Erin Miller

So I know there has been a ridiculous amount of time between entries. I would like to try to claim third world extenuating circumstances, but the truth is that I actually sort of managed to get busy; and it has my host family incredibly worried about me, “Erline (they cannot pronounce my name without putting an L in it) tiene que descansar, est’ cansada.” (Erin, you need to relax, you’re tired.) Hondurans are very serious about taking time off to relax. If I work more than three hours straight, “Erline, debe ir a la casa y descansar, estaba trabajando demasiado.” (Erin, you should go to the house and relax, you have been working too much.) I wonder how well it will go over with my Columbia professors when I explain that I didn’t finish an assignment because I spent three hours working on it and then had to go relax.
Last week I had the honor and the pleasure of getting to drag my parents all over the country. They arrived in San Pedro Sula (one of my least favorite cities in Honduras, could be accurately described as the industrial armpit of the country, located at sea level and inland, it’s hot, muggy, crowded, and expensive). I checked us into Hotel Bolivar — riding in an elevator for the first time in three months — check. (I maintain that elevators really are kind of weird and scary.) It was only thirty dollars a night and it had hot water. First completely warm shower in more than three months — check. The sheets and towels were slightly below my mother’s standards. Blowing chunks in Honduras — check. San Pedro Sula has always sort of made me want to barf, and this time I did actually succeed in spewing, though I think it was actually more than likely due to the virus I got from my ex-housemate right before she left. So I spent Sunday morning lying in bed complaining that I was surrounded by doctors and no one could do anything to make me all better.
I rallied in the afternoon though and lead my parents to Tela on the express bus, which was less than four dollars a person, though very overcrowded and pretty hot. Tela is a delightful coastal town full of character. My parents decided that between the sheets at Hotel Bolivar, my vomiting, and the bus ride down we deserved a bit of pampering and put me up at the Telamar resort — very posh, and the location of my second and third warm showers in Honduras. I took my parents on my favorite guided tour though my favorite national park in Honduras. We did get to see howler monkeys from the boat and they had a lot to say about us being there, especially when we revved the boat’s engine and sent them into a frenzy. The tour also included some terrific snorkeling. It took my dad a while to work is way into the deep water because he was still scarred from his last snorkeling expedition during our cruise two years ago. That time, the guides had sent us out into an incredibly strong current and once we had realized that the visibility was too poor to make snorkeling worth while and tried to get back to the boat, we almost couldn’t make it back. We even sent up signals for the international sign of distress, but we couldn’t quite remember what it was and our guides were too busy jumping in and saving everyone else. My grandpa had also snorkeled on that trip and once my dad and I had clawed our way onto the boat, finally caught our breath and stopped shaking we looked around and realized that the only person that wasn’t back yet was my 80 year old grandfather. We saw him swimming close to the boat and motioned for him to return. He steadily swam back to the ladder and climbed up (flippers still on). Once he had gotten up the ladder, in his flippers, he spit his snorkel out and said, “sure were some pretty fish.” That story causes my mom to remind me that I come from some very good stock. Anyway, no currents this time and once my dad finally got out there we had a great time looking at the tropical fish and examining two buried cannons left over from the peninsula’s days as a pirate hide-away. We also saw a huge barracuda, which I found slightly discomforting. Our guide explained, “Those ones do bite and when they are camouflaged like that it means they are about to attack.” I thought it was a good time to head back to the beach for lunch.

Mom and I waiting for the bus to Tela

Mom and I waiting for the jungle tour

Dad returning from the jungle tour.

