Belizean Dreams Dangriga

Border crossing numeros dos...<br><br><br>Another early 5am start as we begin our only vaguely worked out journey across the border to Belize.<br><br>Step one hope for the best ... <br><br>wait by the road in hope that something or someone will pick us up and take us down the road from El Remate to El Cruce. Success arrived in the shape of a collectivo. Cost. 20p <br><br><br><br>Step two cadge a lift in a cement truck... <br><br>get to border town of ...

... being at a good teaching clinic in Addies (well one with a very enthusiastic doctor) and we learnt a lot, both medically and about differences between the US and England in terms of medical management. Of course the Belezian management is different again depending on what drugs they can get hold of, it seems very random as well since one man was taking very expensive and toxic anti fungals for a nail infection and yet Anwen and I could not find ...

Started with the paediatric ward round. A few patients from over the weekend were discharged pretty quickly &#8211; one had a suspected snake bite but had no symptoms and so had been kept in for observation. It was clear from observing her climbing all over her bed that she was fine and so she went home. There is still a little boy of 10months ish who has been in since our second day and has had lots of admissions recently with ...

25th<br><br>Today we went, with three of the American students, to a school in order to give out de-worming tablets and vitamin A tablets to the pupils. They get these every 6 months as part of a ministry of health initiative. However, since school ends for the summer tomorrow, the number of pupils in today had reduced from the normal 500 down to around 80!! The lady who organised it said that they'll have to come back in September!! We had to give ...

... they&#8217;d run out of the traditional garifunan stew, we tried some jonny cakes, stewed beans and fish. I had quite a large fish. Poor Sarah had a very large fish head. A man who was sat outside in his car saw us inside and, since its mango season here, welcomed us to belize with a mango each. Apparently, due to the mango season, we should be expecting lots of patients with diarrhoea and broken arms from eating mangos and falling out of the trees!!! Will keep you all posted!

SO it has been a little while since we updated everyone so I will try to do my best right now. First off I have to start by saying that Steph grossly under explained the coolness and totaly idiocy of the Valcano. Granted the climb might not have been up to her previous experiance of scrambling out west, but there were a few times, mostly with me perched above her on rickty sharp rocks, where I thought we were sooooo stupid for being there. However it was TOTALLY worth every ...

... next wave. Needless to say we had to hang on for dear life and poor Jo, who seemed to have chosen the worst seat of all, was frequently soaked by a sheet of seaspray flying off the side of the boat and slapping her in the face. Each time this would happen the captain would loudly holler in a thick Caribbean accent ´No worries man!´. Luckily (for the captain in particular) Jo was in fine spirits and so the soakings were met ...

So today was our second day in Belize and our first day in the village! We walked from our missionary base to the lagoon and most of the road was flooded with strangley coloured water. once we were in the village (which was amazing), we loaded 19 mattresses into a van and dilivered them throughout the village. It was so very humid and hot, but all the villagers were really friendly and we instantly fell in ...

... San Antonio and then turned off and drove about a mile down a trail to the drop-off point. Along the way he talked with us about the area, about gas climbing in the US, and was generally very personable like most of the guides at Crystal Paradise. The drop-off point was at a gentle bend in the river. Upstream in the Mountain Pine Ridge, the Macal drops repeatedly, forming Class IV and V rapids during the rainy season. Once it ...

... before - Eddie. You may remember that I had a feeling that he was a former convict? Well it turns out that this feeling was in fact correct, and that he has only recently finished a 10 year sentence for manslaughter. According to him he was jumped by a guy with a knife, and in the ensuing struggle his assailant received a wound to the leg with his own weapon, which later led to an infection and ultimately his death. Whether or not this story is true, I hung out with ...