My brother-in-law Brian was in Roatan, so I decided I would go look for him. The whole island is not very big and I figured that it would just be lazy to not make the effort, seeing as how we´re in the same country.
I left La Ceiba, but missed the first boat. That ended up being great because I took the afternoon boat and met two Americans who have been working in Honduras for the last year. The water was really choppy, I got horribly seasick and threw up three times. It was a pretty awful hour and a half, but I felt fine as soon as we got to the island. Emily, Anna, and I shared a room at a hostel and got dinner.
Okay, first, Roatan is SO expensive! We´re obviously used to mainland prices, so paying $10 for dinner was a little bit shocking. Once we got over that, however, we admitted that it was nice to eat something other than the usual beans and tortillas.
We stayed in West End and spent the whole first day at West Bay Beach. The island is full of beautiful white sand beaches, clear aqua water, and surrounded by the second largest coral reef in the world! It´s also famous for scuba diving, but since I was balking at the $10 dinner, I figured that a $200 diving certification would definitely be out of the question. Instead, I thought I would splurge and spend $25 on a glass bottom boat ride. That way I could still see the reef and fish.
I ended up getting in a long discussion with the glass bottom boat owner (Mario). He´s Cuban, but grew up in Miami, sailed around the Caribbean, then got married and set up shop in Roatan two years ago. We talked about Honduras, SHH, philosophy, life, relationships, and traveling. He let me ride the glass bottom boat for free because he liked what SHH was doing, and even offered to donate the proceeds from some of his tours to the organization! He also helped me figure out the best way to get to Helene, which is where Brian was and on the exact opposite end of Roatan. What a friendly guy.
The next day I rode the bus for an hour and a half to Oak Ridge (about halfway down the island). From there, the roads stop, so I rented a boat driver for the afternoon to take me to Helene. I got to Helene 1.5 hours later, completed soaked in saltwater. I found Brian with no trouble at all (I mean, a large group of Americans is pretty conspicuous in a tiny Honduran village) and got to hang out with the group for a few hours. We were cleaning up the area around the shore and I kept freaking people out because I was just some random girl who was not Honduran, but not part of the group. Even explaining that I was Brian´s sister-in-law didn´t really help, because I think it was a pretty random place to show up. Still, it was good fun.
I spent my final day relaxing on the beach and snorkeling. There were some issues at first because 1) I´m scared of drowning 2) I´m not a strong swimmer 3) When I smiled, water would get into my breathing tube 4) I smile a lot. Once I figured out how to not have panic attacks about being underwater and to not smile, I was okay. The coral really is beautiful and I have never seen so many electric blue fish in my life! My favorite fish, actually, was this huge round fish. It was literally half the size of me! I tried to follow it, and it just looked at me sideways like I was dumb. I got distracted trying to touch the fish, and almost got tangled in the coral. At this point, I freaked out. I had read all these warnings about how touching coral kills it and I didn´t want to be a murderer, but all of a sudden the reef got SUPER SHALLOW. I had to backpedal out of there pretty quickly. I didn´t see any sea turtles while I was snorkeling, but I saw some the other day, so I figured I was already lucky.
I arrived back in Progreso on Thursday. The last few days with the kids were wonderful. I can´t believe that I´m leaving tomorrow to go to Nicaragua. I keep feeling like I´ll be back in a week. Cosmo took me to the bus stop and we tried to process everything we´ve been through the last 4 weeks. We failed miserably. We also realized that we won´t see each other for 16 days, which is the longest we´ve been apart all year. Isn´t that sad? Anyway, I don´t think I will be able to access the internet while I´m in Nicaragua, but I´ll be sure to give a full update when I get back. Keep me in your thoughts!
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Sunday, June 17, 2007
72 Hours
I am back from the trip to La Moskitia and currently in La Ceiba. In a few hours I will be on a boat to Roatan, where I will spend a few days relaxing and meeting up with my brother-in-law who is down here on a church mission trip. I don´t even know how to describe this past week...I guess I´ll start with Monday...
