Sapote and Vacation in Tela

6/28/10

Friday we headed to yet another poor and secluded aldea named Sapote. Posos, which I claimed was “the poorest and most secluded” place I had visited, paled in comparison to Sapote. Because the main driving road to Sapote had recently been washed out, we again needed to hike over an hour through the mountains to get to this small and needy town. We quickly found out that there was something quite different in Sapote, something that we had not experienced in any of the other aldeas we had visited. Immediately it was clear that many if not all of the children were malnourished and consequentially were severely stunted in their growth (both mentally and physically). Apparently the government has a feeding program to provide the students with food but something is not being done right. It was a very upsetting place…all the students sat in class silently with barely any energy for anything else…this was after the teacher had to go house to house in order to get the students to school (we had become accustomed to dealing with uncontrollable classes full of wildly excited children). Sapote does not have electricity, nor does it have running water…instead the people walk 20 minutes through the mountains to a water source (could you imagine walking 20 minutes just to get a bucket of water?). In addition, many of the children did not know how to brush their teeth…but if they did, will they actually have the water to use the toothbrushes and paste we gave them on a regular basis? What this aldea needs above all else is a water project to bring water to the community…we will be working on this with P4HH in the upcoming year.

(Entertaining the kids in Sapote waiting for school to start)

(The students in Sapote)

After we left Sapote, we left for the weekend on the beach in Tela…and were met by rainfall trailing behind tropical storm Alex (the first tropic storm of the 2010-2011 Atlantic season). Despite the rain we did some swimming and had a great weekend…well most of us, sorry David (food poisoning)…we stayed at a very nice hotel with wifi J and enjoyed some great meals throughout the weekend. On Saturday we went to a restaurant to watch the United States v. Ghana…and unfortunately we all know what happened.

(The beach in Tela, slightly overcast)

(Sopa Marinera at a restaurant right on the shore)

Today (monday) we had a walking group in Coco and in three weeks it has become a very self motivated and hard working core of women, who really want to better their health. I think the hard work we put into educating these women about the importance of exercise has really struck a cord....this program in Coco now has 2 group leaders, a schedule, and health information to drive them into the future.

...In other news, I am in El Progreso tonight to see a dermatologist about a weird skin rash that is spreading on my chest haha. Wish me luck and check in tomorrow for an update. Saludos, Marc

A week in the Aldeas

(5 am Walk)

6/24/10

Sorry for the lack of updates this week but between waking up at 4:30 am everyday (for the women’s walking group, we’re up to 18 women!) and hiking through the mountains (details to come) this week has been extremely exhausting. We continued our dental program throughout the aldeas (Coco, El Medio, El Sapote, Guara, and Los Posos) surrounding Punta Ocote this week. We went to Posos yesterday and it was one of the poorest and most isolated places I have ever had the opportunity to visit. Posos is located in the mountains about an hour hike off the main road through a foot trail that a motorcycle would have difficulty passing through. After hiking in the Honduran heat we reached a small spread out village of 18 houses. In the small school (picture below)

there were only 11 students ranging from 5-12 years old. There were also no facilities in the community…all of the water was collected from rainfall and there was no electricity. The kids were very happy to have us there, some of them were in shock…I don’t think they have seen many gringos in their community. It was a little disheartening when we asked “who brushed their teeth this morning?” and not a single child raised their hand…Hopefully this dental program will set in motion some form of dental hygiene in the area and our efforts will not be in vain. Once we returned to Punta we went to the walking group in Coco and I was happy to see that the program is also doing very well there. Every day the men of the town play soccer while the women would traditionally stay in the house…this walking program in Coco has provided an opportunity for the women to get out and exercise as the men play their soccer games. With these walking programs I am slowly stepping aside and placing the responsibility of the group on the women themselves (in the hopes of making these programs self-sustainable), so this week I selected 2 “presidents” of the group to maintain the organization and lead future walks.

