Our Tiny Taste of Home via our Cruise Ship Visitors!

So since recovering from Rotavirus last weekend, I've had an incredibly busy week!! Monday I was off clinic and thats when I wrote the earlier post.

Tuesday was a VERY busy day at clinic we saw over 80 patients!! It was just a jam-packed day! Lots of chaos like usual, plus just a really busy day with lots of IV fluids etc and add in the decision to keep a patient overnight in the pediatric ward (first time that has happened since we have been here..) it was nuts! It was 'just one of those days'... and it just wouldn't end! We would get to a point where we thought we could see the end, and we would find another stack of charts.. lol. And we had a number of people on IVs who we were monitoring, then the pediatrician Dr Rafael decided he wanted to keep a sick baby overnight to monitor her and give her IV fluids (she had rotavirus..) and so Katelyn & I left clinic a few hours early to go home and rest because we came back to do an afternoon shift in the inpatient ward upstairs. We decided to go as a pair for the company and because it would have to be 100% in Spanish (with a non-English speaking family and Dr, if we ever needed to call him). We had a really interesting afternoon shift! When we got there, we had 3 patients: two kids and a pregnant lady on IV. We got a quick crash course in Honduran nursing paperwork (how to read the Dr orders, where to fill in vitals, where to write our nursing note.. etc) and started monitoring  our patients. Everything went super well. We were able to discharge the pregnant mom after about an hour when her fluids finished running. Then we discharged the 8yr old girl about 45 mins after that when her IV finished up too.. she has sickle cell anemia and was in sickle cell crisis and since we can't give her blood (there is no blood bank here and blood transfusions basically don't exist) we just gave her a ton of IV fluid to try to flush her bloodstream. She was pretty cute though! I had fun chatting with her and she thought my spanish was a hoot! She just kept laughing at my fumbled sentences! But at least I was making her smile! :)
Our time with the baby was also basically uneventful. She started to spike a fever, but didn't get high enough for us to administer tylenol, so that was nice. And she started to come around quite a bit.. by the time we passed off to another nurse she was up playing with the toys and babbling a bit (whereas when we arrived she was just lying in her dads lap too sick to be interested in much..) We went right from the clinic to Coxen Hole where a bunch of the volunteers went out for chinese food for Megan's birthday (she is our lab tech). So that was a blast!
Wednesday was another busy busy day at the clinic and it kinda continued on the same path of 'just one of those days..' But everyone went for a nice snorkle in the afternoon which seemed to make things better!
Thursday was our highlight this week! Katelyn and I took the day off clinic and we had 16 people from Belfast come in on a cruise ship to visit! It was a coincidence that their cruise stopped in Roatan but it was a huge blessing from God!! So we got Bob Cowan (my host dad from last yr) to help us, and we hired two vans and meet them at their dock. We took them out and toured them around and showed them our island for the day!! I just had SO MUCH FUN!!! Its the same kind of fun that its been showing Katelyn life here.. like just driving along and pointing out, this is where I buy my groceries, this is where we go to do this.. etc. Just sharing my life with people I know and love! It was SO AWESOME!!

Katelyn, JoAnne, Me & Graham at 'the View'

 I can't even describe in words how great our day was and how encouraged I felt!! I got to chat with everyone and hear about home (and its not that I'm homesick.. but its just nice to hear whats happening..) and I got some really great hugs! We gave them a little tour of the island, saw some authentic stuff and met some real people. We had a really authentic lunch in Coxen Hole, then we gave them the flying tour of the clinic and our house. We stopped for a group picture on the dock after a quick recharge of apple bananas and cold water. Then we headed back to the port because people were getting anxious about missing the boat.. and for all those who know I'm habitually late.. we had them back in plenty of time!

our group shot on the dock (I have a funny squinty face but its the better shot of everyone)

I hope they had as great a day as I did! And in addition to the awesome day, they brought me a little package of stuff that my mom sent me from home.. mostly stuff I forgot! lol. But there is a little Easter gift (its wrapped and says don't open til Easter morning on it! ) It was hilarious though because Kate and I got back to the house after seeing them off and we opened our packages from home and it was kinda like Christmas! I was so exhilarated from the whole day and still full of adrenaline and excitement.. and I said to Kate that it was more exciting to see what was in the package and I felt about opening my gifts this past Christmas!! I got some nice cards and things and it was just soooo great! So thanks family and friends who sent us stuff! We loved it!
The whole day was just what I needed!! Clinic has been tough and I was getting a bit discouraged. This is a big turnover weekend/next week. Most of the people we spent all month with will be leaving in the next few days, and it creates a bit of a lull. Our visit with the group from Belfast was a really nice burst of energy that I needed. It was encouraging and reminded me that this is what God called me to. I'm here because He wants me to be and He has great plans for this trip! And it gave me a fresh perspective of how much I truly love it here and do love what I'm doing. When I was telling them all about it and showing them things, I was grinning from ear to ear. I could hardly contain my passion! So it was nice to be reminded that I am passionate about this!
We finished our Thursday off by tutoring and going out to supper with our roommate Lexi for her last night.
Friday was another day at clinic and Lexi left so we are currently down a roommate (but Danielle, my roommate from last year is coming in today and she is going to stay with us!) Friday afternoon a bunch of us went shopping. A lot of people were interested in getting souvenirs because they are going home. We stopped by Bob & Debi's and people bought stuff from the Made in Roatan shop, then we went to Coxen Hole and shopped for hours in the market and local shops. We ended our shopping adventure in Carrion (a local clothing store) and a bunch of people left to go watch 'the game' (some important american college basketball game on TV at a local bar..) and there was just 5 girls left. We had a hoot trying on stuff and just shopping! We all bought stuff and it was such a great night! We topped it off with supper in West End and came home to collapse into bed.

This morning I'm just sitting on the porch in the relative coolness of the morning, enjoying writing this blog and reflecting on my crazy week! :) Never a dull moment here!!