Week 7 (FINALLY)

Sorry for the delay. I've been super busy the last couple of weeks.  Still trying to catch up on my blogs. Hopefully while on vacation, I can make it happen.  Here's the one from the last week in August!

Written on Monday, September 2/ Saturday, September 7

Wow. What another jam-packed week.  It is now Monday and I’m finally getting around to writing my blog from last week. I know that this one will be long too. I hope that you find my thoughts and experiences interesting and that I’m not just rambling on. I know the first couple of weeks were more thematic but I found it’s easier to capture my thoughts by days now that I have more things to do than I did in the first couple of weeks.  Hope you enjoy this one! This week I was super productive and started to feel like I was actually accomplishing something. 

Sunday, August 25- Sunday started out how all Sundays do- slow.  I can’t say I minded that much. It is nice to sleep in and be a little lazy. After the two super busy weeks, I was looking forward to a day of writing some emails and watching a little TV.  It must have been something in the water but five pregnant women in labor came into the clinic.  I have to say that I had been itching to see a birth.  In Honduras, there aren’t restrictions like there are in the US, which does work to my advantage at times! In this case, it was fantastic.  Daira had her turno (direct translation is a turn but really it used on call) and she had promised she would call when one of the women was due to start pushing.  That she did.  Around 2:00, I threw on a borrowed scrub top (yes I did feel a little more official with one on).  Betty, one of the nurses showed how me to put on all of the gear- apron, mask with a little plastic sheet to cover my nose (mine kept fogging up and I kept having to wipe it off with my finger), booties, and gloves.  I forgot to get a picture of myself in this getup but next time I will certainly make it happen.  I looked ridiculous.  When I entered the room, I was quite confused.  For a split second, I thought that the woman (who was actually just a girl of seventeen years) was an American or at least a foreigner.  She was BLONDE! A blonde Honduran; her hair was even lighter than mine.  It really threw me for a loop.  While I will spare you all the gory details of the birth, I will tell you that witnessing a birth was such an experience.  After watching, I’m not necessarily looking forward to my own but…. Yes there were lots of gross bodily fluids, but when the baby girl finally was born, I almost cried.  I held the baby and helped take her stats.  She was so beautiful and it was almost too much to realize that the girl was now a part of the world when she hadn’t been just a few minutes before.  I mean I know that the baby had been in utero before that but I just seemed so surreal when she wasn’t anymore.  I’m not sure if I can really explain it well enough but it was indeed an emotional experience.  I felt very privileged to have been there with this girl during her time.  The only downer was that she was seventeen on her second baby. I wondered what kind of a life that baby would have.  It’s not to say that I thought that she wasn’t fit to be a mom.   I had no room to say whether or not this was true but I felt as if someone or something had failed her. Did she choose to have that baby? Was it planned?  I sort of hated that my brain was clouded with these thoughts after such a profound experience. It was indeed all I expected and more.  I couldn’t wait to see another. 

Monday, August 26- Monday wan’t a bad day either.  I started the day by finally making it to the school in Santa Lucia to sit in on Profe Rene’s sixth grade class.

Profe Rene is a great man.  He owns the little office supplies store right next to the clinic, is the sixth grade teacher, AND he is the head of the comité (ie: town hall). Basically he functions as our mayor because Freddy the real one, doesn’t do much of anything but secure kickbacks for himself and drink himself into a stupor (despite the fact that Santa Lucia is a dry municipality).  During recess, I sat with Profe Rene as he explained more about the comité and the daily lives of the residents of Santa Lucia.  I especially enjoyed his class on science because they talked about global warming and natural disasters.

It became the day of teachers because in the afternoon I went to visit Profe Luis.  We had our little chat (as we always do) and the best thing happened- he decided to start up his teen club again.  We picked the date we would start and I had a skip in my step as I walked back to the clinic.  One of the best parts of my job is working with him.  It’s hard to imagine two better people in the community than Profe Rene and Profe Luis.  It pains me that they aren’t others like them.  (I even tried to convince Profe Luis to run for mayor in the election in Novmber.  He said the only way to win against the current mayor is to pay people off and he refuses to do that.)  While Santa Lucia wouldn’t be a place that anyone would list on the top ten best cities to live in Honduras, I put it on my list solely because I get to spend time with people like Profe Rene and Profe Luis.

