A few photos...

Phewf! My legs are tired!

In the last four and a half weeks I’ve been busy, busy, busy, visiting and interviewing 118 houses in San Jose. That’s every house San Jose Centro, Guanacaste and El Horno. If have you been to San Jose or have read much of this blog, you’ll know that represents a veritable mountain of hiking, like ten hours “on the road” every day… and it’s been great!

I could spin a few yarns about all the amazing people I’ve met or all the frustrations and successes of conducting research that I have encountered, but in the interest of time (mine and yours), this entry will just be a few pictures. Consider a journey of self-portraits. Once I get back stateside, with this preliminary phase of my research behind me, I promise more words!


A tranquil Sunday afternoon on my porch, making the map of the community so that I can find all these houses again the next time. Note my new sombrero... pretty handsome!


This is the face that says "eek, I´ve been lost for an hour now in the midday sun and I would really like to find my trail again!" Note the shirt soaked with sweat. This was on the way to map a new water project that we are considering funding.


Every night you´ll find me here, in the mini-lab in my bedroom running tests on the water from each house I visitted that day. My room smells like bacteria/poop from all the stuff that grows in the water tests. Yuck... both for me and also for the people that have to drink the water.


A few kids enjoying the gringo show. This was when I was checking in on the water project in Portillon... which is now completely done!!!


After a day of seeing only houses made from sticks and mud, this is the biggest smile I could muster in front of this home to 7. I was waiting for the owner, who was down below in the field.


In my kitchen taking a big bite of the "dough" for my birthday tomales. We spent 8 hours making 110 of them, and boy were they delicious!! We shared them with everyone after church.


A sign! ... there must have been a gringo here! Maybe I'll buy one of these filters so that I can have this clean water I've been hearing about....

And last but no least, be sure to check out our newest addition to the this website "Gifts of Health: The San Jose Partners Alternative Gift Shop." The site is an avenue to donate one of our interventions in the name of someone, and in turn receive a gift card you can give them. Take a look! http://www.sanjosepartners.org/whatyoucando/page27/page27.html

Love to all,

mateo

PS. If anyone is interested, here is the abstract of my research proposal:

"Multiple studies have demonstrated that various point-of-use water treatment methods can reduce diarrheal disease burden in resource-poor communities. The health benefits of such interventions are greater in trials in which a higher percentage of households properly utilize the water treatment method. Despite this reality, there remains a paucity of research comparing the relative ability of different implementation schemes to affect compliance and disease reduction. With this theoretical basis in mind, this study proposes to pilot a household water treatment intervention in the community of San Jose, Honduras, in order to 1) test its ability to reduce diarrheal incidence, and 2) determine if an implementation protocol with community health worker follow-up yields better compliance and outcomes compared to an implementation program with no follow-up. 100 households will be randomly assigned to one of three groups: intervention, intervention plus follow-up, or control, in which participants will continue with their customary water handling practices. A pre-intervention survey will assess baseline household characteristics, water access, source, treatment and handling, hygiene practices, sanitation facilities and diarrheal prevalence. Interviews at three months and six months will assess compliance, satisfaction, and diarrheal prevalence. Water from the point of consumption will be sampled at each visit to verify microbiological efficacy. Ultimately, the results of this study will provide valuable information about how to best implement further water treatment interventions, both in San Jose and elsewhere."

A Day in the Life

A Day in the Life is more than just a great Beatles song, it's also a (hopefully) interesting look into the life of Mateo. So, with no further ado, come with me as I recap yesterday, Sunday, the 11th of Noviembre….

I wake up at 6:30am and eat oatmeal, which is lovely. It is a crisp morning.

From 7:30am to 8:00am I walk to the next community over, called “Guanacaste.” It is the day when all the moms with kids under 2 years old come to one house to have their babies weighed. As part of my research we a looking for changes in growth patterns secondary to decreased diarrheal disease burden, as a result of cleaner water provided by the filters. To figure this out, I’m teaching the community health volunteers to use an “infantometer” to measure the babies. This is a device in which you sandwich the little guys lengthwise, thereby getting a “height” (it is also a tool, incidentally, that I had quite a good time making from local materials). Anyway, I spent the morning teaching the health worker and weighing and measuring 27 little dudes and dudettes.

I would say the baby-weighing was fun, which it was in many ways, but that wouldn’t be truly fair, because it was also really, really sad. I actually found myself tearing up at one point (which I quickly repressed with my well-trained lacrimal-control abilities, because I am a manly man… and everyone would think I was crazy if they saw me crying). Why was I crying? Well, a kid would come over to the table to get measured, I would look at him and think, “that’s a cute 6 month old,” then we would get his name and birth date and the kid would be a year old. A YEAR old. Over half the kids we measured were more than three standard deviations below the mean for height and weight for their age. THREE standard deviations. That means they are so malnourished that they are growing more poorly than 95% of the kids in the world.. As if it isn’t bad enough this helpless little kid is so freaking malnourished that he’ll never grow to his full potential, physically or intellectually, I then lay him on the infantometer and see the distinctive lesions of scabies in the creases of his ankles. Great, so this kid it being screwed for life AND he itches all the time from an easily preventable and treatable infection? Yeah, that’s fair. It’s somewhat satisfying to know that I’m here doing what I can to give this kid a chance, but it still breaks my heart to see such needless suffering.

