Back to California

Realistically I should have put up this blog a long time ago; maybe when I actually did come back from Honduras. However I have been busy visiting and catching up so it seems appropriate that I do this now. Now that I have a few minutes to spare.

This blog was created to update and inform my fellow family members and friends about my experiences in Honduras. After recently reviewing all my blog entries I have come to realize what an incredible opportunity I had and how fortunate I was to have experienced everything. A few friends have told me that they would love to go travel however time does not allow for such a thing. I say, why not?! After graduating from Davis, I could have started working and studying, yet I found that taking these past months off to dedicate myself to service was a refreshing break so that I can continue my studies and pursue my dreams. I do not regret my time spent in Honduras because I have met amazing individuals who have taught me a lot about myself and life in general. 

To conclude I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to everyone who has been a catalyst to my efforts spent in Honduras. 

Fred Fox: for showing me that money should not be the reason why we don't pursue our goals.

Lucho and Marion Boddy: For your Latin American connections and taking care of Jesus.

Patti Robarts, Karen Devine, Brenda Nichols: For your donations and time.

Francesca and Lee: For your donations and support.

Riaz Parsiani: For giving me the idea of service as a break and your support

Terrance Murphy: For your mentorship, your guidance and caring heart.

Sandra: For your donation and love for the cause.

Ndahiro: For your support and believing in my goals.

UC Davis Crossfit Club: For supporting me and enduring those wonderful wods for my fundraising competition.

Bayan Association: For taking me in as a volunteer and giving me a home. I admire everything your NGO is striving for and will definitely keep in contact to send more your way.

Honduran Red Cross: For providing me with such amazing volunteer opportunities and meeting a fantastic group of young individuals who want to change their society.

Ene-gym (Cesar): For letting me go crazy with the weight lifting and allowing me to train others in Crossfit on the side.

Helping Honduran Kids/Jungle School: For letting my heart burn with loving kindness. I love and miss all of those bright young children and cannot wait to see what their futures hold for them.

Dr. Rick Owens: For teaching me how to use an ultrasound as well as fixing my knee. I can run fast now! Also thank you for the wonderful conversations, we had fun in the vein clinic.

Dr. Ken Bielak: For enduring a 5am spinning class, fasting with me, and being an amazing mentor. I admire your career and cannot wait to follow in your footsteps.

Dr. Bersani, Dr. Walley, Dr. Bob, and the eye team: For teaching me how to suture and allowing me to be your assistant on such delicate surgeries. As well as advising me on my medical journey.

Dr. Jeff Patterson: For explaining me the DO process and sharing your story so that I can now consider the DO path. 

The Prolo/vein team: Thank you for helping me refresh my anatomy and learn how to treat patients in a rural and international setting. Thank you also for sharing your stories to medicine and inspiring me to continue on my journey.

Sonia and Gustavo Vargas Wills: For opening up your home to me and treating me as your own daughter. I can't even begin to express my gratitude for all that your family has done for me.

Soheil, Irma Nelly, Bahiyyih, Tahereh, and Azar: Thank you for exposing me to the Honduran culture and sharing your lives with me. I am so happy to have met you and cannot wait to see you in the future. Thank you for opening your home to me when I was living in Bayan and for helping me serve the Ceiban community. 

Carlotta Elizabeth Vargas Wills: For being the best friend I could have ever asked for as well as the most trustworthy sister. You made me feel like a true Honduran by introducing me to your friends, taking me out, and making me feel part of the family. I will always miss our late night HIMYM sessions and food indulgences. Te quiero mucho mi hermanita.

I want to send a big thanks to all my friends I have made in La Ceiba because without you guys I wouldn't of had such an amazing time. As well as my friends and family in the states who kept in touch and kept me sane throughout this whole ordeal. I definitely never felt more loved than when I received my welcome back hugs.

Until the next journey. Thank you for reading. :)

My First Grade Class at the Jungle School. June 12, 2013.

