Hello from Honduras! Today we were able to spend most of the day with the 11th and 12th grade nursing students at Angie and Larry’s nursing school here in Choluteca. We taught CPR first, and the students were wonderful! They were so eager to learn and keep practicing. After CPR, Kristina and Amy taught prenatal care and then we split up to teach suturing and injection medication administration. The students did so well with suturing— they responded very well to my hand motions and one word instructions for how they could improve (because I didn’t know how to say it in Spanish). It has been fun trying to practice my Spanish. I can say a lot more now, but my listening skills are still VERY rough. I’d be completely lost without our amazing interpreters and Spanish-speaking students!

Lauren and my CPR group— they were so much fun! They had us laughing the whole time

When we were done teaching, we went to a market in Choluteca to do a little shopping, followed by drinking smoothies and iced coffee by the pool (of course!) Everyone who has been on this trip previously was majorly talking up the smoothies before we left, and I didn’t think they could possibly live up to the hype… but they exceeded it! BEST. SMOOTHIES. EVER. We headed back to Angie and Larry’s house for dinner (coca-cola chicken, rice, beans, & fruit). The food here has been AMAZING!

After dinner, a bunch of us went down to the pool to hang out and play games. We are so blessed to have an amazing team of students and faculty! I have loved getting to know everyone and seeing how quickly we have all bonded in just a few short days. We are so excited for what the rest of the week has in store for us. Stay tuned!

What an exciting journey to the beautiful country of Honduras! The team headed out on an early flight to Atlanta, GA Thursday, March 7th. After landing, we had breakfast and caught another flight to Tegucigalpa, Honduras. We met our hosts, Larry and Angie, at the airport and exchanged our money. We grabbed lunch at McDonald’s and packed up the vans for a long ride through the mountains. About a mile from the airport (yes one mile), we realized we had a flat tire and waited at the gas station to get it changed. We arrived at our hotel in Choluteca at about 6:30 and had a beautiful dinner prepared by our awesome hosts. You can never go wrong with chicken tacos in Central America 🙂 Afterwards, we prepped for the next clinic day and headed for bed. Traveling had me beat! I am so excited to put my nursing skills to use with my fellow students and practitioners to serve this deserving population! 

Day 1:

On our first clinic day in Honduras, we visited the village of Siete de Mayo to set up a health clinic for the people there. We started the day at the Overholt’s for breakfast, then we packed up the bus and went to the village. The driving is definitely something to get used to! At the clinic, we had pharmacy, women’s health, comprehensive care, and education rooms and the nursing students from the IETI were working with us. It was really great to work with other nursing students and learn from each other. Some of them were also really beneficial in translating between our group and the patients. After the last patient had been seen, we packed up the bus again and headed back to the Overholt’s to unload. We came back to the hotel and had some free time to get smoothies, coffee, and go to a grocery store. We went back to the Overholt’s for dinner and afterwards Angie gave us a tour of their school. They are doing some construction and have a beautiful facility for their students. I learned so much today. I performed my first lice treatment, learned new techniques from the nursing students and the practicing members from my group, and realized that I remembered more Spanish than I had thought before this trip. Day One was a fantastic start to this trip and I can’t wait to experience the rest.