Honduras 2 - Rachel 0

 I have been here less than three months and have already ended up in the clinic twice!

On both occasions I have required both pills and a jab of some sort. They generally don’t tell me what it’s for, but they seem to work so I don’t question it!

The first time was because I had Gastritis, an inflammation of the lining of the stomach, which is referred to here as Gringo Fever. We, the white people are the gringo’s and generally we all suffer Gringo Fever now and again just because of the change in diet and the dirty water.. .

The second time however, was completely down to my own clumsiness.. I was playing with some of my first Grade Students down by the school ‘canteen’ where they are currently in the process of development. In Honduras when things are being built there are often sticks of metal poking out of the ground and these are responsible for maintaining the structure of the buildings etc.. so me being me, of course I ran over one of these and did this beauty to my leg!

They have given me lots of pills, creams and gauze to protect the cut for a few days and also gave me a tetanus shot. STOP WORRYING MOTHER!

I have been in the doctors more times in the last 3 months than I have been in my entire life, but I have to say I think I prefer the Honduran clinic experience to being at home. The doctor nor nurses speak English and so I have to take a translator with me, they always ask me to speak Welsh and laugh at me. Yesterday we compared scars from previous injuries and it’s just a much more relaxed setting to the doctors at home. I already have two pages of doctors notes and I’m sure there will still be more to come.. 

I have sacrificed a limb so that the students of my school can now play in peace without fear of having a similar injury because as soon as I was sent to the clinic they put plastic casing over the metal poles.. so at least that's one good thing to come out of this!

I’m publishing this post to prove that sometimes injuries happen abroad, and some that could potentially be really really dangerous, for example scraping a valley in your leg using a rusty metal pole...but there are trained people around who deal with the issues just as well as doctors at home would!