Our Future Generation

This past month has been very relaxing and HOT! Apparently we are winding down from the sunny skies and entering in the rainy season again. Which is fine by me, I love the feeling of raindrops falling on my head. In other news I have focused working more diligently at the orphanage and the Jungle School. The kids are so cute (sometimes) and I realize it makes me happy knowing that I am directly influencing these kids to make the right decisions.

Last week I was asked to teach Kindergarten because the K teacher was sick and then helping prepare for the mothers day celebration. At first I thought this would be much harder than 1st grade but it ended up working out to my advantage. We go over the pronouciation of vowels, shapes, colors, and writing in their notebooks. Then it's recess and when they come back we do some kind of art project or listen to a story I would read to them. The class is very small only 11 students but those 11 kids are more than enough for me. It's hard to realize I use to be that small. When class is over they always give me a hug goodbye and head out to lunchtime.

Every Friday is our day of physical education. Of course, since I come from a CrossFit background, I figured it is only appropriate that I teach them some CrossFit basic movements. I started by teaching them how to squat and how to do a pushup. Then I had them run around the playground a few times and we played games.
Who said CrossFit isn't for everyone??? These pictures demonstrate how well I taught them. I envy this girl, Nicole, because I have always had such a hard time getting to the bottom of my squat but here she is showing me exactly what I want. I miss being a kid, you had such amazing flexibility.

In reality, the students at the school come from very poor backgrounds. Some students receive their only meals at the school and others don't even own a toothbrush. They sleep on dirt floors and shower in the river. They may have lost one or both of their parents and have their grandparents raising them. They may come to school with heads filled with lice or have an everyday cough due to their at home conditions.
Regardless of their conditions these children are happy. Every time I get on the bus at 6am in the morning I remember why it is worth setting my alarm at 5am. All these children need is love and they want to show everyone how much they are capable of loving. Whenever I am at the school they give me hugs, smiles, and more than anything I could ask from them.

Also in case anyone was wondering, I have one more month left in Honduras before I come home. T-minus 29 days starts right now!

Eyes See You.

I can't believe how fast time is going. Already April showers getting ready for those May flowers. However, here in La Ceiba it's been a hot summer.

Semana santa came and I think I got exactly what I was expecting. As a volunteer with the Red Cross we are obligated to work as an EMT at one of the 3 beach locations, Peru, Paseo de los Ceibenos, Zona Salva Vida, or at the Red Cross headquarters. I was placed in a group at the Zona Salva Vida. It was fun setting up our camp space then making our rounds on the beach. Fortunately/unfortunately, there were no cases of drownings or injuries in the area. So I didn't get to see any action.

Following semana santa came the eye surgeons! Now this is where the fun happened. Every year a team of eye surgeons come out from Syracuse, New York with a program called HELP (Honduran Eye and Life Program). They take over 2 operating rooms in the private hospital D'antoni and see over 100 patients in one week. I was fortunate enough to not only observe the surgeries but help participate in them as well. The patients came from so far to receive treatment. It was hard to see people at the end of the week waiting to get their surgeries just be turned down last minute because of the lack of medical supplies. These people were given a letter to take home stating their priority for the following year. Dr. Bersani stated, "We are only here for a week so we can see so many patients before our supplies are up, but we came back every year."

Dr. Tom Bersani was my mentor for this experience because from the moment I walked into the clinic, he was the one I started translating for. He invited me to come up and watch a surgery he was about to perform on a 12 year old boy who unfortunately lost his sight due to a pinata incident. The boy's family decided it would be best to remove the eye and replace it with a prosthesis. 

I saw so many different types of surgeries such as ptosis, cataract, cornea replacement, pterygium, eye extraction, and prosthesis implants. On the picture to the left I am holding a 2 year old girl who had crossed eyes. She was waking up from her anesthesia and for some reason I felt a connection with her because I helped with her operation. She looks so peaceful sleeping in my arms while sucking on her two fingers. However when she woke up she put up the strongest fight that you would've been surprised you were holding just a 2 year old girl. 

