When it rains, it pours!

Literally and figuratively, when something comes to Roatan, it doesn't come lightly.  When it rains, typically it isn't just a light little rain shower for a couple hours.  Rain last at least the day if not into the next day or two.  The aftermath of a rain shower usually involves mud puddles for about a week (unless of course we get a nice warm day afterward).  When donations come to the clinic, we never just get one little shopping bag.  Many times we see donations come by the suitcase-full.  These suitcases don't come from just one volunteer, but several.  So yes, with all these donations there are typically many volunteers in the clinic at the same time.  Just like when we experience a dry spell from rain, we also experience dry spells from volunteers and donations.  Sometimes, these dry spells don't seem to come frequently enough.  Not that we don't appreciate donations and volunteers; it just means that we constantly have work awaiting us, and new people to orient to the clinic.  Keeps us busy!

Over about the past two months, we have had several volunteers in every week and with them came suitcases full of donations.  Could these people have been fleeing the cold?  I think so!  Now that we have just about reached the end of March, we have sent most of our current volunteers home and this weekend we are only getting 1 or 2 more volunteers in.  This week (and hopefully another one or two after it) should be a quite week in the clinic- our "drought".  Therefore, while we had lots of donations to sort through and many people to direct, it was important to remain thankful.  These donations could be stocking us up for the next several months as it seems the people that come down for the summer come for longer stints than the students that come for 4-6 weeks at a time. 

Outside of the clinic, we have spent a lot of time lately just hanging out.  During March, there was a group of about 10 of us; we could sit around all night and just have a great time.  Unfortunately, most of them all had to leave this weekend :(  The weather is slowly getting warmer and warmer; today the temp was in the upper 80's, warm and sunny!  In case any of you are concerned, my tan is coming along quite wonderfully ;)  Since people were going to the airport throughout the day today, we decided to just stick around the house and spend some quality time out on the dock; tomorrow will probably be similar, but we will be down on the beach in West Bay.  Whoa is me, my weekends are so rough!

Yesterday, we went out to the east end of the island where there was a thank-you BBQ for a group of Stanford students that were here on spring break.  Over the course of the week they helped establish some vacation bible schools and they repainted the ER in the hospital.  This BBQ was complete with singers and 2 groups of Garifuna dancers.  What a cultural night we had- it was spectacular!

Last week I went to a meeting about double-dutch jump roping down the road at the Sand Castle Library with some island kids.  What I thought was just going to be an information meeting was actually me deciding on a day of the week that would work to teach these kids how to double-dutch.  That's right, I am now a double-dutch coach.  I didn't know that I was qualified for that but apparently I am.  See you at practice on Wednesdays!