Cosmo, Gaku, Marcio and I left El Progreso at 3am to drive two hours to La Ceiba and catch our flight to Puerto Lempira, the biggest city in La Moskitia. When I say ¨biggest,¨ I mean they have a bank, but they still have a dirt airstrip. We were met by Marcio´s older brother (who´s the Chief of Police there) and escorted around town. Well about 30 minutes after we landed, we realized that we were in the wrong part of La Moskitia. Nowhere near the rainforest or Las Marias (the town we wanted to go to). We were able to quickly fix that by purchasing a flight to Brus Laguna, where we could take a boat to Las Marias.
We arrived in Brus Laguna by taking a 5-seat propeller plane and landing in the middle of a field. We were then taken to a hotel, where we promptly passed out from exhaustion for several hours and woke up in time for dinner. There is literally nothing to do in this town, but one family does run a sort of movie theater. That is, they set up benches in a big room and watch pirated DVDs on a 36 inch TV. The first night we were there, they showed ¨Double Team.¨ It´s a Jean Claude Van Damme movie, although we speculated that it´s really called ¨The Colony.¨ Anyway, I had never seen a JCVD movie, so it was a pretty sweet experience! This movie had everything...lasers, tigers, babies, and explosions for 57 seconds of every minute. Quality film-making.
The next day we woke up early and set off for our 7 hour boat ride up the Rio Platano. We took a pipante, which is kind of like a canoe, but it´s 3 ft wide, 3 ft deep, and approx. 30 ft long. The boat is obviously completely open and we sat through a torrential downpour for about two hours. When the sun finally came out, it was so searingly hot that I felt like I was going to pass out. Then, it started raining again for the last hour we were in the boat. I felt like we would never get to Las Marias. When we finally arrived, we struggled up the river bank and were taken to a hospedaje in the center of town. I use the term ¨town¨ very loosely because it was more a scattering of wood homes on stilts and cows. There is no running water or electricity and we found ourselves eating dinner by candlelight at 6:30pm. We then played cards until we were bored, and went to bed by 9pm. Not many options without electricity in the heart of the rainforest.
We woke up early the next day to go on a guided hike. After a pipante ride further upstream, we walked through the forest, getting a good view of the surrounding valley and mountains. We didn´t see a lot of wildlife, but we did hear a lot of monkeys. The foliage was also quite impressive. We returned to the hospedaje that afternoon, and as we were eating dinner that night, our boat driver stumbled in completely drunk. He said hello to us then went into his room. Minutes later we heard him throwing up violently out his window. This lasted for about 10 minutes. We asked if he as alright, and he came out to tell us that he had used some bad cocaine and was now sick. Bad cocaine?! Are you serious?! Apparently another hospedaje owner sold him bad cocaine and got him drunk because he was mad that he didn´t bring us to his hospedaje. So Cosmo is really freaked out, and I´m kind of freaked out and thinking we might not make it out of the forest. Well our driver is sick all night, but fine the next morning and we set out to return to Brus Laguna.
As we load up the pipante, there´s a family of a mother, father, and son sitting on the floor of the boat. I offer to share my seat (really just a wooden plank) with the mother and as we leave Las Marias, I notice that she´s crying. We stop a little ways up the river to load the boat with bananas from the forest and I ask her if she´s alright. She´s holding her two-year-old son and he´s kind of whimpering, so I ask if he´s sick. She says yes and that they´re going to the clinic in Brus Laguna. I gave the baby some Motrin and he ate it, but then started crying because of the bitter medicine taste so I fed him some raisins. He ate a lot of those, but really slowly, and his mother explained that it was the first food he had eaten in six days! This poor kid has a fever and looks miserable, but soon the Motrin kicks in and he´s able to go to sleep. We try to help the family as much as possible through the 6 hour ride back, including giving them a big plastic trash bag to use as a poncho when the inevitable rainstorm hit us. We offered to get them a hotel room in Brus Laguna, but they said they had a cousin there. We parted, telling them to find us if they needed anything else.
