Today was my last day in clinic. I had to fight the urge to cry when saying goodbye to all the Global Healing doctors. Though my focus has been to facilitate patient flow, I couldn’t help but learn a ton from my experience here, and I am more excited than ever to begin medical school in July.
This last week has been the perfect ending to my time on Roatan. Saturday, a few volunteers from Clínica Esperanza and I went snuba diving (similar to scuba diving, but the air tank remains on the surface on a raft). Our guide took pictures of us, and there’s an embarrassing video of me dog paddling 10 feet underwater. Then, we went on the zip line canopy tour through Gumba Limba Gardens. Sunday, I went with a Global Healing physician and her husband, along with a couple of Peggy’s volunteers, to Barbaretta Island. We passed a group of about 12 dolphins on our way there – an absolutely amazing sight. Jade Beach was our first stop. Thousands of jade rock fragments covered the shore, and I have never seen water so clear or sand so clean. We had the entire beach to ourselves. Next was Pigeon’s Key, a bank of white sand with a few palm trees, surrounded by reef. I saw so many different types of fish and sea life while snorkeling. How am I supposed to return to the States, to a life of watching movies and going to the mall, after all this? I’m going to try my best to not think about it too much.
Well, the new Global Healing intern, Natasha, came in on Saturday, and I have been training her for the last three days. The clinic is being left in good hands, and now it’s time for me to say my final goodbyes. Goodbye cat-calling parrots, road-crossing crabs, dogs that bark but don’t bite, children without shoes, Rotisserie Chicken, Buccaneers, Eagle Ray’s, Deep Ted’s, snuba diving, zip lining, mosquitoes, sun-dried laundry, waking up at 5am, toilets that don’t flush, sniffling babies, sun burns, sandy shoes, baleadas, gripe, tos, calentura and another hundred things that I will miss about this island. I hope to see you all again some day.
