Monday, March 18^th

Breakfast today consisted of rice and beans and a cheese quesadilla.  Not your typical American breakfast, but it was delicious.

We spent most of the day packing medications in to one month supply packages and labeling them.  I counted vitamins into bags of thirty and then labeled them.  It was different than the typical product dispensing at Hy-Vee because we didn’t have trays...well we had one that we rotated among the pharmacy students!  We used a piece of paper and a knife and then poured the tablets into a little plastic bag rather than a vial.  It was entertaining to watch the med students count medications.  Some of them were using their hands and others were counting by ones rather than fives.  By the end of the morning they got the hang of it and were pros!

It was entertaining to get to know everyone when we were counting the medications.  I enjoyed hearing the med students talk about their classes.  They only have to take a semester of pharmacology, and don’t have a lot of knowledge on medications until they use them in real life.  I suppose pharmacists really are “drug experts”. 

We met the Honduran pharmacist that was going to be assisting us on the Brigade.  She was wearing a Green Bay Packer t-shirt because her friends from Chicago are Packer fans.  I know we will get along just fine!  I’m a little sad I didn’t get a picture with her while she was wearing her Packer t-shirt today.

For lunch we had rice and meatballs and tortillas.  Following lunch, we went to an orphanage to play with the children.  I wish I knew more Spanish so I could communicate with the children better, but we had fun laughing and running around together.  The children showed us their houses, made us push them on the swings, and played other games such as jump rope and soccer.  One little girl game up to me and asked me for “chickle” or gum.  I was glad I had some to share with her.  Once the children found out I had gum they were all asking me for chickle!   All of the kids loved when we took their picture or took a video of them and then they liked looking at the picture or video of themselves! 

On the way home from the orphanage, we stopped at a little shop and get some plantain (banana) chips.  Although I don’t really like bananas, the chips were actually pretty good!

After a dinner of pasta and chicken, we had a meeting to discuss the clinic we would be going to tomorrow.  I am very excited to serve the community with medical and pharmaceutical care the next few days.  The cold shower felt great tonight after running around with all of the kids this afternoon.  Off to bed because I am exhausted!  Adios!