Some of the patients who came into the clinic had stories that tore your heart because they happened to be extremely sad accidents. Sayda was no exception. Sayda came to La Ceiba during semana santa to visit her cousins, as she did every year during that week. While driving back from one of the nearby beaches, her brakes gave out on the highway and Sayda lost control of her car. Her only memory during the 7 car flips was praying that her 19 month old boy would survive the crash. She didn't care what happened to her as long as her son survived. Sayda got her wish yet with severe wounds. She has fractures from her jaw, ribs, and lower extremities, brain hemorrhaging  bruises and scrapes all over her body, and a deformed left eye that obscured her vision. When coming into the OR for the first time she wouldn't even look  the nurses in the eye. After waking up from her surgery she told me story and was willing to smile for her photo. Sayda is a beautiful woman and I was so grateful to not only witness her surgery but assist in it as well. Meeting her was one of my highlights of the week. That and working with such a loving, upbeat team such as the one pictured below.

Speaking of highlights, today is a special day because it is the birthday of a very good friend of mine. Hasan Daniel Entwistle Lopez! Hasan turns 23 today and I honestly can say I owe so much to this man. He is one of the reasons I managed to go through with this trip. Most of all, he has been such a supportive friend helping me while I adjusted to my new lifestyle. I am grateful for his friendship and can't wait to support him when he decides to go for his year of service. He doesn't like having his picture showing up online but since he doesn't even look at my blog I figured he wouldn't care. If you know Hasan personally give him a hug today because he wouldn't expect people to know it's his birthday today. Happy Birthday Haski. :)

Why is there no Daylight Savings?!

Honestly, am I the only one who thinks this is weird? I woke up Sunday morning ready for a fresh daylight savings only to find out that there is no daylight savings here. Apparently Hondurans don't like it when the time changes so they decided to keep it at the same time all year round. So my fellow United States Citizens, instead of having a two hour difference we have a one hour difference. Awesome, now I don't have to stay up late to talk to you folk via Skype.

These past three weeks have honestly been eye-opening. From Prolo-therapy, to ENT surgeons, to Physical Therapy, to Varicose Vein treatment I realized I am meant for the medical field. I love these medical brigades and I can't wait until I am able to join these doctors in providing services to the underserved.
Prolotherapy is a regenerative procedure that helps relieve chronic and acute pain in joins and scarred tissues. I worked three weeks with the Hackett Hemwall Foundation medical team at the Red Cross as a Spanish/English translator. I enjoyed everything from being the first one to speak to the patients, reviewing my anatomy to map out the landmarks, and helping prepare the Dextrose solution to inject into the patients. The picture on the side is of a patients knee after Dr. Tony finished mapping out all the landmarks (patella, gurney's tubercle, fibular head, etc). The X's mark all the areas we were going to inject. I know there are a lot of X's but the doctors use a "skin sliding" technique that they only have to pierce the skin once but skin slide to hit 3-4 more areas within the region. We also make sure to use an adequate amount of anesthesia so the patients feel just about nothing. Because I have twisted and sprained my ankles copious times, Dr. David Watson suggested that I get prolo on my ankle. Thus said, I did and now recommend prolo to anyone who has chronic pain or has suffered from an injury that for sure left their ligaments and tendons weak.
Warning, once you get prolo, there is a high chance you will notice other little pains that will led you to think about getting more. Here I am with Dr. Ken Bielak and Dr. Cristina Ponce about to get treatment on my knee. I like to run and lately I've been having posterior knee pain that prevents me from running 3 miles. So Dr. Ken is preforming a few tests (Lachmann, Anterior Drawer, etc) to see if my knee ligaments are weak or damaged. We found out it's my biceps tendon that is causing the pain so I get to have some prolo done tomorrow. :)


