Motion: the thing which allows us to leave the previous and move on to the next moment of life.
Without movement, our lungs cannot breathe, our blood cannot traverse the circuitous route of vessels to deliver oxygen to the body and our nerves cannot deliver those thoughts which define our individual self.
As humans we crave motion. We look forward to our afternoon run, feeling our legs move under us as they connect and reconnect with the ground below. We save our money and our time so that we can move ourselves from one hemisphere of the globe to the next, defining such gross movement as “travel.”
We envy those with vehicles that can produce faster, quicker and more accurate motion than our own.
Our lives are often defined in terms of motion: “a journey,” “being stuck in a rut” or “about to take the next step.”
Even our thoughts “race,” our words “stick,” and our feelings “float on cloud nine” or topple us “head over heels.”
Where does all this motion take us?
We’re told that 10,000 steps a day is encouraged to maintain good health, but what if those 10,000 steps further define the same rutted routine that we’ve been doing for years of our lives? And what if our thoughts continue to traverse the same boring path inside our mind, never taking the “road not taken?”
Is that healthy motion? Is there such a thing as healthy and unhealthy motion or is it just the lack of motion that may be unhealthy?
For me, motion has taken me out of my daily routine, my daily thought patterns, my daily language and has set me on a Central American adventure that commenced last fall when I decided to spend this semester studying abroad.
After many weeks searching for opportunities that related to the field of public health, many e-mails sent in hopes of establishing contacts and a sincere attempt to experience life in a previously-unvisited-by-me country, I have returned to Honduras to fulfill part of my requirements for the Masters’ of Public Health at ETSU.
I am working with PREDISAN, a faith-based, non-profit organization that provides health care to those in the department of Olancho, Honduras.
My role in working with them is to study the role of dietary diversity in malnutrition among school-age children enrolled in PREDISAN’s “Escuelas Saludables” Program in rural mountain communities of Honduras.
My semester began at the beginning of February when I arrived in Costa Rica for two weeks of language school to brush up on Spanish before beginning my internship in Honduras last week.
Since the beginning of February, my travels have taken me to many places in Costa Rica and a small town in Honduras. This has made me realize that for me, travel means speaking to the people, traveling like the people and eating like the people.
The past few weeks have been a wonderful combination of all three elements, kind of like “arroz con pollo,” a favorite local dish. Without the right combination of rice, chicken and other ingredients there is no “arroz con pollo.”
Without the combination of local talk, local transport and local food, traveling to a place just wouldn’t be the same.
I hope to share with you in the coming weeks about my travels, my experiences, and what it’s like to be a graduate student studying abroad.
For now, Pura Vida and Vaya Pues!

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