MissionsTeam, Day One...

We had a missions team in for a week.  They left yesterday, so I can finally get caught up on a little posting.  It was an incredible team of 17 people: doctors, nurses, carpenters and other support!  The group was from Michigan and have been coming here for quite a few years.  This was the third time that I've worked with them.  The lead doctor brings some of the resident doctors in his program.  The carpenters do whatever projects we have for them.

Last year, their trip was cut short by two days because of a major snowstorm in the upper Midwest.  This year their big adventure didn't begin until they arrived in the country.  They got here last Saturday, March 17. Arriving in San Pedro Sula and going through Immigrations and Customs was no big deal.  Lunch-to-go was from Wendy's.  Again, no big deal.

By the time our bus hit Santa Rita, some of the first-timers were a little nervous because they had to go over this bridge:

Actually, the picture looks a little better than the bridge really is.  That was the old bridge, but it got called back into service in May 2009, after the earthquake left the new bridge looking like this:

Then it was smooth sailing until the group was at the lake.  That's when all the belts in the bus broke.  Yes, all of them.

But while the bus was broken down, the group made the most of their time.  They had a roadside meeting to go over some of the meds and other things that would be available during the week.

Well, the bus got fixed, or so everyone thought.  They made it a bit further down the highway, to about Taulabe, and the same thing happened again.  Welcome to Honduras!!  After realizing that the bus wasn't going to get properly fixed on Saturday, arrangements were made for a rental bus to be sent from Comayagua to Taulabe to get the group.

The whole group and all their luggage arrived at Enlaces about 5 or 6 hours later than they were supposed to, but none the worse for wear.  A wonderful dinner of pinchos, (shish kebobs) was waiting for them.  Food really does seem to make everything better and soon there were smiles all around.

 

After dinner it was time for the first pill party of the week ~~ time to bag up the medicine and prepare things for the next day.  We were going to San Jose de Pane, so it would be an early morning.

If things go the way I'm hoping, I'll have a post each day, corresponding to a day of the team's time here.