Tuesday, August 27- Tuesday is pancake day so, in my opinion, Tuesdays always start out great.  I stuffed a few pancakes in my mouth before heading off to Magdalena to check out my very first club de jovenes (teen club). It wasn’t anything too exciting. There were seven kids. Wendy, the health promoter, gave them a charla, which the kids didn’t seem to mind.  I think it is because this is really what they are used to.  I was itching for them to have a more engaging activity.  I talked with Wendy and Gladys (the two health promoters) about trying to go a different route.  They seemed excited about the prospect and were willing to give it a shot.  Hopefully we can make something happen!

My afternoon was just as satisfying.  StoS has just started a partnership with a high school in Kentucky to work with the Yo Puedo program. In fact, I am one of the first people to work with the school so I spent an hour chatting with the Spanish teacher at this all girls’ high school.  Her energy renewed mine and we had things rolling before the end the call was even half over.  It was exciting to have someone just as I excited as I was about working with the young girls in the community here.  We decided that we would start a big sister/ little sister writing campaign as well as a fundraiser for a retreat.  It would host one girl from each of the Yo Puedo programs to be held in Santa Lucia in October.  I am really looking forward to this event and I think the girls will love the sleepover and the opportunity to meet other girls from the frontier and it will be a way for me to get a better grasp on how the girls feel about the program and what we need to do to improve it. 

Wednesday/ Thursday, August 28/29- Wednesday didn’t start off so great. I boarded the 7am bus to spend time with Profe Iris and Sonia in Camasca. About half way into the ride, I remembered that it was my mom’s birthday and that I should text her to send my best wishes that was until I lost my phone.  I reached in my pocket and it wasn’t there.  I looked everywhere but couldn’t find it.  I even had someone call it several times.  And it was off- ie: I think it fell out of my pocket and someone picked it up. Casuality #1 of Honduras. 

When I got to Camasca, I had a meeting with Sonia, Director of Yo Puedo program.  After reviewing the details of my call from the day before, it was only ten minutes before we were hard at work planning details and writing proposals.  Sonia and I were at it all day and our energy just seemed to grow. It seemed like the ideas that Stacey and I came up with were well-received.  I felt on top of the world. 

Had dinner with Edu, this guy from  Barcelona who was volunteering in Camasca for a few weeks, and Andrew at Profe Iris’ house.  Edu gave his personal history and quite an oration on the financial and political situation in Spain. I have to say that I loved every minute of it.  It is times like these where I feel like I’m really able to make headway in learning Spanish. I spoke for an hour about taxes and loans. Edu was an interesting character and I sincerely enjoyed hearing his story over a beautifully prepared meal of fish (though the fish had mad bones so it was little difficult to eat!).  I stayed at Profe Iris’ house in her spare room and was awoken around 5am by the multitude of animals that roamed her yard.  Thursday I spent at the bilingual school and was back to Santa Lucia at the end of the day to rejuvenate and catch some soundless sleep. 

Friday, August 30- Friday was a slow day.  The rains came to greet us for the entire day, which had meant that it was not only a slow day for me but for nearly everybody.  This worked to our advantage because Friday was the despedida (going away party) for Victoria- one of the permanent doctors in the clinic who also happened to be my neighbor upstairs.  Daira, a fantastic illustrator, made a card before she ran off for the day and I spent an hour in the library coloring it.  Something that struck me was how hard it was to find just the right color for the little make-believe picture of Victoria.  There was no color for her skin.  It wasn’t quite the “peach” (aka the color that I used to call skin color before I realized that it was politically incorrect to do so) that they include in the box nor was the brown quite it either.  I ended up spending twenty minutes digging through the crayon box testing color combinations together.  I know you are all expecting it but here it is- It really made me aware of the privilege that I have being a person with white skin (a gringa in Honduras, which happens not to be a derogatory term like it is in places in Mexico.) I wondered what it would be like to not have a color in the Crayola box for me.  The same thing struck me when I went to find a color for her hair.  It wasn’t quite black and it wasn’t quite brown so I sat again trying to find what color combination of blacks and browns made the picture most Victoria-like.   It seemed so insignificant and silly but I wondered what would have happened if I had colored her peach.  I ran the scenarios over and over in my head.  Would she had even noticed or cared?  It wasn’t for me to say so I just did my best and moved on.  After agonizing over crayon colors, I figured it was time to get to work. 

