excited!

only three more weeks before i depart! i leave august 15 for asheville, nc, where i will be meeting StoS's founder, and then august 16 for cincinnati, OH to meet mo (our development director and my primary contact), art (my first ever contact who gave me the position), and receive training. and see rayray! i leave for honduras on august 19 :) all ver ver exciting!


i received a list of things to bring from mo, and have been trying to get things ready. i found out that the weather is basically the opposite of here (in phoenix): temp in the 70s to 80s, with humidity anywhere from 70-100 percent. and it has been raining a LOT so i'm supposed to bring several pairs of gym shoes so i can switch between them when they get soaked. yikes.


however! i am super super excited. i read through some of the documents for CHI (child health initiative) to try and figure out what i'm doing, and a lot of my first few weeks will be patient registration. we're trying to revamp our data collection system, so i will be taking people's names, ages, addresses, etc. and compiling them so that we're up to date on everything. at the very least, it'll be a way for me to ease into spanish training while getting to know the kids, so that'll be exciting. then brigade volunteers (med students and residents) will start flying in a month later to actually treat them.


besides that, i've just been trying to 下决心 and finish my secondaries. less exciting...


k before i sign off--a big fat thank you to connie for my AWESOME rain jacket + pants, and john lockwood for being my first pseudo-collaborator in the library project. hopefully we will have sesame street books down there soon :)


mit liebe,
yuan

preparations

i have just spent my morning ordering various insect repellants from travmed.com. i will now be furnished with clothing soaks, 50% DEET lotions and sprays, as well as a mosquito net. now all i need is new rain/hiking boots, a couple more lightweight pants/shirts, and i'm set :) also watching lots of spanish movies/reviewing my spanish course packets, so hopefully my spanish will be a little less rusty when i get there...

also! an email from my director, dr. ranz:

I would suggest staying home after arriving back in the states Nov 21 until early January for your interviews.  There is not much reason to be in Honduras from Dec 1 to Dec 31, nothing happens.   Sad, but classic for developing Christian countries.

so now i get a full month and a half in the states :)

oh, and this is where i will be:

santa lucía, intibucá, honduras. right on the border of honduras and el salvador.

suuuper excited,
yuan