January again which means that the first medical brigade that I translated for last year is coming back! I was so excited to see the doctors and nurses again as well as the West volunteers who I don’t get to see that often. From last year, only Becky, Kyler, and I were returning from last year. But two other volunteers from the new group of my project, Protected Areas Management, also came along. So it was a lot of fun to meet them and hear about their work.
PCV Kyler with a cute patient
PCVs Maggie, Kyler, Kate, nurse Aaryn, Becky, and me after a long day of work
One of the days of the brigade was also the Inauguration Day of President Barack Obama. The guy who helps organize this brigade every year went out of his way to find us a t.v. that got CNN in Spanish so that we could watch the Inauguration. When it was about to come on, we all gathered in the main room, gave all the kids coloring books and crayons, and watched the inauguration with all the other patients waiting to be seen. It was definitely a momentous occasion that we will look back on and say, “When this happened, we were united, doctors from various parts, Peace Corps volunteers, and local Hondurans, working to improve the quality of lives of some individuals.” The moment more than the speech, which was hard to follow as it was dubbed over in Spanish, brought tears to our eyes. This was one of the rare times that I have actually felt proud to be an American. And I am excited to finally be able to say with honor that I am a North American where our new president is Barack Obama. The feeling of hope was already evident before Obama’s inauguration; but I think that it’s even more so now because the whole world stopped to listen on this day.
This year we had dentists come down to pull lots and lots of teeth.
Maggie translating in triage
Me helping Aaryn clean wax out of an old ladys' ears. When she arrived she was so scared because she couldn't hear what we wanted her to do and she kepy getting dizzy with the water in her ears. When a marble-sized piece of wax came out of her ear though, she started shouting that we were a blessing from God giving her the miracle of sound again!
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