When I announced that I was moving to Honduras to volunteer as a PT at an orphanage, there were numerous people who said that they had always wanted to do something similar, but didn’t want to commit to a year of service. With this in mind, I sent a mass e-mail to all of my therapist friends inviting everyone to visit me on the ranch to help me out with my work with the kids for 1-2 weeks. Surprisingly, Molly, a co-worker (and friend) from La Rabida jumped at the chance to visit and help out. She also graciously agreed to bring a walker that I had requested as a donation from Mike, an equipment rep in Chicago.
Molly arrived on a Wednesday and because she was bringing a much needed (and very large) donation, I was able to arrange for transportation and my boss, Kate, met her at the airport. Although she arrived in the late morning, Molly didn’t arrive on the Ranch until the evening because Kate kidnapped her for the afternoon and dragged her all over Tegus. (Actually, the transport guy, Manuel, had to run a bunch of errands in the city and they took the opportunity to visit the mall, which means Molly’s first exposure to Tegus was ironically the most/only Americanized part.) When she did finally arrive, it was just in time to join me for the evening in hogar with my girls. Of course all of the girls loved having her there all week and we spent most of the time just talking with them. Molly shocked me with her Spanish and willingness to try to speak to all of the girls. It also boosted my confidence in my Spanish skills as I was able to translate for her.
One big project that I had scheduled for Molly and I during her visit was making bi-valved casts for two of the girls here with cerebral palsy (or what appears to be CP). We spent all morning Friday making these casts and I am so thankful that she was here because I couldn’t have done it without her.
After casting, we headed off to spend the weekend at a bed and breakfast type place near the National Park, La Tigra. It is a cabin owned by a German couple who moved to Honduras 11 years ago. The cabin is immaculately clean and incredibly comfortable. As soon as we arrived, we took off for a hike through the park to a very popular waterfall. The hike started off going straight uphill and Molly and I huffed and puffed our way up behind our 60 year old guide as he huffed and puffed his way through the first of many cigarettes. The hike took a total of 3 hours and by then end, our guide had finished about 10 cigarettes, married us off to several random Honduran men and Molly and I felt we had fulfilled our desire to be out-doorsy and active for the weekend. When we returned to the cabin we relaxed and enjoyed the amazing view. The most amazing part about this particular place is the food, which is vegetarian and not typical Honduran dishes. Also, the owners have put a lot of effort into making their dining room homey and the view from the many windows is beautiful. We ate dinner with the couple (an older German woman and young Honduran man) who was staying in the only other room at the cabin. It was a fairly awkward dinner since Molly spoke English, I spoke English and rough Spanish, the German woman understood all of the three languages, but spoke Spanish and the Honduran spoke only Spanish. Also, I am pretty sure we had nothing in common with them even without the language barriers. However, we were all enjoying the food and wine and the conversation revolved around that. Molly and I retired a bit early to avoid the uncomfortable silences that followed dinner. The next morning, we stuffed ourselves with an amazing breakfast (outside on the porch overlooking the valley below) of homemade bread, lemonade, coffee and jam. Then we set out on what turned out to be another long hike down the mountain to the bus stop. I think Molly surprised herself with her cardiovascular endurance and perseverance.
Throughout her trip, Molly also got a good taste of the Honduran “work” ethic and prioritizing. During her first week, one entire day was spent preparing and celebrating the “Day of the Worker”, which is of course an occasion that requires the cancellation of school and a party for all of those who work in the school. Work was halted during the second week for a big celebration for Mother’s Day, which again required cancelling classes and another party. This was nice, but I was a little disappointed that Molly was unable to work with some of the kids I had scheduled for those days. However, it was an accurate representation of what work is like here on the ranch. All in all, it was great to have Molly here and she helped tremendously with all of the kids’ therapy.
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