The next morning the dad came to our hotel. He told us that their son was worse (I think there was something wrong with his liver?), and that the clinic said they had to go to the hospital run by volunteer doctors in Ahuas. We asked how they would get there and he said it was an 8 hour boat ride, followed by a 3 hour ride in a pickup truck. Additionally, they couldn´t leave for two more days because the boat drivers were not ready to go. We were afraid that the baby would die before they could get to the hospital, so consulting our trusty Lonely Planet guidebook, we realized that they could fly there for about $70 and be there within half an hour. We bought them the tickets and gave them all our extra money to buy food and medicine when they arrived in Ahuas. I have never been so glad to be a ¨rich¨ American. We are waiting to hear if they are alright.
We arrived back in La Ceiba completely drained and somewhat dazed. I have been light-headed since getting back, and I wonder if I´ve caught a disease. Or maybe it´s just the malaria pills. I´m still trying to process everything I experienced. I suspect that I´ll need a few more weeks.
Cosmo, Gaku, Marcio and I left El Progreso at 3am to drive two hours to La Ceiba and catch our flight to Puerto Lempira, the biggest city in La Moskitia. When I say ¨biggest,¨ I mean they have a bank, but they still have a dirt airstrip. We were met by Marcio´s older brother (who´s the Chief of Police there) and escorted around town. Well about 30 minutes after we landed, we realized that we were in the wrong part of La Moskitia. Nowhere near the rainforest or Las Marias (the town we wanted to go to). We were able to quickly fix that by purchasing a flight to Brus Laguna, where we could take a boat to Las Marias.
We arrived in Brus Laguna by taking a 5-seat propeller plane and landing in the middle of a field. We were then taken to a hotel, where we promptly passed out from exhaustion for several hours and woke up in time for dinner. There is literally nothing to do in this town, but one family does run a sort of movie theater. That is, they set up benches in a big room and watch pirated DVDs on a 36 inch TV. The first night we were there, they showed ¨Double Team.¨ It´s a Jean Claude Van Damme movie, although we speculated that it´s really called ¨The Colony.¨ Anyway, I had never seen a JCVD movie, so it was a pretty sweet experience! This movie had everything...lasers, tigers, babies, and explosions for 57 seconds of every minute. Quality film-making.
The next day we woke up early and set off for our 7 hour boat ride up the Rio Platano. We took a pipante, which is kind of like a canoe, but it´s 3 ft wide, 3 ft deep, and approx. 30 ft long. The boat is obviously completely open and we sat through a torrential downpour for about two hours. When the sun finally came out, it was so searingly hot that I felt like I was going to pass out. Then, it started raining again for the last hour we were in the boat. I felt like we would never get to Las Marias. When we finally arrived, we struggled up the river bank and were taken to a hospedaje in the center of town. I use the term ¨town¨ very loosely because it was more a scattering of wood homes on stilts and cows. There is no running water or electricity and we found ourselves eating dinner by candlelight at 6:30pm. We then played cards until we were bored, and went to bed by 9pm. Not many options without electricity in the heart of the rainforest.
We woke up early the next day to go on a guided hike. After a pipante ride further upstream, we walked through the forest, getting a good view of the surrounding valley and mountains. We didn´t see a lot of wildlife, but we did hear a lot of monkeys. The foliage was also quite impressive. We returned to the hospedaje that afternoon, and as we were eating dinner that night, our boat driver stumbled in completely drunk. He said hello to us then went into his room. Minutes later we heard him throwing up violently out his window. This lasted for about 10 minutes. We asked if he as alright, and he came out to tell us that he had used some bad cocaine and was now sick. Bad cocaine?! Are you serious?! Apparently another hospedaje owner sold him bad cocaine and got him drunk because he was mad that he didn´t bring us to his hospedaje. So Cosmo is really freaked out, and I´m kind of freaked out and thinking we might not make it out of the forest. Well our driver is sick all night, but fine the next morning and we set out to return to Brus Laguna.
