Back from Honduras

Hola Supporters-

I am back from Honduras and you should know that it was a phenomenal trip. I am so thankful for your support financially and/or prayerfully.

There’s so much to tell and I hope to be able to share stories with each one of you.

This was my first international trip (excluding a couple very brief Mexico trips, which don’t really count because it might as well have been a border town in the States with a bunch of dogs). If you’ve traveled to a 3rd world country before, you know it can be a life-changing experience and this one fell nothing short of that. The timing was impeccable; I had really begun to feel overwhelmed with medical school and was losing my view of the end goal, but this trip (and encouragement from my lovely wife) re-motivated and reminded me why I want to be a doctor: to help those in need.

You got a bit of the concept of the trip from Ali’s email, but let me fill you in a bit more. The purpose of the trip was to set up a free clinic in a place with virtually no access to healthcare for 4 days. The intent of this trip was not to get in, gain some experience, and get out never to come back again; this trip was planned in partnership with Baylor College of Medicine, who is committed to a long-term relationship with the people of Santa Ana, Honduras. Oh yeah, don’t try to find Santa Ana on Google Maps or anything; it’s literally ‘off the map.’ We were able to bring quite a bit of donated medical supplies with us.

Each day, folks would show up in the morning and line the walls of the clinic before I even woke up (we slept at the clinic). You get used to the sound of roosters pretty quickly- I think their internal clocked was completely jacked because they pretty much thought it was morning all night. The patients would wait patiently (pun intended) sometimes up to 4 hours to be seen. A patient would check in and be assigned a number, and then 2 or 3 medical students would take vitals (heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure,…). After vitals, the patient would wait for a room to open up at which time a medical student would take their history and perform the appropriate exam. If any lab diagnostics were need, the student would send the patient to the lab. The types of test we would run in the lab you ask? – mostly glucose level, urine analysis, pregnancy test, and hemotocrit. The student would present the case to the attending physician (we had two) and a diagnosis and plan were created. After that, the patient went to the pharmacy to get their prescription filled and they were off. All of this took place within the clinic. Oh yeah, all of this took place in Spanish. We had translators and, fortunately, both attending physicians spoke fluently. I can now carry on the equivalent of a 2 yr. old conversation in Spanish, which doesn’t get me very far except for laughed at.

The clinic was entirely student-run, so it was quite the learning experience for all of us. Ali mentioned Dr. Johnson (the attending that traveled with us)- I gleaned a ton from him. He’s a strong Christian with a real passion for social justice, so I dug him.

Let me tell you a little about the people in Honduras: they were patient, gracious, kind, hard working, respectful, and generally in really great shape. I saw an 86 yr. old man who walked to the clinic, get this, from 6 hours away that could reach down a touch his toes. In fact, all the old people could do that. There was no obesity epidemic like in the States. I expected to see some diabetes, but nothing. These people were so starved for access to care that they would come in from villages that were hours away. Their medical complications were generally treatable- bacterial infections, GI tract worms, fungal infections, pain, allergies,… There were, however, preventable complications that we just didn’t have the means to treat. In the States, it wouldn’t have been a problem…

The Honduran government provides very basic care for the entire population, but if you live in a city and are middle-class, you get private care. The rural communities are COMPLETELY left out because there’s absolutely nothing around. On that note, education is free for children (up to a certain grade) just like here, but the schools don’t have any books, and the students’ families have to purchase them in addition to uniforms. Families are way too poor to afford books and uniforms as well as their basic necessities; because of this, many children stop attending school after about 5th or 6th grade. About 5 years ago, the people of Santa Ana were able to get electricity. Since the government was not willing to help out, the people ran the electricity themselves! Amazing! To me, there’s an obvious ploy by the government to suppress the voice of the poor and maintain control.

Switching gears, what did we do for fun? Futbol! That’s soccer for all you westerners. These kids would play in their bare feet on a terribly uneven surface with no grass, and still slaughter us. In fact, the only 3 scores that the Americans had all week came from Hondurans that we recruited to be on our team. Every day at 5pm, it was a big event for the town…even for El Salvador. I didn’t mention that Santa Ana is right on the El Salvadoran border. I’ve actually been to two Central American countries now. Kind of far removed from our border concerns here- I would just walk over and hang with the kids in El Salvador. Everyone got along. The food was excellent too! Nothing processed, everything home-cooked by las cocineras. If you ever get the chance to have a pupusa, jump all over it.

At the end of the trip, one of the students said that he thought the experience would make him grateful and appreciative for what he had back home, but instead he was grateful and appreciative of what the people in Santa Ana had- a tremendous sense of community (I guess that’s what no tv does). I guess that pretty much sums it up.

Here’s a link to some pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/bcooper876/Honduras#.

Well, I’m tired of writing and, like I said, I have plenty more stories that I’d love to share with you. I’m sorry for the novel.

Adios,
ben