28 days left in Honduras..

summary of my medical practicum at san felipe:

wednesday: 4 babies born!

thursday: 2 babies born + i scrubbed in to watch a c-section

friday: 2 babies born, a tubal ligation, and twins born by a c-section!

it has been a productive time, and i have learned so much! i even was able to hand instruments to the doctors or nurses while in the delivery room. today was difficult to say good-bye only after 3 days..but i know living in monte verde for 2 weeks will be a worthwhile experience!

well 28 days left and they will be used well :)

tonight we have dinner & a sleepover at kurt & joann's house. then tomorrow we leave for copan to look at the mayan ruins and go horse back riding. then we continue the road trip to guatemala to look at all they do to celebrate semana santa - holy week. krystal and i will then be dropped off at monte verde, a rural community, to live and complete our medical practicum over 2 weeks! there is a health clinic there that we will be working with, and i'll be sure to update you on that!

take care for the next 3 weeks!

scrubs!

hello again!

i wore some green surgery scrubs today! along with poofy green shoe covers, a green mask and a green hairnet. i spent 6 hours in the delivery room at san felipe, a hospital in tegucigalpa. i saw four babies born, and when i left their were 9 women still in labor!

i will admit, i teared up the first time around - it's a pretty cool miracle...God's is so good. but i loved having the opportunity to learn the techniques they use here in Honduras. to monitor the ladies in labor we checked blood pressure, heart rate, duration & frequency of contractions, and ultrasounds to measure the baby's heart rate. they also used oxytocin if necessary (to speed up contractions). i was able to stand in the delivery room and watch everything, it was so nice to learn outside of the classroom! soon i will be going to a rural community to watch more births - so it will be interesting to compare the two experiences. i'm hoping to see a c-section or twins tomorrow or friday :)

can't wait to see you all in a month!

take care.

suz

downhill

update: classes are done! it's time to see the beach & soak in the sun!

after this vacation it's time for our medical terminology class & working in hospitals. also, semana santa - holy week - will be spent in guatemala! krystal and i will then be moving to a rural community for 2 weeks to work in a health clinic and experience the rural life. should be fun!

i will be flying back (bittersweet-ly) to LA in california on May 13 with krystal to visit her family & my wonderful sister! then we will have a cross-country road-trip to GR and arrive the 19th!

take care..

y que te vaya muy bien!

No longer 19 and crazy...

“God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love”

(Ephesians 4:15 MSG)

hey everyone! Thanks for all the emails, snail-mail & care-packages! I have been blessed by your thoughtfulness and prayers.

Update on life Honduras:

Classes: M, W, F: we have a grammar & culture class

T, TH: we have an international development & literature class

[all of are in Spanish – and my favorite is our development class!]

Outside of classes..

• I love to spend time with my family here – they have been an unexpected blessing!

• Building relationships with the Calvin girls, our Honduran friends & the VerBeek family

• traveling – we have gone to many places: Santa Lucia, La Esperanza, Monte Verde, La Isla del Tigre

• visiting our favorite café on the corner of our street for a cappuccino at “Más que sabor”

• reading – freedom of simplicity by richard j foster & traveling mercies by anne lamott

• running at 'el campo' whenever it's not too hot & still light enough outside to run!

• taking photos & keeping up with everyone back at home :)

birthday story:

I'm twenty, no longer nine-teen & crazy! It was a great day. Started with a birthday card from a great friend, cake at my 8:00 class, and lots of candy (marshmallows are a new thing for me). Lunch was a challenge – we ended up walking all over Tegucigalpa searching high and low for somewhere with hamburgers (not the easiest thing to do in cowgirl boots). Finally, we ended up in a food court of a mall – trying quiz-nos & pizza hut. Mmmmm

we had a birthday party at my house with my family including yummy home-made dinner, a coffee flavored cake (they know me well), and dancing.

Today, we are celebrating even more! I just got back from pedicures & lunch at our favorite café. It was relaxing & fun to be pampered. looks like tonight we will be eating pizza & going out.

Thanks for all the care-packages, cards, videos, and photos – it made my day! If you haven't gotten a personal thank-you yet...it's probably because the mail is still arriving :)

news:

We have interim practicum at the end of this trip and it looks like I will be shadowing a doctor in Tegucigalpa for a week, and then going with Krystal to live in a rural community (Monte Verde) up in the mountains & assist in a hospital with births!

p.s y'all should check out our Calvin Sem Pond jump video on Facebook!

photos

we made it!

hola!

So i've heard from Taylor-Mary that she checks my blog every five minutes waiting for an update so this is for her:

It's hard to write what's all happened in less than a week, but the five of us from Calvin arrived safely in Honduras after running through the Houston, TX airport with petrified looks on our face & almost screaming when our plane screeched into the Tegucigalpa airport (2^nd most difficult place to land in the world) – thank you captain! (or like mi mama says: Gracias a Dios “Thank you God”)

Also, a special thanks to Maggie and Taylor-Mary for driving Krystal and I to the GR airport at 4:15AM!

I met my family after shoving all our luggage and 9 girls in one van, surviving the crazy traffic/driving here, and getting a quick tour of our university – Universidad de Pedagogica.

My parents are Luis & Betty, my little brother is Luis (o Luisito) and I have 3 sisters: Lily, Dorian, and Sharon. Lily has a daughter Elena that likes to call me Maria – the last Calvin student who lived here, I am a little jealous but i'll give her some time :) Luis loves to play Wii with me all the time, take pictures on photo-booth, or color so i'm never bored here!

food...

A shout out to Laura & Alex: I have officially tried seafood! Mi mama made sopa del mar “soup of the sea” with a whole crab, snails and shrimp – I ate it & really did like it..thought I should let you two know :)

Also, I am proud to say we have a “Starbucks” here – Espresso Americano! And the carmel latte was delicious, it is now our friday tradition after school :)

Lastly, my family has a wonderful tradition that I hope to have the rest of my life, galletas con cafe en la tarde, coffee & cookies in the afternoon!

Retiro a la Tigra – Retreat to the mountains!

This weekend after learning how to take the bus to el centro (downtown Tegucigalpa), by ourselves (thank God for Krystal's sense of direction!) we went on a retreat with Kurt & JoAnn's family – Anna & Noah. We stayed in a hotel that used to be a hospital for miners, it was lovely. We shared life stories around the fire with s'mores and went on a hike through the mountains to see a waterfall!

photos:

so I have few pictures already, but I must say that they are not a fair representation of the true Honduras. I often don't feel it is safe to pull out a camera or cell phone in the streets to take pictures, so enjoy my photos but take them with a grain of salt since they often show places I feel comfortable taking out my camera.

Thanks for all the emails & skypes. Andrea your haircut is beautiful, family I think you are great & Anne Banyai it was good to see you with Taylor-Mary! Love on the snow for me!

“Good-bye, friends. Love mixed with faith be yours from God the Father and from the Master, Jesus Christ. Pure grace and nothing but grace be with all who love our Master, Jesus Christ”. Ephesians 6:23-24 (MSG).

Susana

heading for HONDURAS! 1.11.2011

hey everyone!

i am flying to Tegucigalpa, Honduras tomorrow at 6:30AM to live with the Salinas family and learn some spanish! I can't wait to meet my two sisters, Dorian & Sharon along with my new little brother and parents! i will be traveling with four other wonderful girls - Krystal, Elia, Emily & Becca - i couldn't have asked for better people to travel across the world with.

i will keep you updated with new pictures, blogs and emails!

if you'd like my new address it is:

Susan Datema

Apdo 30676

Tegucigalpa, Honduras

Central America

God bless,

Susan