Bringing the largest team in PODEMOS history (sixteen people) as well as with the addition of the College of Pharmacy, the logistics of the winter trip were nothing short of complex. However, I can say with great confidence that the trip was a complete success. Our top goals of this trip (in addition to having a blast!) were to massively reorganize and document our inventory as well as meticulously record biometric and diagnosis data on every patient that walked through our clinic in order to tailor our future care to the needs of the villages. Both were accomplished well beyond the highest of expectations. In addition, no major problems arose (a rare occurrence in developing countries) and clinic ran so efficiently we saw an unprecedented 385 patients in three and a half days of clinic.
In addition to three and a half exhausting days of clinic in the heat and humidity (and luckily no rain), a perfectly blue sky awaited us at the beach at Tela to ring in the New Year. I felt proud to be given the opportunity to lead such a great team and look forward to only higher expectations for the upcoming Summer Trip in June when I along with several others will lead a brand new team of PODEMOS members back to El Progreso.
-Ben Reiss, 2009-2010 PODEMOS President
