I got up at 4:00 this morning and was at the airport in Baton Rouge by 5:30 am for my 6:30 flight. I actually arrived early in Houston and was in Tegucigalpa, Honduras by 12:30 pm. There were about 8 other OpSmile volunteers on my flight from Houston. We got to our hotel--a very nice Clarion Hotel--and then a group of us walked a mile to the mall and ate something at 3:00 since none of us had had lunch yet. Came back and took a little nap and had our first team meeting and pizza at 7:00. It´s almost 8:30 and I will be going to bed VERY shortly.
My roommate is Michi, a pre-post op nurse from Oregon. She´s going to be great--very funny and full of life! One of the anesthesiologists, Mike from Arizona, is from New Orleans so that was cool. He actually brought an LSU shirt here as did I, so we talked Louisiana stuff. There is no one on this mission from my previous one, but there are people who know people from my previous mission. One of the nurses, this is her 13th mission!
Tegucigalpa is very much like Managua, except it is located in a valley and there are lush green mountains all around. I can´t believe it, but they actually drive worse here! Didn´t think that was possible. I just close my eyes in the bus and hope for the best. Nothing like zipping through the streets of Tegucigalpa in a bus with the horn honking every few minutes and Abba blasting on the radio. The Honduran missions are usually here, but for some reason we are going to Copan this time. I´m glad as we have repeatedly been told that it is not safe here on the streets, although in a group during daylight we had no problems.
When I checked the weather before I left it was supposed to be in the 70s all week. A cold front has moved in and we´ll be at a higher elevation tomorrow and it is supposed to be in the 40s. I mostly have scrubs, capris, sandals, and short sleeved shirts, so it should be interesting. Hopefully it won´t last long. I do have a couple of sweaters and long pants, so I may just wear the same thing every day and do lots of laundry.
My time on the next is running out, as I paid 3 bucks for 30 minutes, so I´ll sign off for now. I have no time to proofread and I am typing on a Spanish keyboard, so there are likely many typos and no time to correct. Off to shower and hit the sack. Hopefully, more tomorrow. (Right now in the lobby, there is a live band and the guy is singing Ain´t nothing but a hound-dog)
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