Farewell Honduras!

My faithful blog followers,
I write this blog sitting in the Atlanta airport writing most likely one of my last as I have finished up my two years in Siguatepeque. I have neglected the site for a long time now, SORRY! Selling my things, saying goodbye, and finishing up my work kept me quite busy.
For those of you who’ve lived abroad, you probably know exactly how I am feeling right now. Parece mentiras. It just doesn’t feel quite real that I have finished my time in Honduras and am now about ready to restart my life back in the U.S. This past week was one of a lot of fun, and a lot of mixed feelings too. I finished up work Thursday a week ago to give me a little bit of time to close things up without the stress of work. My last shift was pretty typical. I ordered a cake to say goodbye and thanks, and then that evening my fellow nurses had a little farewell party for me which included games, singing, and an open sharing time. It’s so strange how you don’t know how much people like you until you leave!

Farewell with my nursing compañeras:


The next week was spent selling my things: refrigerator, oven,
microwave, table, and furniture. It is truly incredible how much one accumulates in 2 years! And what is even more incredible is that my Honduran community came to me and asked what I was selling. So it was not hard at all to sell everything, which took a big stress off my shoulders.
The farewells started out almost joyful, but the closer and closer I got to today, the harder and sadder they got! On Thursday my church family had a farewell get-together for me. Also involved games, singing, and open sharing time. This time they focused it on Bible verses they had to share for me. It was a special time. People showed up I never guessed would have.

Wendy, Roxanna, Me, Lety at my farewell from church:


Playing games at the church farewell:



Also had a nice little lunch with some of the female single doctors at the hospital who turned out to be really great friends and company in my time at the hospital.



Then of course it was farewell with my closer friends outside of church and my work at the hospital. As my friends left back to the Tegus to where they are studying, it started to feel real.

Farewell with some of my closest friends:





Saturday I spent running around doing last minute things. That evening I was invited to a small little town called Balin which is near Lake of Yojoa, which is about 1 hour from where I live. This was really quite an honor because the aunt of a close friend/coworker lives there and back in December I had donated blood to her because she has advanced cancer. So she wanted to invite us over for dinner before leaving. Culturally, my friend explained to me that folks from the rural areas tend to make a lot of food when they plan on having company like this, and I guess I was the guest of honor in some sense? So they had chicken soup, tamales, tacos, squash with honey, pork, coffee, soda. SO much food and what I feast. In Spanish there’s a phrase “nos quedamos triste por comer tanto.” I was “sad” from eating too much. And if you think about it, when you eat too much, notice your face, it might look sad from being so full!

Dinner in Balin:



So Sunday was my last day at church. And then afterwards off to eat fried fish with my “Honduran mother.” After that, off to do laundry and finish packing! It’s kind of tricky packing the last 2 years of your life in 2 suitcases, especially with all of the beautiful purses/souvenirs/gifts people gave me. This morning my best friend/coworker brought me to the airport in San Pedro Sula, and up till now it’s been tears, sleeping, getting through security, and being crazy weirded out by hearing English. It has been seeing all sorts of different faces, fancy duty free shops, drinking fountains, clean bathrooms, the smell of delicious toasted and horribly expensive sandwiches. But most glorious of all: throwing my toilet paper in the toilet instead of in the trashcan beside the toilet, which is what one must do in most of Central America due to the plumbing system. Yes my friends, I have arrived, and my feet are now back on American soil. I am so looking forward to seeing my momma and sister’s faces when I land.

Trip to the airport: My best friend Paty and her brother Ismael with his wife Yenni and their daughter Genesis. Really great folks!