Anyway, I get back home at 12;30pm and there are three people waiting for me on my porch, each with a different project they want to discuss. I arrange a date for GPS-mapping a water project with an adorable, incredibly strong, 65 year old woman, get out cookstove parts for one guy, grab latrine parts for another, and finally get to throw some pasta on by 1:00pm.

1:30 to 2:00 I “read” my water tests from the day before, which means I count the number of bacteria on each Petri dish that has been treated with water from a house. There are A LOT of fecally-derived bacteria in each dish. As my mentor would say, “the water is chewy with poop.”

Church starts at 2, two buildings down from me, and I head down for the “celebration.” I enjoy church for the community it provides, and also for the time for reflection, but in terms of delivered content, I can’t say I get much out of it… Why? Well, nobody can really read, which makes everything somewhat unintelligible to the gringo who needs his Spanish read with pauses in the right places! Anyway, Church was a hoot this week. We’re talking a great-horned-owl size hoot. Why? The music. There is this guy who recently got a guitar. Apparently, he doesn’t know how to tune it. Also, as he told me, he “just learned by himself.” This turns out to mean that he made up his own chords, which he plays in whatever sequence he chooses, in a rhythm not in time with the song. It’s hard to convey the sound that occurs during a “hymn,” but I would relate it most closely to a nursery with lots of hungry babies. It is full of joy and praise, but, for someone used to an organ and trained singers, it is also very, very entertaining.

Church goes till 4 and then I walk 30 minutes up to “town” to get water test supplies from a freezer where they are stored. I chat with people along the way; learning about how Felipe snuck across the border to work in a Chinese restaurant in Virginia and how everyone is really happy that Barack Obama took the cake. (Maybe that’s why I like it here, because everyone loves Obama!)

I buy 3 “baleadas” (flour tortilla, refriend beans, salty cheese and butter) from an outside, questionably-sanitary foodstand on the way back down. Back home, I eat, wash the stacks of dishes that have been piling up in the busy preceding days, enter some data from my research, call the lady-friend, and turn in around 10pm. It was just another Honduras day!

Love to all,

mateo

A quick post-brigade update

I’m on the run to catch a bus, so this won’t be copious, but thought I should squeeze out a quick little something for all of you....

1. Business:

The brigade from the Department of Family Medicine at UR was here for the last two weeks, so there is something new to report for almost every project! Since there is so much to report, I’ll leave most of the explaining to the upcoming brigade report, where it can be more fairly represented. In the meantime, here’s a short list of highlights:

- The next phase of the Water Project in Portillon was begun. 6.5 kilometers of pipe and materials were bought and carried down to the community by foot.

- The scholarship applications where finished, during a meeting with all the parents of sixth graders.

- Dr. Lindsay and I gave and instructed teachers from area schools in the use of a new curriculum kit on measurements.

- 3 microfinance applicants were interviewed and 2 received a loan.

- I met with Honduras-based microfinance orgnaziation “Adelante Foundation” and made first steps towards a partnership working together in San Jose.

- A parternship between the brigade and the community’s agricultural coop was begun, so that more people can take advantage of low-cost fertilizer.

- More latrines and cookstoves were built.

- Health education was provided through skits at schools, discussions at latrine building days, women’s meetings and conversations in the clinic.

- And a whole lot more... but that hopefully that gives you an idea!

2. Blog

Right, so like I said above, the big story of the last two weeks can be spelled B-R-I-G-A-D-E-! Fourteen physicians, nurses, physician’s assistants and medical students from the University of Rochester (plus one from Colorado) descended upon San Jose and turned by tranquil little hamlet into a bustling gringo metropolis. I loved having them there. It was a productively fun time. AND, perhaps more importantly, we had a phenomenal cook who prepared three hot meals a day. THAT was really incredible! It was my goal to gain weight. I'm not sure I succeeded (a stomach virus got in my way), but I’m pretty sure I didn’t lose any. What a success!

Aside from all the brigade wonderfulness (again, wait for the upcoming brigade trip report, which will be posted on this site, for brigade details. a pile of pictures will also be available shortly, through this site.), a few other recent developments deserve note in this short update.

First, as I mentioned to some of you while home, one of my good friends here, Lacero, had been sick for quite a while before I came home. We tried to go to the local health center twice in the first two weeks I was back, but both times the doctor wasn’t there. So, I asked him to come on the first morning of the brigade to get checked out, and as I suspected, Dr. Lindsay was very concerned that he had advanced tuberculosis (Tb). Over the coming days, we helped him get to the hospital for testing, though which we confirmed the diagnosis of active Tb.

I was agry, scared and sad. Angry at the local health center: They saw him TWO times with clear signs of Tb and never did the testing. The just gave him a vitamin shot, both times. Scared for his health: Tb should be easily treatable, but after 4 months of active disease and signs of involvement outside the lungs, it’s very frightening. Sad that my friend has to suffer like this: Tb is easily preventable, easily diagnosed and relatively easily treated, but because he is poor, without access to healthcare, it has progressed to a dangerous level. Disease of poverty are not fair. That's why I’m here.

With the help of the brigade, Lacero has started treatment and I’m feeling very hopeful for his full recovery.

