February 21, 2009

From Honduras and Cali!

Posted in Trips at 9:30 pm by Becky Wells

First of all I just wanted to recommend Long Beach, CA to everyone! It is gorgeous here! Not just the weather, but the city itself is immaculate.  I will get more to my trip in a second (although I am still here).  I didn’t think I would be able to update while here, but I found a computer and internet I didn’t have to pay for and I couldn’t wait to post another e-mail from Chris.  He is on his way back to Chicago from Houston as I am typing this, but his e-mail was really powerful and I wanted to share right now. 

Tuesday was my day to be in the dispensary where the patients came in once they were done with every station in order to get their new/used glasses.  It was cool to see so many of them go “wow! esta claro!” haha which means “wow this is clear”!  We gave away tons of candy and some t-shirts.  I also played a little basketball with one of the student translators from here in Honduras named Rico.  He was my lifesaver on Monday because as you know my Spanish is horrible so he would come over and I’d tell him to perform the “usual” and he would laugh and tell the patient everything for me.  Anyway I saw him shooting hoops so I gave him some pointers on how to jump shoot instead of just throwing the ball at the hoop.  He caught on quickly and we became good friends.  He gave me his email address and I gave him mine so we could stay in contact after we leave here.  It’s cool to see the impact we can have on people despite our short time down here.  Wednesday was full and probably the busiest for me because we were basically the doctors and would decide on who got what drops, glasses, and sunglasses etc etc etc.  Pretty cool and powerful stuff.  We saw a guy with a retinal detachment and another kid who had light perception only in one eye due to a toxoplasmosis infection which wiped out his macula.  After the day at the clinic we took a bus ride to the waterfall!  Talk about freaking cool!!!!!!  I took lots of pictures/videos just for you to see what we’ve been doing so don’t you worry, haha.  Today (Thursday) was the last day of optometry stuff.  Tomorrow is our last day here which will be a free day then we come home on Saturday.  Today was cool because we were in surgery all day.  Cataract surgeries mainly.  There was one 16 year old girl who had surgery at 3 to remove some congenital cataracts but they took both her lenses completely out leaving her only to rely on super thick, thicker than Coke-bottle, lenses to help her see which barely helped at all.  So she got two lens implants inside her eyes to take the place of the glasses.  It will take a little while to get her vision completely cleared up but she was counting fingers in front of her face which she hadn’t been able to do since she was a little girl.  She cried for a while with tears of joy which was cool to be a part of.  The only really bad thing that happened today was a man and his wife brought in their 3-day old baby son who they had noticed did not really open his right eye.  The doctors took a look and found out that the baby had not developed the right eye at all and the boy will only have one eye for his lifetime.  And on top of that he had some mucopurulent discharge in his mouth which might mean he has a systemic infection most likely from the birth process where he picked up syphilis, gonorrhea, or chlamydia from the mother.  So this kid has a little ways to go to get healthy.  Unfortunately, (to quote the ophthalmologist himself) a heart attack is considered an emergency but in Honduras the heart attack won’t even be treated so who knows what will happen to the baby.  I almost actually cried to see the mother bawl her eye out. 

Sorry to end on that sad note!  I can only imagine what seeing that must have been like for him.  Chris is an extremely compasstionate man so I am sure that had a great effect on him.  I like how he said he “actually” almost started crying because for those of you who don’t know Chris…crying is not something he does easily at all.  Although not everything seemed to be happy-go-lucky while he was there, it certainly seems he had an amazing time and I will post pictures for you all to see, especially of that waterfall (I am a little envious he was able to see that, I must admit )

As for me, my weekend has been wonderful as well (although I am sure this is boring after reading Chris’ email).  My flight was perfect, the conference was VERY interesting, and the weather has been amazing.  I have to mention, if you looked to the right outside my hotel room you would see the ocean.  Then to the left- mountains.  Coming from a place where to the left and right are cows and corn…it was awesome.  Anyway,  I learned so much and even the stuff that was over my head (as I am still a 1st year OT student) gave me something to consider in the future once I am more skilled.  Being around these amazing researchers and therapists has been a breath of fresh air after having my nose in text books and hands in cadavers.  I especially became excited when they would talk neuro and I would know what they were talking about!  My director kept laughing at me because I would go “oooo, I know that!” under my breath.  Both tonight and last night I walked down to the pier and tonight I even studied (finals week is this week) there.  I would say that was a step up from the library .  Last night was eventful because we had a little “party” among the therapists and they hired a magician to perform for us (the theme of the conference is perception within sensory integration…so he fit in well).  This kid was only 18 years old, had been doing magic for 4 years, was the Teen World Champion, and had more talent in his pinkie than I do in my whole body.  He was not only a good magician, but an entertaining, hilarious performer.  His name is Sterling…keep an eye out for him.  He even pulled me up on stage for a trick and I have always wanted to do that!

I am heading back to Chicago tomorrow morning and cannot WAIT to see my fiance.  Then I have finals (poopy) then a week long break (yeah!).  Thank you all for safe trip prayers!  Again, I will post Chris’ pics soon!

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February 16, 2009

Email From Chris!!!!

Posted in Trips at 8:15 pm by Becky Wells

I didn’t know if I would be able to hear from Chris when he was in Honduras as the internet there (as well as the electricity) is pretty shady.  But I just got back from working out and SURPRISE I have an email from my world traveler.  I thought I would post the parts of the email you would all enjoy (minus the mushy “I miss you stuff” ) Here it is:

The landscape itself is absolutely breathtaking and beautiful.  However, the locals throw trash and garbage in every nook and cranny you can think of.  It’s sad and disgusting at the same time.  But they are very grateful for the help we are giving them.  This morning we arrived at the clinic which is a school for grades 1-12, I believe, and there were about 700 people standing outside the gates waiting for us to get in.  It was an unbelievable feeling to walk into the buildings.  These people parted like the Red Sea, like we were rock stars.  It was pretty cool to see.  I spent all day looking at the back of the eye undilated which was long but saw some cool things.  The hotel we are staying it is probably one of the best in the country, yet our sink does not work so we have to brush our teeth in the shower haha.  But beggers can’t be choosers.  The rooms are actually spacious.  The schedule so far has been get up at 5:45 for breakfast and then at the worksite by 730-ish and finishing up around 2 or 3.  Then it’s back to the hotel to swim in the pool and drink lots of beer haha.  Nights so far have been spent drinking, playing cards, and playing CatchPhrase.  Today we also rented kayaks and went out on the water of the lake.  Talk about beautiful!

That’s about it for now…but I will post again if I hear from him.  Who knows if he will be able to get to the internet again though.  Hope you enjoyed hearing from Chris as much as I did!  And as always, prayers for a safe return are appreciated!

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