We also have this enormous mango tree right next to our house down here so we have all been enjoying mangos everyday for the last 3 weeks it’s pretty nice…and on the other side of the house we have an avocado tree which is just about ripe.

Tomorrow we are heading to Tela, a beach along the eastern coast of Honduras, for the weekend so I am really looking forward to some relaxation after this busy week. I also finished my second book since being down here Three Cups of Tea which is a very inspiring book about the NGO, The Central Asia Initiative, by Greg Mortenson. Take Care, Marc

Happy 18^th Birthday Kenny! Talk to you tomorrow.

Our first weekend vacation

6/18/10-6/20/10

On Friday we headed to lake Yajoa and stayed at the “resort” Agua Azul. It wasn’t what I would consider a resort but we stayed right on the lake and there were amazing views all around. On the first day we settled in and a few of us went kayaking, swimming, and just enjoyed the good company.

On Saturday, I had my first experience with the Honduran buses on our way to a tourist hot spot, Pulhapanzak park, which has an amazing waterfall. The buses are little more than old yellow school buses from the United States that have been “tricked out” somewhat with loud speaker systems and different painted adornment on the outside (I will definitely get a picture up soon). At the waterfall we were able to hire a guide to take us under the falls and it was amazing. With our group locked hand in hand, we navigated through the falls and behind them into several small caves…it was a great experience being there and looking up as the huge waterfall crashed down all around us.

After we left the park we headed to D&D, the only microbrewery in Honduras and another very popular gringo area. Here we were able to sample some of the great beers (believe it or not the raspberry ale was amazing) and grabbed a delicious late lunch. We met a few fellow gringos down there, many of whom were backpacking through central/south America and were making a stop for the night. We returned to the hotel and went fishing for dinner…literally. We were told that whatever we caught would be prepared for us for half price. For many of us this was our first time fishing and it was a lot of fun, not so much for the fishing part. Using a rickety old boat (picture below), the 6 of us were given soda bottles as rods and our guide (Miguel) took us to the “best fishing area” of the pond…after 2 hours the 6 of us caught a total of 2 fish, I CAUGHT ONE J…and Miguel alone caught 5. Our fish were prepared later that night and were delicious. After another relaxing night of rain on the metal roof of the resort, we called it a night. In the morning, we headed back to Punta and painted the clinic in the afternoon. This was a great weekend in Honduras full of great company and amazing experiences, Happy Fathers day!

O and walking group tomorrow at 3 pm and not at 5 am J hasta manana, Marc

No internet over the weekend at lake Yojoa

6/18/10

The new clinic was closed this entire week, causing hundreds of patients to either wait for medical assistance or take the long and costly 3 hour trip to El Progresso. I couldn’t understand why the new clinic would be closed during a very busy week…so I asked. It turns out that there has been an ongoing nurse strike throughout this week (that may continue into next week) due to some missed wages in Yoro (the government here is responsible for paying wages in the healthcare system). Because our nurse in Punta, Gloria, is part of the same union as the nurses in Yoro, she has also been on strike this week…with pay (why not strike every week if you can get paid too?). In light of these and many other financial problems in the country…the mayor of Yoro like many of the senior officials throughout Honduras, went to South Africa for the world cup this week (largely in part by money from the tax payers). It is tough to deal in a political environment full of corruption, abuse of power, and a general disregard for the true needs of the people.