Secondly, and lastly, for that matter, I’m all amped up to start my research project this Monday! Monday to Friday over the next 4 weeks, I’ll be visiting every one of the 112 houses in San Jose and Guanacaste, doing a baseline interview, weighing and measuring the babies, taking a water sample, and trying to convince them that they want a Potters for Peace Ceramic Water Filter. On Saturdays I’ll be doing the filter distribution workshops. On Sundays I’ll be attending to all the other projects that are still going on. It’s going to crazy-busy, crazy-fun and hopefully quite successful.

That’s all I have time for now, but I hope this little taste is enough to tide you over till the next...

Know that I love and miss you all every day,

Mateo

Back in Hondu

SCHOLARSHIPS FOR CHILDREN TO ATTEND MIDDLE SCHOOL
- Visited all 5 schools, met with sixth grade teachers and students, gave each their respective part of the application, and instructed them how to fill them out.
- All sixth grade students and their parents will come to a meeting in San Jose Centro on 10/27 at 1pm. They will meet members of the brigade, hear about the requirements of the scholarship program and fill out the parent part of the application. This will be the final part of the application process.

CURRICULUM MODULES FOR LOCAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
- Teachers from all 5 schools will talk at their meeting this Friday and decide the best day for the seminar about the new curricula. Teachers from El Horno will be attending this time!

PIPED WATER DISTRIBUTION PROGRAM IN PORTILLON
- These guys are good! In five days, they cleaned, laid, connected and buried all the tubing from source to distribution tank.
- Distribution tank is overflowing with water from the three springs.
- This week they are digging the trenches for the distribution lines to the homes, in hopes the brigade will fund the next portion.
- All 31 families that will benefit showed up for a day of communal labor yesterday, preparing the road so the brigade buses can get down.

VIP LATRINE PROJECT
- The first latrine will be built on 10/20 at the house of Maria Sanchez, in San Jose.
- 1-2 recipients from each of the communities will come to learn from the man himself, "El Doctor Douglas".
- Following this, construction in other communities will begin.
- Recipients are aware they must do 2 days of communal labor before receiving their roofing sheets and have been out in force the last 2 days working on several community projects.

IMPROVED COOKSTOVE (FOGON) PROJECT
- El Doctor and Apolinar will give the first workshop on 10/24 at the school kitchen in Guanacaste. All recipients from Guanacaste will be in attendance. The community will provide all local materials.
- El Doctor will also experiment with a new stove design at the Guanacaste school.
- Recipients are aware they must do 1 day of community labor before receiving their chimney cap.
- Materials for both latrines and cookstoves will be here by the end of the week.

CENSUS
- The idea was discussed at the community meeting. The community thinks this it's a great idea, but volunteers weren't quickly forthcoming. So far, three people have volunteered to participate. There will be meeting about this at 1pm on 10/21.

AGRICULTURE
- Community members are very interested in the prospects of help in avoiding large swings in the market price of fertilizer. They like the idea of the brigade buying fertilizer when it is cheaper, storing it until needed but more expensive, and then selling it at cost to community members.
- I expect a large turnout at the Agriculture meeting at 8am on 10/21.

MIDWIVES AND MADRE GUIAS
- Will meet with Elia and Dr. Lindsay at 8am on 10/22

MICROFINANCE
- All applicants have been notified about the status of the loan (17 declined, possibly 3 accepted). Microfinance committee, you owe me an ice-cream Sunday when I get home for breaking such bad news to so many desperately needy people!
- All applicants were told of new loan terms and encouraged to attend the microfinance meeting on 10/23 at 1pm. I expect a large turnout.

POTTERS FOR PEACE FILTERS
- Elia is on board to provide the community health worker follow-up starting in December.
- I will begin visiting every house in San Jose and Guanacaste, starting November 2nd, to take a baseline survey, weigh children under 2, take a water sample and "sell" the filter.
- A workshop and filter distribution day will occur on every Saturday of November.
- We currently have 50 filters in San Jose and are still waiting for 50 more.

BLOGS AWAY….

Wow, before writing that "business" part I was trying to figure out how the last week and a half went by so quickly… now I know!

So yes, I'm back and busier than ever. It was a crash landing, once again, with language difficulties, lots of rain, a perpetually drunk foreman and the unavoidable "culture shock." But all's good now!

My Spanish is back with a bang. I actually understood several jokes today, which is a big step.

It rained pretty steadily for the first 5 days I was here. In the last 5 days there has been very little rain and lots of sun… everyone keeps telling me "here comes the summer." It won't rain a drop from the beginning of November until April.

Here I am on my porch chatting with a neighbor and Manual (The brigade's community point-man and also perhaps the fastest speaker on earth). Note the rain.

Concerning the drunk foreman… The culture around alcohol in rural Honduras is complicated and unhealthy. To curb the drinking problem, the government decided to make the state where I live "dry," ie, no one can legally buy or sell alcohol. So, of course, cheap, high-proof alcohol gets smuggled in and a culture of "all or nothing" is born. Apolinar, my neighbor, good friend and our latrine foreman was drunk for my entire first week in San Jose. Prior to this, I had only seen him drink once before. No one ever could, or would, explain to me why he went on this sudden binge, except to say "when he drinks, he usually goes for while." Figuring out how to act, and not act, and what to say, and not say, was quite a cultural challenge. Fortunately, he decided to stop drinking on the morning of our big meeting, for which he was needed, and was able to participate despite his clear withdrawal. Since then he's been his normal, wonderful self, as if nothing happened. I'm glad to have my neighbor back.

