Orphanage in Antigua

I arrived in Antigua two days ago to spend some time with my parents before they head to California and then home. Mom and pa made a connection with an American woman who has been living here in Antigua for the past 14 years. She runs an orphanage and does international adoptions. This morning mom and I decided to head over to the orphanage to spend some time with the babies. The building and compound was beautiful with a sufficient amount of staff members caring for the infants. There was more then 30 babies that the staff were in charge of. Mom and I spent the whole morning rocking and playing with the babies, it was tiring but fun!

Roatan

Anna, Sara and I have been in Roatan since Monday afternoon staying with Miss Peggy, an RN that started a clinic here in 2001. She has a team of doctors visiting from the states and does an amazing job of organizing and running the clinic. Her clinic is in much better shape then the hospital where we visited the first day and which doesn't even have running water! The "isolation room" in the hospital only has a screen door to bar infection. Much to my frustration I've had really dry wracking cough all week. The last few days I have stayed at home and not gone to the clinic in fear of exchanging infection with the patients. I also have a case of Ring Worm on my leg. Its not as bad as it sounds and is actually just a fungus on the skin. Its a round red spot about the size of a toonie that I at first thought was a spider bite with broken skin around it. Sara has it too so were able to share the cream for it, I call her my ring worm sister. Lucky for me I have a team of about six doctors and three nurses to treat my various ailments! Tomorrow we will take the ferry back to Copan and then two buses. The trip will probably take about thirteen hours.

Visiting a missionary project

On Thursday morning Anna and I got up to catch the 7 o'clock bus to meet with Peggy, a woman that Anna had made friend with at NGO conference back in October. It as my first time on the bus heading to San Pedro Sula, the nearest city to Copan. The fist part of the road is really windy. By focusing out the window and drinking water I managed to keep myself from getting really car sick. Others were unfortunately not as lucky as me. At the beginning of the ride the bus attendant starting handing out plastic bags. I jokingly said to Anna "are those for puking?" and she said yes! Turns out it the bags came in handy as a little boy and then an old lady used them to vomit into. When the little boy was done puking the mom opened the window and tossed the bag out the window and right beside a poor man walking along the road!

When we got off the bus to transfer Anna and I stoped at a small stand on the corner to have a quick breakfast of baleadas, a Honduran specialty that I am rather fond of. A baleada is a flour tortilla folded over with re-fried bean paste a sprinkle of sour almost feta like cheese and some cream. It makes for a rather tasty treat. As we were eating our next bus was preparing to leaving so we hoped in, balancing our baleadas trying to not get beans and cheese all over ourselves.

When we arrived at Cristo Saluo, the clinic that Peggy and her fellow missionaries have been running for the past sixteen years we were warmly welcomed. There was about fifteen people, all gringos from the states at the clinic. It was more white people that I have seen together in a while! It was a bit of a shock. In the morning Anna and I got a tour of the clinic and then helped cut open medicine packages for easier access. After an hour or so we all piled into a mini van and drove a short distance to a village where they do outreach. We handed out food bags which contained coffee, a bag of beans and rice and a small book portraying Adam and Eve in cartoons. Peggy is an RN and we visited several patients that she has been taking care of while down here. The first one was a man with high blood pressure.

The next was a man that had dengue fever and then a sixteen year old who was ready to give birth in the next few days. Anna and I went into the small mud hut with Peggy to exam the glowing mom to be. Peggy showed me how to listen to the heartbeat of the baby with the portable heart monitor. I also felt the position of the baby. It was very cool and was the highlight of our trip for me.

After lunch at the farm, a compound on a grassy hill where the missionaries always stay we headed back out to the villages handing out more food bags and visiting people. Malnutrition is rampant in these areas and it was really apparent in a lot of the people. Two sisters in particular showed the affects of lack of proper nutrition very clearly. The eldest girl was 19 but looked about 14. Her body was greatly underdeveloped. She does not menstruate and will never have kids. Her little sister was around two or three with blond hair white skin. Due to her malnutrition her body was not able to produce enough pigment to reach her hair and skin.