…Once again we (Hannah, David, and I) woke up at 4:40 am today just in time to see the sunrise…again. We met up with the walking group (14 women today) and proceeded on our now daily walk/run…we covered 3 miles today and spirits were very high. This weekend I am going to make a exercise/running charla (information guide) to help these women avoid injury…we still have some women running in sandals and others who don’t bring water…both are especially important for the women, many of whom have never participated in regular exercise. The group is going to meet next in the afternoon on Monday… to walk through the mountains haha. Today we are heading to Lake Yojoa the largest lake in Honduras for the weekend....No internet out there but it should be an awesome weekend i'll have a post up about it soon! Have a great weekend and Happy Fathers Day Dad, Marc

More of our dental program

6/17/10

Woke up this morning at 4:45 am to make it to this morning’s walk/run with the women’s group…and at 5 am there were 16 women (some new) ready to hit the pavement. After we spent a few minutes stretching, we began what would be an hour long 2.5 mile walk/run with all of the ladies. After we returned home and crunched down some breakfast we headed out to Puerta, a small aldea about a 15 minutes drive to continue the dental treatment…like I wrote before the aldeas are much smaller and are often poorer regions then the main town of Punta. When we arrived in Puerta we were welcomed by all of the students, about 50 kids grades K-4. The school had 2 classrooms and students were grouped by their age. I was happy that the program here went very smoothly and we finished in about an hour and a half. Due to the extreme poverty in these areas, not many children are provided with proper dental information or materials...this has resulted in a lack of brushing as well as prominent tooth decay in the community. This program is so important because we not only provide them with the materials, but we are also teaching them proper brushing technique (through a very catchy song and group instruction) which will hopefully promote dental health in the communities. Here are some pictures from Puerta:

We then headed to Abelina where we saw much of the same thing…many of the children had bad tooth decay (which I am sure is very painful) and were eager to receive the fluoride treatment. They will be receiving the fluoride treatment regularly every 6 months thanks to Salud Juntos and the Health Promotoras Christina and Flor.

When we got back to Punta at 11:30 we got baliadas from the local comedora before heading out yet again to Coco…we had a community meeting regarding vegetable gardens and we had the first walk for the walking group out there. Both were very successful and we had about 14 women ready to walk/run...I did a lot today. O and I forgot to mention, the walking group in Punta wants to do another walk at 5 am tomorrow, so an early night for me I'm exhausted from the day…but I’m glad these groups are working out in the communities. Here is some pictures of us painting the clinic and the view from outside from a few days ago. Adios, Marcos.

Honduras Perdió y La Programa Dental

6/16/10

We began this morning at 5:00 am to go and watch the heavily anticipated world cup soccer match of Honduras v. Chile….and it was anything but exciting. After 90 minutes of play the final score was 1-0, Honduras lost…and I fell asleep halfway through. At 7:30 am we headed out to the school in Punta Ocote (by far the largest of any school we are going to visit) to begin our first day of the dental program. This was my first time in one of the schools down here and it was quite a poor site to see. The school was K-12 and was very poorly organized and lacked many simple facilities…There was no running water, there were two bathrooms (which were merely holes in the ground), and many students were outside of their classrooms. When we asked why, we were told that some of the teachers did not come into work today (with no reason). Despite this, between the morning and afternoon sessions we spoke in every classroom and distributed over 250 toothbrushes, toothpastes, and gave all the students fluoride treatments. I have uploaded some pictures from the day here:

In the afternoon we had the first walk for my women’s walking group and it was much more successful than I had anticipated. After all the hard work, we had 16 women come and participate in the very first walk. Instead of walking for 20 minutes (as I had initially planned), these women not only walked but also ran for about an hour and 15 minutes. When I asked about the next walking time, they unanimously voted to meet tomorrow…at 5 am (I’ve created a monster). I shouldn’t be surprised though, most of these women wake up at 4:30 am to begin working around the house.

At night we ate the o-so-common beans and tortillas with some fresh quajada(a salty but very popular Honduran cheese). We also lost power again for about 3 hours…I am slowly getting used to not having electricity or running water in the evenings. Tomorrow we are heading to 2 smaller aldeas and I have another walk in the afternoon with the ladies in Coco. Ciao, Marc

Week 2 in Honduras...