Speaking of the meeting, we had another big (80 people) community meeting one week after my return. It was a huge success! In addition to organizing all the projects listed above, we made some great strides in terms of sustainably organizing the community.

We evaluated and modified our current methods of communication: The phone/foot tree we designed last time reached about half the people, a solid result. The signs I walk around and hang up reached the other half of the people and were something that people wanted to see continue. At my suggestion, they designed a system for the communities to distribute and hang them themselves in the future.

Also, in order to satisfy their work requirements with the projects, and to help Manuel prepare for the brigade, each community chose a day this week to come and do community labor. The last two days Mangal and Portillon have come, bringing 15 and 33 people respectively! It has been an incredible show of community solidarity.

To the great amusement of everyone at the meeting, I took this panoramic while Manuel was facilitating the discussion. I love this photo. This is what it's all about. These are the people it's all about. They are here, they are involved and they're ready to make it happen.

And in case you don't believe that I'm actually doing any of what I say, here's an action shot from the meeting.

As a final note, since returning, one of the biggest changes has been how the kids respond to me. As I mentioned before, standing at a distance and staring used to be the norm. I don't know if it was the photos I brought back for a few of them or if time has quelled the weirdness of the Gringo, but suddenly I'm the coolest thing this side of the Rio Negro. Greeting me warmly, talking to me, and generally being fun is the new norm. Also, whereas literally one child wanted a picture before, now they can't get enough photos. Quite a reversal. My favorite, though, is when I'm walking on some random path and suddenly I hear a little voice yelling "Mateo!" in that distinctive way that only Honduran schoolchild can. It's been a fun change.

Here's one of my new-found friends. Definitely note that he is ridiculously cute (and I have no idea why he decided to pose that!), but also note a few statements about life in San Jose: The stick is firewood for the volunteer mothers to use while cooking the government-provided lunch, likely his best meal of the day. The plastic bag contains all his school supplies: A notebook and a few pencils. He is barefoot. You can't see his teeth, but trust me, you wouldn't want to. Would you want you child learning like this?

With no further ado, let me sign off with a few other photos…

In my kitchen with my 4 year old neighbor, Wilson. He and his brother (the photographer) offered me a very warm welcome back.
Did I mention there was a huge tarantula in my kitchen? Well, there was. Here's how he measured up against my machete…. that puts him at about 4 inches in diameter!

I already miss you all and look forward to Christmas-time reunions,

-mateo

A post from the States

Well, I’ve been home almost a week now, so I suppose I can’t justify waiting much longer to get this blog entry up!

First, the business:

SCHOLARSHIPS FOR CHILDREN TO ATTEND MIDDLE SCHOOL
- Home visits with photos completed in Portillon and El Horno. All information sent to Barbara Gawinski and the First Unitarian Scholarship Committee.

CURRICULUM MODULES FOR LOCAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
- No new updates.

PIPED WATER DISTRIBUTION PROGRAM IN PORTILLON
- Materials list sent to Marvin. Still awaiting delivery of these parts, but the Portillon men are ready to go as soon as parts arrive.

PIPED WATER DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM IN LA CALERA
- Look! People were immensely proud to show me their water!

VIP LATRINE PROJECT
- Lists of people from each community who lack and/or want a new latrine were gathered at the community meeting on 8.21.08. Four families from each community, each without a latrine currently, were randomly chosen out of a hat. These 24 (total=6x4) families will each dig the pit and collect the local materials in the coming month. Workshops, donated material distribution and construction will begin after the October community meeting.

IMPROVED COOKSTOVE (FOGON) PROJECT

-All the interested families (ranging 4-8 per community) were instructed to gather the local materials and build the mesa in the coming month. Workshops, donated material distribution and construction will begin after the October community meeting.

ESTABLISHING A CATARACT SURGERY CENTER IN SANTA LUCIA
- Updates on contacts and location details sent to Deepak Sobti.

POTTERS FOR PEACE FILTER PROJECT IN SAN JOSE
- Currently grinding away trying to get RSRB approval. The project should begin when I return in October.

Second, “da blog.”

Well, I would be lying if I told you there wasn’t a good deal of “culture shock” going on as I sit in the student union at the University of Buffalo typing this entry (I’m here for the day to support Kirsten as she begins Social Work grad school!). I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: America is WEIRD!

What do I mean by “weird?” I guess what I really mean is surreal. Excluding the wealthiest 1/6 of humanity, the “normalcy” of life here is really a dream. Many more people, like billions more people, live like I do in Honduras than like I do in the United States. When you think on the global scale (which I hope we all try to do), my living conditions in Honduras are normal, not my living conditions in the States.

I won’t wax on too much more about our need to reinterpret our reality as “surreality,” but let me just give an example of what I see when I’m back: When I walked into my apartment, a modestly-sized, sparsely furnished, circa 1950’s white box, I felt as though I was in a palace. Everything was so perfect. The quality of the construction, the photos behind clean glass on the walls, the shiny floors, the road bikes leaning casually, the plants, the bright electric lights, the windows that close tightly and have screens, the temperature, the quiet… Everything. My “modest” American home would be the nicest building in my “state” in Honduras, hands down. That is weird. I’ve spent healthy chunks of time in really impoverished places before, but this is the first time it has ever emotionally struck me just how ridiculous our “normal” is.

