January 23 Photos

 
 
 
 

Friday January 23

6:00 am

Last night I had packed quickly after Jon and Erin stopped by for dinner. Before then we took dinner over (roast and potatoes with chocolates taped to the top of the casserole dish) to Grandpa and Grandma’s. The hair clipper I had bought from Marshal’s and was using did not have enough power and ended up hamming and pulling my hair, so I also was able to visit Great Clips before I left.

I made sure to pack the scrubs Dr. Williams had loaned me along with grubby clothes that I could choose to leave in Honduras if I wanted.

This morning I woke up at 2:15 and Dad drove Dr. Perkins and I to the airport. We met up with the rest of the team (Judy, Gary, Bill, Jim, Ken, Emelia, Pamela, Gef, Erik and Katie) at 3:30 for out 5:35 am flight. We are currently flying from Minneapolis to Houston where we will board another plane to head to Tegucigalpa.

I just saw the moon rise above the horizon in the morning sky and the East is beginning to brighten with shades of blue and low-lying streaks of red.

One thing I regret forgetting at home is sunscreen; especially with my newly exposed widow’s peaks. Perhaps I can purchase some in Houston or when we arrive.

9:00 am

On the flight from Houston to Tegucigalpa I sat next to a nice man named Mike who is from Mississippi. We talked about Minneapolis and politics since he had been in St. Paul this last summer as one of the 62 delegates from Mississippi to attend the Republican National Convention. I also met a man from Washington State who was flying to the country to work with radio and communication for 5 months with the US Air Force. There are groups from all over the states on this flight who are traveling to Central America for the same reason that we are and it is fun to see all the matching t-shirts walking in groups through the airport. It’s interesting to note that Honduras receives so much aid financially and in service.

2:30 pm

We have arrived! The plane was flying so close to the housetops that we could have touched the roofs. The city of Tegucigalpa is located in a basin of mountains and so the population almost spills down into the center. We passed through security and I exchanged $45 USD to Lempira with an exchange rate of about 1 USD to 18.8 Lempira from a man with a fanny pack outside the airport. The Guatemalan soccer teal arrived at the same time we had and so there were news teams and cameras all over when we left the airport. Our translator, Fernando, explained that the team will be playing Costa Rica in the Central American Cup tonight. Honduras had just played Belize last night and won 2-1. Fernando explained that the people are very emotional for their teams and the citizens have a great deal of respect for their country’s soccer.

10:00 pm

We ate dinner tonight and luch at authentic resteraunts. Lunch was tortillas with pork, chicken, beef and chorize and dinner was Churasgo. The people here are so nice and easy to talk to. I am becoming so excited for the dental work. Judy predicts there will be a lot of patients, since because of the four dentists on the trip, our presence has been advertized on the radio and telecision. Tomorrow we are climbing one of the hills (ceros) where a 90 foot tall Jesus Statue (Christo del Pichacho) stands and one can view the city of Tegucigalpa before we leave for El Paraiso.