Back in the saddle again...

After a truly fantastic few weeks at home with family and friends, I'm back in San Jose and quickly getting back into the flow of my Honduran life. It's always a wild transition, in either direction, and this time is no exception. What's particularly strange is that there's barely anyone in San Jose right now! It's coffee-picking season, and the majority of men and boys (and some entire families) have headed to the "fincas" to harvest coffee. There is an eerie emptiness in the community.

With no further ado, and without much else to report, here are a few photos to get a flavor of my return:

Here I am at the hotel the night after arriving, participating in my ritualistic pre-arrival head-shaving. Without a shower, short hair is a LOT more pleasant!


Two adorable little girls from Portillon who hiked up for 1.5 hours to search out electricity to charge their family's cell phone. We had quite the photo-shoot. I'm getting quite the reputation as a photographer!

Their feet. This framed-up quite accidentally when I was adjustig a setting on my camera, but I found the image quite powerful. I find it striking what they hike in, and what it does to their feet and legs. That said, they are from one of the "wealthiest" families in Portillon and, here, would be considered lucky to be wearing any shoes at all. Every once in a while I need a reminder that "wealthy" here is still really poor, and that poor here is just straight-up inhumane.

... and one more, just to prove that I was actually involved in this photo process.

Wish me luck as I get back into the groove and get things moving again.

Again, thanks to all for a terrific time home. I have many fond memories to last me the next few months.

Love to all,

mateo

Happy New Year!

In the spirit of a new year and a new change, this (long delayed) blog entry will try something a little different: Instead of two sections, everything is all mixed in, business and play, just as it is in my Honduran life!

SCHOLARSHIPS FOR CHILDREN TO ATTEND MIDDLE SCHOOL
-Scholarships have been awarded!
-In the later part of November, the Scholarship Committee at First Unitarian in Rochester did a very fine and very fast job of selecting this year’s twelve recipients (two from each school, plus two extra from the biggest school).
-On my last day in San Jose, we got all the kids and/or their parents together and announced the winners. The winners were joyous, the losers, respectfully quiet.


Here are the winners and/or their parents. People in San Jose tend to not show a lot of emotion, either positive or negative. Perhaps life has been so difficult that they need to be fairly stoic just to get through, perhaps it’s just the culture. In either case, visible emotion is rare. In giving out the scholarships, however, I saw some truly beautiful smiles of hope and joy.

This is a photo of Regina Cabrera, a winner from San Jose Centro. In Honduras, young women are generally very reserved and timid, especially around males of power (like myself). Prior to the scholarship meeting, Regina had never really looked me in the eye, instead deferring her eyes to the ground. When I announced her name, however, she stood up, walked straight to the front of the room, held her head high, smiled a big smile, looked me straight in the eye and shook my hand with great gusto as she took her certificate. It was a pretty magical moment.

PIPED WATER DISTRIBUTION PROGRAM IN PORTILLON
-DONE!
-In the weeks following the brigade, all beneficiaries of the Portillon project worked Monday, Wednesday and Saturday on finishing the project. By the first of December, they had finished. They were a true model for organization and cooperation!

In light of their great work, they were very excited that I was able to come at each stage and document the process. They are very proud of their work and wanted to show the donors! What follows are a few photos of the process…


All households came on the day of material delivery to carry the parts down to Portillon. Here is at least one person from each of the 31 recipient houses. Note the smiles!

Sorting pipes into equally-sized “carryable” bundles (each weighing more than 60 pounds).


Doug (AKA, Dr. Stockman, my mentor for the year and the director of the Honduras Project at the University of Rochester), lending a hand.

Pilar, the community-elected president of the project and a good friend of mine, standing guard over the tubes.

I wouldn’t be smiling if I was taking off for an hour and a half hike with that much weight on my shoulder (don’t be deceived by the size of the bundle, there is steel pipe slipped inside the PVC!), but hey, I’m not getting water at my house, either!

On each day of digging trenches, each household was responsible for digging 6 “work units” of 8 meters in length and 2 feet in depth. Usually, three people from the same household work together on their household’s part, one to break the stones with a pick-axe, one to scoop out the loose dirt with a shovel, and one to follow up with a little pick thing to do touch up. Here is the family of Bersabarino working on their segment.

Finished trench, snaking across the hills.

Trench surfing!

Trenches dug, it was time to lay and attach all the 4km of piping. They worked as a unit, a few people laying the pipe, one cleaning the end, one sanding the end, one holding the PVC cement, one applying the cement, etc.

A crowd gathers as the last joint of the day is placed.

Water! The workers rest at the end of the day, as the newly-connected spigot brings water to the house. You’re looking at several hours less of hauling water every day, which means several hours more for the women and children to parent, play, study, learn and grow and several hundred more desperately-needed calories that aren’t burnt needlessly. It’s a beautiful thing!

PIPED WATER DISTRUBTION PROGRAM IN “LA MONTANITA” ("THE LITTLE MOUNTAIN")

-With Portillon wrapped up, it’s on to the next one! After checking out plans and confirming distances with some death-defying walking (this new project is in a CRAZY steep location!), we have decided to fund a project in “The Little Mountain.”
-This small project, spearheaded by a group of highly self-motivated folks in one of the more distant parts of San Jose, will serve 6 houses.