Apart from Prolotherapy, we've been also working with Varicose Vein Treatment. This requires the use of ultrasounds! I never knew how to read a ultrasound whatsoever, until now. After working with Dr. Ken I know can successful tell you what is all the fuzzy stuff you see on the screen. For example, on the right you can see the large black line in the middle is the Great Sphaneous Vein with the valve opening and closing allowing flow to go through. The top is the skin layer and bottom is muscle layer. We use the ultrasounds to see the Great Sphaneous Vein, Popliteus Vein, and others to see which one is causing these varicosities. If the veins are neglected and mistreated, the risk of developing an ulcer is high.

Each one of the doctors who came for the Vein clinic brought their own ultrasounds. Did you know, an ultrasound machine is roughly $30,000! I had no idea! Dr. Rick Owens, the most compassionate doctor I had met, brought a flat screen to hook up his ultrasound to. I can confidently say that we have the best view in the clinic. I was happy to be an active participant by preparing syringes, following the veins with the ultrasound, and even practicing giving the injections. Dr. Rick wanted to get rid of his spider veins at his ankle so he gave a a 30G needle with 5cc's of the solution and told me to go for it. I was nervous and I think Dr. Rick realized it but after I calmed down I was able to eliminate a few of those spider veins.
Finally, I am including a photo from a cool laser procedure I was able to watch. This poor man had large ulcers in his lower extremities and as a result we had to preform a laser surgery to close down the veins. We block the veins because there is too much reflux from the large veins above the knee that just continuously drain into the lower extremities. It's like pouring water in a cup until it's full but you are sucking water out with a straw at the same time. You have to have an equal proportion of water going in and coming out, since this guy has too much water going in and not enough coming out the veins elongate and become "varicosey" then as time goes on can break open and develop into an ulcer. Just by not caring for the wound will it grow to be to the size as that of below.

Sorry if that bugs people. Thanks for reading! To my crossfitters, lets go hard on 13.2 and the rest of the open wods!

Sunny Days and Cloudy Skies

It rains a lot here. I guess that is just part of the package of being in the tropical zone. I'm happy I finally got to go to the beach on a beautiful sunny day. Two of my friends from the gym Sarahi and Juan decided to have a mini picnic out at Playa de los maestros. Apparently this was the go to place for all young adults and their dogs. It was relaxing because the sun wasn't too hot and the ocean's breeze was refreshing. I made pico de gallo, Sarahi brought the chips and drinks, and Juan came prepared to just enjoy it all. At the gym, I've made quite a few friends which makes me happy. Though, they all think it's crazy that I like to lift weights. After some convincing, I got them to try CrossFit with me and they love it as well. I think if I had more time to spend I would gladly try for a job as a trainer at the gym, but the trainers have to be there for 8 hour shifts everyday and honestly my other obligations interfere with that time.

Speaking about my time, I've grown to love the work that Red Cross does. They truly have a wonderful perspective on community building and unity to work together. In the department of disaster prevention, the goal is to teach a few so that they can teach others. Since there is so much rain, the risk of flooding the streets is very high, thus said, the people need to know what to do in that kind of situation to prevent flooding in their homes as well as transportation in and out of their towns. I also joined in an EMT/Paramedic class that is every Sunday from 8am-6pm. It's pretty demanding but manageable. Plus I get to volunteer with the ambulances and help out in their shifts so that will be a good experience for me as well!

I started volunteering at an orphanage as well 3x a week. I felt like at first I might be stretching my time ouot too much but after meeting the kids I think I can manage to get over there from 6am-1pm every MWF. These kids come from a background of violence and abuse. After being offered a place at the Hogar de Amor, these children never have to worry about being set out in the world by themselves after they turn 18, they can stay as long as they need to in the Hogar until they are ready to leave. I go out to their school which is up in the mountains, it is called the Jungle School.