The malnourished girl and her 19 year old sister.

In the evening we had dinner at the farm and then everybody went off to church. I stayed behind with two other women as I was feeling really tired and had a soar throat. I was fast asleep by 7:30. In the morning Anna and I helped load up six midwife bags which contain the essential tools for delivery, two boxes of kids chewable vitamins and wheel chair we are going to give to a local man here in Copan that uses pads under his knees and wooden blocks in his hands. He has no legs. Once again we all loaded into the van, a truck following us with our supplies to yet another villages located outside of Chequila where people have made their homes out of scraps from the garbage dump near by. The ground was thick with flies and everything was made out of scraps of garbage. It was easily one of the poorest villages I have been to and reminded me of Riverton City, a place in Kingston Jamaica where people have made their homes out of other peoples trash.

These photos are from the various villages we visited. They are not photos of the garbage dump village and seem rather nice to compared to the other homes!

After visiting the village Anna and I were dropped off in Chequila to catch a bus back to Copan. After lunch at a small restaurant on the side of the road we started walking in the direction of the bus station. We were quiet the spectacle! Anna is four months pregnant so I tried to carry as much stuff as possible. Between the both of us we managed to carry our personal backpacks, the six midwife bags, the two boxes of vitamins all precariously balance on the wheel chair.

Eventually we made it back to Copan safe and sound though dirty and tired but very happy to have such valuable supplies! Tomorrow we are heading to Roatan to visit two more clinics and do more research for the project.

Finding Centre

Some days the freedom I have created for myself is wild, beautiful and addictive. The ability to be so transient, to choose the next step, the next place to go with few inklings of responsibility. Its thrilling, to feel ungrounded or pulled in any direction. The freedom to recreate myself over and over again in each place I come to. Other days I feel as though I have to cling to something, anything familiar or else I shall be swept away. I've cut ties from home. A trunk of stuff, a cat and the love of friends seems to be the only thing that would bring me back to my old life. No job, no school, I could just keep going. Some days I relish not having a sanctuary and some days it scares the hell out of me. Some days I feel as if there really is no solid ground beneath my feet. Its taught me to settle into myself, find peace and place of home deep within my belly as apposed to looking for it in something external, a person, a place or a thing.

Back To Copan

Ahhh...its so easy to neglect this blog, especially when traveling!

Kate and I spent an amazing new years on a volcanic lake called Lago Atitlan. A few days later she returned to Canada and I am back here in Copan to work on the Life to Life program and am working in Libelula, Anna's fair trade store. It feels really good to be back in Copan. My first night back here I woke up feeling really nauseous and spent the night throwing up and running a bit of a fever. I was glad to be home when I got sick though! Martiza took excellent motherly care of me bringing me soup in bed and offering to give me an injection in the bum. Much like India they seem to think that injections are the cure for everything here! Its amusing and a bit sad.

It seems like everyday time is speeding up. I guess that's what happens when you fall into a routine. I'm finding a renewed energy to study Spanish and am benefiting from the steep learning curve that am being rewarded with. I'm also appreciating the warm weather and sunlight here. Today as I wrote in my journal I was reflecting on what a different January this has been so far compared to my past ones!
Sometime next week Anna and I are heading to Roatan, an island on the east coast of Honduras to research several clinics, one specializing in AIDS, for the Life To Life project. I'm feeling really happy to be engaged and learning and feel like I have a good solid balance of things in my life right now.

was supposed to fly back to Canada on March 5th but have forfeited my ticket and am flying to the Virgin Islands (Bahamas) at the end of February to find work in the tourist industry instead of returning back to Vancouver.

I'm starting to finish up the last touches on my application for school and gather up the last bits of needed information. I'm really hoping that they have room for this September as I am feeling really inspired and excited to start Midwifery school!!