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
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