The school director assigned me to first grade, not realizing that I do have a huge problem with patience. However, this is why I need these kids because they teach me to be patient and I teach them that they can receive love. They are adorable and being with them 3 days out of the week really makes me happy. The luxuries of being a teacher are abundant, but it surprises me that I can adjust the class to include things that I find have value, such as morals. In Davis, I taught a spiritual education class to the children of Windmere Apartments, not once did I think this job was useless or a waste of my time because being with those kids who came from a low-income family, made me realize how much we have to value in our lives. Reflecting on those classes I decided to introduce the same quotations we studied but in Spanish such as: "En el jardin de tu corazon, no plantas sino la rosa del amor." What is even better about teaching 3 days a week, is the fact that I can really implement learning these quotes and understanding the meaning behind them 3 days out of the week instead of once a week which is what I did at Windmere. We spend about 30 minutes repeating, singing and making drawing to represent the quote, then they surprised me at lunch when I found out they memorized it.

Now to the fun stuff! Weddings!!! A good friend of mine, Tahereh Dooki got married this weekend! And being the wonderful people we are, her sisters, Azar, Bahi, and myself hosted a bachelorette party the night before her wedding! The cakes were to represent the different time periods of her life, 80's, 90's, and now! So the 80's cake was a rubric cube with Shea on top and a cassette play for Tahereh's music mix. Then 2000's and beyond was representing her time with Junior, her husband, and how she apparently tried to run away from marriage. The cake-artist, knew Tahereh and Junior pretty well so he creatively designed the figurines to show off their wonderful... "assets." As well as show how Tahereh is running away from Junior, but Junior has his foot on her dress so she can't escape. Man were these cake awesome!

There is a saying in Honduras that rain is a sign of good luck. Apparently Tahereh and Junior are going to have a lot of good luck because that day was pouring! The wedding was beautiful, regardless of the rain. Yet all that ceviche and meat didn't settle well with me because I came down with a stomach flu. I forgot how wonderful it feels to clean out my digestive track. I hope to be fully recovered by tomorrow so I can eat again and hit the gym hard!

Feliz Dia de las Mujeres

Today in Honduras is a day dedicated to the female population. Such a beautiful day to celebrate with a wonderful surprise of cake presented by the men of our capacity program area. This week has been busy, hence lack of my blogging. (Sorry readers). Yet it has been really productive! I met a woman who works in the English dept of Bayan's SAT program; her name is June and she is from Savannah Georgia. June and the capacity program coordinator, Ruhollah, took me out to a colony named Peru where a majority of the SAT tutors are trained to teach to their students. Last Thursday and Friday was dedicated to English and this Mon-Wed had a focus with Math (Algebra). Fortunately my love for math was to my advantage because Ruhollah "trained" me so I was capable of leading the class myself, which is what I did today. I was terrified standing in front of these 20 tutors who would question my answers and take my teaching tricks to their students who will eventually apply for college and if they didn't pass their entrance exams it would be my fault!!! Well, I don't think I have to worry about that, these students had a good enough grasp of algebra that I didn't feel like I was confusing them or making things difficult. I found teaching to be a lot of fun!
During the lunch period, the program coordinators, Ruhollah and another man named Melvin recruited all the women into the classroom to announce that a horrible incident had occurred in the girls dormitories. I was confused why I had to attend the meeting but I figured if there was going to be drama I wanted to have some stories to bring back to my friend Andrew Jopson. Melvin was explaining that "this kind of behavior" was unacceptable for SAT tutors, and at that moment the men walked in yelling "FELICIDADES" and carrying a giant cake with 3 liters of soda. Such a sweet surprise! As we enjoyed the cake, the 9 men in the classroom each gave a small speech of how important women are in the world and why they need to have an appreciation day for us. They even dressed up for the event!