6/14-15/10

Today (Tuesday) while writing my blog outside the internet café, I collected a crowd of about 25 kids who had just gotten out of school…amazed by the gringos (white people) on computers lol. Today we also visited Coco (one of the closer aldeas) to finalize the walking group out there and to also discuss David’s farming project. Both seem to be moving forward and the walking group out there will be meeting on Wednesday. In other news…we haven’t had water since Sunday night and today is Tuesday J. On Tuesday we began painting the clinic and finished the inside of it…we still have the whole outside to paint though…Tomorrow we begin the dental program in the schools and the first walk of my program is scheduled for 4 o’clock…we should have about 10-15 women coming. Also tomorrow morning at 5:30 am Honduras is playing Chile…this is a big deal down here because Honduras hasn’t been in the world cup for 18 years…so we will be waking up a little after 5ish to go and watch the game at Ramon’s house. There was no internet yesterday yet again lol so here are my last 2 posts...we just finished up at the school and distributed the toothbrushes and toothpaste and gave fluoride treatments (they also do not fluorinate the water down here) to about 160 kids I will be writing about this later tonight and I have alot of pictures to put up as well :) hasta pronto, Marc

ps. Nanny I hope your feeling much better, get well soon and I can't wait to see you in August Love You, Marc :)

The many churches in Punta Ocote

6/13/10

Today we woke up at 6:30 am (I was actually awakened at 4:00 am by the chorus of rooster calls outside my window, I hate the roosters) for something Ramon calls Cowpachinos…it’s basically when we get up nice and early and find one of Ramon’s cows, then proceed to milk it straight into our fresh cups of coffee lol. Unfortunately, Ramon had to attend a sheep emergency this morning so we had to reschedule our Cowpachino experience. After this at 10:00 am, David and I attended the Inglesia Catolica (catholic church) which was far different than what I had expected. They were very pleased to have David and I in the church as they welcomed us graciously at the beginning of the service. The small church building was filled with about 40 people (and 2 dogs) for morning prayer, mostly older women and children. The church has open spaces for windows through which birds would occasionally fly through, this was evidently a common event since I seemed to be the only person surprised by the birds fluttering throughout the room during prayer. After the 2 hour service, I presented the walking group program to the congregation…they seemed to like the idea and agreed to have a general interest meeting tomorrow at 4! After we left this church, we visited 2 others. At the last church we visited, we were greeted by 15 women who had stuck around after their service to listen to the proposed walking group program…after my presentation the group decided to hold a group walk Wednesday at 4…so the first walk is going to happen. They asked if I could merge the different church groups and I think it is a great idea so I will discuss the possibility in my future church meetings…I have 2 tomorrow. Also tomorrow we are getting trained in how to apply fluoride treatments so that we can begin the school dental programs later this week. We are also going to be painting the outside of the new clinic this week in addition to working inside. That’s all for today enjoy el cupo de mundo…everyone here is, Marc

No Internet Since Thursday...It's Honduras

6/10/10

Today we headed out to the aldea Coco which is a small village of about 300 people 20 minutes from our house in Punta. In this village there is neither electricity or running water. The town has been raising funds to bring electricity into the area…so far they have about 30 electric poles in the ground running from the carreterra (“highway”) to the entrance of Coco. The people here live a very poor lifestyle, however a few of the roughly 60 homes do have battery powered radios. Many of the houses are made of mud and some are beginning to fall apart…I uploaded some pictures below…

