Honduras!!

Over Christmas break I had the chance to go to Honduras with Ben and USC dental students to do humanitarian work. What a wonderful experience!! After waiting in line for two and half hours at LAX we got all 30 bags checked, all 14 people though security and on our flight. I was on the flight with all of Ben's friends and he was on a different flight because my dad procrastinated. My flight ended up sitting on the run way for 2 hours! We missed our connection flight to Honduras and had to stay the night in El Salvador while Ben made the flight and spent the night in Honduras. After a long 24 hours me and Ben were finally reunite. Even though we got off to a rough start the trip was AMAZING!! We stayed at an Orphanage in a town called Nuevo Paraiso and each day we bused out to a different little village to do dental work. We went to 3 different villages and helped hundreds people. I actually got to pull a couple of teeth which was very cool!! I love the whole thing and it really made me grateful for all the little things especially HOT water!!! I often tend to forget how truly blessed I am and this experience has really given me a better outlook on life!! I am so grateful Ben let me come with him!! It was by far my favorite trip ever and I can't wait to go again next year!!! 

With Love,

Vanessa 

Here are some pictures of the trip!! There are actually a lot of pictures because I had a hard time deciding which ones to pick. Enjoy!!

Me and Ben getting ready to leave for the airport!

After our little delay me and Ben were finally reunited!

Tegucigalpa the city that we flew into and where Ben spent the night by himself. 

Our home for the week. This was up the road from the Orphanage

Me in the girls room. I actually had to sleep in the boys room the first night because there were a million little creepy crawler bugs in my bed and I refused to sleep with them. But we fixed that and all was good.

Ben in the boys room!

Our breath taking view! Everything was so beautiful!!

Me and Ben

Just a picture from the bus

Ben and his friend Nate. 

When we got to the village, Santa Maria, all these people were already waiting to see the dentist and the doctors. It was crazy we saw hundreds of people that day.

I was attacked by the kids for bracelets!! They were pushing and grabbing and yelling at and I couldn't stop them. I tired to tell them to wait in my horrible Spanish but as you can see I was unsuccessful! And to top it all off it started raining! haha

Ben was inside and came out when he heard all the commotion! He saw me being swarmed and just  started laughing and taking pictures instead of trying to help me.

These are the little girls that sold me out to all the other kids. I gave them bracelets to them first because they were being cute and nice to me but I should have known they were only using me! :)

Ben with his assistant and first patient of the trip! Everyone getting restoration work done had to lay in these orange lawn chairs.

Me and all the little kiddies! I don't stand out! 

Me and one of the little patients. All of the kids we so cute!

Ben striking a pose! There was garbage everywhere!

Ben and Pedro. He was one of the brigade workers. He was so funny!

Me pulling my second tooth with the help of Ben. It was very fun!

Doesn't this poor boy look terrified!?!

Ben and all the little kiddies!

Me and Luis! He just kept running around and yelling his name! He was such a cutie!

All the kids with their new toothbrushes, they were so excited!

Me and my favorite little boy! We had just given all of our toys away and were heading towards the bus when I saw this  boy leaning up against a pole watching me. He was filthy! His pants were torn, he didn't have any shoes and he didn't have a single toy. We didn't have any toys left to give him and my heart broke. I wanted to take him home with me but Ben told me I couldn't so I searched through my backpack for something to give him and i found this hat, it was all I had and there was no way I was going to  just walk away! He was so happy and it made me happy too! So now there is a little Harries running around Honduras!

The Dental Gang!

Dentist Ben hard at work. For extractions the patients had to sit in chairs and hold their heads back and we used flashlights to see in their mouths! I became a pro at holding a flashlight!

Me and Ben

The morning of our travel day home! Don't we look wide awake!

Ben brushing his teeth. We had to use bottled water for everything because the water isn't clean and we also couldn't flush toliet paper it had to go in the trash! It was gross! We clogged our toliet a few times!! :)

Driving into town we had to stop and take a picture because it was just so beautiful!

Ben eating the ONLY good meal of the trip! I had lived off of breakfast bars, granola bars and rice krispy treats so it was nice to eat real food! The resturant was also very clean and we could flush the tolier paper!! YAY!

The flight home. We were sad to leave but at the same time happy to see our family and get to take a HOT shower, yes the water was ICE cold! It was the worst thing i've ever had to do but it definately worth it! 

Thanks again Ben and Dad for letting me go!!! I loved every second of it!!!