Notes from Honduras
palmd | February 12, 2009In 1999, during my intern year, Hurricane Mitch struck Central America. As stated below, I wanted to become involved. The program director of my residency was kind enough to view this as a worthwhile educational experience. This is my diary from the trip. Part IV is here.
Leaving
Our final evening in Juticalpa saw the reunion of the medical teams that had been sent to the outlying countryside. Our friend Jeremy returned essentially unscathed but with a few stories from the hinterlands. His group was lodged in a small house in a distant village. They bathed with buckets of river water from a…
palmd | February 11, 2009In 1999, during my intern year, Hurricane Mitch struck Central America. As stated below, I wanted to become involved. The program director of my residency was kind enough to view this as a worthwhile educational experience. This is my diary from the trip. Part III is here.
After Hours
We returned each night over the route we came, waving to our patients along the way, occasionally stopping to say hello or take a picture of the cloud-shrouded mountains. Our first stop was always the bodega, to drop off our gear and resupply for the next day's work. Afterward, we retreated behind the gate of…
palmd | February 10, 2009In 1999, during my intern year, Hurricane Mitch struck Central America. As stated below, I wanted to become involved. The program director of my residency was kind enough to view this as a worthwhile educational experience. This is my diary from the trip. Part II is here.
Zopilotepe; the Clinic
We loaded our supplies and our tired but excited selves into a jeep and headed out to the highway. Shortly after leaving town we turned down an unremarkable dirt road that threaded through bean and corn fields. The rough-hewn wooden fences were covered with purple and pink morning glories. As we wound…
palmd | February 9, 2009In 1999, during my intern year, Hurricane Mitch struck Central America. As stated below, I wanted to become involved. The program director of my residency was kind enough to view this as a worthwhile educational experience. This is part II of my diary from the trip. Part I is here.
To Juticalpa
As we left Teguz, we crossed one more bridge and began to climb into the hills that surround the high valley in which rests the city. Thin dogs wandered along the roadside sniffing at the animal skulls lining the road. Women and children crowded into ravines to wash clothes in the river which was both…
palmd | February 8, 2009In 1999, during my intern year, Hurricane Mitch struck Central America. As stated below, I wanted to become involved. The program director of my residency was kind enough to view this as a worthwhile educational experience. This is my diary from the trip.
Beginning
The idea to go to Honduras came about in a way that may or may not be unusual. I have no way to judge, never having done it before. I had of course heard of the disaster of Hurricane Mitch. As I listened every day on the radio, I thought about all of the potential deaths that could be avoided by simple medical care. One day on NPR…