As we load up the pipante, there´s a family of a mother, father, and son sitting on the floor of the boat. I offer to share my seat (really just a wooden plank) with the mother and as we leave Las Marias, I notice that she´s crying. We stop a little ways up the river to load the boat with bananas from the forest and I ask her if she´s alright. She´s holding her two-year-old son and he´s kind of whimpering, so I ask if he´s sick. She says yes and that they´re going to the clinic in Brus Laguna. I gave the baby some Motrin and he ate it, but then started crying because of the bitter medicine taste so I fed him some raisins. He ate a lot of those, but really slowly, and his mother explained that it was the first food he had eaten in six days! This poor kid has a fever and looks miserable, but soon the Motrin kicks in and he´s able to go to sleep. We try to help the family as much as possible through the 6 hour ride back, including giving them a big plastic trash bag to use as a poncho when the inevitable rainstorm hit us. We offered to get them a hotel room in Brus Laguna, but they said they had a cousin there. We parted, telling them to find us if they needed anything else.
The next morning the dad came to our hotel. He told us that their son was worse (I think there was something wrong with his liver?), and that the clinic said they had to go to the hospital run by volunteer doctors in Ahuas. We asked how they would get there and he said it was an 8 hour boat ride, followed by a 3 hour ride in a pickup truck. Additionally, they couldn´t leave for two more days because the boat drivers were not ready to go. We were afraid that the baby would die before they could get to the hospital, so consulting our trusty Lonely Planet guidebook, we realized that they could fly there for about $70 and be there within half an hour. We bought them the tickets and gave them all our extra money to buy food and medicine when they arrived in Ahuas. I have never been so glad to be a ¨rich¨ American. We are waiting to hear if they are alright.
We arrived back in La Ceiba completely drained and somewhat dazed. I have been light-headed since getting back, and I wonder if I´ve caught a disease. Or maybe it´s just the malaria pills. I´m still trying to process everything I experienced. I suspect that I´ll need a few more weeks.
Saturday, June 9, 2007
I am so bad at math...am I really Chinese?
Yesterday we went to the best university in the country, UNITEC. It´s the ¨rich person¨ school, but Maria (she used to live at Copprome) has a scholarship to go there so we got to tag along. It felt like high school again. We got up at 5am and rode a yellow bus to San Pedro Sula (about an hour). Some classes start at 7am so everyone has to ride the buses early and then just hang out until their classes start. We sat in the cafeteria and read the newspaper. Ultraviolet was on TV but I had no clue what was happening in the plot so I didn´t watch it.
At 8am, all the computer labs open. Initially, I was really excited about free, unfettered access to internet. Unfortunately, the entire school runs on wireless ONLY so the access was SOOOOOO slow. Slower than dial-up. It was such a tease. I waited for 15 or 20 minutes for my Gmail page to load. Anyway, after that, we went to class with Maria. It was Introduction to Algebra and I realized that I do not remember ANYTHING about math. I was solving for x, but then halfway through, someone said we were supposed to be solving for A and B by flipping the fraction and multiplying. A and B? What?! I don´t remember ever doing this. We must have learned something different when I was in school...
Today Cos and I accompanied one of the Copprome girls, Julissa, to the medical clinic. She had to remove her cast so we went to watch and hold her hand while they pulled a huge nail out of her foot. It looked pretty painful, but it was over in a flash. Cos and I then proceeded to walk around town looking for a bathing suit to buy. We didn´t find any, but we bought some pound cake and that seemed just as fulfilling.
We went to Super Jugo...our favorite smoothie store...and enjoyed the AC. Fruit here is so flavorful and delicious! US produce is really pretty...but it doesn´t taste anywhere near as good as everything here. We struck up conversation with the man sitting next to us (Cosmo gave him some of our poundcake) and he bought our smoothies! He had seen SHH on TV (there was an interview a couple weeks ago), so he knew what we were doing. That was pretty cool.
We have a meeting today with our lawyer and the ¨president¨ of Siete de Abril. We´re trying to figure out the technicalities of the land issues so hopefully this will help us make some good decisions about our next steps. Tomorrow, we´re off to La Moskitia so I will be out of touch until Saturday at the earliest. Pray for safety and health...
At 8am, all the computer labs open. Initially, I was really excited about free, unfettered access to internet. Unfortunately, the entire school runs on wireless ONLY so the access was SOOOOOO slow. Slower than dial-up. It was such a tease. I waited for 15 or 20 minutes for my Gmail page to load. Anyway, after that, we went to class with Maria. It was Introduction to Algebra and I realized that I do not remember ANYTHING about math. I was solving for x, but then halfway through, someone said we were supposed to be solving for A and B by flipping the fraction and multiplying. A and B? What?! I don´t remember ever doing this. We must have learned something different when I was in school...