I know, I know, I promised I wouldn’t drone on and make this too “bloggy,” so, moving on…. Honduras!

The last two weeks here were a whirlwind of activity, disappointment and excitement. I was cruising along, finding some free time to study Spanish and visit more schoolchildren at their houses, when I received a rather weighty email from Brianna, the Peace Corps Volunteer who was effectively my “site mate.” Brianna had left about a week earlier for her first return to the States in a year, but the email didn’t bring the cheery report of warm showers and friends that I would have expected.

Instead, the email reported that there had been a miscommunication between Brianna and the Peace Corps about her date of departure. To make a long story short, she left two days earlier than she was supposed to, the Peace Corps found out, and they decided that was grounds for termination of her service. Brianna had been forced to resign and she wasn’t going to come back. Period. Never mind the unfinished programs she had started, the unfinished mentorships she had formed, the un-emptied house she had left behind, and the suddenly-solo Mateo in San Jose. Suddenly, with one slip-up, it was over. Without a doubt, it was an overly strict and short-sighted decision by the Peace Corps. I will immensely miss my site-mate, as will everyone in and around San Jose with whom she had formed really wonderful relationships.

So, already bummed about the loss of Brianna, I was now presented with a lot of sudden changes in planning. Most notably, we had scheduled another community meeting for the last Saturday of the month, which she was going to run. With Brianna gone, the only option was for yours-truly to host the meeting before he departed. So off I went to rally the troops and prepare for a second community meeting.

Here the story takes much of the form of the last community meeting… I walked for several days to spread the word, scrambled to get guidance from the powers-that-be in Rochester about where we wanted to go next with the projects, and then woke up early on the morning of the meeting with much nervous energy pouring through my body…

This time the meeting was supposed to start at 8am, and by 8:15am there were 3 people there. “Phewf,” I thought, “leading this meeting alone, in Spanish, won’t be so bad with just a few people” … Then about 60-65 other people showed up! Yeehhhaaawwww! I had a huge and eager crowd on my hands!

With just me at the helm, this time with no language crutch to lean on, we plunged into the meeting. And it worked!

As requested, leaders from each community had brought lists of people from their community that lack latrines and/or improved cookstoves. Using these, we set out to decide who would be the next to receive latrines and improved cook-stoves. As we were only able to fund 4 more latrines in each community (a total of 24), and since favoritism is so rampant (ie, the “rich” families often get the projects first, even though they need them less), I busted out my sombrero, put in the names of all the needy families, had an oblivious little girl draw names, and decided with an old-fashioned name-out-of-the-hat technique. Recipient families were thereby decided upon with great fairness (and much fascination at the process!), instructions were given about what work needed to be done by each family before I returned in October, and plans were made about where to go from here. It took 2.5 hours, but it went well!

The latrine and cookstove projects are set to take off again in October!

Ok, I feel as though I’ve probably already exceeded your attention span, so let me end with nothing more than a word of advice to all gringos heading to Central America: Isabel is a man’s name. That means you shouldn’t ask 100 people along the path if they know the “woman named Isabel” from their community. Even though you may not realize it, the laughs won’t be about your accent. Trust me!

Give me a jingle stateside if you’re yearning for more tales (585-698-6077),

Love to all,

Mateo

This was the view from my latrine the night before I left. Literally. I am lucky I have a latrine. I am also lucky this is out the front door of my latrine!

HOME!

Home again, home again, jiggidy jig!

As of yesterday, I'm back home for the first of my three returns to the USofA. It is WEIRD here!

I promise a more sufficient update later, but in the meantime, enjoy these pictures... most of them have been up here for a week or so (thanks, Kirsten!), but there are a few new photos and captions stuck in there too, so take another look... enjoy!

Here I am shamelessly taking self-timed photos of myself posting an announcement for the community meeting. This one is being posted on a "pulperia" (convenience store) in Guanacaste.

The meeting announcement. If you speak Spanish really well, please don't read it too closely, as you'll probably tear apart my grammar!

Coming back from Sunday market, looking very Honduran in my Sunday best, with my "matate" full of fruits and veggies.

Next, here are a few photos that happened when my neigbors, Wilson and Leonal,
discovered my camera and then proceeded to take, well, about 50 photos....I'm pouring water on his head. Wilson never knew what was coming....

Leonel, the photographer, figuring out that he can take photos of himself. What a face!

Setting up a shot with two of the student "guides" that helped me find
the houses in Potreros when I was taking photos for the scholarships.

The shot, which they loved.

This is one of the families I visited while taking pictures for the scholarships. They were striking both for their degree of poverty and their incredible kindness. The wall-less structure they are standing in front of is the house in which all six of them live. You are seeing the whole thing. That's it. For the photo, they all took a few minutes to put on their "nice clothes," wash off the soot from their arms and faces, and wet their hair; all this while I sat on their only chair, a plastic lawn chair that was sewn together along the seet and lacking a leg. I promised to bring them a copy of the photo when I return. It is for people like this that I am here.

Here I am walking back from the house in the prior picture. I hope this helps to show the grade of the land here in San Jose!

Surprise!