VIP LATRINE PROJECT

-Apolinar, community volunteer and foreman of the project, has finished about 20 of the 28 funded latrines.

IMPROVED COOKSTOVE (FOGON) PROJECT
-Manuel, foreman for the cookstoves, had completed 3 of 7 workshops before my departure and ought to have completed the rest by now.

This is Cirilia, one of the elder people in the community of Guanacaste, admiring her new cookstove. Note the soot-covered walls, evidence of her prior open fire pit that she previously used to cook.

Tomas and his family with their improved cookstove (and, if you look carefully on the left, their filter!).

AGRICULTURE
- When discussing community needs during the brigade, a need for cheaper fertilizer was very clearly articulated. After researching current practices, we found that a community agricultural cooperative (BRHIS) already exists and sells cheap fertilizer by buying when it is cheap (around harvest), storing it, and selling it when it is expensive at the market (during planting time). This reduces the cost by about 20 percent!

-Rather than create a new organization, we decided to support this self-run, self-sustaining cooperative. All BRHIS needed to provide cheap fertilizer to everyone who wanted it was more capital. We decided we could provide that capital (around $2000). I drew up a contract for the “loan,” made sure the cooperative understood the terms, and watched as the first person benefitted from the cooperative’s expanded resources!

The two “directors of the cooperative.” The one in the white is Manuel, a man I work with a lot because he is very involved in all aspects of the community. Note the “Rugrats” t-shirt on the other director!

Isiais, committing to buy his fertilizer under the new program.

POTTERS FOR PEACE FILTERS
More on this later, but for now….

This is why the filters are needed! These are Petri dishes in which 5ml of drinking water from different houses have been plated and grown. If the water is clean, it will look like the plate in the upper left. Two houses of the 125+ houses I visited had clean water like this. The rest looked something like the other three: Red dots are bacteria of unknown origin (earth, plants, fecal matter) and unknown health significance (without further testing to further classify). As such, we don’t know if the red-covered plate in the upper right is dangerous or not (but it surely ain’t clean!). Blue dots are bacteria from fecal matter, which are the most dangerous in terms of causing such gastrointestinal illness as diarrhea and stomach pain. The bottom left plate was typical for San Jose. This level of contamination puts it in the “high risk” category for causing gastrointestinal illness, especially in children. The water grown on the plate on the bottom right is, as my mentor likes to say, “chewy with poop.”

All the water samples looked clear, so unless you understand germ theory (a far cry for most people with a second grade education), you would never know your water was dirty. My greatest trial, and my greatest joy, was trying to teach the people in my community that their water is dangerously dirty, and that a filter could remedy that problem…

About half the plates also grew parasites. Look closely on the left side, a little over midway up, and you’ll see little maggot-like worms. These repulsively gross little parasites crawled around and gave everyone a good fright. I wasn’t happy the water was contaminated with these, since people are drinking this water, but it sure did prove to be a very convincing tool in educating how clear water can be contaminated!

This is what happens when kids drink water that is contaminated with poop and parasites: Look past the cute baby and the older boy in their one nice set of clothes which they put on for the picture and find the naked little boy inside the house (yes, you are looking at a house, in fact, a home to 6)… See his big, distended belly? That’s what a belly looks like when it is full of worms. See his skinny little legs? That’s what malnutrition looks like. This is what happens when you don’t get enough to eat… and then your worms eat for themselves some of the food that you do get… and then you crap out a bunch of your nutrients in your diarrhea… and then you still have to work like a dog to carry water and firewood to the house. This is unjust, and this is why I get so excited by the power of filters, piped water, and improved cookstoves.

SLOW SAND WATER FILTERS
Before leaving, I had the joy of directing and helping Santos, a friend and neighbor who wanted lots of clean water, build a slow sand filter.

Santos washes the loose dirt off of the sand before using it to fill the filter. The filter is the big blue barrel in the back, next to his house. His daughters watch.

The jolly white giant and Santos pose with our newly-completed slow sand filter. Here comes clean water!

OK, that’s all, folks. I hope you’ve enjoyed this (lengthy) recap of my last few weeks in Honduras. I’ll be here state-side until mid-January, so feel free to give me a call if you want to hear more (585-698-6077), or to just catch up!

Love to all,

Mateo

PS. "Gifts of Health: The San Jose Partners Alternative Gift Shop" was a huge success! Thank you and thank you again to all who gave a gift through Gifts of Health. Your donations will be wisely and worthingly spent. Thank you!

PPS. Great news! Lacero, my good friend who was diagnosed with tuberculosis during the brigade, is doing VERY well. It has been an incredible change as he has begun to improve while on medication. His face has gone from cachectic, empty and shallow, to full, bright and visibly alive. His energy and liveliness have made a similarly remarkable turn-around. The future looks bright for Lacero. Medicine, applied appropriately, is amazing.