Today Cos and I accompanied one of the Copprome girls, Julissa, to the medical clinic. She had to remove her cast so we went to watch and hold her hand while they pulled a huge nail out of her foot. It looked pretty painful, but it was over in a flash. Cos and I then proceeded to walk around town looking for a bathing suit to buy. We didn´t find any, but we bought some pound cake and that seemed just as fulfilling.
We went to Super Jugo...our favorite smoothie store...and enjoyed the AC. Fruit here is so flavorful and delicious! US produce is really pretty...but it doesn´t taste anywhere near as good as everything here. We struck up conversation with the man sitting next to us (Cosmo gave him some of our poundcake) and he bought our smoothies! He had seen SHH on TV (there was an interview a couple weeks ago), so he knew what we were doing. That was pretty cool.
We have a meeting today with our lawyer and the ¨president¨ of Siete de Abril. We´re trying to figure out the technicalities of the land issues so hopefully this will help us make some good decisions about our next steps. Tomorrow, we´re off to La Moskitia so I will be out of touch until Saturday at the earliest. Pray for safety and health...
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Two Dollars Later...
I have been in this internet cafe for two hours. I´ll probably stay here for another hour and then I will have to pay $2 for the whole time. Isn´t the exchange rate great? Actually it´s pretty bad right now, but still good in Honduras.
I´ve had a lot of trouble sleeping recently. It was stormy and humid the other night. Lightning was flashing across the sky like crazy and everything was deep purple. I probably would have gone outside to watch, but the sheer drudgery of the air was almost oppressive. I couldn´t make myself get up and move. Instead, I just watched Cosmo sleep and picked bugs off of her whenever they landed on our bed. Pretty sweet, huh? Or creepy. I guess both.
Last night I finally got some decent rest. We have been running around like crazy the past few days, looking at land, meeting with lawyers, meeting with NGO heads. I feel like 1000 things happen everyday, but getting work done takes SO long. That juxtaposition can be frustrating. We´re working on patience.
Shin left today so it´s just Gaku, Cosmo and I. Every time someone leaves, we take a picture. We have like 15 pictures in the exact same spot in the San Pedro Sula airport. But there are less and less people. At least when I leave, it will be at some sketchy bus station. We´re still staying at the orphanage, and the kids have calmed down a lot. They only tackle me every 10 minutes as opposed to every 5 minutes before. They are consistently pulling out my hair and leaving bruises all over me. I think they think they´re a lot smaller or a lot weaker than they actually are. Whenever we leave, the kids ask if we are coming back. It´s cute, but the reality behind that question is kind of sad.
I have been trying to help SHH with everything that needs to get done here, but I am also trying to complete forms for Fulbright. I have virtually nothing that I need and no access to basic infrastructure except for when we come into town. I always remember (really quickly) how much I take easy access to EVERYTHING in the US for granted. A process that would have taken an afternoon in the States has taken me 4 or 5 days here. The people at this internet cafe love us. It can be good sometimes (like when they help us find other things in town that we need) and it can be bad sometimes (like when they want to take 500 pictures together on my camera, or sit next to me and watch over my shoulder while I work online...like what´s happening right NOW).
We´ve been working pretty hard for the last few weeks and decided that we deserved a break. Today we bought tickets to La Moskitia. It´s one of the ¨last frontiers¨ in Central America. A pristine, untouched rainforest full of animals and diseases. We got malaria pills (although I feel like I could already be infected...it takes two weeks to incubate) ad will be leaving on Sunday. Cosmo, Gaku, Marcio (our Honduran bus driver), and I will be traveling together until the following Saturday. I´m pretty excited because I don´t know when I´ll be able to come back to Latin America. It feels good to really take advantage of this opportunity.
I just realized that I´m hungry. I didn´t have lunch so I´m going to go buy some baleadas off the street now...
