Day 1.75- 2- Laguna

The first day got off to an interesting end. One of the participants on the trip had injured his hand about 5 days ago when he tripped and fell into a campfire. We looked at his hand after dinner and it was infected. He had redness and swelling ascending his arm. The decision was made to give him some antibiotics and evac him back to the US for further care. 

We slept under mosquito nets in a guest house in Laguna. I slept really well - although all the animals arose around 4 am. I saw chickens, roosters, pigs and dogs outside the guesthouse. The landscape was jungle like. Lots of tropical plants and trees. 

There were pit latrines and cold water showers. 

This morning a young boy came and got us for breakfast. The village has a program where families own the guest house and take turns feeding us. 

So we walked a short way down the road and enter the thatched roof hut. The floor was covered with a vinyl cloth ( think pinic table cloth) so we took off our shoes. One woman was sitting at an indoor fireplace with a flat round piece of metal over it making tortillas by hand. The  roof beams above the stove was almost charred. 

We ate tortillas, plantains, jibby japa and potato for breakfast. We were also given some corn drink - with sugar. Sorta missed my coffee - substituted some caffeinated jelly beans :)

Then we headed out to San Jose for the first clinic. The goal of the project is to work on women's health education. We are also encouraging cervical cancer screening. Due to cultural reasons this is quite challenging. There is very little prior education on these topics. 

We worked with Hillside clinic which is an established non profit in southern Belize