That was until Lizeth came in.  She’s a student at the local colegio and comes in for help with English sometimes.  I hate to say that when I saw her I was a little flustered but I sat down with her nonetheless and helped her with her work.  She had a test coming up so we went over some of the test material and afterwards she handed me a page that she had to read to the class.  Now, there are some sounds that don’t translate from Spanish very well- like the ch/sh and g sounds.  We practiced over and over, saying certain words ten or fifteen times.  It took the energy right out of me.  We struggled through a whole page of elegantly written text about Honduras in a travel magazine. I’m pretty sure she didn’t know what it meant but by the end, she was pronouncing those words left and right.  I felt proud to see her doing well and actually looked forward to her next visit!

The evening was the despedida for Victoria- one of our permanent doctors who was going off to more schooling.  She was a great doctor and an even better friend.  We wanted to celebrate her so we planned a little party. Maria, our chef, made a great dinner with carne asada and potatoes, avocado, cheese.  It was the works.  Flor, Daira, and I decided to order a cake as well from the bakery in Magdalena.  And the two of them also bought a piñata, which Daira and I transformed from just a beach ball into a cute little monster-like creature.  The night was great.  We all ate dinner together and afterwards, many of the others went around sharing memories and kind words for Victoria.  And in typical Honduran fashion, the lights went out so we had some of her party in the dark.  Thankfully they returned just in time for cake (which Hondurans insist must be consumed with Coke… weird?) and the piñata. 

Saturday/Sunday (August 31 and September 1)- I woke up early to catch the 7am bus to Camasca so I could hitch a ride with Andrew and Edu in a car that was leaving from there.  This trip to La Esperanza was quite different than the last.  My weekend previously had been relaxing- catching up on TV, spending time eating at good restaurants, and catching up with friends and family on FaceTime.   This time when I went to La Esperanza, I went with the guys.  Andrew, from Camasca, and Edu from Barcelona.  I showed the boys the creperia that I had gone to with Kate and Scott weeks before and we all shared the afternoon there (seriously it was almost half the afternoon because Honduran service is SO slow) and We went to Rinchon Lenca for dinner.  I had a hamburger and French fries (A HAMBURGER AND FRENCH FRIES!!) and afterwards we went upstairs for karaoke.  Doing karaoke in Honduras was certainly not on my list of things to check off but it was fun. They had both English and Spanish songs and I bobbed along to the beat of all of them.  When we finished, it seemed as if we had scared everyone off because we were the only patrons there.  We didn’t care.  We were off to another club where Elmer, the son of the principal from Camasca tried to teach me how to dance.  I had a little liquid courage but I’m pretty sure that I still was a horrible dancer. Actually I know I was a horrible dancer.   We finished up at the infamous club El Fogon and after it closed, we went up to La Gruta to see the lights from the city.  Looking back, it probably wasn’t the smartest idea for all of us to climb the steep steps to the makeshift shrine grotto thing but it was worth it when we reached the top and saw the landscape of the city in lights. 

On Sunday, we went to the market and the grocery store before heading back in Elmer’s car. I caught the bus from Camasca when we arrived.  Because there is only one bus, I met Flor when I hopped on.  We chatted and caught up as we were on our way. I was ready for a shower and some food when we arrived but of course there was no electricity. Instead, I tried my hand at the Chinese restaurant with some fried rice and showered in the dark (in the cold water) before retreating to my room.  I read a bit before heading off to sleep to greet the new week. I was ready for whatever the world would throw my way.

I know you all said it and I know you are all shaking your heads saying “I told you so”.  You were all right; I just needed time.  After this week, I feel like I’m on the right trajectory and all of my complaining and whining and being upset and frustrated and and and… Maybe it wasn’t all necessary.  Patience is a virtue. I guess I just haven’t learned how to virtuous.  I’m trying. So this week, try something you aren’t good at.  You may surprise yourself :)

I would say until next week but it will probably be another another week before I churn out another blog. So instead I’ll just say, until next time-

Becca

Weeks 5 and 6

Written on August 26, 2013

So it really has been a whirlwind the last two weeks.   The reason I didn’t blog last weekend is solely because I was too busy. Really didn’t think I would say that a

couple of weeks ago but it did happen.  Prepare yourself- this is going to be a long blog.  I had a lot of really cool experiences the last couple of weeks.  Many of them were so different but a theme that I took away was the connections that I made with some really interesting people. 

After coming back from La Esperanza on Sunday, I felt rejuvenated and ready to make some progress. 