I´ve had a lot of trouble sleeping recently. It was stormy and humid the other night. Lightning was flashing across the sky like crazy and everything was deep purple. I probably would have gone outside to watch, but the sheer drudgery of the air was almost oppressive. I couldn´t make myself get up and move. Instead, I just watched Cosmo sleep and picked bugs off of her whenever they landed on our bed. Pretty sweet, huh? Or creepy. I guess both.
Last night I finally got some decent rest. We have been running around like crazy the past few days, looking at land, meeting with lawyers, meeting with NGO heads. I feel like 1000 things happen everyday, but getting work done takes SO long. That juxtaposition can be frustrating. We´re working on patience.
Shin left today so it´s just Gaku, Cosmo and I. Every time someone leaves, we take a picture. We have like 15 pictures in the exact same spot in the San Pedro Sula airport. But there are less and less people. At least when I leave, it will be at some sketchy bus station. We´re still staying at the orphanage, and the kids have calmed down a lot. They only tackle me every 10 minutes as opposed to every 5 minutes before. They are consistently pulling out my hair and leaving bruises all over me. I think they think they´re a lot smaller or a lot weaker than they actually are. Whenever we leave, the kids ask if we are coming back. It´s cute, but the reality behind that question is kind of sad.
I have been trying to help SHH with everything that needs to get done here, but I am also trying to complete forms for Fulbright. I have virtually nothing that I need and no access to basic infrastructure except for when we come into town. I always remember (really quickly) how much I take easy access to EVERYTHING in the US for granted. A process that would have taken an afternoon in the States has taken me 4 or 5 days here. The people at this internet cafe love us. It can be good sometimes (like when they help us find other things in town that we need) and it can be bad sometimes (like when they want to take 500 pictures together on my camera, or sit next to me and watch over my shoulder while I work online...like what´s happening right NOW).
We´ve been working pretty hard for the last few weeks and decided that we deserved a break. Today we bought tickets to La Moskitia. It´s one of the ¨last frontiers¨ in Central America. A pristine, untouched rainforest full of animals and diseases. We got malaria pills (although I feel like I could already be infected...it takes two weeks to incubate) ad will be leaving on Sunday. Cosmo, Gaku, Marcio (our Honduran bus driver), and I will be traveling together until the following Saturday. I´m pretty excited because I don´t know when I´ll be able to come back to Latin America. It feels good to really take advantage of this opportunity.
I just realized that I´m hungry. I didn´t have lunch so I´m going to go buy some baleadas off the street now...
Monday, June 4, 2007
Exhale
Most of the team left yesterday and Whitney boarded the plane back to the US today so now it´s down to Cosmo, Shin, Gaku, and I. We have some big plans for the next three days, then Shin will go home on the 7th...leaving the three of us unsupervised. Is that a good idea? Clearly not.
Yesterday we visited Nuestras Pequenas Rosas (Our Little Roses). It´s an orphanage for girls that is incredibly well-funded by Americans. They have the best of everything, and there is a large emphasis placed on education. All the girls are bilingual and the female-empowerment is through the roof! Especially by Honduran standards. They have a transition home for the girls in college, offering more independence and teaching life skills. The home really sets these girls up for success and it´s a model we hope to duplicate at Copprome. We´re going to need a lot more funding, but a lot of the girls completely fail at life after leaving Copprome. They drop out of school because it´s too hard and end up on the streets or worse. There´s a definitive need to break the cycle of poverty, but the implementation is going to be slow and difficult. No time like the present to start. :)
We have meetings with different NGO heads over the next few days. We´re still staying at Copprome, but are trying to move out as it is too difficult to strategize for SHH while 50+ kids are climbing all over the place and clamoring for attention. On Friday we will take a day of rest, then start traveling. It will be like a senior trip for Cosmo and I. Or like a Honeymoon. Six days traveling to La Mosquitia, back to El Progreso, and then 6 more days in Guatemala. From there, I will head to Managua to meet up with the Chapel mission team and Cos will return here.
AWWWWWWWWWWWWW! The woman who runs this internet cafe just bought us all key chains! We hang out here a lot so we´re good friends. What a sweet gesture...
