Thank you so much to Eric for being more than a tourist on a recent cruise where he took supplies to Honduras! [NJT Toronto]
“We had a great trip, including delivering the medical supplies to the Clinic. I attached a picture of my daughter (Loren Cohen) with one of the staff at Clinica Esperanza in Roatan, Honduras.
The guide who took us there couldn’t stop telling us how much the local people appreciate the clinic and the nurse who started it (Peggy Stranges, but apparently everyone calls her Miss Peggy). Ms. Stranges wasn’t there when we arrived. Our guide explained how the hospital facilities are not very good on the island, especially for the local people who don’t have a lot of money and how they are treated so well at the Clinic (they apparently do have better facilities for tourist and foreigners).
The clinic looked well maintained and they had a nice playground for the children. There were a number of people in the waiting room and in treatment rooms.
We had a small issue leaving the ship. I didn’t realize I had to speak to the people on the cruise ship before I left with a suitcase. So when we were going ashore, they stopped me and said I couldn’t take a suitcase. I explained what it was, and they told me I had to see the Honduran customs officer on the ship. Once I finally located them, I showed them the letter from NJT and the letter from the Clinic, as well as the list of what was in the suitcase, and they said it was fine and stamped the letter advising the ship to let me take it.
My family does a lot of charity work in Toronto and I have done charity work in Africa before. I have also done a lot of travel to underdeveloped parts of the world and when I do, I use tour companies that support local businesses and local charities. When I heard about Not Just Tourists I thought it was a great way to help local people in an area we were going to anyway – even though we weren’t going to be there very long.
I really look forward to doing this again.
Thank you for the great work you do.
Eric”
