrea a happy camper. However I feel I did pretty good, 1 hr of sleep is good enough isn't it?? We found a few places that served a pretty good meal and spent saturday afternoon on the beach enjoying the breeze, we all slept for a few hours on the beach making up for our sleepless steam box nights. Friday night we went a karaoke bar which consisted mostly of drunk tourists, one of the bar tenders was a 10 year old boy! Saturday night we took in a local soccer game which was an excellent dose of culture as there were no tourists here. The locals were buzzing with excitement and the children ran wild!! They served chicken and rice as snacks at the game. We were so glad to catch our catamaran home sunday morning and get back to our clean, scent free, bug free, air conditioned condo. We showered, and slept and watched movies and then went to bed very very early.

Today was a very rainy and windy day which felt so nice and cool, apparently Jamaica is getting a tropical storm or hurricane right now and we are getting the after effects - lots of waves, heavy rain, and strong winds. Soul be passed by tomorrow. We lost power at around 5am this morning and it was out until sometime mid morning - the clinic has a generated s it was business as usual. Myself and a few other volunteers were put in charge of sorting 600lbs of medication donated over the weekend. Most of it was spent - counting and taking fosomax pills out of there boxes and aluminum unit does packaging - all 5,536 of them!!!!!

After clinic we went grocery shopping at a grocery store recommended by the clinic and it was SOOOOO much better than the last experience. There were a lot of American brands which made our trip a lot quicker, we mamed the fruit and veggie department stripping it of most of it's excellent looking and smelling produce. I will say though the meat is still looking very unappetizing and we skipped over that department fairly quickly.

After a quick stop at home we headed to a local pub west end called Sundowners as they were broadcasting the hockey game. When we arrived we found every canadian on the island all huddled under a thatch roof trying to stay dry from the down pour going on outside watching CBC!! Gotta love it!

Tomorrow I am off to snorkel with the dolphins after clinic!




The catamaran



Te streets of Utila - no cars just golf carts and scooters


Supper in Utila


Singing at the bar


Our room at the hostel


The hammocks in front of our room at the hostel


The hostel





Pringle cockroach!


Ash getting her scuba gear ready


Ash decending - I was snorkling








At utila beach








The soccer game


Sorting mess





Check out the huge tits on this manican!!!! It even had nipples!!


Having a beer watching the game



The weather



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Junio y dos

Was a learning experience today, I was triaging at the clinic and learned that triaging here just means doing vitals and writing down a complaint in one word - ie: headache. I tried to get a little bit of history and paula one of the Honduran nurses says - "NO you no dr, what do you know - they know, we don't - just one word". I had a guy with chest pain, pulse of 144, blood sugar of 433 (really high seeing as normal is around 85) and a bp of 212/125. So I was trying to get a history and was going to put him in the front of the line and do an ECG and the other nurse says "no, first come first serve" yikes!! There are quite a few volunteers right now so there was like 4 people trying to vitals and get a chief complaint and I could not take it any longer so I went to help in the pharmacy. We Also had a lady today who has had a broken hip for 3 months and all we can do for her is give her good pain killers - she can not walk really at all anymore - so sad.

Today was day two of our scuba lessons which was our first full dive to 30 feet at a place called "overheat reef" it started off a little sketchy but after a little panic attack on my part, a little vomit on Dans part, and a few minor jelly fish stings all around we came away fairly unscathed! we managed to spy a green moray eel, green turtle, lion fish, and a barracuda among other great things.
We are pretty tired and are off to bed!

We are off to utilla tomorrow after clinic for the weekend - one of the Bay Islands apparently amazing snorkeling and a good time. We catch a catamaran in West end! Here's hoping the waters are calm and make it there with as little nausea as possible!!!! Probably no blog until Sunday night!

Andrea

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Supper at West End - mmmmm chicken, beans and rice and fish tacos!


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Junio uno

I just gotta say you know your somewhere hot when you get home and feel so refreshed because your a.c. Is set to 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30), and when you are feeling a little devious you turn it down to 80 (26) just to feel a little chilled so you can snuggle into your sheets for comfort.

Today was a busy clinic day for myself just doing a lot of housekeeping items. Ashley and Dan went to the schools today to do dental health teaching and had a lot of fun doing it. They have videos of the kids singing songs on how to brush there teeth - it's pretty cute. Some others from the clinic went to start a massive eye health program. They are going to be doing eye checks and handing out donated glasses to the children - they plan to do the entire island by the end of the month!

After clinic we had our first scuba lesson which entailed a mish-mash of leg cramps, mask problems, gagging up salt water, mask poking fights and anenomie stings. Collectively we spent far more time at the surface of the water than under it! The poor instructor probably had to have several beer to recover and is sitting at home right now I am sure regretting taking us on for the next 5 lessons!!!

On the way home today we actually got change from a cab driver - I bet he sensed that we are now hard nosed locals when it comes to cabs and decided not to mess with us!!! ( or he was just really honest - he was pretty old).

Tonight for supper we had baleadas off the beach for like 75 cents each - they were pretty good. They are flour crepe - tortilla things filled with beans and cheese or eggs and sausage. Before we left canada Jagger (my nephew) put a bag of toy cars together to give to another little boy who didn't have toys and we were to deliver them and take pictures to show Jagger when we got back. While we were getting the baleadas a man delivering supplies to the beach canteen came with his son who was 2.5years old named Jared. Jaggers cars were given to this little boy, he didn't white know what to think - but he accepted them with big eyes and a tiny smile while staying very close to his dad. He was pretty cute.

Until next time!!!
Andrea



Ash and Dan with the dentist and his wife at he school


The playground - a cement pad


Ashley having a school girl demonstrate how to brush her teeth


Ashley and Dan teaching





Kids playing on the play ground


A little guy getting neb treatment!


A clinic volunteer holding a little girl (who is the cutest thing ever) who was born to a mentally disabled mother who got pregnant with her by being continuously raped by people who knew she was mentally disabled.


Fruit that I bought from the above little girls mother who selling them for 59 cents a bag. You peel the green skin off with your teeth and then suck the middle fruit off the stone in the middle - they are really sweet but also bitter!


The sterilization room


Blue Bahia - were we are taking our dive lessons


Jared getting a coloring book and crayons from Dan


Getting his cars from Jagger via ashley!



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