May 2, 2010: Week 4
This weekend has been an absolute whirlwind. Contrary to popular belief, the “island time,” slow moving way of life has not made its way into my daily schedule quite yet…yes schedule. My days are not always as planned but go a little something like this…I wake up most mornings around 5:00am to birds chirping outside then at 5:30am to blasting music from my native Roatan neighbor. Sometimes she plays Christian music and belts it out, sometimes drumming, or even Akon “sexy bitch”..very classy. Its become so convenient for waking up that I no longer use an alarm. I start my workout around 5:35am, hospital/clinic work 7:30am-2pm, meeting with Jose who lives next door to practice my Spanish or 10 year-old Aimee, anyone really/or study Spanish, 5-7pm coach soccer and teach English at bilingual school, then eat dinner and head to bed around 9pm. I thought I was a grandma before when I went to bed at 11pm but am starting to realize I am definitely a grandma now.
Friday was a very busy day at the hospital. We had 30 or so patients come in with various ailments although the most common have been upper repertory infections, diarrhea, flu, cough, parasites with occasional malaria, scabies and cuts that have become very infected. I am learning about all the treatments and testing for the most common diseases in Roatan. In the United States we tend to do multiple tests when a doctor has an inkling about a disease, then follow with treatment. In Roatan testing like MRI, Xrays, are not available, or cost too much here so the most cost effective way is to do treatment right away. This system obviously would not work in the United States but saves many families a lot of money on the island, especially since the interventions are very low maintenance and cost effective. Most recently we have seen a lot of young mothers who are on baby 3 by age 19. Global healing is starting to counsel these women to “close the shop down” as we call it especially if it’s a low resource family and educate them on reproductive health resources and correct usage of those resources.
Work at the clinic ended around 1pm, then I immediately started to pack for a weekend retreat in la ceiba with Raul, Maddie and Sain for their last weekend here before they return to the states to finish med school and nursing school. I basically packed sunscreen, bathing suit and a camera plus the clothes on my back for the one-day venture on the main land. We headed to the Ferry for our hour-long ride to La Ceiba to go rafting and cliff jumping in the mountains. I awoke from the Ferry ride red as a tomato as we approached the main land. Before the trip to Roatan I was trying to stay out of the sun as much as possible so my white skin was pretty surprised by the blazing sun burning it to death.
The main land smelled like diesel and like any developing major city it had busy dirt streets, open markets and people everywhere you look. We took a taxi up the mountain for our 40-minute drive to Jungle River. The ride to the cabin was full of bumps and dirt holes, and im pretty sure by the time I got there my butt had about 10 bruises. From the street we walked down a few concrete steps to our cabin literally on the river. There was a beautiful red parrot that greeted us upon our entrance as well as the 2 main locals that ran the rafting business. We immediately stripped off our clothes and ran onto the huge boulders/cliffs that were around 60 feet high to jump into the river. When jumping off large objects I have realized there is a short window of time where I will actually do it (about 5 seconds) so I try not to think and just do. We then ventured down the river climbing up rocks, the sky scraping mountains filled with luscious green trees (anything we could). Raul is my monkey climbing friend so we usually explore most places we go by climbing and jumping, even if its not necessary, and most times its definitely not.
When it started to get dark we headed to our cabin to unwind, read a bit, then eat some delicious dinner. The local owners made us the most amazing chicken in a tomato chile based sauce, rice and red beans, salad, and fried plantains (that according to Raul who is a Mexican born plantain connoisseur were perfect and not too sweet). We played a card came called casino (an awesome game I was taught in college) with some candle light and headed to bed around 9pm. I awoke in the morning to beautiful chirping birds and other unfamiliar animal type noises. For breakfast the owners made us a fried egg omelet (actually fried), with rice, plantains and a crema sauce (kind of like sour cream and yogurt mixed together, sweet and sour). I stopped drinking coffee quite along time ago and have transitioned to matte in the morning but decided to venture out and try the coffee which was the most delicious chocolately creamy coffee I have EVER had. I drank 2 more cups then decided after stuttering on my words that I should stop.