Tuesday, August 12- I got up bright and early to go to the school in Las Marias.  It is about a half an hour from Santa Lucia (fifteen minutes by car and fifteen minutes walking).  My purpose was to get some more information about the schools in the area and what a typical day might look like. It sure was interesting.  The school (like many around here) had grades 1-6.  School is only mandatory here until sixth grade (yet even then not everyone makes it until then but there isn’t really anyone here to enforce that).  In rural areas like Las Marias, there isn’t a colegio (sort of like the equivalent of our high school) in the area.  The closest one is in Santa Lucia.  The teachers in Las Maris told me that often times there are only one of two of ten kids per year that actually go to colegio from the escuela.  The girls go to work in the homes cooking and cleaning and the boys go to help their fathers and older brothers in the milpa (field) with planting and harvesting corn. These findings weren’t surprising as many communities like Las Marias face the same problems. 

Another issue with education that I found particularly devastating was that there were only three classrooms for six grades of kids- again not uncommon.  I sat in on the second and fifth grade classroom.  The two grades sat side by side- the fifth graders on the left and the second graders on the right.  There was one teacher for the two of them who jumped between the two groups- teaching a little and giving one problem for twenty minutes while she helped the other group.  I really felt for the kids because they were only getting attention half the day. Granted I probably would have loved to goof off for half of my school day, but I just felt like they were being cheated out of a great education.  The teacher at the school also told me that the students hadn’t received new textbooks from the government in five years. The one I had looked at had rips, tears, pencil and pen marks and drawings. It appeared pretty beat up. 

The design of the building itself didn’t help to facilitate learning either.  There were no windows, only bars and the door was left open for air flow.  Any child playing outside or person walking by the classroom was clearly audible and most times really distracting, even for me just as an observer. 

Wednesday, August 13 and Thursday, August 14-

These couple of days were fantastic too.  Our COO for StoS came down from the US for week to oversee some details.  With him he brought a woman named Marti, who was a licensed nurse practioner for many years but now does work with public health.  She did focus groups focusing on many at-risk behaviors for teens in Concepcion (where our other big clinic is located).  I basically spent the two days she had in Santa Lucia talking with her about her work, my project, and her life’s trajectory.  She was a fantastic woman and one that graciously agreed to be involved in my project.  The fantastic part- she lives in Minneapolis. We made a plan to meet up while I’m home for the holidays to discuss the second part of my time down here. 

That Thursday night, two American doctors from the medical brigade in Camasca came to visit the clinic here in Santa Lucia for a day.  The brigade came in on Monday for two weeks.  One of them was named Andy Morris, a doctor who had lived at the clinic for two years with his wife and his baby boy. His wife had been the women who raised all the funds to build our beautiful library. She staffed it as well.  Being able to talk to Andy and connect with him was really helpful.  He had a lot of great suggestions for me and gave me his contact information to catch up upon his return to US. 

Friday, August 15- Conveniently Andy had to make it back to the brigade in Camasca so there was a car for him, and for me, the next morning.  I had decided to take a little break and check out the brigade for a few days.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t go out with them to the field on Friday.  Instead, I went to the bilingual school to meet the new volunteer.  School was starting on Monday so he was in the classroom preparing for sixteen first graders to come tear it up.  His name is Andrew and he’s my age; graduated from school this past May in anthropology.  I kind of felt bad for him because he told me that the Hondurans had failed to find a bilingual teacher for the classroom.  He was only supposed to be an assistant but he was going to have to be the teacher until they could find someone.  In the afternoon, I took the bus to Concepcion for the meeting of the StoS leadership team.  I was there to take notes.  It went well and last about two hours.  It was too late to take the bus to Camasca so I ended up going back with Ever, the brigade coordinator, on his moto, aka crotch rocket.  The drive was about thirty minutes and I was kind of into it.  It was my first time on a motorcycle and I was a bit nervous at first but I ended up having a blast.  When I arrived in Camasca, the brigade was ferociously involved in many card games like Spades and Hearts so I jumped in doing my best to learn along the way. 

