Monday, June 30, 2014

¡Bienvenidos! Arrival in Honduras

We have arrived in Tegucigalpa! 

Despite some curious looks and inquiries from the customs officials over our bag of 4000 'condones' and 160 pregnancy tests, our team and supplies made it through customs and out of the airport! The 13 students traveling from the US and 4 traveling from Guatemala arrived within thirty minutes of each other, and we traveled to together to our hotel. 

After getting settled in for the night, we planned our next day's activities over pizza and icebreakers. We also had the opportunity to listen to the (officially!) fourth year medical students recount their clinical encounters over the past year of hospital rounds. It was an awesome preview for the rising second second year students in the group!

Tomorrow morning, we leave for the southeastern part of the country. After lunch in Choluteca, we will continue on to El Corpus where we will eat dinner with our host families and continue reviewing our 'charlas' (public health talks) that will be given later in the week. 

Our group has had great energy since 4 am this morning, and we are grateful for rest and time for preparation after a long day of travel. 

Stay tuned for updates! 

Luggage, supplies, and Charles post-Honduran customs

View from our hotel in Tegucigalpa, Honduras

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Less than a week to go!

Bags are almost packed, supplies are all acounted for, and extra Immodium has been purchased! Next Monday, June 30th, 17 (2 public health student leaders, 7 rising second year medical students, 8 rising fourth year students) of the 21 HHA team members will fly into Tegucigalpa, Honduras in the early afternoon. Our two resident doctors and two attendings will  meet us in-country at the end of the week. Some of our team members have gotten an early jump on travel and are currently brushing up on their Spanish skills in Guatemala.

After a night in the capital city, we will take a bus to El Corpus, near the city of Choluteca. There, we will begin setting up our clinic. The majority of the week will be spent in the surrounding communities giving public health presentations, or "charlas", to the women who will attend our clinic the following week. Our work takes place in the southeastern part of Honduras, near the border of Nicaragua.

We will have a team member documenting our daily activities and adventures, and will update the blog whenever we have internet access.

Stay tuned for pictures and stories, and wish us luck!