In Coco we visited 6 homes and spoke with the people about nutrition, dental hygiene, and I discussed the formation of a community walking group with the women. To my surprise many of the women were actually interesting in regular exercise and participation in this type of group. We also went to one of the two town churches and spoke with the pastor about getting the women in his congregation involved in a regular walking group. He liked the idea a lot and was going to present the idea to his congregation during Sunday mass. In the afternoon we returned to Punta and set out with Flore, a promotora, to visit the local churches. There are 4 within a 10 minute walking distance of one another…religion is very important to the people in Honduras…it seems like people head to mass everyday for at least 2-3 hours. After meeting with the Pastors of the churches, things are looking good. I am writing up some more information for 3 of the congregations to be presented on Sunday and because the catholic church is only open on Sundays…I am going to 10am mass with Flore…I will probably be the first and most likely last Jewish person to visit the church for mass haha! My turn to cook dinner tonight…luckily Jessica came to my rescue with chicken tacos, rice, and beans. At night we watched the chickens climb into the tree across our house to sleep, it is quite the site to see as the chickens patiently wait in a line until it is their turn to jump from branch to branch until they are safely off the ground. That’s all for today Hasta Manana, Marc

6/11/10

Every morning herds of cows pass right in front of our house (I’ll get some pictures soon). They are led by muchachos, young boys who work for local herders, who often are on bicycle or horseback. These herds are all over Punta, it’s really strange to walk with 10 or so cows down the streets, but it happens here all the time. After breakfast, we headed to the clinic to help out for the morning. I worked in the pharmacy for a while a lady…not quite sure who she is yet, but she isn’t a pharmacist. We put together the medications and helped the nurse with patients. Most people today had headaches or stomach aches…the most interesting case was a small girl who came in with a large boil on her left arm, about the size of half a golf ball. We watched as the nurse drained the puss from the infected area…it was sweet, except for the lack of sanitation which is very common down here…The nurse uses a disinfectant from a soda bottle…I uploaded a picture from an earlier case, the same orange soda bottle was used today to treat the little girl.

The gauze was also prepared barehanded by my pharmacy friend who didn’t quite understand how the cloth should be folded. After lunch, we began to prepare posters…raising awareness for the dental program that we will be conducting in the schools next week. We will be distributing cepillos (toothbrushes) and pasta (toothpaste), and will also be giving fluoride treatments to all of the school children in Punta and the surrounding aldeas. It rained heavily throughout the day and later in the evening we hiked to the internet café only to discover that the internet has been down all day with no clue as to when it will be up and running again…Lesson of the day: Don’t go out in sandals after a day of rain, more about this tomorrow but the dirt roads here are terrible. At night I’ve been reading a lot and for once in a long while it’s not a textbook or take note!…I finished Slaughterhouse Five today and started on Three Cups of Tea…maybe I’ll lighten it up soon with I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell? Adios, Marc

6/12/10

(No internet again today)

…More about the roads in Punta Ocote and in most of the areas throughout rural Honduras. With no road crews or government highway programs the roads throughout Honduras have been left to fall apart without maintenance (although there were some 9 and 10 year olds with shovels filling in potholes in the mountain pass between El Progresso and Punta). The roads in Punta are a combination of mud and sand with garbage and animal waste throughout the town. When it rains the roads become small waterways as the runoff mixes these elements and it all flows into the nearby river. We decided to walk to the internet café shortly after the rain had stopped and soon after, I lost a sandal to the mud/sand/garbage slurry of the road…fantastic. I’ve uploaded some pictures of the roads around here…

I’ve also noticed that many if not most of the children in Punta Ocote do not wear sneakers or other footwear throughout the day (even though many DO have shoes). As the children trek through streets barefoot, they pick up many intestinal worms (definitely a public health concern)…which is one of the main reasons why children here receive de-worming medications every 6 months.

In the afternoon we watched the United States v. England (1-1) game at our neighbor Ramon’s house and then went to talk to Jose Ramon, a local man who has his own sustainable organic garden…we were hoping to recruit his help to spread sustainable farming throughout Punta Ocote…and he agreed to help. We're meeting with him again tomorrow to start our own sample garden at the clinic. Also tomorrow I am also attending church for the first time in my life...and it will all be in spanish haha. I'll leave you all with a picture of the gardeners cute puppies...the first ones that I've seen that weren't malnourished in Honduras...

