Day 6

Today was our last day in clinic, definitely bittersweet. Half of us packed up the clinic while the other half did extractions. We eventually finished packing and had 5 chairs doing extractions. Our first pedo  case was really scared, so Dr. Espinoza treated her and we learned some good patient management tricks from her. It was pretty hard to manage and soothe scared patients because of the language barrier. 

Hayley and I paired up and did pedo extractions. We learned that kids who are scared will cry regardless and we have to differentiate whether they feel pain or pressure. An easy test is to see if they are crying even if you don't have any instrument in their mouth. We saw a 4 year old boy with a large abscess and needed 3 extractions, which was really sad because be was so young.   

We gave out a lot if toothbrushes and toothpaste, which they were really happy to get. I took a break and talked to the little kids for a bit, as much as I could anyway with my limited Spanish. Almost all of them asked me if I was chino, to which I responded yes. Understandable considering they probably have never seen an Asian before haha. 

In total, we saw 26 patients and did 32 extractions. It was gratifying to be able to take so many patients out of pain. 

We had lunch at the hotel and rushed to take a van to Valley of Angels.  The road started out very smooth and Hayley mentioned that she was impressed that they must have paved the roads in the last two years. Well, she was wrong, cause we were woken up and tortured with the bumpiest road full of a million gazillion potholes :( Two hours later, we stopped at Cafe de Los Angeles for a bathroom break and souvenirs. We played with the really comfy hammocks and Dr. Espinoza and Dr. Rima ended up getting some to bring home. Dr. Rima said she has always wanted one so was really excited to get one. Michael and Sami reconnected with their inner boy side and were mesmerized with machetes in leather cases and using them to play swords. Boys will be boys, no matter how old they are. For example, the other day Papa Espinoza found a caterpillar in the bag of mamones (really sour fruit) and put one on the table and started playing with it and poked at it with a butter knife while saying "caminar." :) Sami ended up buying two machetes, which goes in line with his ballsy extraction skills that he learned from Dr. Espinoza. We called him Dexter shortly after. 

We did some shopping and got some goodies, like coasters, picture frames, key chains ;), and super awesome selfish one person umbrella hats :) One of my favorites was a shirt that Reemon bought that said "I survived a Honduran mission." So interesting huh?

On the way back we saw fire flies, which were so cute, as Dr. Espinoza describes them. You have to look carefully for them, because they only flash their light sporadically. Almost like don't blink status. Eugenio played music and put on I'm sexy and I know it. Mama Espinoza started rocking out to it and was super cute. Mama and Papa Espinoza are such a cute and goofy couple :) Mama also noticed the moon and told Dr. Rima she mooned her without even knowing what it meant. Like I said, goofy! :)

At dinner Dr. Espinoza surprised all of us with bead bracelets that she got at the Valley of the Angels, which was very sweet of her. We all made a pact to wear them forever and ever and never take them off :)

We ended the night with inclusive quotes that we want to remember about our wonderful Honduran mission experience:

"Rule of the game: Yoonah is mafia"

"Eugenio, why are you such a stud ?"

"Yoonah, are you sure you're not autistic?"

"Fried plantains, fried fish, fried bacon, fried chicken, fried fried fried Forest Gump"

"We're on a mission, nothing is ideal"

Leaving for Roatan tomorrow, the real vacation!!

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