La Esperanza hospital and arriving in Las Mercedes

March 26th (Lauren)

Penny has her alarm set for 0600. The alarm cries out and we start rubbing our eyes. It is so dark out! But…there are six girls to our room and one bathroom so Sarah decides to jump in the shower- the shower that has no heated water. As she fights off the effects of hypothermia, the rest of us realize that Penny did not change her clock to the Honduras time zone and it’s really 0400. Poor Sarah- all showered up and nowhere to go but back to bed! Once we all have woken up at the correct time, we pack up our bags and take the polar bear plunge into the shower. Breakfast is waiting for us- waffles, fruit and fresh Honduran coffee. The meals have been wonderful and the people here have been so warm, friendly and serving. We pack up our bags and head to Las Mercedes with a stop in La Esperanza on the way. Traffic on the road is terrible. However, it did offer us the opportunity to get a closer look at the many fruit stands that sold bunches of bananas, coconuts and watermelons. Gloria, one of our hosts that is riding with us up to Las Mercedes, is drive by bargaining with the different fruit stands to where we can get the best bananas for the best price.  Drive by bargaining is Gloria’s method of determining who really wants to sell. Step 1: Target fruit stand and evaluate the goods. Step 2: Reduce speed of vehicle to a crawl. Step 3: Watch for the owner to approach the bus. Step 4: If owner does not approach the bus- yell “You must not want to sell your goods” and drive away. This is a very efficient way of shopping. We finally ended up with a beautiful bunch of bananas. Next, we stopped at a shopping center in Siguatapeque. Lucky for us, there were clean bathrooms and also a small animal enclosure!  Yes, there was a monkey involved. He was alone and paced back and forth in his cage stealing lettuce from his neighboring turtles. Next, we went into a market where the smell of fresh made donuts filled the air. We stocked up on plantain chips and other snacks and headed back on the road. As we continue on, the elevation increases and the vegetation grows thicker and more green. We pass around different candies and other treats to try. Finally we make it to the hospital in La Esperanza. The hospital is surrounded by a chain linked fence and a guard stands by the gate. We meet our tour guide who takes us into the hospital. The hospital itself is in better condition than we had expected. It is one story and the hallways are lined with people waiting for tests, appointments and other various reasons. We have to single file through the crowd just to get through. The lab is a group of small rooms divided by the type of test that is run. The lab techs do not wear gloves when handling the vials of blood- as we do. Further down the hallway, we enter the mother baby unit. A new mother has delivered her baby by C section and is now being wheeled down the hall. A room off the side of the hallway is painted a rosy pink color with six beds lined up in three’s. There are a few women here that sit in their beds in their pink hospital gowns. The doctors and nurses talk to us about their most commonly seen problems.  COPD, Diabetes, appendicitis, many of them similar to the United States. One physician talks to us about the problems the more rural areas are seeing, including Las Mercedes. “Los parasitos”, or the parasites, are a big problem in Las Mercedes. They frequently see worm infections with children’s bellies bloated from malnutrition and the large number of worms living in their gut. They also are suffering from the rotavirus- in other words a GI bug with a lot of vomiting and diarrhea. Three children have already died from severe dehydration related to this virus. They advise us to refer badly dehydrated children and adults to the hospital.  It makes the poverty level much more real to know that the people here are unable to afford transportation or hospital visits and they die from preventable causes. Many of us are a little worried about coming face to face with such an infectious virus, particularly when there is not always running water and only two bathrooms to split between the twenty of us there. The tour guide takes us to a brand new facility for high-risk pregnancies, which include dorms, that women can stay in for 15-30 days at the end of their pregnancy to ensure safe delivery. This has improved mother and infant mortality rates in the area.  Overall, we are really impressed with the conditions of this hospital. Of course, they are in short supply of medications and linens, but they are a nicely operating system that has improved the health of their community.

            Now it is finally time to reach our destination: Las Mercedes. The road out of La Esperanza to Las Mercedes is now unpaved and pure dust, rock and potholes. This makes for a very long and bumpy ride. We continue to climb up in elevation, Las Mercedes is 6,000ft above sea level.  Small neighborhoods line the roads. Dust coats everything: plants, cars, houses, fences and cars. We start up a large hill and have a major road block: Two bulls dueling in the middle of a very narrow road. There is not much room to go around them but they manage to fight there way around us. Half of us were scared they were going to hit our bus and the others were taking pictures. Shortly after we start seeing kids in their school uniforms walking down the roads. As we pass they stop and stare. Some look at the huge pile of luggage strapped to the top of the bus, some wave at us and others chase the bus. It is this way for close to 30 minutes before we arrive to Las Mercedes.  When we do arrive, the people have been waiting outside of the clinic ready to help us unload and welcome us in. They are dressed in bright and vibrant colors. The women have bright orange, pink and blue dresses and the men dress in their slacks and button up shirts. They help us unload our bags and set up the clinic for the following day. By now it is late in the evening. Las Mercedes is very green. Located on top of a hill, there are rolling hills surrounding us. They are covered in green fields of green beans, palm trees and small gardens. Houses are nestled in on the hillside. Cows, chickens lay in the yards and fields. Malnourished dogs run through the village, all of them infected with parasitic worms. The sun goes a down and dinner is being prepared for us in the clinics kitchen. We gather sleeping bags and mats to sleep on and divide the group up so there are six people per room. The three boys get their own room. We get a few minutes together to enjoy a few short stories and head to dinner.  They have prepared beef with cheesy potatoes and tortillas for us. Many went back for seconds on the potatoes. The clinic has electricity and running water (sometimes). The toilets do flush if the water is running. Otherwise, you get a bucket of water from the previously filled cistern and manually flush the toilet. All toilet paper must be thrown in the trash or toilets will back up! We have an outdoor shower with cold mountain water and an outside toilet as well, which most of us try to avoid. It has been a long day and we have full bellies, we decide it’s time to go to bed…. at 8:00pm. There are no beds, just the mats to protect us from the tile and the floor. The rooms are about 9X11 feet and we sleep side by side like sardines in a tin can. If we weren’t close before…we are definitely close now!