Begins with a plane ride to Honduras!
Last week was the beginning of what I like to call "my year of super adventures," as I made my way to Honduras with a group of 39 students and 2 doctors to try and make a difference in the lives of rural villagers who have no regular access to healthcare.
The organization that we worked through is called Global Brigades, and their claim to fame is the fact that all of the brigades are entirely student-run. We paid a set program fee to Global Brigades which covered our lodging, food, transportation, and helped to buy medications/pay doctors, but we were responsible for gathering medications, contacting doctors, and otherwise setting up our clinic.
On the day of our arrival, and our first full day in Honudras, we spent a majority of our time getting accustomed to our surroundings and sorting through the medications and donations we had received. We learned that our brigade leader, Quique (who also happens to be a cofounder of the organization as a whole), was actual an orphan as a child, growing up through the very system of orphanages with which Global Brigades is associated (La Sociedad Amigos de los Ninos).
We visited the orphanage that was located on our compound, and it was a truly uplifting and inspiring experience. Whereas I went in expecting some sort of Annie-like scenario, with forlorn children mourning the absence of fun in their lives, I was met with a group of eager, excited, playful, and overall HAPPY looking children. Although their living conditions would fail to pass the standards of most American couch-potatoes that I know, these kids did not want for anything in terms of food, shelter, care, or love, and they seemed to have a perfectly good time running around outside with one another.
After the orphanage, we enjoyed some of the freshest, ripest mangoes I've ever tasted- by hiking to a mango grove and eating them directly off of the trees! It was a really magical way to connect with nature, and I'm convinced that besides the obvious impact of the freshness, the flavor of the mangoes was influenced by the entire experience of picking and eating them ourselves.
The next 3 days were the days that everyone was looking forward to- the medical brigade! We made our 2-hour commute every morning to the rural village of Santa Maria, and split our ranks up into several stations- triage, consultations, dental, pap smears, and pharmacy. My favorite station was the pharmacy because it was where I felt most helpful- running around filling patients' prescriptions and matching ages and genders with the various clothing/toy donations we were giving out. It was fast paced and exciting work, and the days really flew by. During breaks, we played with the local children, blowing up balloons and playing catch with a little football that someone had brought.
Over three days, we saw and treated a total of 1164 patients- a number that all of us were immensely proud of. As true as it may be that putting in effort to help just one or two people is always worth it, just the idea that a group of 41 people from different backgrounds could come together to help such an astonishing volume of people still amazes me when I think about it now.
It was a bittersweet journey home, leaning more towards the bitter, at least in my opinion. To me, it felt like I had just gotten warmed up into the ways of helping out. I have decided to return to Honduras next year during my spring break as a part of the Global Medical Brigade, with many of the people that I met this year. And between now and then, I hope to seek out other opportunities to help improve the lives of others.
