DAY 6 - 8/1/10

Who knew it rained in the rainforest?!?

Today was a rainy, rainy day and yet, still a good one. Team 2 (my team) worked the clinic this morning which was actually fairly busy. In four hours, we saw 23 patients in 3 exam rooms... not too shabby. It's surreal how much we take advantage of American medicine and the accessibility of resources that we have at our fingertips... We topped off clinic hours with lunch at Gomier's restaurant, a local Rastafarian fella who believes that "health is wealth". His lunch consisted of a wholesome, healthy, tasty burrito of vegetables, whole grains, soy meat and herbs/spices that he concocted on his own. He's incorporated heathier options for food rather than the standard rice and beans that every village consumes. He explained some of the local culture, the plants and herbs that he has growing around his place and even gave us a sample of his homemade "bitters" (basically alcohol with many herbs and spices with the rumor of healing anything). He's a man I would love to sit down with a cup of coffee and just chat all day, all night. A handful of us are attempting to join him for a cooking lesson that I'm sure I will be talking about for days to come. Just after lunch, I stopped into a small Mayan store to find some of the local Mayan coffee! It was quite lovely chatting with the local Mayan women in the shop about their jewelry, their village, and their lives... and the fresh, warm (delicious) cup of coffee was a cozy treat to have on a rainy day back on the clinic grounds (I swear the countless number of Starbucks lattes did not cause any sort of addiction for me back in the states haha). The afternoon was fairly lazy for the crew due to the rain and possibly due to a night out singing karaoke last night. I'll leave the pictures and stories of karoake out of this blog but ask me about it later because it's a story worth telling!!
I took the executive role of the group and started planning our weekend excursions. I couldn't help it.. I'm not much for just sitting around and most of the gang was fairly indecisive on making a final decision. After calling Bruno, Romero, Betty and speaking with Andy, April, and Penny, this weekend's plans are ready to go!! There's a van showing up at 8am to kidnap us away to a Mayan ruin site called Lubaantuun, followed by lunch and possible cave tours at Blue Creek and a massive waterfall (Rio Blanco) that we can jump off of and relax in to top the day off. I somehow sweet talked us into getting a discount plus a free driver for the day. We're hoping to relax around Punta Gorda, kayak, meander down, and get some home cooking from Janice on Sunday. All in all, sounds like a good weekend to me!
Our gang is one of the most laidback and friendly groups that I could have asked for on this trip. We have all been getting along so well and it's refreshing to learn from the Brits and sit back at night exchanging stories of our hometowns and sharing a laugh or two. My Brit of a roommate is brilliant and I'm constantly promised an excellent time if I can make it out to London (future travel plans?)... ok, enough internet. It's spaghetti and movie night with the crew before our adventure starts early in the morning.

Sending warm wishes to the "arctic cold"...