Hasta Luego, Marc

Yoro and The New Clinic

6/8/10

Mid-June begins the rainy season in Honduras. For the last two nights we have experienced strong rain storms and for the last two days we have not had any running water at the house…there is no answer for this phenomenon except, this is Honduras. Without running water we have resorted to using the pila, or large cement water container outside the house. I am starting to get the hang of bucket showers which are quite refreshing after a day in the heat.

…Because of the heavy rain yesterday, I was unable to post for the day so here it is enjoy!

Today were heading to Yoro for the day to visit with Rita, the health director of Yoro, a city of 20,000 with a municipality of over 75,000 people. Punta Ocote is a municipality of Yoro and it is a 40 min drive to the larger city. Traveling through Honduras we are constantly surrounded by vast mountain ranges, somewhat like the Catskill mountain range but spanning the entire country. The topography of the land is so beautiful especially because so much remains either untouched or as farm land...even my brother Kenny would enjoy a drive through the country. While in Punta, we are having our laundry done by Jenny, one of our neighbors for 12 lps or about 60 cents. She does the laundry by hand, I plan on helping her next time should be pretty cool to help out. Once we got to Yoro we got a tour from the head nurse Mariana. After walking through the maternal ward and the small analysis lab, we met with the director of the hospital. We discussed the hospital and some of the problems that they have been experiencing. One of the biggest problems facing the hospital is that they have had a broken anesthesiology machine for 3 months. Because of this problem, they have had to suspend all surgeries requiring general anesthesia until a new machine can be acquired. Within the year, the hospital has had to deal with 3 low quality machines which continue to break in part due to the high humidity. Another problem that the hospital must deal with is a lack of specialists and the lack of accountability that the doctors have. At any given time the doctors can leave and there is no mechanism to regulate the doctors actions.

We then met with the director of the healthcare system in Yoro who gave us a general lesson on the structure of the Honduran health system. In Honduras there 18 regions, one of them being Yoro, which itself contains 3 cesamos or health centers. These cesamos are supposed to have both doctors and dentists for the community to access, however only one has a dentist. In Yoro there is no ambulance to the larger cities (San Pedro de Sula, El Progresso, or Tegucigalpa) in the case of an emergency. In the case of an emergency, the people here will either walk or take the bus which can take hours. The hospital also lacks a supply of correct medicines as well as an effective means of transport to get people to the hospital, like an ambulance…they are now using motorcycles to transport patients to the hospital. The hospital charges 5 lps per consultation but less than half can actually pay. I presented my walking group program and she seemed to really like the idea. She believes that one of the biggest problems will be the cultural machismo (or the attitude of the men) who may not want their women taking part in this activity. However, Punta is a little more open so the people there may be more receptive to the idea. We then visited one of the cesemos in Yoro and spoke with a nurse about how the facility operated…She also had a razor phone like many of the people here…sorry pops.

After a quick walk through Yoro we grabbed a bite to eat and I stopped at a local vender and bought some guineos (bananas). When we returned to Punta Ocote we quickly toured a hortiliza (vegetable farm) which required us to do some considerable hiking through the woods.

At night I wrote my presentation for the hypertension group (in Spanish) to be discussed during the hypertension group town meeting tomorrow afternoon, I think it will be very important, if it makes any sense haha. Time for bed as I fall asleep to rain drops on our metal roof, Adios.

6/9/10

This morning we woke up and headed to the clinic to help out for the day. On the way I stopped at the internet café to have my Walking Group presentation spell checked by Carmine, the café attendant. She took about 25 minutes to correct it so I guess I had a lot of mistakes J Afterwards I spent some time further explaining the program to Christina, one of the health promoters, who I asked to present the program to the community.

At the clinic David, Hannah, and I spent the morning unpacking medications and taking an inventory of all the medications of the clinic. After everything was neatly organized and accounted for we took a break for lunch and I took a nap :P This is the store room before we began to take an inventory...

