First day in El Progresso and La Guacamaya

Spent my first day in the town of el Progresso today and started it with a bowl of Cheerios with sliced mango, which is amazing. We went to the marcado (market) and there where so many people in the streets, the unemployment rate in Honduras is around 35%. We visited a few stores and I picked up a Honduras cupo de mundo Soccer jersey for 140 lps or about 8$. After we left we headed to La Guacamaya to visit the clinic the Salud Juntos (SJ) runs. The government recently gave the clinic more infant vitamens...more as in enough to give an entire box of vitamens to each infant in the community. Meanwhile, the clinic lacks many other important medicines and vaccinations, Honduras has a serious miscommunitcation in the way that they allocate their medical resources. This clinic was also interesting because it houses the only dental clinic in a 20 mile driving radius, an entire days walk for many people here. While the clinic was closed today we met with the staffed medical assistant Angela. When we arrived she called for the police to escourt us for our protection, and three of them fully armed with automatic weapons arrived in 5 minutes. La Guacamaya has had a problem with shootings and violence in the past. As we left the police escorted us in their truck with the lights flashing to ensure that we were safe. After this, we went to Megamall, a mall that is very far in the developmental stages of the country (I ate at a Quiznos). In the grocery store their was 2 entire aisles of different vegetable oils and animal lard, two large staples in the Honduran diet, also very unhealthy and one of the prime reasons for the high level of youth and young adult hypertension in the country. We picked up groceries for our stay in Punta Ocote which is where we will be leaving for tomorrow. There I will be working with the local health promoters on a hypertension program...more details to follow. I visited the local hospital, and were given a tour by a Dr. Murcia who had a star of david around his neck, but was not jewish...very interesting and amusing. He was recently unemployed until 2 days ago and now works in a sweat shop down here. The government often does not pay its doctors on time and there are frequent strikes by goverment paid doctors. I am writing from a REAL internet cafe in el Progresso, so I must be quick look at the cool letters ¿ñç lol. Sweet Carmine is cooking us dinner tonight and we leave for Punta in the morning. Also you cant make left turns in Honduras, even though there are no road signs to tell you this...or the police will flag you down and tell you not to do it again haha. Hopwfully I can add pictures soon so Til next time! -Marc