Saturday, August 16 and Sunday, August 17

These were definitely some of the best days I have had in Honduras thus far.  I was excited to meet up with the brigade to speak some English and veg out for the weekend.  This Saturday blew my expectations out of the water (literally).  I was told we were going to a waterfall but that was about it.  We hopped on the bus around 10am after sleeping in (yippy!) and having some breakfast and started on our way to Colomancagua.  When we arrived two hours later, we were just on the Honduran/ El Salvadoranian border.  We even crossed a little creek to the El Salvadorian side for two minutes to take a picture before hopping back across the broder.  We had to hike about twenty minutes with all of our stuff, which included a grill, a huge back of corn, meat, sandwiches, fruit and veggies, juice, soda and so on.  It was so worth it when we arrived at the waterfall.  I wasn’t sure that I was going to swim because I forgot my swimming suit in the States (smart move, I know!) but once we got there, I knew I had to jump right in.  I was a little afraid of getting eaten by a huge snake (maybe I shouldn’t watch River Monsters so much), especially since the water was kind of murky.  The water ended up being refreshing and it was indeed an absolutely beautiful cascada (waterfall in Spanish).  There were a bunch of mossy rocks behind the waterfall that I sat on for a while and just enjoyed.  Everywhere you looked, there was a rainbow.  After swimming for a while, we had a barbecue with carne asada and corn with fruit and veggies. Here they put lime and salt on their grilled corn, which I think I might take back to the States with me- much better than butter and salt.  After lunch, I fell asleep on my towel to the relaxing noise of the water and around 4pm we were back on the bus on our way to Camasca. 

Sunday was a great day too.  I generally am a huge fun of Sundays at home but I especially like them here.  We slept in this Sunday and had breakfast before heading upstairs (literally) for church. (The brigade was sleeping in the basement of the church because that is where there was room for them.) I’m not a hugely religious person but I had wanted to see a mass for myself.  There were two options- Catholic or Evangelical.  From my understanding, Evangelical churches have been taking Honduras by storm in recent years and the Catholic churches haven’t been doing too much to counter this movement.  I went to observe a service in the Evangelical church.  I can’t say I enjoyed it too much- I’m sure mostly because I didn’t understand a lot of it and also partly because it was very preachy.  The pastor was out of town for the weekend so we had a couple of people get up and speak.  One woman, Priscilla- a retired teacher in Camasca and one of my favorite people there, spoke for about 45 minutes about Job and his life. One thing that I did find very interesting was that many people brought their Bibles to church with them to follow along with the readings.  There was nothing fancy about the service but several women near the back seemed to get really into it- almost in a way that I would imagine nearly everyone to be in a Baptist church. 

After church, we had lunch and went for a hike.  We stayed local to go hiking.  In fact, we just went hiking behind the mayor’s house.  One doesn’t need to go far to find some hill or tiny mountain to hike.  Intibucá is either one continuous mountain or one continuous valley.  There was a trail up this particular “mountain” for about fifteen minutes and it was pleasant hiking and getting a little sweaty.  Once we made it to the end of the trail, there was nowhere to go up more through corn fields (milpa).  Now I have to say that one of the first things I noticed on my first and second days driving through Honduras was that instead of planting crops on flat land like we do in the States, Hondurans use every piece of arable land available (including very mountainous areas).  So we hiked some more upward through a maze of corn stalks.  Life would have been easier with a machete but we did our best to leave the crops undisturbed because it was someone’s livelihood.  I myself was concerned that we were destroying crops but Profe Iris (the mayor’s wife and the Director of Education for StoS) said that it was not a problem.  Our journey up almost reminded me of Candy Land, passing through different “lands” to get to the finish line. We crossed a corn field, a rocky steep part, a small brush forest, and finally a multitude of bean plants but once we reached the top, it was so worth it.  The views were fantastic.  We were surrounded by mountains on all sides.  The peak was only twenty feet wide but we all fit for a few snapshots of the group and to breath in the fresh air.  We “hiked” back down ie: most of us fell several times due to the steepness and the freshly rain-kissed dirt.  A nap and a shower were called for after and I finished off another strawberry licuado (almost like a smoothie) just before dinner at the local restaurant with a few of the brigade members. 

Monday, August 18

Monday was back to the grind for the brigade and I was excited to go out with them to see what a day looked like.  We set out for Santa Catarina for the day.  In the more remote communities, the best place to see patients is in a school because oftentimes these communities don’t have spaces large enough to house everyone for the day.  That’s exactly what they do. Unfortunately, the kids aren’t able to have classes but anyone in the community can come to speak with the doctors about their medical issues.  I was the one in charge of intake all day. So I got to meet all the patients as they came through.  It felt really fantastic to be a part of something where I knew that I was making a difference right then and there as opposed to my job where the results take a long time and may not even be measurable or quantifiable.  The brigade was great and the community really loved them too.  We saw around 80 patients that day. 

