Carol in Honduras

Carol and Carol

The earth shook last night! I thought it might be a really huge truck going by but there was no noise …….and it wasn’t a truck, it was a “sismo” (Spanish for earthquake). Pretty minor but what a weird feeling.

We are the two Carol’s. Carol and I are going to the public school tomorrow to do the hand washing presentation and spent time this morning preparing the craft materials. Here you see us cutting up ribbons and punching holes in the stars for the hand washing medals.

Rosa and her baby

Rosa's kids, Elvin and Nelson

This afternoon Telma and I visited Rosa (whose babe is now 4 weeks old). We know Rosa because she works here at the Posada as a cleaning person. She is now a single mother of three. Their accommodation is one room (12×9), with one single cot & a table that holds a one burner hot plate. Her sister and brother in law stay there as well and sleep on what there is left of floor space at night. We brought the children each a t-shirt from my donated supply and a couple of toys as well as some basic food stuffs.

As luck would have it, a representative of the Health Ministry is staying here this week and is responsible for the supervision of the maternity clinic outside of Copan. He explained a lot about the existing health system and how the Centro de Salud’s work. I think I understood most of what he said and found it most interesting to hear it from someone who works in the system. They are anticipating changes when the election happens in November.

Doña Delsy and Heidi

I met the latest little person at the orphanage. This is Heidi. She came to the orphanage about two months ago at 8 months of age and was only about 6 kgs. She had multiple health problems initially and was hospitalized with pneumonia and apparently had an unusually large infestation of parasites. Poor tyke survived and is now gaining weight and loves to stand with help and is learning to give “besos” (kisses).

Dona Delsy (the director of the “hogar”) and I had a good visit and she described some of the multitude of needs at the home. She asked if we could help with providing some food- beans, corn flour and maybe some eggs and sugar, as well as helping to purchase formula for Heidi. The t-shirts that our health unit nurses donated will be distributed at the home tomorrow.

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to visit with one of the teachers at the public school here in Copan. She was thrilled with the materials that I had for the hand washing education and invited me to spend the morning on Tuesday presenting to a number of the classes.

The treasures arrived!

After being hit by the warm moist wall of hot air at the San Pedro Sula airport, and the VERY long wait to get through immigration and customs, I was again amazed that not one but both of my bags arrived safely and apparently intact. So, there will be t-shirts for the “hogar”, and crafts to do, and educational materials to be used for classes.

What a small world! Angel (a local Copaneca) that I met on my first trip to Copan, was two seats behind me on the plane. His wife teaches at the local public school so, that’ll be one of my first stops with the germ theory/ hand washing education.

Will be on the bus in a couple of hours and in Copan in time for dinner.