Honduras January 28

Jan 28

Everyone was up early and we got our bags ready.  We had breakfast of tortillas with scrambled eggs, refried beans and fruit.  We left at 6 am for the airport which was less than an hour away.  Even at that early hour on a Saturday morning there were people out, mostly walking or bicycling along the roads.  Traffic wasn’t too bad, but it reminded us that most of the other days we saw lots of trucks, school buses and small trucks loaded with people and things.  Drivers are aggressive and many times we saw near accidents.  We saw people riding bicycles with machetes, kids jumping into the back door of a moving school bus, and people driving vehicles where they couldn’t see in front of them.  It is understandable why trauma is such a big part of the disease burden in developing countries.  We all realized how bad it would be to have to be a patient in Honduras.

During the week, we did surgery on 52 patients and evaluated approximately 2400 patients!  The hospital staff members were all asking when we would return!

Airport check-in was smooth and uneventful.  We left most of our extra medical supplies at the hospital, so we didn’t have our many boxes, but we had our big containers which we did bring back to use on future trips.  Then we had to pay a tax to leave the country, US $37.80. 

Our flight left on time and we were on our way to Miami! We had a smooth time through customs and had time to get lunch before our flight to Philly.  We landed a little early in Philly, and all of our bags made it!  We were happy to be home, but it was hard to say good bye!