It´s amazing how easy it is to meet people here and how often you see them all over the city. The idea of privacy is much looser here than in the States. It´s a condition that is hard to get used to at times, but I generally love it. I am slightly tired and probably a little dehydrated right now, but extremely content. Life is good. Thanks for keeping us in your prayers.
Yesterday we visited Nuestras Pequenas Rosas (Our Little Roses). It´s an orphanage for girls that is incredibly well-funded by Americans. They have the best of everything, and there is a large emphasis placed on education. All the girls are bilingual and the female-empowerment is through the roof! Especially by Honduran standards. They have a transition home for the girls in college, offering more independence and teaching life skills. The home really sets these girls up for success and it´s a model we hope to duplicate at Copprome. We´re going to need a lot more funding, but a lot of the girls completely fail at life after leaving Copprome. They drop out of school because it´s too hard and end up on the streets or worse. There´s a definitive need to break the cycle of poverty, but the implementation is going to be slow and difficult. No time like the present to start. :)
We have meetings with different NGO heads over the next few days. We´re still staying at Copprome, but are trying to move out as it is too difficult to strategize for SHH while 50+ kids are climbing all over the place and clamoring for attention. On Friday we will take a day of rest, then start traveling. It will be like a senior trip for Cosmo and I. Or like a Honeymoon. Six days traveling to La Mosquitia, back to El Progreso, and then 6 more days in Guatemala. From there, I will head to Managua to meet up with the Chapel mission team and Cos will return here.
AWWWWWWWWWWWWW! The woman who runs this internet cafe just bought us all key chains! We hang out here a lot so we´re good friends. What a sweet gesture...
It´s amazing how easy it is to meet people here and how often you see them all over the city. The idea of privacy is much looser here than in the States. It´s a condition that is hard to get used to at times, but I generally love it. I am slightly tired and probably a little dehydrated right now, but extremely content. Life is good. Thanks for keeping us in your prayers.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Siete de Abril
Whitney, Mohammad and I spent yesterday morning mapping Siete de Abril. SHH wants to administer an intensive survey to figure out what the primary, secondary, tertiary, etc. needs of the community are. We also want to have demographic profiles of the families. It was my first visit to the community and I was surprised at how much better it looked than the Mt. of Olives. Of course this is all relative. It´s still evident that there is a lot of poverty.
In any case, the three of us spent two hours drawing a map of the ¨streets¨ and ¨houses¨ in Siete de Abril. The reason why I used quotation marks is because it´s really not clear what counts as a home or even what pathway it´s next to. The whole place is like a maze and I definitely would not have visited parts of it if I hadn´t been mapping. It was a crazy hot day and I drank all of the water in my Nalgene by 11. The weird thing is that it was actually overcast. It felt like the heat was radiating from within my body. Nothing like sweating uncontrollably to make you feel alive. :)
We left the retreat center yesterday afternoon and will stay at Copprome for the remainder of the trip. There weren´t enough beds last night so a lot of the William and Mary girls elected to stay in the dorms with the Copprome girls. I shared two beds with Sravya and Rosalin. It was like a big slumber party. All of the kids wake up at 6am for school. Sravya and I slept through that, but woke up in time to run out to the road and see the kids board the bus. It´s amazing how much small gestures like waiting at the bus stop mean to these kids.
We tried to have a bonfire last night (we were having a party because it was the Mary Washington team´s last night) and just about every kid almost set themselves on fire trying to make smores. Reactions towards the fire ranged from refusal to go anywhere near it, to throwing rocks into the center of the flames, prompting an immediate shower of potentially hazardous sparks. Needless to say, we probably won´t be doing that again.
We saw the Mary Washington team off at the airport and are now looking at possible plots of land to buy for Siete de Abril´s relocation. I am thinking about going to Guatemala to visit a friend next week. Of course, everything is up in the air right now. We have an appointment with Oye tonight (the Honduran NGO that we partner with). I´m looking forward to talking to them more about the strategy for a sustainable Siete de Abril. We´re currently thinking about microfinance possibilities, but still have very little planned.