At around 9am we started our rafting venture. A few Canadians joined us that Raul and Sain had met on the mainland while they were diving. I was very intrigued by their Canadian accent, especially the “oooohhhh yuhhhh) for oh yeah after I would say something mildly entertaining, and “yuh we have “bean thur” for been there. I have not traveled enough to know how other countries view our American accents but it CANT be as wonderful as Australian, Canadian or Egyptian. To train us for the trip we followed our guides for an hour up boulders, through hiking paths, jumped off cliffs down river, floated to other rocks to climb up then jump off again, into crevices in the rock boulders to see snakes, and huge spiders that resemble water spiders is the states, native plants that act as medicine for bites, soap, and a remedy for colds….naturalist medicine is just so gosh dang awesome. We then had to swim upstream to get to the other side of the river with our paddle to prove we could survive the trip. I have been rafting before and have never had such an extreme prep for the rapids. Anyone who knows me can vouch for the fact that I look like a cat drowning when I try to swim. I have tried to learn how to swim many times before but keep resorting back to my dog paddling. The life jacket didn’t help much as I waddled across the river gasping for breathe and praying I made it to the other side. I was happy I survived the 20 yard swim haha and 15 people laughing at me the whole 2 minutes it took to get to the other side. Since it was Maddies first time rafting we did tops level 3 rapids. After doing rapids 4-5 with the soccer team this was nothing but nonetheless I managed to fall out of the raft after every drop. My favorite part about rafting is floating down the river with my feet up and life jacket in the water. I jumped off the boat every opportunity I had to float down the rapids.
At the end of our trip we ate a bunch of perfectly ripe and sweet bananas, watermelon and pineapple that jungle river supplied and decided to stay one more night in La Ceiba to get a feel for the real city life that Roatan does not have. We stayed with the Canadians in a hostel in the heart of La Ceiba. I walked around the markets with Raul and Maddie looking at all the wild fruits, vegetables and shops. We headed to the coast to listen to the waves that Roatan also does not have and to watch the 40-50 locals fish off the main dock. While posted up on our log watching the sunrise a little dog sat behind us watching our every move. I turned around and stared this doggy in the eyes, looking at its very infected bulge on its face, and missing 2 toes. We had quite a moment then the dog decided to follow us around for the next 2 hours to EVERY place we went. When we stopped to get a drink or go to the bathroom there it would be waiting outside. I named it Bud and decided for all its hard effort I would feed it some bread. The dog continued to follow us to a random indoor soccer field in the middle of the city. I was so uncontrollable excited to find this treasure and immediately decided to ask them to play. Raul and I jumped in to play for about an hour while Maddie and Bud (doggy) watched us play. I realized at the end of the game that I was wearing the only clothes I had packed and was fully drenched in sweat. I quickly absorbed the fact that I would be showerless and covered in river water, bug spray, sweat and sun tan lotion as I slept in the Hostel that night. The boys we were playing with bought us some bolsa de agua (bag of water) after the game which is a liter of distilled water the locals drink because its very cheap. We chatted with the locals for a bit and exchanged emails. When we told them we worked in Roatan at the hospital and with Miss Peggy everyone knew who she was. After the game we bought a baleadas (home made tortilla with beans, cheese and any topping). I had egg and avocado. The total meal cost $1 and was very tasty, and filling.
After a long day of rafting and exploring we all headed to bed. I woke up at 3am overwhelmed with the heat, and unpeeled my sticky legs to talk with one of the Canadians Shauna who was still up. Shauna who is from Vancouver gave me her life story of working temporary jobs and traveling around the world. Not a bad way to live at all. She was a very friendly VERY talkative gal, maybe a bit too hippie for me, which says a lot, but full of awesome energy and a great heart. I finally went back to sleep around 5am to awake at 6 for breakfast and our Ferry back to La Ceiba.
I am very eager to start my next week, and also excited to get some sleeeeeeeeeeeep.