So the next several weeks and months will consist of a lot of readjusting. Readjusting my body to American food again, readjusting to interacting with my own blood and my own “people.” Readjusting to having to be on time again, and not the “hora hondureña.” Readjusting to the rules and logic of the road. (If you catch me tail-gaiting, try to understand the craziness of the driving where I’ve been living, haha!) Readjusting to the hype of fast-paced life, and looking for work. Readjusting to the American health-care system. But most of all, I’m really going to miss my friends I made in Honduras. Right now that is the biggest thing on my mind. Fortunately for me, Virginia Mennonite Missions puts a heavy emphasis on making relationships and ministering in that way and I would say that is the one thing I know I did well at Hospital Evangélico and in Honduras.
In the past weeks I’ve been trying to evaluate things that weren’t so great. In past blogs I’ve spoken of the differences in culture, differences in work habits, and expectations. There were times where I felt like I was drowning in the differences and frustrations. To be perfectly honest, when I get to feeling quite sad about leaving Honduras, and the beast of an adjustment I am about to face, I just remember those hard times, and I remember that it probably is the right time to come home. I was able to say I finished my contract. I kept my word, and I stuck to it though I really wanted to quit on many an occasion. I’m glad I did. I think I reaped much more growth and maturity, and also respect from my friends/community in Honduras.

My fellow professional nurses who gave me a hammock for my farewell and a nice lunch, and of course best wishes.


As I took off in the plane today, my mind couldn’t quite get around the fact that I was leaving all of it behind: all of those crazy experiences, all of those painful experiences, but also all of the special people in my life to return to what should seem normal, but strangely seems like a “foreign country.” Now that isn’t fair is it?! To just adjust to living abroad only to return back to another place that now seems so strange. I have to say, the security control at the airport has even updated in just 2 years! It’s cool though, living without all of the modern commodities has made me 1. Incredibly amazed at the advancing modern society of the U.S., and 2. Much much more grateful to have access to them again. Recently I heard a statement “God is more concerned about your character than your comfort.” And as they say, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. And if you think about it, the good and fun times don’t do much for you. They might keep your morale up, but as far as character-forming, they really just serve you for the moment. So why must we suffer? I suppose for that reason: we must grow as human beings, and as Christians, we must grow in our faith, and many times that involves pain and suffering.
So I hope and pray that God will use these 2 years in my life to continue to grow, and to be able to do some good in the world, in my own country. Maybe my newfound knowledge of the 3rd world, maybe my interactions with Latinos, maybe my new perspective will be useful in some sort of future ministry. For sure I am not the same Malerie Rose Plank who left for the unknown 2 years ago. The Bible says that all things work together for the good of those who love God. I will end on that thought.
I appreciate your support and prayers these last couple of years. Your faithful financial support kept me from stressing that aspect. Your faithful prayers sustained me along with your letters and emails. I can’t thank you enough. My correspondence was not exactly 100% but thank you for understanding. It’s much easier to process it afterwards after the fire, and not so much while you are in the heat of it. So, I’ll try to write another post or two on the readjustment process! Phew, I think this blog has more photos than all of my others combined. That's what happens when you finally get a really fast internet connection! Blessings, and I hope to see you sooooon!!! Hugs!

Bible Study farewell with my gringo church community:

Medical Brigade

Greetings Everyone.

This past week I had the pleasure of joining a group of doctors, nurses, dentists, and other personal from Kurtz Humanitarian Initiative for Southwestern Honduras (KHISH) to help with a medical brigade. Never heard of a medical brigade before? This term usually refers to a group of medical professionals that go to an area with little healthcare access and provide the bare necessities to the people who live there. Sometimes they have a focus like general surgery, eyes, teeth, etc. It all depends on the focus of the professionals. Here's a pic of the team.




I joined them for the second week of their mission this year. The first week was ophthamologists doing cataract surgeries. I believe there were around 95 done! That is part of Vision Project Honduras. The second week (where I joined them) was spent going to two villages (the same ones they go to every year, for 8 years) and giving general consults.



