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.

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.