At NPH Honduras, the biggest, most anticipated, most time consuming event we have all year is a little thing called Olympiadas (“Olympics”). I will do my best to explain to all of you what this entails, if you can bear in mind that my explanation will nowhere near do this occurrence justice. It begins in mid-July where every person on the entire ranch is assigned to one of 18 teams, a mixture of kids (preschool-age through college), volunteers, Tios and Tias, and all other ranch employees. Each team was assigned an animal corresponding with the theme this year, “Wild Animals,” and was responsible for having a giant flag, team T-shirts, a mural presenting their animal, a dance routine with costumes, and any other décor that they felt inclined to construct. For the first few weeks of practice, teams met every Tuesday and Thursday, and being the Honduran way, not a whole lot gets done. But as the big day draws near, the teams begin to get organized and start work on all the projects. I missed just about all the meetings up until the week before because of my vacations and week with the medical brigade, but we sure made up for it the last week. The week of Olympiadas is just madness, with practices every day from 2-4pm, which don’t actually start till 3pm and could go until 6pm or later. I was put in the group planning the dance, and was actually starting to get sore by the end of the week from dancing so much.
The actual event begins Friday, and all that day there is a feeling like Christmas or summer vacation is coming. The kids even get out of school at 10am so they can practice their dances and put all the finishing touches on their presentation components. When evening comes, all the teams gather together in their designated location around the perimeter of the auditorium, waving their giant flags, and cheering wildly for their team. Then begins the presentations and dance performances in front of about 600 people and a panel of judges. Each team had a different dance theme from salsa or meringue, to hip hop or disco. Our team’s was Rock and Roll, which was a blast and we danced to Little Richard’s “Keep-a-knocking.” We had 5 guy/girl pairs from ages 9 on up and we did a lot of twists, lifts, and swings. Our dance was pretty short compared to some but technical, and I felt like I was in the air for a lot of it. Did I mention that I got to wear a tiger-print mini-skirt and knee socks? The night was a blast to see people of so many different ages come together and put on incredible presentations.
The next day began the actual olympiadas part which is pretty much a giant field day with all types of games including a giant slip & slide, obstacle course, long-jump, NPH trivia, relay races, volleyball, hockey, and tug-of-war. It was an exhausting day, but the kids had a lot of fun. I spent the days prior setting up a first-aid station with everything I could think of from Band-Aids, ice packs, medicines, to emergency resuscitation materials (luckily we didn’t have to use those). Thankfully, the weekend auxiliary nurse and a university student offered to run the infirmary, so I was able to participate in most of the games with my team and just check in on the station every hour or so. We had a dislocated shoulder, cut open foot, and a few dehydrated kids, but nothing worse than that. We played the games until the afternoon rains came in and dumped. After much needed showers, we all re-gathered that night to hear the announcing of the winning teams. Sad to say, Team Tiger did not win, but it was a wonderful, fun, sometimes frustrating, exciting, and exhausting Olympiadas month.
Needless to say, I have truly also enjoyed the last two weeks of being in a somewhat ‘back-to-normal’ routine. The day after Olympiadas my friend Carl Pierce from PLU came for an 11 day visit to see what volunteering as a nurse in a developing country is all about. Having just finished nursing school to get his RN license, he was able to work with me in the external clinic, as well as help out with simple surgeries with our visiting surgeon, see the teaching seminar on HIV/AIDS that we put on for the children’s caregivers, and even visit the public hospital in Tegucigalpa a few times. During the weekend he was here, we took a trip with 4 other volunteers up to the largest lake in Honduras, called Lago de Yojoa. It was a quick weekend trip, but full of adventure. We stayed at an American owned micro-brewery, visited a giant waterfall called Pulapanzak. While there, we took a $5 well-spent tour to traverse over slippery rocks and forge the blinding spray and pools of water to cross behind the waterfall and climb into some caves. Later we rented row boats and went out onto the giant, picturesque lake that is bordered by green mountains and was shrouded with the clouds of the afternoon thunderstorm.
One of my proudest accomplishments in my work at the external clinic is starting up a Diabetes Club, to cater to the needs and better educate our 50-ish Diabetic patients that come to us for healthcare. This Friday was our second gathering. We have tried to schedule all these patients so that their doctor’s appointment is on the same day, once every two months, and we only attend to Diabetic patients on this day. We start the day at 6am doing vital signs and blood sugar tests. Then we provide them all with a light breakfast since they have all come from hours away and without having eaten anything so we can measure their fasting glucose levels. Then each meeting we have given talks on a variety of different topics to better educate these patients on their condition and how to live a healthier, longer life. It has been a bit of a learning experience for me because many of our patients do not read or write or do not have more than a primary school education, so you can’t just hand them an educational pamphlet and expect them to take it home and read it or understand it. I have learned it is best to try to explain things very simply, but in a practical and concrete manner. We still give handouts, usually with lots of pictures, and hoping a family member or neighbor can read it to them. Then the patients go on to receive their doctor’s consult and their medications. We try to recruit at least two doctors to be present on this day to cope with the large patient load. I am excited to have gotten this program up and going and it is something that I really hope will continue long after I am gone. I also would like to start a similar model to cater to our high blood pressure patients, and possibly other groups.
At the waterfall Pulapanzak.
Rowing away on Lago de Yojoa. With new volunteers Kate, Irene, Lydia, and Caroline, and PLU friend Carl.
