Roatan - Day 18

Saw a TON of patients this morning, but my most interesting case was a young man with Dengue Fever, a mosquito borne illness.  Both Dengue Fever and Malaria are transmitted via mosquito and both are prevalent on the island.  It’s important to differentiate them because the possibility of death with Dengue is greater.  Tropical medicine has been interesting to learn.  That, along with what to do about a Lionfish sting.

J and I changed into our swimsuits at the clinic, stopped for a brief baleada at the bottom of the hill (where I also gave J a short Spanish grammar lesson), and headed to our favorite dock in West End to catch some sun.  We didn’t get much since it was almost 3 pm by the time we got there, but enough to keep us content.  Until our next beach day anyway. 

So our new volunteer coordinator at the clinic used to play professional volleyball in Europe for almost 10 years (we’ll call him M).  He said I should come play some beach volleyball this afternoon, with some of the islanders.  He also invited ER #1 and #2 as well.  So after a couple hours on the dock, we set out to find said volleyball beach court.  After conveniently blocking the narrow path of some tourists riding horses trying to get to the beach, we finally spotted it.  We had to backtrack a bit to actually find a way for J to get to it.  Turns out there was NOBODY there!  Also, turns out as I was walking back to J, a slobbery dog decided he wanted to bite my hand (no warning mind you.  A bark would have been nice)!  J and I have this joke about dogs here.  She feels sorry for the whole lot of them and constantly wants to pet them all.  I, on the other hand, realize full well that most of them have fleas, a handful have rabies, and one or two could end up as your meat taco you plan on eating that night.  I just don’t do dogs in third world countries.  I have been taught to stay away, mostly because of rabies.  Well, J was smart and got her rabies vaccine.  So…. I was freaking out that the dog bit me and couldn’t believe J didn’t even warn me it was coming up behind me!  At least he didn’t break the skin.  I’m safe… for now.  Also, so you don’t think I’m a dog hater, I LOVE dogs (big ones only and in the States only) and miss my dear pup, Hershey, terribly.  Wow, that was a long paragraph to simply say, there was no volleyball to be played tonight.

So dinner it was.  On the way back into town, we ran into ER #1 and #2 who were also coming to play volleyball.  We waited around for a few for M to show his face, which we never saw.  So we ventured down the main drag to find some din din. 

Speaking of Lionfish (I mentioned it earlier, ha), we decided to try LionFish Louie’s and actually ate lionfish for dinner, along with “fried potatoes” (aka french fries) and fried plantains.  If you don’t know what a lionfish is, Google it.  They look incredible – brown with white stripes and all kinds of fins extending from it, which are actually barbs and which actually are poisonous.  But the meat of those suckers is delicious!  What better way to spend the evening than eating fresh fried fish while reclining on the beach and watching the sunset?  We sat around on the beach for another hour or two chatting with ER #1 and #2, their friends from the hostel, and M who finally decided to show his face.  Our longest day yet away from Ed’s apartment…

I could do a repeat of tonight every night while we are here (minus the dog bite).