Me with pretty trees used for firewood and drums
After two days relaxing by the beach we headed back across the country to La Esperanza, where I kept my parents “United-states-busy,” according to my mom. As soon as we arrived in La Esperanza we rushed to my host-family’s house for a special dinner. Wednesday morning I took them out to Yamaranguila to the home for girls to do some well-checks. Mom even got to answer some questions about chagas (I had warned her to study up on it.) We returned to La Esperanza in the afternoon and in the few off hours we had, I showed my parents to my favorite smoothie bar and Internet cafe, where my dad tried one of the famous brownies. A North American woman cooks deserts for the Internet cafe to sell. When she saw all of us North Americans in there she made us brownies. The old Honduran woman who sells them at the Internet cafe came up to me, “Tenemos brown! Tenemos Brown!” (We have brown! We have brown!) I was a bit confused until she showed me the chocolate-chip filled deliciousness. They have since become a staple in my Honduran diet. Dad enjoyed them too. In the afternoon we went to the INFA center, the daycare in town for children with only one parent. My parents checked out the kids as their parent’s came to pick them up. My parents got a small taste of some of the illnesses of poverty that effect kids here. They did some great work though giving out some donated amoxicillin, diaper rash cream, and toothbrushes. They did have to refer one case of gangrene to the hospital and realized we were a bit short on anti-lice and anti-scabies medications. My parents had so much fun that they had at least one of the peace corps volunteers who came to help us translate thinking she wanted to be a doctor by the end of it. We went to see some local traditional dancing Wednesday night and my parents had so much fun they could barely stay in their seats. My dad spent Thursday seeing pediatric neurology patients at the hospital and working on convincing two other peace corps volunteer translators to go into pediatric neurology instead of saving the world. My mom and I anxiously tried to get a system going and keep it on schedule. Dad did change the drugs for one kid with generalized epilepsy who was still seizing a couple of times a day and prescribed Ritalin to about 10 students. Rumor is that the families have actually managed to order the Ritalin from Tegus (the capital city) and I have a feeling that La Esperanza will have much better students in the coming months. On Friday my parents watched me work and helped me with the diabetics club meeting. They had brought about 30 donated glucometers to give to the club members and we had an adventure trying to figure out how to use them all and then teach the diabetics to use them in Spanish. I think our highest reading was 276, dad looked at him and shouted, “And we have a winner!” Hopefully the glucometers encourage a better level of diabetes control. Then my parents watched me give the food the the women at the Albergue and deliver some quick versions of my chats on nutrition during pregnancy, birth control and breastfeeding. I realized giving the talks how much I enjoyed my work there talking and laughing with the women. I find it so rewarding when a woman who is having her second child is thinking about having the sterilization operation after giving birth, or a woman who is just having her first child blushes, shrugs and tells me that she is going to plan with the depo injection. I am working on getting everything set up for this program to continue once I am gone and have made some good progress. I hope to have a somewhat sustainable system (that is not dependent on me) set up by the end of this week.

Mom doing well-checks at the home for abused and neglected girls

All of us at the home for girls

Dad examining a severely malnourished one and half year old at the INFA center

Raulito

Dad cleaning a wound

New toothbrushes!

Me at the Albergue

Women laughing at the Albergue
On Friday I dropped my parents off in San Pedro Sula because I didn’t want to make them travel by themselves, and because my mom bribed me with a night in the Hilton. Getting my taxi driver to chase down the bus to San Pedro once the bus had already pulled out of the station in La Esperanza –check. The driver pulled in front of the bus so that it had to stop and the bus drivers jumped out to help us with our bags. I thanked the other woman in the taxi for letting us chase down the bus and she said not to worry because she thought it was exciting. As the bus employees helped to get our bags underneath the bus my dad began unzipping his small backpack off his larger bag. The bus people stared at him confused but when his small backpack came off they laughed hysterically at the handiness and high-techiness of my dad’s bag. I think it made their day as well as my dad’s. I enjoyed the best shower yet at the Hilton. I sent my parents off on the airport shuttle at five in the morning and I slept in, took a nice warm bath, and enjoyed a morning full of zen watching CNN and eating strawberry-peach waffles in bed (ordered from room service and put on my dad’s credit card). I spent last night in La Esperanza trying to get back into my old routine. I jumped in the shower for a quick freezing cold wash after having been on the buses all afternoon. I got my hair well lathered up just in time for the water to quit. I guess it figures that in a country with such unreliable water and electricity one would eventually get caught soapy in the shower. Filling a bucket of water from the pila in my towel — check, and I think the site made our housekeeper’s night.
I am going to spend the next week getting my projects set up in town to run without me and anxiously waiting for me boyfriend to arrive.