And We Are Off!!

Saturday March 16^th – Sunday March 17^th

The long journey to Honduras began at 5:30pm when we headed to Chicago on a bus.  Being the studious pharmacy students that we are, Alex, Jaclyn, Laura and I didn’t waste much time before we got out our notes to study for a bit!  We stopped at the World’s Largest Truck Stop.  It was huge…who knew that there were so many things that one could use to pimp out their semi!  Around midnight we arrived in Chicago and checked in.  We wandered around the airport to look for a place to get a drink to celebrate St. Patty’s Day.  Turns out nothing in the airport is open that late at night.  The plane took off about 3:00am.  I had a window seat and slept most of the flight to Guatemala.  I slept through most of the layover and didn’t even get a picture to prove I was in Guatemala.  At 10:00am we boarded the plane to Honduras.  We had to walk outside to get on the plane so I did touch ground in Guatemala!  The plane was so small.  It fit about fifty people and had propellers!  On this flight I sat next to Brian, a first year medical student from North Carolina.  From him I learned that we were flying into the most dangerous airport in the world because it has the smallest runway!  The flight was beautiful and we landed safely in Honduras!

After landing and going through customs, we met up with the Global Brigades staff and the dental students from Texas.  We loaded the trucks full of our bags and supplies and boarded the buses to head to the compound.    The bus ride was very bumpy, as we were on lots of dirt roads.  The scenery of the mountains were pretty neat!  When we arrived at the compound we had a lunch that consisted of rice, beans, and meat.  After lunch we headed up (about 100 stairs) to our room to put away our bags.  Wow! Thirty girls in one big room with two showers and sinks…this is going to be interesting. 

After unloading our stuff, the four pharmacy students followed a few guys down to the soccer field to play soccer with the boys at the boarding school nearby.  Don’t worry mom, the security guard came with us!  Running around with them was a lot of fun.  They all enjoyed it just as much as we did and they were sad to see us leave for dinner. 

Dinner consisted of chicken and potatoes.  Yum!  After dinner we enjoyed Honduran beer and looked at the stars.  What a beautiful start to the trip.  Before bed, it was a short cold shower.  Can’t to see what tomorrow brings.  Buenos noches.