Never a dull moment

School began with a special announcement for everyone going to Honduras the second month of the program (me). Last summer, a military coup ousted the populist Honduran president and put him into exile for violating the nation's constitution. Soon after that, the nation held democratic elections, and the democratically elected president conceded to allow the ousted president to return from exile without being prosecuted. Upon the ousted president's recent return, however, he began rebuilding support for himself, which is a potential source of instability in the country. We were reminded to use common sense and to not participate in or contribute in any way to any kind of political unrest, even in casual conversation with our host family. We were also reminded that the U.S. embassy and EWH's $1,000,000 evacuation insurance are ready to pull us out of the country within 24 hours of any potential danger (our itineraries are registered with the embassy). Gladys, our Spanish teacher who has been working with EWH in Central America for many years, stressed that there is very little likelihood of being personally affected by any of the political events. Last year, for instance, the students were working at their hospitals when the coup actually took place, and none of them were affected whatsoever.

After the four-hour deluge of Spanish and the medical technology lecture, our task in lab today was to build an LED flashlight. With two AAA batteries, a switch, perfboard, epoxy, solder, and an LED, my partner and I made a compact, ergonomic flashlight with 70 hours of battery life. Groups in the past have found the flashlight very useful. Tomorrow, we're building an AC to DC converter out of diodes, which can later be used (or used as a prototype) for replacing broken power units in medical machines.

 Some of the guys in the house bought a soccer ball after school, so we went out to the park (just across the street and up on a hill) to play soccer and basketball. The park is essentially a giant slab of concrete (like the banks of Lake Michigan in Chicago) with the flat part being a court and the terraced part being the stands. Suddenly, about a dozen police officers came in cars and on motorcycles, in black uniforms with glass face shields. The cops meant business, and they searched all the non-Americans in the park for cocaine (but didn't find any). The also searched throughout the park for paraphernalia.

When that ordeal was over, we played a game of soccer with a group of local guys, 6-on-6, and we held our own! (But lost). Lacking experience in intricate footwork, I played goalie and blocked everything in reach, but missed a couple goals from being out of position. Final score: 6-3. We may have a rematch sometime soon (whenever our joints recover from playing on a concrete court).