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
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