More soon.... Mateo

Hello again,

As and FYI: You need to CLICK ON “READ ARCHIVES” in the right hand column of this webpage to view the entirety of this post and the last entries. I couldn´t figure this out without the help of my ladyfriend, so I thought I´d share the wisdom….

First, business:

SCHOLARSHIPS FOR CHILDREN TO ATTEND MIDDLE SCHOOL
-All schools, teachers and students have been notified about the availability of 2 scholarships per school for this school year. Selection criteria and timelines where emphasized. Home visits with photos have been done for Potreros and Guanacaste. Visits to El Horno are scheduled. All information sent was to Barbara Gawinski and the First Unitarian Scholarship Committee.

CURRICULUM MODULES FOR LOCAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
- Information on current status of the modules and future directions for the project has been gathered and sent to Barbara Gawinski.

PIPED WATER DISTRIBUTION PROGRAM IN PORTILLON
- The tank is done! Now we wait for two months for the concrete to “cure.”
- Currently we are organizing and gathering final materials to lay the pipes from the source to the tank.

PIPED WATER DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM IN LA CALERA
- Completely done! I saw, with my very eyes, water flowing out of the spigots from multiple houses. Everyone was ecstatic to turn on their spigot and show me the water. Great work and many thanks to all who made this possible. The people of La Calera are extraordinarily grateful.

VIP LATRINE AND IMPROVED COOKSTOVE (FOGON) PROJECTS
- At a very successful and well-attended community meeting, I stressed the necessity of the community members to organize among themselves and form work groups before the projects can continue. To facilitate this, a volunteer from each community is compiling a list of the people in their community who lack a latrine or fogon and who want a latrine or fogon. Lists will be delivered to me on 8-15-08. From there, we can assess current need and decide how best to progress.

FLUORIDE PROJECT
- Elia (the Community Health Worker that staffs the clinic) is been given full charge of this program.

ESTABLISHING A CATARACT SURGERY CENTER IN SANTA LUCIA
- Currently at the proposed site. Information on resources sent to Deepak Sobti.

POTTERS FOR PEACE FILTER PROJECT IN SAN JOSE
-Discussed my research proposal with representatives from Portillon and La Calera. All expressed interest and will get back to me about the ability of community members to pay the proposed cost of the filters.

Second, the good stuff:

Two more weeks have cruised by, and so much has changed, in so many ways…

First, I just shaved my head. Or more accurately, a woman in Santa Lucia just shaved my head. She assumed my Spanish was just really bad and so she was quite resistant to go so short on a gringo, but eventually we got down to a nice #1 and #2 clipper-length buzz. It is quite becoming, but I will hold you in suspense for a photo. Insert evil laugh here.

Another big change is that my Spanish is making a strong surge. It’s still light-years from perfect, and many miles from great, but it’s getting there. This has made it possible to get out there a bit more, meet my neighbors, and get things going…

..which brings me to my first tale. So, last Saturday, two representative from our partner NGO, Hombro a Hombro, where supposed to come out to San Jose for a community meeting. The goal was to let the community know where we are now with the projects and to hear from them what their priorities are. At the prior meeting, there were 7 people there. It wasn’t enough to get anything done, and everyone was frustrated that so few people from the community was participating. SO, I took it upon myself to see if I could do something about this fall in involvement…

I spent three days spreading the word. I tromped around the trails, posted signs wherever there was a spot a few people would pass, visited each school and gave the kids a notice to take home to their parents, and just stopped at any house along the way where there were people outside, chatted it up, and told them about the meeting.

Well, the meeting was supposed to start at 10:00am. Hondurans, like most of Latin America, are chronically late (the 8:00 meeting the week before started around 10:30!). So, my two little piglet friends just about started to fly when, at 8:30am, people started showing up at my porch for the meeting. People were early! It was a good sign.

Now, as you may have noticed before, I wrote that the NGO representatives where “supposed to” come. Well, of course, after all the advertising, they called on Thursday night and said they couldn’t make it. Suddenly, it was just Brianna and I running the show. Needless to say, I was extremely nervous that my Spanish would crumble like the Berlin wall or go totally crazy like that suspension bridge that wiggled to death in the 1950’s. I’m pleased to report that it didn’t.

In all, about 45 people (over the age of 13, with plenty more under), representing six out of the seven communities, came to the meeting. Brianna and I gave a comprehensive overview of the status of each current project, fielded questions, and facilitated a few key organizational steps that will help everything more forward. If half of the things we planned actually happen, it was a huge success. And, selfishly, I have to say that I smiled mighty wide when several people went on and on about how happy they were that they found out about the meeting this time, from the posters and announcements at school!

This week, I’ve been climbing to each community all over again to visit the house of each sixth grader and take a picture of them at home (it’s the first part of the scholarship application to attend high school). So, you might be saying, a whole week to visit about 20 houses? I would say the same thing, but consider this: In Potreros, it took me 4.5 hours to visit five houses! Yeah, I’m going to me a hiking machine by the time I return.

Lastly, I should add that as far as the living situation goes, I’m adjusting quite nicely to the physical place. The challenge now is that living in the community building in a small town is kind of like living on main street without blinds, or like living in an aquarium. Now that kids and people are getting to know me, and since my neighbors are the school and the road everyone passes by, there is a fairly constant stream of people stopping by… or in the case of the children, hovering around. You would be amazed how fascinating the kids find it to watch a gringo eat dinner. I should patent myself and sell the rights to Disney, because I could be the next Hannah Montana of Latin America!