In any case, the three of us spent two hours drawing a map of the ¨streets¨ and ¨houses¨ in Siete de Abril. The reason why I used quotation marks is because it´s really not clear what counts as a home or even what pathway it´s next to. The whole place is like a maze and I definitely would not have visited parts of it if I hadn´t been mapping. It was a crazy hot day and I drank all of the water in my Nalgene by 11. The weird thing is that it was actually overcast. It felt like the heat was radiating from within my body. Nothing like sweating uncontrollably to make you feel alive. :)
We left the retreat center yesterday afternoon and will stay at Copprome for the remainder of the trip. There weren´t enough beds last night so a lot of the William and Mary girls elected to stay in the dorms with the Copprome girls. I shared two beds with Sravya and Rosalin. It was like a big slumber party. All of the kids wake up at 6am for school. Sravya and I slept through that, but woke up in time to run out to the road and see the kids board the bus. It´s amazing how much small gestures like waiting at the bus stop mean to these kids.
We tried to have a bonfire last night (we were having a party because it was the Mary Washington team´s last night) and just about every kid almost set themselves on fire trying to make smores. Reactions towards the fire ranged from refusal to go anywhere near it, to throwing rocks into the center of the flames, prompting an immediate shower of potentially hazardous sparks. Needless to say, we probably won´t be doing that again.
We saw the Mary Washington team off at the airport and are now looking at possible plots of land to buy for Siete de Abril´s relocation. I am thinking about going to Guatemala to visit a friend next week. Of course, everything is up in the air right now. We have an appointment with Oye tonight (the Honduran NGO that we partner with). I´m looking forward to talking to them more about the strategy for a sustainable Siete de Abril. We´re currently thinking about microfinance possibilities, but still have very little planned.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
I´m here!
I arrived late last night and waited in the San Pedro Sula airport for Cosmo to pick me up. I was slightly amazed I made it at all because I thought I was going to miss my connecting flight for about an hour. I guess that´s what happens when the pilot doesn´t speak English very well and doesn´t think that anyone will notice when he says the wrong ¨local time.¨ Anyway, that´s besides the point.
When Cosmo and Co. arrived, they made me go back through the exit so that I could exit again...this time to a screaming crowd of college kids. I felt like a celebrity. There were cameras going off and high pitched shrieking and general confusion.
It feels good to be back in Honduras.
We´re staying at a retreat center about 10 minutes from the center of the city. I was at Copprome briefly this morning but all the kids were in class. Instead, we went to another village of displaced people. There are 51 families in this community. Their homes were bulldozed by the government as part of an USAID water oxidization plan. Of course nothing has come from this yet.
The children are all malnourished and zombie like. Their hair and eyes are light because their bodies aren´t producing the nutrients to provide color. They have no energy to run around and play. There isn´t much we can do to help at this point. We simply bought several hundred pounds of rice and beans, and some fresh water. A little over $200 worth. It will feed the community for 3, maybe 4, days.
We are now headed back to Copprome and then Siete de Abril. We´ve been up since 630am. The sun is intense and Gaku has been sick from the heat. The rest of us, however, are in good spirits and excited to tackle whatever we can.
I wish that all of you could be here to experience this with me...
When Cosmo and Co. arrived, they made me go back through the exit so that I could exit again...this time to a screaming crowd of college kids. I felt like a celebrity. There were cameras going off and high pitched shrieking and general confusion.
It feels good to be back in Honduras.
We´re staying at a retreat center about 10 minutes from the center of the city. I was at Copprome briefly this morning but all the kids were in class. Instead, we went to another village of displaced people. There are 51 families in this community. Their homes were bulldozed by the government as part of an USAID water oxidization plan. Of course nothing has come from this yet.
The children are all malnourished and zombie like. Their hair and eyes are light because their bodies aren´t producing the nutrients to provide color. They have no energy to run around and play. There isn´t much we can do to help at this point. We simply bought several hundred pounds of rice and beans, and some fresh water. A little over $200 worth. It will feed the community for 3, maybe 4, days.
We are now headed back to Copprome and then Siete de Abril. We´ve been up since 630am. The sun is intense and Gaku has been sick from the heat. The rest of us, however, are in good spirits and excited to tackle whatever we can.
I wish that all of you could be here to experience this with me...
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