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