We apologize, also, for not being able to post during our trip - our internet access was iffy at best most days. However, we took a ton of photographs and notes, so over the next few days of unpacking and decompressing, we'll post our images and thoughts here to share with all of you.
I'll start off tonight with a little introduction about the Hombro a Hombro clinic that we called "home base" during our trip.
First off, here is an image from Google Earth which has some important points marked. We arrived in San Pedro Sula on Saturday, May 3rd; Our first day we spent driving, reaching as far as La Esperanza the first night. On Sunday, May 4th, we got up, visited the Sunday market, and took a tour of the Hospital at La Esperanza (more on that later!). Then we drove to Santa Lucia and the Hombro a Hombro clinic, which would be our home for the next week and a half.
Notice that the "Hombro a Hombro" clinic, in Santa Lucia, is very close to the country's southwestern border with El Salvador (Marked in yellow on this view). In general, the terrain here is very mountainous, the roads unpaved, and the travel - for those who must go on foot - arduous.
Zooming in over Santa Lucia, you can easily see the multi-colored roofs of the Hombro a Hombro clinic, which sits on top of a hill at the entrance to Santa Lucia (red, brown, and gray rectangular roofs, 2 o'clock in this image). The lower building housed the clinic and the library; the upper building contained the dorms, bathrooms, kitchen, and the residential doctors' quarters.
On the ground now, here is a picture of the front of the clinic:
The clinic has several rooms for seeing patients, as well as a room with an ultrasound and an X-ray machine, a room for surgical procedures, a small lab, two rooms for patient 'recovery', and a dental "wing". In the basement of the clinic, there is a small but lovely library that is free and popular with the local children after school hours.
The clinic is open from 8-12 and 2-4pm Monday - Friday, and 8-12 on Saturday; there is, however, someone who is always "on call," so the clinic is essentially open 24/7 for emergencies. (Many of us spent time working in the clinic or being on call, so I'll write more about that, too!)
Moving upstairs: here's a photo of our somewhat rustic living arrangements in the second floor dorms. They may not look like much, but I can tell you that when we collapsed, exhausted and sweaty, at the end of a long day of work, we were happy to have these bunks.
Outside of the dorms is a big "living room" with lots of tables, chairs, and couches. When we weren't working, we spent a ton of time in this space: eating delicious food, holding meetings, dancing, reading, napping, teaching workshops, playing cards, exercising. Here's a photo of a workshop we held for pregnant women during a Prenatal visit day:
And because I mentioned food, I'll share one last photograph: It's of one of our standard meals at the clinic. I have to say that the food was surprisingly delicious and fresh, especially considering the fact that just a few women ran the kitchen, but they still managed to feed about 40-50 people three times a day. I'm craving their rice and beans as type this!
That's it for now. In the next posts I'll talk about a typical day both in the clinic and out in the field, talk about what we did for fun, share more photographs, and anything else I can think of. Thanks for reading!
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