As the end of my time at the University of Portland came near, I went through a process of trying to determine what my next step was. I had a few things in mind: I want to practice public health, I want to learn Spanish, I don't want to jump right into a job working in a hospital, and I want to learn about health in a different way than I have for the past four years. Although that seems fairly straight forward, finding the right outlet for these desires was actually pretty hard. How do I serve a population in need, learn from a different culture, be practicing as a nurse without prior experience, and not have to pay someone else to let me? I scoured the internet with searches, and came upon two organizations that I decided to apply for.
1. Global Health Corp.
2. Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos (NPH) or Friends of the Orphans
As I worked through my application for Global Health Corp I realized that I will be much more qualified at a later point in my life. The jobs were ones I could comprehend, but would be more comfortable applying myself to after much needed experience. I interviewed with NPH and have now formally accepted a position at their home in Honduras. I have also received my Bachelor's of Science in Nursing and have taken my NCLEX to become an official Registered Nurse! Alissa White, RN, BSN. It has a nice ring to it :)
A little about NPH
Their mission statement gives a pretty good summary. "Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos™ International is a Christian mission that strives to provide a permanent family and home for orphaned, abandoned and other at-risk children who live in conditions of extreme poverty. Our programs provide quality education, health care and spiritual formation with the goal of raising good Christians and productive members of their respective societies."
At the home in Honduras, there are around 550 children. I will be volunteering the next 13 months as a registered nurse in one of their clinics. The facilities have an internal clinic that serves the children and the population at the home, while an external clinic provides services to the surrounding communities. The home also has a fairly new surgery center that hosts medical teams throughout the year. The NPH home, or Rancho Santa Fe also has a place called Casa Pasionista, a hospice center for adults in the final stages of AIDS. The medical care provided spans across the lifespan and into many realms of health. For this in particular, I am very excited for my experience. You can check out more about the organization and the home in Honduras here:
http://www.nph.org/ws/homes/home.php?lang=en&honduras
Where am I at now?
As of today I am in Portland, but just for today. I recently attended an amazing conference by the Krista Foundation which I will write a post about soon. At this point in time, I have this final day to pack and spend time with friends before I depart for Honduras tomorrow morning. I will be spending my first month at Guacamaya language school in Copán, Honduras with Kurt, studying Spanish 4 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 4 weeks while staying with a host family. I am anticipating an amazing, yet challenging first month with plenty of time to explore and practice. In map form, here's the plan:
Kurt and I fly into San Pedro Sula and will stay one night there at a hostel. The next morning we will leave to Copán and be there until June 30th. On the 30th I will leave with a few other volunteers to Tegucigalpa, where we will be picked up by someone from NPH and taken to the home about 45 minutes away from the city. So there's a bit of background for everyone. I hope that helps clarify a little bit of what I am about to embark on. There is much more to explain and I'm sure there are many questions. My goal is to paint the picture of this experience, one step at a time, but I would love to hear from all of you. Please ask questions, comment, and share with me your lives as I will need those little tastes of home in the next year.
Much love,
Alissa
