I almost died today. Multiple times. I’m serious.
The day started out at clinic for a few hours. Then we were supposed to go to an island off the east coast of Honduras called Santa Helena. So we left for Pandy Town first, because that’s where we had to catch a boat to the island. It was a 45 minute drive to Pandy Town. Half of it was on dirt roads with crazy potholes. I don’t get motion sick, and I got motion sick. When we stepped out of the car I was green. Thank God for Meclizine! 
We ate lunch at this amazing restaurant that overlooked the ocean. And this is where the enjoyable part of my day ended. We got back to pandy town after lunch and met out boat to the island. The boat was named “the big labawski” and yes it was spelled wrong. We got on the boat and took off at an amazingly fast speed through the choppiest water I’ve ever witnessed in my life. I was hanging on for DEAR LIFE. The other volunteer and I were so panicked that I think we just went into a state of hysteria. We started laughing uncontrollably. The laughing turned into “Oh my gosh, we’re gonna die” to “I can’t hold on anymore.” We were bouncing about 2 ft off the seat every time we hit a wave (which was quite often). I am not lying to you when I say I was truly scared for my life. My hand was cramping up holding onto the boat and I was afraid if I lost my grip I was going overboard. We rode the boat through mangrove swamps and past humongous rocks sticking out of the water. It was beautiful, but I wish I could’ve enjoyed the view.
We ate lunch at this amazing restaurant that overlooked the ocean. And this is where the enjoyable part of my day ended. We got back to pandy town after lunch and met out boat to the island. The boat was named “the big labawski” and yes it was spelled wrong. We got on the boat and took off at an amazingly fast speed through the choppiest water I’ve ever witnessed in my life. I was hanging on for DEAR LIFE. The other volunteer and I were so panicked that I think we just went into a state of hysteria. We started laughing uncontrollably. The laughing turned into “Oh my gosh, we’re gonna die” to “I can’t hold on anymore.” We were bouncing about 2 ft off the seat every time we hit a wave (which was quite often). I am not lying to you when I say I was truly scared for my life. My hand was cramping up holding onto the boat and I was afraid if I lost my grip I was going overboard. We rode the boat through mangrove swamps and past humongous rocks sticking out of the water. It was beautiful, but I wish I could’ve enjoyed the view.We finally got to Santa Helena and pulled up to the clinic there. We cleaned up the clinic and organized the supplies. We got all the expired meds out of the clinic and helped them see what they actually had there to use. The clinic was really cool, and somewhere I could definitely see myself going back to. The island was absolutely breathtaking. The water was about 7 different shades of blue. Beautiful.
Then we had to get back on the boat for the ride home. Good news and bad. Good news first: It was a much smoother ride. Bad news: it was dark. pitch black actually. And the boat did not have a light on it. So we went back through the mangrove swamps, past all the humongous rocks sticking out of the water. And….. the waves were higher than I’ve EVER seen them. We literally surfed in on a wave that I was pretty certain was going to crash on us. By the time we got back to pandy town we were so relieved. Then we got in the truck and drove the 45 minutes back to Sandy Bay. , and
As I’m writing this, my neck is sore, my butt hurts, and I’m exhausted. I do have to say that I saw some cute kids doing crazy things to keep from being bored. There are not a lot of toys here, so I saw one kid walking on pain cans with strings attached -he was using them as makeshift “stilts.” Then we saw some other cute kids playing “hop over the ditch.”
I know this does not sound nearly as scary as it actually was, but words cannot do it justice. All I can say is.. I almost died today. And I’m glad I’m alive.
Lace
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