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Susan Sundstrom, MS, CCC-A, chief of the
audiology department at the George E. Wahlen
Health Care System in Salt Lake City, UT, was
shocked by the poverty of Honduras, calling it "the
poorest country I have seen." |
Traveling to a foreign country means entering a culture unique from your own. Everything from the language and customs to the climate and wildlife are different. To successfully visit, particularly if you are providing services or aid, you must adapt to the new world around you.
Susan Sundstrom, MS, CCC-A, chief of the audiology department at the George E. Wahlen Health Care System in Salt Lake City, UT, did just that when she went to San Pedro Sula, Honduras, to provide audiologic training and supplies at a center for children who are deaf or hearing impaired. She found herself in an environment very different from her home in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The City
Honduras is a small country in Central America. Economically, it is not a wealthy country. In fact, the poverty was what shocked Sundstrom the most during her visit.
"It's incredibly lush all around that area, but the city itself is just filthy, filthy, filthy. And people are living in very destitute circumstances. I was in Costa Rica and Belize last year, and the Yucatan before that, but this is really the poorest country that I have seen."
Sundstrom stayed in one of the nicer areas of San Pedro Sula, but said that even there, numerous security precautions are taken. Most of the homes, she remembered, have inside courtyards surrounded by walls lined with either broken glass or barbed wire. Windows and doors are secured with multiple locks.
In the more destitute areas, there are few paved roads. The roads that are paved are filled with potholes, and garbage lines the streets.
"We met one missionary there that was telling us some scary stories about her work with the people that live on the river, and these people have essentially nada. They have no shoes, very little clothing, very little food. They probably fish out of the river, poop in the river and bathe in the river. And many of the rivers there are kind of scary looking," she said.
The Language
Spanish is the primary language of Honduras. Though Sundstrom speaks some Spanish--enough to explain to the customs officer why she was in Honduras with suitcases filled with hearing supplies--she did require an interpreter for much of her trip.
"I had been practicing [my Spanish] before I left," Sundstrom said. "But Cheryl [Humphries, the woman running the center] also had two young people--Honduran kids that are students--that helped with interpretation. Jarrado, a young man about 23 or 24, hardly left our side. he wanted to interpret for us a lot even though he didn't speak much English. And then Tana, the young woman who helps run the office, did most of the interpretation during the seminar."
Humphries helped as well, both with Spanish and sign language, and Sundstrom was able to communicate with the people she was helping without much difficulty.
Weather and Food
Sundstrom visited Honduras in February. She said temperatures were in the mid to high 80s, and aside from a few tropical storms, the weather was beautiful, with clear, blue, sunny skies
Wildlife fills the region- everything from parrots and toucans to monkeys and alligators. "We went through this one little bird park where the birds would come and land on your arm. And we went to another park. [where] the little monkeys came down and jumped on our shoulders and picked our pockets," Sundstrom said.
As would be expected in such a climate, fresh produce is abundant. "They grow everything you can think of," she said, "especially in terms of fruits: pineapples, mangoes, coconuts, breadfruits, and even some you have never heard of. And there is a lot of fish, because there, you're pretty close to the Caribbean coast."
Nevertheless, a traveler needs to be wary of what is and is not consumed, Sundstrom said. They ate primarily rice, beans and tortillas, staying away from anything that had been handled and not definitely well washed. Still, she had some stomach problems following the trip.
"I had some kind of intestinal thing when I came home," she reported. "I went and got tested. They didn't find anything. I was sure I had worms. The missionaries that live there say they get de-wormed once a month."
Even with these challenges and because of her preparations, Sundstrom was able to provide the aid she intended in Honduras and found the entire experience rewarding and enjoyable.
"The people that we met were very, very nice to us. We didn't have anyone treat us rudely or badly," she said.
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