On Monday night after all of the hub bub of the day, we sat down after dinner for a lecture on water born illness.  I have to say, it was really interesting. Dr. Gilmer had lots of cool pictures and case studies to share with the residents.  He had been all over the world.  But what happened after the lecture was even cooler! Now I can’t say that I was ever a fan of NPR before this day. Not for any particular reason, just that it had never interested me to sit down and listen to segment.  Well Dr. Gilmer had done a “medical mysteries” segment for NPR a few weeks back and had the audio for us to listen to.  Yet it was even better than those medical mysteries shows they play on Discovery Channel. 

The Encyclopedia Britannica version of his story (the segment was at least over an hour!) was that he moved to a rural town in North Carolina to take over a medical clinic.  He was surprised to find out that the man that had worked there before himhad been a very respected doctor, also named Dr. Gilmer (no relation). Yet Dr. Gilmer I could not continue working at the clinic because he was in jail serving time for brutally murdering his father.  Dr. Gilmer (of the brigade) started feeling eerily connected to this murderer that the town had loved so much.  So he decided to investigate the case more deeply and found a lot of details that didn’t add up.  I don’t want to give away any more than that because the story is truly compelling and a a huge shocker but if you have time, you should listen to the story (Google NPR This American Life- Dr. Gilmer).  It really showed me the importance of persistence and that as easy as it seems to give up in the face of adversity, the rewards can be way greater than expected. 

Tuesday, August 19

Tuesday was an interesting day as well.  It was the first real day of school for the children in the bilingual school.  I went to help out.  At that time, they still hadn’t found a teacher for the bilingual school so Andrew was on his own. I did my best to help out when I could, especially in talking to the kids in what little Spanish I could think of to tell them how to behave or sit in their seats.  The day seemed really long and taxing. I felt bad for Andrew who spent most of his day trying to rangle the “diablitos” as I called them (little devils) into their seats.   I took the bus back to Santa Lucia for a little R and R in my own room with some piece and quiet as well as for the activities in the upcoming days. 

Wednesday, August 20 I had planned to go out for home visits with the doctors on Thursday but it actually worked out better to go with Daira on Wednesday to Santa Theresa (about an hour and a half by car from Santa Lucia).  Our schedule was to visit five houses- three pregnant women and two older individuals.  We stopped by the cesar (health center with only a nurse) to pick up the health promoters to help us locate the houses and to help with taking samples out in the field. We only ended up doing three visits because the other two people were in La Esperanza.  The first woman we visited was pregnant with her eighth child.  She was in her mid forties.  One of her kids watched as Daira examined her and asked lots of questions. The little girl didn’t look to be much older than two or three.  They took urine and blood samples for the woman to be processed at the health center when we returned.  The woman planned to go to El Salvador to give birth.  Her first baby had died a few days after birth.  The baby had been really sick and hadn’t seen a doctor because she gave birth at home.  When Daira and the women went behind what looked to be just a towel hanging from the ceiling to partition of a room, I’m assuming for the parents, for a pelvic exam, I peeked my head into their house, which wasn’t hard because there weren’t any doors.  The place was simple. They had concrete floors and walls but there were very possessions inside of the home with the exception of what appeared to be a stove from the 1800s. It was black and had a little door for firewood. I think the sixth other kids slept in hammocks at night as there were a few hanging from the ceiling. I wondered what it would be like to live there for a year. I counted my blessings as we headed to the second house.   The second patient was a 72 year-old blind man.  He lived with his daughter and had been blind for over 25 years. There wasn’t really anything else that was wrong with him nor was there anything that we could do for him.  We just took his vitals and were on our way.  The third patient was a fifteen-year-old girl who was pregnant with her first child. She was awfully young and she looked it.  She lived in what I would call a hut; it wasn’t nearly a house. It was one big room with concrete floors and thatched roof. I’m pretty sure she lived there with the baby’s daddy. There wasn’t enough room for her whole family. The one shelf they had in the house had a cell phone and some cigarettes with little else. I think there was a bag of rice and some beans too.  Daira spent a lot of time talking with her about planning for the birth and what to do after the birth.  I thought about what it would be like to have been pregnant at fifteen and shuddered at the thought.  I would have a seven-year-old child right now.  I am not really into praying but that night, I prayed for her and that baby to be healthy and safe.  I wasn’t so sure they would be. 

