Home Again, Home Again

After many hours of travel, everyone is home safe and sound. The experience has had an impact on us all and the inspiration gained from the work done will hopefully carry through into making further change both in our own communities and afar. Each member of the group has gained a new sense of responsibility and awareness of the issues that exist to hinder development within Honduras, but also an appreciation and understanding of the beautiful people that live in the country and the potential that each one possesses when presented with the opportunities we take for granted each day.  

In the coming days we will begin posting photos on the blog for non-facebook users and hope to give you all a glimpse of the memories we have brought back with us. 

Once again, thank you for your support during our travel- your thoughts and best wishes were very much appreciated and without many of you, the trip could not have been possible. 

Adios!

The Last Day

We cannot believe it is our final night in Honduras, how time flies when you are having fun, working hard and being inspired! Yesterday we completed our final brigade in a small village where we were again able to treat close to 450 patients in the medical clinic and approximately 50 in the dental clinic. The highlight of the day was definitely near the end of the brigade when we were able to hand out supplies for colouring and drawing as well as soccer balls. The group spent the last hour playing with the children, who waved our bus goodbye with huge smiles on their faces.
Today we were able to visit a small village they call the ¨tourist capital¨ where we shopped at local markets and stores. After that we visited Flor Azul, a boy´s orphanage which also serves as agricultural school for close to 100 young hondurans. The GMB MTA boys in particular had fun playing soccer and wrestling with the kids, it was hard to pull them away. We left them with toothbrushes, clothing, some soccer balls etc. and Canadian flags and pins which they waved around for the time we were there.
After dinner this evening the GMB staff presented us with certificates of appreciation and expressed their love for our group. The entire experience has been so special. We are off now to have a final meeting and debrief of the week and will write again when we arrive in Newark for our overnight stay. Thank you for your best wishes and love!
p.s. we will be reading the fantastic poem that was left to the group in just a few minutes.

Dos dias de brigadas

Hola
We have now completed two days of brigades, both being very successful and rewarding. We have seen over 400 people each day in the medical clinic and over 50 in the dental clinic. On our public health brigades, projects which contribute to the sustainbility of our mission, we are building two latrines, a water system (pila), a stove and a concrete floor. Everyone is healthy, happy and enthusiastic-the GMB staff have mentioned several times how impressed they are with the hard work and spirit of our group. Tomorrow is our last full day of brigading and Thursday we will be visiting some of the additional projects of Sociedad Amigos de los Ninos. We hope all is well at home and will pass along the comments you have left!

We Have Arrived-Tegucigalpa

Hola fans
We are writing from GMBs headquarters in Tegucigalpa. After arriving last night and traveling to our hotel, we packed up for an early rise. The drive to the capital was four hours and from here we will travel one more hour to Nuevo Paraiso, where we will stay for the week. Tonight we will be getting our pharmacy prepared for our first brigade tomorrow morning. We are very anxious to get going and look forward to having wonderful stories to post in the coming days.

Thank you for your encouraging comments, we will post very soon.

Houston, We Have A Problem- Ha!

Hi all,
We are writing from the Sheraton hotel in Houston, Texas. An initial delay of our flight in Halifax, due to "traffic control", meant that we were unable to catch our connection in Newark, further delaying us from arriving here in Houston to fly to San Pedro Sula. Continental has been less than impressive helping us throughout the process, however, we have been lucky enough to have our hotel and food covered tonight. We will be departing to San Pedro Sula on the same flight tomorrow evening and should arrive by around 10pm Saturday at which point we will stay the evening there and set off for Nuevo Paraiso Sunday morning. This may mean we need to reduce our number of brigade days, but we are still very hopeful to make up for this and work with GMB to maximize the number of patients we can see in the time given.

The group is all safe, a little tired but spirits are still high and we are excited to finally arrive.

We will write again as soon as we arrive to Nuevo Paraiso- Wish us luck!

The Time Has Come: San Pedro Sula Bound

After a wonderful evening of organizing and packing gear, the group is ready to embark on what is sure to be a memorable journey. We will be flying from Halifax to Newark, Newark to Houston and finally Houston to San Pedro Sula, our final destination for the evening. Early Saturday morning we will make our way to Tegucigalpa, the country's capital and then to Nuevo Paraiso, our permanent site. 

We hope to have internet access sometime Saturday to tell of our safe arrival. 

Stay tuned- great things to come!