En la tarde (afternoon) we headed back to the clinic for the hypertension group meeting and my walking group proposal was presented to the group. This was the first big step in the implementation of the program and I think it went well.

Tomorrow we are heading out into the Aldeas (surrounding rural villages) to take a nutrition survey and also raise awareness and gage community interest in the walking groups.

...Also a link to my blog is featured on the homepage of the CALS admissions homepage check it out!

http://www.cals.cornell.edu/cals/prospective/admissions/index.cfm

Hasta Luego, Marc

Visiting the Hypertension Group (well sort of)

Buenas,

Today we saw the opening of the clinic and the first patients that were admitted, it was a small child with tonsillitis. After we left, we headed to the houses of individuals in the hypertension group for Punta Ocote and the surrounding municipalities. We brought with us una promotora Christine. She is a local health promoter trained to advise the community on health related subjects such as disease and general hygiene. The promotoras are the key contacts in the community through which we are able to implement our public health interventions. We met with one man and his family deep in the woods whose house did not have electricity. Next we set out to meet with other members of the hypertension group to remind them about the group meeting on Wednesday. On our way to meet with one of the members, our truck got stuck...in the middle of a river! Yess a river we tried pushing and everything but the truck sunk deeper and deeper. Luckily a man named Jose came along on his horse and helped us push...to no avail. Then he told us that he had oxen and that he would come back with them to help us out. He did...have you ever seen Ox pull a truck out of a river? Well you soon will the pictures will be uploaded soon. While the ox were very strong, they were clumsy and had great difficulty pulling the truck out of the sandy barge. I guess word spreads quickly in the aldeas (small towns). Soon a man Hector and another man along with a elderly women and her 8 or 9 children showed up and came to our rescue. We abandoned the Ox idea and opted for raw man power instead. Using a large tree trunk as a jack and the arms of many people we lifted the truck and were able to place planks of wood underneath the tires. Using this method we were able to get out of the river and onto the opposite bank. After about 3 hours the ordeal was over! We drove back exhausted from the truck lifting episode and decided to return another day...on foot...or hopefully horseback o yeaa. David, Hannah, and I were able to walk around Punta to acquaint ourselves with the community. We made a quick stop at the internet cafe (where I am now) before we're going to set out again. Tonight I am going to continue working on my Walking group intervention and develop a presentation for Rita, who we are meeting with tomorrow. Rita is the Health Director of the province of Yoro, sorta like a big deal. Wish me luck, hopefully she likes our ideas. Tonight we are eating once again with Ramon and Jessica and their family...should be muy delicioso. If anyone following has any questions or comments, commenting is open to the public and anyone can post on my blog so enjoy! Saludos, Marc

In Punta Ocote for a while

We got groceries for the following week this morning and headed to Punta Ocote, a 2 hour drive west through the mountains into the less tropic side of the country. 4 of us are staying in a 2 bedroom house that the NGO rents out. After settling in, we had lunch with a local family Ramon and Jessica and their 2 children. Ramon is the leader of the local health committee, a big reason that SJ is able to work and thrive in Punta. We then took a short ride to the brand new clinic build with finances from the NGO and money raised by the local community. The clinic opens its doors to it's first patients tomorrow so it will be a very exciting day. We will be visiting it at 7am for its opening. I am developing a walking program for the women in the hypertension group of the community. This will be very exciting once implemented in the community. Gotta run again...we are eating dinner with Ramon and Jessica again. Next time I will be adding some pictures...cross your fingers! Saludos, Marc

