It is June 17,2016 and I am on Delta flight 575 from Atlanta to San Pedro Sula, Honduras. I am traveling with another Alabama Honduras Medical Education Network (AHMEN) team. For this trip we are focused on education for up to 50 Community Agents from the LaMoskitia region of eastern Honduras. We will conduct a three day seminar for the agents on topics such as water quality, first aid, long range planning and more. The hope is that the agents will share the information with residents in their home villages. We will also present water filter demonstrations and distribution using the Sawyer filter system.
We will travel by truck and canoe to the remote village of Raista, one of the villages we conducted medical clinics in during the April 2016 trip. Along the way we will add additional members to our team of 12.
It has been a very quick six weeks since I left Honduras and it's quite exciting to be back so soon. In these past six weeks I've been very busy with attention to projects at home and school.
I am in the next to last semester of my master's program in public health. One of the courses this summer is Environmental Microbiology with an emphasis on water quality, purification and testing. Quite a coincidence huh?!
I honestly never expected to find the wealth of public health aspects to a trip to Honduras, but God has opened a door for me here. I was invited to participate in this trip and initially balked due to the costs involved. However, I soon realized that if God was opening a door for me, why should I be concerned about the cost? He will make a way.
I am in team leader training on this trip as I envision a time when I will lead a team to Honduras; perhaps comprised of students from the Fort Valley State University Master's in Public Health program. This is an amazing opportunity for public health professionals and students to experience unique challenges.
As part of my program, I am accomplishing a field experience project which will examine the origins of AHMEN, the current efforts underway and the in's and out's of participating in an outreach like this. I hope it will serve as a roadmap for others to have these amazing experiences I am blessed to be enjoying.
We will land shortly and then conduct business at the airport of money exchange, phone service and vehicle rental before setting out for Las Hamacas in La Ceiba for the night.
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