Thursday, August 21

I hadn’t planned on returning to Camasca because I was going to go out on home visits on Thursday but after switching my schedule and seeing how much helped they needed in the school, I decided to return to Camasca to help at the bilingual school and also to attend the despedida (going away party) for the brigade on Thursday night.  When I arrived at the school, there was another woman helping out with the kids.  Her name was Minsis (Minsy) and she was went to school in the United States.  She wasn’t trained as a teacher but had a knack for it and could speak English.  She did a fantastic job with the kids and Andrew and I helped where we could.  Profe Iris had hired her to work in the school until they could find someone more permanent with teacher training.  The day went much better with her around to speak to the kids in Spanish, especially to discipline them when they were being bad.  After school, we prepared for the despedida.  We had a fantastic night planned starting with a game of basketball- USA versus Honduras.  It was quite a fun time.  We all got out gym clothes on and headed to the indoor cancha (field).  The Honduras team didn’t have that many people playing but what they lacked in numbers they made up for in spirit.  They were scrappy and put in a good effort but with twelve or so people playing for USA, we had the number to be able to keep people fresh.  We ended up winning by a landslide and went to celebrate after with our victory pizza back at the church.  After dinner was the little get together of everybody in the town and the brigade. It was really sweet. Several of the people from Camasca got up and said a few kind words.  One of the two of the brigade members did the same and some of the younger people prepared a few dances for us.  Then we all tried to dance too. I can’t say that many of us were very successful at the dancing part but it was fun. 

Friday, August 22

Woke up on Friday to wish the brigade a farewell. Shortly before they left, I received a text about one of the members from my sorority back home- one of our juniors had passed away suddenly on Thursday.  I quickly called the States to process what I had heard and learn more.  There wasn’t really anything that I could do but I felt so horrible.  It certainly helped that I was able to talk it out but my day seemed quite a bit drearier knowing that all of my friends at school were going through such a rough time. 

I did my best to pull myself out of the funk and went to the government school in Camasca to teach an English and watch the Yo Puedo class.  Even though all I wanted to go was crawl up in a ball and go home to the US, I ended up having a great day with the sixth graders there. I taught them a lesson on body parts in English.  We started with a large drawing on the board of a body. I labeled parts for them and they repeated.  After copying down the picture into notebooks, we played Simon Says and they got really into it, begging to play just one more time after each time we played.  To finish off the class, I wrote sentences on the board for drawing.  I had them imagine people who had incorrect number of body parts and draw them for me (ie: he had eight legs and six eyes).  They loved the activity and I think it was out of the norm of their usual day-to-day.  Plus their pictures were great.  I finished just in time for lunch and while eating, I taught them the ABCs to pass the time.  I think it was really successful and we all really enjoyed it.

After lunch was Yo Puedo and the fifth grade girls joined in.  Profe Rosa (sixth grade teacher) led the girls in an activity about values.  I was excited to return to Santa Lucia after a successful day in Camasca.  Upon return, I found out that StoS wanted to send me to Tegucigalpa for a conference with Janell and Marti (from the week before) on adolescent health.  It was great news to counter the bad that I had received that morning.   All in all it was a great, busy two weeks.

On quite another notes, I know that Lehigh starts classes this next week so good luck to everybody.  I miss you all greatly.  To all my Theta sisters reading this- I hope you are all coping with the sudden passing of one our dearest sisters.  I was shocked to receive the news down here in Honduras. It is crazy to me that despite the distance, we are all connected by such a strong bond.  I hope that you are all taking advantage of the many resources that Lehigh has to offer and are really appreciative that you have one of the biggest support groups on campus- each other! I know we will never forget Hanlon and all the energy she brought to our lives. 

So this week, I bid you all to appreciate the people in your life a little more.  The thing that has made my last couple weeks so fantastic was all of the people that I have encountered and the thing that made the last couple of days so hard was the passing of a friend.  The common denominator- people that have touched my life.  So this week make sure you remind someone (or multiple people) in your life that you love them and that they make a difference in your life.  You might never know that someone really needs to hear it. 

Miss you all dearly and keeping all of my Theta sisters in my heart this week. 13 weeks until Lehigh/ Laf and my return home to the States for the holidays!!

Becca