Last weekend we took a trip to Cayos Cochinos which is a group of small islands off the coast. We took a small boat over there and then cruised around the islands. The islands look like the stereotypical tropical paradise with white sand beaches, palm trees, and crystal clear turquoise water. We stopped a couple of times to snorkel - there is a huge barrier reef off the coast of Honduras and so the diving and snorkeling is really good here.
Everyone had warned us to be careful about the sun because everyone gets sunburned on the trip, so I planned ahead and bought a longsleeved shirt to wear snorkeling (as we all know, I'm like a vampire and can't be out in the sun for very long/ever). At the mall in La Ceiba (which is strangely similar to malls back in the states... Including the prices) K, S, and I searched everywhere for a longsleeved shirt. Just when we were about to give up (there were literally zero longsleeved shirts at the mall... Maybe because it's ridiculously hot here), I came across a gem: a mint green shirt with the phrase "I can only guess where I'll be tomorrow" in SEQUINS!! Obviously I bought it and wore it snorkeling (and I'm proud to say that I didn't get burned). S and K also got them in different colors and we're looking forward to debuting them back at school (test days? Poster presentations during retreat? I can only guess...).
On Monday we started going to the public hospital in La Ceiba. We split our time between the emergency department (which is more like urgent care) and labor and delivery (which is more like a baby factory). The hospital has very little supplies and uses hardly any technology. I found the lack of technology particularly interesting because the doctors totally manage without it; I kind of think it makes them better doctors. In L&D they do everything by hand (finding/counting fetal heartrates, determining the position of the fetuses, counting contractions, etc.) some of which we would never learn to do in the US because we wouldn't need to.
In general L&D is crazy. The women receive no pain meds and have to walk themselves over to the delivery bed. The entire process is completely solitary: the woman has to labor alone (no family allowed) and there is nobody giving them support while they're delivering. The doctors barely even talk to the women or fill them in on what's going on.
Okay. Enough about the hospital for now. I'm actually on the island of Roatan right now (my view while writing this is pictured) and I think it's time to enjoy the beach.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
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