Ok, those are more of less the highlights. Sorry about the lack of pictures, but I'm not allowed to upload them from this satellite connection. Bummer. I'll see if I can add them later in the week... As for the next full post, it will probably be from the States when I return for my first stint in the US in 2 short weeks! Crazy.

Exited to see many of you soon and thinking of all of you very much,

With a salute from my bald head,

mateo

And some photos... The ¨green building¨ on my day of arrival.

My room upon arrival.

My room after getting things set up.

The kitchen/shower room after being set up.

Sorting out the sticks and stones from my beans, while sitting on my front porch. Note the two resident piglets that often keep me company!

A typical path. The ditch is for the pipes going to the storage tank in Portillon.

The path leading up to the new tank in Portillon (the tank is the yellow thing)

And now... HOW TO BUILD A FERRO-CEMENT WATER TANK....

Cut the rebar (in my front yard).

Carry the rebar down to Portillon (1-1.5 hours).

Prepare the hole for the tank.Add a layer of sand.

Lay the rebar and the outflow pipes.
Add a ton of hand-mixed concrete to make the foundation, while protecting the concrete from the scorching sun. Erect the form.

Mix up some concrete with fine sand to make the walls.

Add the mix to the walls of the tank in thin layers (while working inside the 100-degree greenhouse-like inside of the tank!).

Keep adding layers to the walls...

We´re not done yet. Keep tuning in for a photo of the finished product!

Until next time,

mateo

A

Hola Todos!

I’m eager to let this blog begin (finally!), but first a word about format… As this blog will (hopefully) have several different audiences, I’ve decided to divide all entries into two parts. The first, in bullet point format, will be the “work” information about what I am “doing” here. This will be as concise and factual as possible, intended for parties interested in information pertaining to the projects of San Jose Partners/URMC Family Medicine/Hombro a Hombro. For those in want of more, the second part of each entry will be more “bloggish.” This part will include my stories, thoughts and general musings about my life here in Honduras. As such, the second part is moreso directed at family, friends and anyone else who is interested in my experience. Ok, logistics now set, let the games begin!

- The primary goal of my first months here in San Jose is little more than to get to know what it where, who is who and how things get done (no small task, let me assure you!). As such, there isn’t yet much to report in the “work” category. That said, here’s my “to do” list and what I’ve got so far…

Scholarships for Children to Attend Middle School
o The teachers were on strike last week, so I’m still working on learning the “where and who.” Will start visiting teachers next week to disseminate the news on scholarship availability and to finalize student lists. I am currently arranging with teachers and Brianna (PCV) to do home visits and take pictures of students.

Curriculum modules for local elementary schools
o Have only asked in Portillon and they don’t currently have a module.
o Will also discuss this with teachers on my coming school visits.

Piped water distribution program in Portillon
o The people of Portillon are behind this 100% and are hard at work on building the system.
o Pipes are currently in storage in Mangal and will be installed after the distribution tank is completed.
o I have been helping/watching the construction of the Ferro-Cement Water Storage Tank in Portillon.
§ Manuel is directing and working with great gusto.
§ The men of Portillon are well organized and doing all the requested labor. In fact, even daily breakfast for the laborers is organized (and delicious). From what I understand about how things happen here in Honduras, this is really saying something!
o The tank will be completed by the end of this week.

Ventilated Improved Pit (VIP) Latrine Project
o I have helped/watched the construction of two latrines, at Don Pedro and Lorenzo’s houses in San Jose Centro.

Fluoride Project
o No news.

Establishing a Cataract Surgery Center in Santa Lucia
o Have met and spoken with Dr. Andy Morris about a site visit to assess the available resources.

Potters for Peace Filter Project in San Jose
o No new filters distributed.
o Gave a demonstration of filter assembly, usage and importance to a group of interested school children while assembling my filter (all quite by accident!)

Ok, now for the info that my parents are dying to read… namely, I’m here, I’m alive, I’m well and I’m eating enough. If you’re short on time, stop here, as that about sums it up….

In more words… After a week at Spanish school in a town called Copan Ruinas (home to the rightfully-famous Mayan ruins bearing the same name), a representative from Hombro a Hombro, the NGO under whose auspices I am here, drove me from San Pedro Sula (where the airport is) to my new home. To give you perspective on my location, by private vehicle (and I say this, because buses would be much slower), it is 3.5 hours on a highway, then 1.25 hours on a dirt road, and then 15 minutes straight down whatever you would call a dirt road that doesn’t really deserve the designation “road.” At this point you arrive in “downtown” San Jose Centro, home to an elementary school, a storage building, a one room church and “The Green Building.” Inside the Green Building, you’ll find the clinic/pharmacy (started by UR), and, if you look closely, the room I call home.

OK, so those are the facts of where I am, but here’s the story… So, during the ride out to San Jose, the driver took the opportunity to share his personal horror-stories about the difficulties of life in San Jose. After telling me, quite hyperbolically, that “if you can survive in San Jose, you can survive anywhere,” you can imagine how at ease I was upon arriving.