First day in El Progresso and La Guacamaya

Spent my first day in the town of el Progresso today and started it with a bowl of Cheerios with sliced mango, which is amazing. We went to the marcado (market) and there where so many people in the streets, the unemployment rate in Honduras is around 35%. We visited a few stores and I picked up a Honduras cupo de mundo Soccer jersey for 140 lps or about 8$. After we left we headed to La Guacamaya to visit the clinic the Salud Juntos (SJ) runs. The government recently gave the clinic more infant vitamens...more as in enough to give an entire box of vitamens to each infant in the community. Meanwhile, the clinic lacks many other important medicines and vaccinations, Honduras has a serious miscommunitcation in the way that they allocate their medical resources. This clinic was also interesting because it houses the only dental clinic in a 20 mile driving radius, an entire days walk for many people here. While the clinic was closed today we met with the staffed medical assistant Angela. When we arrived she called for the police to escourt us for our protection, and three of them fully armed with automatic weapons arrived in 5 minutes. La Guacamaya has had a problem with shootings and violence in the past. As we left the police escorted us in their truck with the lights flashing to ensure that we were safe. After this, we went to Megamall, a mall that is very far in the developmental stages of the country (I ate at a Quiznos). In the grocery store their was 2 entire aisles of different vegetable oils and animal lard, two large staples in the Honduran diet, also very unhealthy and one of the prime reasons for the high level of youth and young adult hypertension in the country. We picked up groceries for our stay in Punta Ocote which is where we will be leaving for tomorrow. There I will be working with the local health promoters on a hypertension program...more details to follow. I visited the local hospital, and were given a tour by a Dr. Murcia who had a star of david around his neck, but was not jewish...very interesting and amusing. He was recently unemployed until 2 days ago and now works in a sweat shop down here. The government often does not pay its doctors on time and there are frequent strikes by goverment paid doctors. I am writing from a REAL internet cafe in el Progresso, so I must be quick look at the cool letters ¿ñç lol. Sweet Carmine is cooking us dinner tonight and we leave for Punta in the morning. Also you cant make left turns in Honduras, even though there are no road signs to tell you this...or the police will flag you down and tell you not to do it again haha. Hopwfully I can add pictures soon so Til next time! -Marc

Touched down in the land where the skies are blue

After 9 hours of travel from JFK to Miami and finally to San Pedro Sula in Honduras, I have finally arrived at my destination. Flying out of Miami I sat next to cute little girl with her mother who were going back home to Honduras. Lesson of the day…my Spanish is a little rusty! When the girl began asking me about my cell phone in Spanish I realized that I need some practico, mucho practico. Over the next 2 months this will be something that I will strive to work on. Flying into San Pedro Sula was unlike any airport I have ever been too. The airport is located in the middle of a vast sea of plantations and sugar cane farms...nothing else. When we landed our plane was the only commercial plane at the airport (the others were small biplanes). After passing through customs with my 55lb luggage bag (yea I brought too much), we were greeted by Sheridan and Robin and their diesel Isuzu pickup truck. We headed out to el Progresso (a 20 minute ride) to stay with Carmine, a local Honduran who graciously has opened her home to us for the next 2 nights. On the way I again experienced the amazing driving that goes on in Central America. No police cars and no speed limits, the biggest obstacles are potholes, bicyclists, and horses in the middle of the roads. Carmine lives in a modest house with 4 small bedrooms and no AC, the humidity today is through the roof. On the whole el Progresso is not that poor of a town and the signs of Americanization are astounding. I am writing this blog from el boulevard de gringos (White Boulevard). There is a Pizza Hut, a Popeye’s chicken, and a KFC (I am using the wifi here to send out my entry). We’ll be in el Progresso until Sunday at which point we’ll be heading to rural town of Punta de Ocote, about 2 hrs away. Next update…wherever there is internet J Saludos, Marc

My First Blog...Still packing

WELCOME!

Thanks to everyone who has decided to follow my summer blog as I begin working with several NGOs in Honduras. I apologize as this is my first (and probably last) blog that I ever make so please have patience as I try and figure everything out. I will be using this page over the next 2 months to post photos and keep a running record of my experiences in Central America. Right now I am still in the packing stages of my trip :0. My flight to San Pedro leaves at 7:00 am Friday morning so stay tuned...the adventure is yet to come :)