My job as a nurse was spent taking blood pressures and temperatures. I also was used in helping with translating between the doctors and the patients. I'm not sure what the final count of patients seen was. I know it was a LOT! I found that most people come through as actually somewhat healthy, usually complaining of "cold and cough" or "stomach ache, headache, fever, knee/back pain, lack of appetite, dizziness, etc." Basic stuff. And we realized most of them were not actually experiencing it in the moment, but were looking for meds for when they were. Which I suppose is fair, when there is like nothing out there for when you do get sick, or if you don't have the money for it. It's kind of tricky for a bunch of gringos though, who in the U.S. are some of the best in their specialties, to come to Honduras and work with the least educated, materially-poor in the country. I'm just talking about the difference in their environment and the patients/culture they work with. We gave out a lot of Ibuprofen, cough medicine, de-parasiting meds, vitamins for all the children, etc. It often feels like a big old band-aid placed on top of a huge wound. But in many senses, a bandaid is better than an oozing wound without an treatment at all. Plus many are helped beyond that. KHISH has a relationship with an amazing Honduran doctor, Dr. Moreno, who quarterly comes into these same villages and monitors/follows up those with diabetes and high blood pressure. Others are monitored for epilepsy, congenital heart problems, etc. Dr. Moreno has no financial interest in this, I don't believe, which really speaks to the kind of person he is. I was blessed to get to work with him and really, all of the volunteers, including the bilingual Honduran translators from the capital city Tegucigalpa.



Probably the most impacting thing for me was my involvement is the case of a little boy named Jose David, 11 years old. He was walking around in the clinic with his mom and little sister there too. He was trying to sell green mangoes. He had his elbow and leg wrapped with some dirty gauze. When we tried to get him to sit down so we could look at his wounds, he ran off and pouted. Finally he let us look at his leg wound. We cleaned it, and realized it was obviously infected. I, knowing what I know about the cleanliness in the hills of Honduras, was sure that the elbow had to be worse. Supposedly he had had surgery beforehand and they had put a pin in his elbow, as it had been broken. It had not been immobilized. The mother had been changing/cleaning the wound daily. But how is a young single mother from the country going to really know how to assess a wound and know what to do when it starts oozing pus? Dr. Barbara decided he needed antibiotics, and some gauzes, etc to send home. At that time his mother had already gone home. So I got to go to his house to give the antibiotics to his mother. I had made a goal with that visit that I would get Jose to show me his elbow. I was afraid it was going to be a disaster. In the end, he calmed down, stopped running away and let me look at it. Turns out he was just embarrassed! He wasn't afraid of the pain, he was embarrassed of his ugly elbow! So when I unwrapped his elbow, the pin was sticking out of his elbow, he had some tissue growth in a little ball around it, and a nice little pus leaving the wound. I cleaned it, and told his mom that if it was at all possile, she needed to get the boy to the hospital. I had no idea if she had the money to even pay the busfare there or not. I asked our leaders if we could just take him with us that night to the hotel, as we were going to make the trip to the hospital the next day anyways. But then you face the problem of "do it for one, you have to do it for all, where do you start?" So in the end, I really hope that the momma could get Jose to the hospital to get it debrided, etc. I'm not sure what truth I take out of that. That poor people are just 'out of luck,' that Jose was lucky for my help (yeah, not really, I wasn't able to do anything), or that maybe his mom felt good for having the attention of people who really cared for her and the health of her little boy. Who knows??? Whatever it is, WHAT an experience for me. It surprised me, yet at the same time, after 2 years, not too much really surprises me anymore.

That week was significant for me in other ways as well. For the first time in a long long time here, I felt valued for my abilities. I felt appreciated for my knowledge of what I know about Honduras, for my Spanish speaking abilities. I felt valued for who I am as a person. I felt loved and accepted into the group. It could be that I was just happy to be immersed in people who understand me again, since they are from my culture. I felt cared for, I did not feel taken advantage of or exploited. I enjoyed the company of the gringos and the Hondurans. Phew. Talk about serious relief. Too bad I didn't have this week a couple of months earlier. But I know that God's timing is perfect, and it was at this time for a reason. And I am thankful.



Others news: I am heading home in less than 2 months. How's that for crazy?! So obviously, I am going to ask for your prayers in wisdom for me to know what to do with myself when I get home. For cultural re-integration, for wisdom in knowing where to look for a job, and which direction to take with my life. It's such a blessing to have options! I look at the people I just was with in the villages, and I realize they have no options or opportunities. So as it is said, "to whom much is given, much is expected."

Also, as I close up here, pray that I will make good decisions. That I will be able to sell all of my furniture, fridge, oven, etc.

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed this post, and that this reflection was not only beneficial to me as I process the last week. Blessings to you, I always welcome your comments!!! :)
Hugs, Malerie