Carol in Honduras

Carol in the park

First- about the political situation. It sounds like the cities are not a good place to be these days. Curfews still in effect and as far as we can tell, the airports are still closed. Businesses are being looted and it sounds like there are demonstrations. The people that I have spoken to here in Copan just want the situation resolved. The “hit” that tourism has taken here has a tremendous impact on the local economy. The café owner next door says that the last three months has crippled them and that another two months will kill half the businesses in Copan. It is so sad that so much grief can be caused by situations people have no control over. They just wait to see what is next.

The conference that I am here to attend, starts today with decreased numbers of participants. I wonder how many people haven’t been able to get here.

Today, Ellen and I are going to arrange for the local Doctora to spend a day or two at El Malcote examining the children and dealing with any medical situations they have. I am going to fund her visit and the World Vision medical program person will accompany her to the community. I only wish I could go as I really want to learn more about the skin diseases here. Perhaps another time.

I had the opportunity to go back to El Malcote today. Saul and I spent the morning there and I did some more hand washing and crafts around the germ topic. We made Henry the Hand hand puppets. I was able to bring individual packages of crayons that Tony Roma’s in Red Deer had donated and the kids were thrilled. The soap that I am using for the handwashing classes was collected by a number of people over the past few months (thank you to the Stantec employees, Steph and Kory and all you others who got that soap to me).

I also met with some of the moms in the community to see if we could find out what they saw as health or medical needs. The women are really timid and I think not “empowered” to speak at these kinds of meetings so they didn’t say much. What we did find out is that there are a lot of skin conditions, diarrhea, asthma and grippe. I think that the best way to handle the things they identified, is to get some actual medical attention there to accurately diagnose the problems. Will talk to Ellen about that at our meeting tonight.

One of the things that I learned today was that the government has a merienda (snack) program at the schools. So, at least once a day when there are classes the kids get a meal. If you watch, there are some children that take the food home to share, and some that share with their little siblings.

This afternoon Dona Delsy and I met to talk about the orphanage. I have t-shirts donated by staff at my office to deliver to the Hogar Angelitos Felices later this week. But, as little Heidi is staying at Dona Delsy’s I was able to give her the sweet little girl clothes today. Heidi plays “pat the tortilla” and loves her walker. She is a year now and continues to be plagued with pneumonia and other health stuff but is certainly better than the sick little girl I saw on my last trip here. I plan on another pizza supper for the kids at the hogar this weekend.

Some of the moms

Heidi - she's gained a lot of strength!

Girls eating their meal

Muchas Gracias “A Better World” ! The classroom is pretty much finished, and the community folk are proud of the building that they built and so very pleased to have the new school room. A coat of Celestial Blue paint will be the finishing touch.

My first visit to El Malcote was with three of the World Vision staff and Ellen from Project School Supplies. The kids and teachers were waiting to welcome us and many of the local moms and little children came also. I was able to pay the albaniel (foreman) his last payment in person and thank him for the good work and comment on how impressed I was at how speedily the job was done. I had time to do some more hand washing and germ theory with the school children before we started back to Copan.

And- that is when the real excitement of the day happened. The news of Zelaya’s return was on the radio as we drove back. I wish I could have captured the excitement of Antonio, Saul and Aracely in the vehicle that day. The airports, ports and borders are closed. Schools closed and banks and many businesses closed. Curfews are in effect and there are no newspapers and the local TV stations aren’t broadcasting. Wonder what will happen next.

Malcote - inside the classroom

Malcote school - Coffee plants in the background

My travel compañero's having a break on the way back to Copán