So we arrive, and, of course, no one is there to meet, greet or let me into my room. No problem. So, we wait a few minutes, church gets out, and suddenly there’s a San Jose-size deluge (about 30 people) of onlookers, curious about who this new gringo is. I have since learned that it’s just the Honduran way to stand 20 feet away and stare when a gringo comes along, but needless to say, at the time I didn’t have the luxury of understanding this cultural gem. Anyway, somehow, in the whirlwind of new people, Spanish that I couldn’t understand, and getting out housewares from storage that followed, my ride left and I found myself alone and trying to communicate with the group of community leaders now warmly welcoming me to San Jose.

Now, let me tell you, I knew my Spanish wasn’t great coming in, but at least I could talk reasonably well with my Spanish professors and host families. Not so in San Jose. The speed, accent and colloquial phrases that comprise the local dialect left me solidly in the dark. Perhaps even more problematic, the lack of speed and the lack of accent in my Spanish seemed to leave them in the dark as well. It’s hard to get to know someone when you can’t even figure out that they are asking you where you are from, and then when you figure this out, they can’t understand your response! For the next week (and still) this has proven perhaps the most challenging aspect of my time… learning to communicate and dealing with the isolation that a thick language barrier can create.

After surviving the crash-landing of an entry, I just set up a place to sleep before the electric-lightless night set in and waited for daybreak.

Since then, I’ve set up a reasonably comfortable and reasonably clean little house for myself. I’ll post a few pictures this weekend, but suffice it to say my room is a cozy cube and the kitchen is a functional, if not bright, dirt-floored addition off the back of the building. Very livable. Manuel and I even got some solar panels set up so I can charge my cellphone. Yes, that’s right, there is no electricity or running water, but I have cell phone service. Call me! (Country code 504) 9871-3650.

For the first two days, I mainly cleaned, set up house, walked to explore the area, tried to convince the 50 schoolchildren in my front-yard that I’m not scary, and practiced communicating (with the patient help of Elia, the community health worker who staffs the clinic in my building).

For every degree of poverty that exists in San Jose, there is an equally great degree of physical beauty. Quite literally, there isn’t a square inch of flat ground. All that surrounds you are beautiful, angular mountains, covered in semi-arid tropical forest. The terrain is strikingly beautiful, if not also a major barrier to poverty-alleviating development.

My Spanish improving, I’ve joined Manuel and Apolinar (two community member very active in the projects started by the brigades) in the construction of two Ventilated Improved Pit (or “VIP,” no pun intended) Latrines. It was a real treat to get my hands (and every other inch of my body) dirty alongside these very-motivated people. I’ve also spent a few days with the men of Portillon, constructing the storage tank for their water distribution system. As I mentioned above, these guys are amazing. Besides their unflinching willingness to perform tasks of amazing physical strength, like carrying 100lbs sacs of concrete on their backs down treacherous mountain paths for 1.5 hours, they have also been very inviting. I look forward to working with them as their water project moves forward.

Finally, I should report that yesterday I had the great pleasure of finally meeting Brianna, the Peace Corps Volunteer stationed an hour’s walk away. She did her best to show me what trail goes to which town, introduced me to seemingly every person in the area (including the mayor, who I had unknowingly shared a soda with the day before), treated me to the niceties of a house with electricity (ie, fresh baked banana bread!) and gave me a crash course in San Jose politics, culture and life. We will make a strong team here in the San Jose area.

As I have an hour to walk before I get home and the afternoon rains will soon be here, I will make this the end. It’s impossible to summarize the emotions (excitement, fear, loneliness, overwhelmed-ness, happiness and frustration) that have comprised my first week, but I hope that I’ve been able to give you enough of a sense of where I am such that you can put together the rest. To those of you I know and love, I miss you and think of you often. To those of you new to my world and my journey, welcome. I’m happy to share San Jose with you all….

Until the next time,

-mateo

Hi All

Hello All,

My name is Matt and I will be taking you with me (in a virtual way) over the next year as I live and work in San Jose Centro! Please read on to get an idea of where I’m coming from and where I’ll be going…

I am currently a second year medical student at the University of Rochester School of Medicine, but, starting this July, I will be taking a year out from my studies to immerse myself in the San Jose community. Awarded a grant to conduct global health research, I will be in San Jose as the 2008-2009 International Medicine Fellow from the University of Rochester. My research will evaluate two different methods of distributing Potters for Peace Ceramic Water Filters, with the hope that the results will allow us to expand the use of these filters within San Jose in the most effective manner possible. Beyond this research, I will also be the contact person and grunt laborer for all our ongoing projects in San Jose, including the ferro-cement water tanks, cook-stoves, microfinance initiatives, and on and on.

So that’s where I’m going, but where did I come from? Well, I grew up in the woods of Maine, stopped in Vermont for college, and have kept going west from there. If you come to Rochester, you’ll likely find me in some green area, either on my bike, in my running shoes or with a soccer ball (trying to prepare for Central America). If I’m not there, I’m probably in the library. Or trying to convince someone that things outside our country really matter. Or trying to fix some injustice in Rochester. Who knows!

In the past, I’ve spent time in Ethiopia and Ecuador, trying to do my part in bringing better health to all. In each place I have met amazing people. As I take off for Honduras this coming year, I hope you will check in with my blog and meet the wonderful people of San Jose with me. It promises to be a wonderful year!

Matt