Wow, has it really been four days?! It doesn’t really feel like it. Perhaps that is because we received confirmation that we would be able to lecture today! Now it seems like we have so much to do in so little time! Good news! We woke up for breakfast and were ready to roll out to the Olympic Committee office across the complex. We arrived at 9am and we were excited! As we were just about ready to start off our day of teaching, I ran to the restroom. On my way back, I started talking to Lissette who told me that they had closed the borders of Honduras, and the President is planning to come back to Honduras on Thursday. With that, Jim said we would probably be leaving Honduras tomorrow, 2 days early. Honestly, I almost teared up. We were finally getting rolling on our lecture and now we have to leave early. With that news, I went inside to watch Matt lecture.
Matt spoke on neurophysiology and he did GREAT!! After he finished, Jim headed to the airport with Lisette to try to get us a flight home tomorrow. He was gone for the majority of the afternoon. We got a couple reports from him, all of them indicating getting home wouldn’t be simple. So, we waited. Juan presented next with the help of Hannah on body composition, and they did a great job too. We taught them how to use skin calipers and they seemed to enjoy that. Then we had a lunch break and moved back over to the hotel building. We spoke with Jim again and he said we should pack up just in case we have to leave tonight. We ate lunch and got ready for the next presentation…mine!
I presented on PNF – proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation. This is a rehabilitation technique. At the beginning, they weren’t very engaged as I was just teaching them the principles and concepts. But, as soon as I got up and started showing them the techniques on Hannah, my lovely model, they all became more engaged and started asking questions. The funniest thing was, as soon as I told them I was going to show them hamstring stretches that would be good for athletes like SOCCER PLAYERS, their ears perked up and they started really listening. They like soccer here. I had a couple people ask me to email them my ppt which was encouraging, and even had some people ask questions! My powerpoint was translated into Spanish which helped Joaquin, our translator, out quite a bit.
After I presented, Jules presented on kinesiotape, and they absolutely LOVED that! He also threw in some massage techniques, which they loved even more. Then Hannah presented on warm up and recovery which included some demonstrations. All in all I feel like we had a great day of teaching. At the end, they had a “closing ceremony,” which included Matt giving his testimony, Joaquin giving some closing words about Christ which included an opportunity for attendees to accept Christ into their heart as their Lord and Savior. I heard at least one voice repeating the prayer, maybe two, which was so encouraging, and made the entire trip worthwhile. I couldn’t understand what Joaquin was saying, but I could feel his energy and am not surprised that some attendees made a decision for Christ today. Then, Eneyda spoke and concluded with a prayer for the country of Honduras. We were presented with certificates of appreciation and the day (and program) officially ended.
Many attendees came up and thanked us with a hug and kiss on the cheek. I feel like we really did something significant today. Even if our 5 days of teaching got cut down to one full day, we made an impact on the medical professionals who attended. It felt great to serve them by sharing with them new knowledge and concepts, and it was so fun to watch the light bulbs turn on as they learned. I teach every day and I rarely see the excitement in my students’ faces that I saw today. And, I feel like we let Christ's light shine on them as we are called to do.
What comes next, you might ask? Well, we are headed out of Tegucigalpa tomorrow morning and taking a 4-5 hour drive to San Pedro Sula. This is the 2nd largest town in Honduras, and apparently the place the team flew into last year. We will stay in a hotel on Wednesday night and then jump on a 7am flight to Houston on Thursday and be back in the USA. This is, of course, if all goes as planned. So far, nothing has, so we’re ready for it! As Jim keeps saying, the theme of this trip is to “flex and obey.”
I will hopefully blog more tonight after I’ve had time to digest all that happened today. I am so grateful for the opportunity I had today to share my passion, and feel that I might be just as fulfilled as I would’ve been had I lectured 5 days in a row.
We are safe, tired, and ready for some dinner! Talk to you soon!