Interests:getting to know God, family, photography, videography, recording/performing tech, books, almost every sport just for fun (favorites: tennis, racquetbalball, soccer, ultimate frisbee, and basketball)
12:46 AM - Estes Park Apartments I was sound asleep in my bed. A vehicle clipped my brother's parked Jeep Cherokee, sending it smashing into a neighboring Mazda MX-3.
12:46:30 AM My brother came into my room, "Stephen! Stephen! Someone just hit my car!" He caught me at the end of a sleep cycle so I got up almost as if I had not been asleep. "Call the police!" I exclaimed as I put on my sandals. We walked outside to assess the damage and wait for the police.
12:53 AM My brother calls my stepdad. Thankfully, for him it's only 6:53 PM since he is working a contract in Hawaii.
1:10 AM The police arrived to take pictures and gather information. One police officer informed us that there was a car in the ditch down the road. It was probably the car that hit my brother's jeep. Most of the debris in the parking lot was from the offending car. It appeared to have taken more damage. The police officer explained that the car in the ditch had broken a tie rod.
1:25 AM The police officer wakes my neighbor up to give him a police report number for his damaged MX-3. I do some Spanish interpretation to facilitate communication between the police officer and my neighbor.
1:45 AM Previously very sleepy, now wide awake, I began to blog about the past hour.
Our last Thursday was our free day/site-seeing day. Friday is when we flew home. I wasn't totally into the idea of a site-seeing day. At first I would have rather had another day of clinic. However, after a few days of clinic I could see where the group could use a break. I could use a break.Also, we had seen so much of the poverty and devastation. It would be good to see some of the nice things about Honduras, too.One of the nurses had a distant relative who owned coffee in Honduras (her stepmother’s cousin).He took us on a tour of the factory where we saw how they roasted the coffee and packaged it.It was a neat experience.He was also very generous in giving everyone free coffee to take home.I sampled some of the coffee in his office.I never liked coffee until I had that cup.
Warning: this story might gross some of you out.All of us took a kid out to McDonald's or Pizza Hut. These kids live in houses made of metal, cardboard, and scrap wood. In one neighborhood at least one wall in each house was part of the sloping rock the house was built on. They don’t go to McDonald’s or Pizza Hut all that often.My kid had a lot of fun playing at the playground at McDonald's. Everything went pretty well until right before we got off the bus to end lunch. I asked my kid Jose what he thought about the bus ride. Then he had a bad look. His cheeks puffed up.I quickly grabbed a cup. I caught most of the throw-up, but then the cup was full. I asked the guy in front of me for a cup but he didn't have one. So I caught the rest with my hand and a happy meal box. Some also got on the seat.I guess he doesn’t like bus rides.I was glad that none of it got on our clothes.I learned that you should encourage kids to look out the window while riding the bus instead of playing with something in their laps.Also, you probably should not give them too much soda.The nursing students complimented me by noting how I didn’t freak out and said I handled it “like a nurse.”
What an incredible week I just had!I just got back from an 8 day medical missions trip to Honduras.It was an interesting trip.The team was made up of pharmacists, pharmacy students, nursing students, nurses, nurse practitioners, doctors, a journalism student and a few other volunteers.
It was a challenging experiencing. We split our group into two teams and went to different places. Sometimes we would go to places in the city but most of the time we went out to rural places outside the city.The conditions of the pharmacy and number of volunteers were actually better than it had been for past teams according to Dawn, the pharmacist. However, the tough part for me was that I was one of the Spanish interpreters for my team. We counseled each patient about the medication they were receiving and answered any questions they had. The first day I was mentally exhausted from thinking in Spanish so much. I didn't expect to be one of the main interpreters. I took Spanish 4 years ago and I'm not that good! However, my team needed me.It was an excellent opportunity to depend on God for strength.As the days went by I gained more confidence and skill in my Spanish ability.
