As I look at my journal, I often notice that my entries start with “phewf.” And “phewf,” how busy and full these weeks have been!
What have I been busy with? Well, a little bit of everything, quite literally. What follows are a few snippets ... I’d tell more, but neither you nor I have time for the whole story!
As I mentioned previously, Kirsten and I got a few local women together to discuss the sale of their hand-made tablecloths in La Esperanza, the closest “city.” Well, as planned, on one Saturday morning, myself and 10 of San Jose’s finest lady-folk made our way to La Esperanza to do just that. One tall gringo and 10 little ladies from the mountains, now THAT was a sight to see!
Francisca, embroidering at her house in El Portillon.
The San Jose Embroiderers and I in the shop.
We met with the directors of the gift shop (a women’s cooperative) for about an hour, which gave each woman the opportunity to show them her cloths. While the shop “did not have the money,” to buy cloths up front (or probably, wisely, didn’t want to take the initial risk), the women still gained a few valuable things. First, the director gave commentary on each cloth, explaining how it and future cloths could be made more compatible for sale and/or saleable for more profit. The women listened intently to this advice. Also, 4 women who had brought cloths that somewhat met the recommendations left the cloths there on consignment. If the cloths sell in the coming months, there will be a lot of excitement…
Felix, one of two people in San Jose with an existing fish farm. So yes, the fish farms project is underway. Currently I am working with 4 different families to start a farm at each of their houses. As part of this, I’ve now given two workshops on how to make and maintain a fish farm. I think it’s fair to say that I never thought that I would be lecturing on fish farming! A highlight of the workshops was when I asked them to sketch their fish farms; I had a room of middle-aged men drawing like 5 year olds. I forget that we Americans enjoy years of art classes to learn how to draw with scale, depth and perspective. They enjoyed the exercise as much as I did.
Here are most of the mothers from the community during a meeting for a government program. Prior to taking this picture, I was in the middle of this same crowd doing a little piece of water health education. In general, I’ve been poaching any large meeting I can find and using it to teach about water quality and the need for filters. Parents’ Groups, Mother Groups and Baby Weighing Days have all been graced by the “water guy.” People are eager to see the water tests from their community and seem to enjoy my little interactive lesson. Little by little, people are learning what they need to protect the health of their families.
Here I am giving a lesson about water contamination to the group of mothers in El Mangal. I am using the water tests (which you can see in my hand and in their hands, as well) as a teaching tool. People find it very convincing to see the colors and worms that grow out of their water.
And once again, here I am at a mothers’ meeting in Guanacaste. In this shot I’m doing my Tony-winning rendition of “The story of Juan and Antonio.” It is a little skit I made up about 2 boys who would be equal, except that one’s mother uses a filter to clean the water, while the other doesn’t. Diarrhea, parasites, stomach pain and a poor growth end up plaguing one, while the other thrives. It’s a very simplified view, but by using lots of terms and outcomes that they can relate to, I think it works to make the importance of clean water much more real. As any public health person will tell you, building knowledge is one thing, yet creating a change in behavior is a whole different challenge… 
As part of the education piece, I’m also continuing to distribute filters. 40 more are out so far. 
The San Jose Festival was also in early April. Beyond the usual silently-consumed-with-great-great-haste eating of tomales, the day was punctuated by a forest fire! Yup, in the heart of the dry season they see it fit to set off lots of low-quality fireworks. Not surprisingly, one lit the hill in front of the church on fire. 
We controlled the fire quickly-enough such that there was no big loss, but it gave me a great, fun(?) scare! Do I look like I just fought a forest fire with a bucket?
The men of “the little mountain” before heading out for a day working on our newest piped water project. I’ve been monitoring and managing this effort, which is progressing well.
Can you see the trench for the water project, going straight down the hill? (Note the difference in color compared to photos from the beginning of my time here. All green has been replaced with brown. It hasn’t rained a drop since November. When they say the “dry season,” they mean the “DRY season!”).
And then, of course, there was “Semana Santa,” or Holy Week. Here in Honduras where everyone is Catholic (at least in word), Holy Week is the biggest holiday of the year. Most people take all or most of the weak as their only vacation of the year. This photo was taken during one of the many Holy Week church services here in San Jose. The whole week was filled with relatively-silent Honduran-style celebrations…
One tradition is to walk down to the river and bathe. I made the trek with my friend Lazaro (who had TB) and a few other younger men and enjoyed a very hot day on the river. For the first time in my life I was considered to be a good swimmer and a brave rock-jumper! It pays to be the only person who grew up in a place with water.
During the wet season there is only one bridge to cross the river, and this is it. It’s affectionately called “the hammock” and is made of barbed wire and boards. Even the Hondurans were nervous to cross it! This is Lazaro, braving the (tilting) “hammock.” 
And then, the night before Easter there is a late night vigil in a local house. This photo doesn’t show a lot clearly, but it gives a good feel for the candle-lit (simply because there is not electricity), small, dirt inside of the house where the vigil was held. The whole night was 5 hours of “mass,” the rosary, …. 
…prayers to shrines of their patron saints (Which you can see behind Paulino and Paula, who wanted a picture with the shrines), and…
strange foods! This is “atole of corn,with roasted cacao seeds.” It’s basically a corn mush with stuff that tastes like burnt coffee beans. I tried my best to drink the whole gourd full, as they all did quite quickly, but I couldn’t quite get it down.
And finally, after a week of enjoying their customs and being welcomed into their homes, I invited everyone to my house for a great Malek tradition: decorating Easter eggs! People thought it was strange and funny, but it was a surely a hit. They made some pretty fine eggs, given I could only find watercolors and crayons as our materials…
As you can see, the women generally were more able to make a “design,” while the men were all about “the more colors the better.” Some things stretch across cultures, right?
Lorenzo and his egg.
Clara’s eggs.
And then I enjoyed a delicious Easter dinner! Not bad for being in Honduras, right?
Ooops, I put the wrong photo for my dinner. I guess this was my real Easter dinner. It was nothing much, but I ate it with great thoughts of my loved ones. Love to all,
mateo