I found a position to serve with Red Cross which is something I am really excited about. There are two programs that I will be involved in and they both are related to the youth in the more run-down parts of La Ceiba. The way the coordinators described the work made it seem very similar to my junior youth group. We would present ourselves as a mixture of a friend and a mentor but working in terms of preventative medicine. We would teach about STDs, AIDs, nutrition, and encourage exercise by playing a game of volleyball or soccer. I start Monday! The second group is working directly with people (youth in particular) with AID prevention and management. There is lots I need to learn and understand but I think it will be a joyful experience because I am a strong believer that we adults can make a huge impact in the life of a child especially a junior youth.
I found a gym which has dance classes every night, Monday thru Friday! Today was Salsa and Samba! Watch out Marion n Lucho! Our dance-off is coming soon. Next week we will learn La Punta, which is a traditional dance here on the Ceiba Coast of Honduras. I also meet two girls my age that are excited that I will be joining their dance class, yay friends! I can't wait to teach them CrossFit because doing CrossFit on my own is never any fun.

Anyways, tomorrow I have to be up early to start one of the Ruhi book series, book 3 (I know Marion you must be thinking "FINALLY"). But I hope everyone is enjoying life and thank you so much for your support. It means a lot to know that my friends do miss me as much as I miss everyone there. PEACE!

Transitioning to La Ceiba

January 16, 2013

I guess I should start this off by giving a small introduction as to why am I here in Honduras. Well more than 6 months ago when I was trying to figure out what to do with my life, I realized I wanted to take a small break between transitioning from my undergraduate career to my post graduate life which includes a bright future in medicine.
Two wonderful friend, Lucho and Marion Boddy, introduced me to the Bayan Association here in Honduras. Lucho and Marion are good friends with the program director Soheli Dooki and without further thought, I downloaded the application, applied, and waited for good news. By September I had already confirmed my flight to Honduras for a 6 month period of voluntary service.
Now the Bayan Association is a non-profit, Bahai-inspired organization that is dedicated to the social and economic development of Honduras. Bayan's primary focus is with an innovated educational system designed to permit youth in the rural areas to complete high school and acquire appropriate skills for sustainable living. I hope to be very involved with this program called SAT (sistema de aprendizaje tutorial).
I arrived in La Ceiba on Jan. 14, 2013 at 3:30pm. It was at a temperature of 82*F but super HUMID. It beats Davis weather anytime though, I feel like I am already started to brown up again into my summer colors. A member of the Bayan Association named Denis came to pick me up from the airport and explained to me a few of the details in regards to La Ceiba and safety. Regardless, I feel a lot more secure here in La Ceiba as opposed to being in Morelia, Mexico. In fact, majority of the Honduran population find Mexico to be at least 20x more dangerous than Honduras. I don't know why I got so scared from the stories I had hear prior to arriving in La Ceiba. Of course there are precautions that I need to take, which is the same that I would take walking through Compton in LA or getting out of the airport in Mexico City. Try to carry a small, non-visible purse or no purse at all, very little money or no more than $100 cash, no flashy jewelry, keep the tourist look on the down-low, and wear casual looking clothing (which I very much failed at doing).
As soon as I got to the Bayan Association which is in the area, Barrio Bella Vista, I finally met the people who I have been communicating with since I submitted my application online, Mr. Mario Miranda and Mr. Soheli Dooki. I spoke to Mr. Dooki about a few logistical issues and he then escorted me to my room to unpack and relax.

Later in the evening, Mr. Miranda took me to take out some money and buy some food for the evening and morning. The money system is in LEMPIRAS, and the currency rate right now is 1 dollar for every 19.99 Lempiras. It has been a bit confusing trying to convert everything in my head to see if it's a good deal or not. For example, today I bought a cell phone for calls and texts. It cost me 480 Lempiras which equals out to $24.
Overall I am still adjusting to the Honduran lifestyle and La Ceiba's heat. I am excited for the weekend that is coming so I can go to the beach. Yet I have a lot of work to do apart from filling out applications, to reading books that talk specifically about the SAT program, and looking for new friends to hang out with.

Thanks for reading!