Carol in Honduras

Professor Oscar (the Education Director) and I met and discussed a new school building for El Plantel. We visited the school last November and were appalled at the condition of the building they were using. We have agreed to fund the materials, the community will supply the labor and the municipality the sand and albañil (foreman).

I hate hills…….especially climbing down them when they as slippery as ice.

Again, my thanks to Canadian Peacemakers International for handling the funds, and Manuel Tabora for his support

In its setting of pine trees and coffee plants, Carizalito is the one school that we continue to visit when are in Copan. It is a Chorti community……very poor with little value placed on education. Most of the families need the children to work to help support the family. In the spirit of Nelson Mandela’s words “Education es el areas mas poderamos con la cual podemos cambiar al Mundo” (Education is the weapon most powerful with which we can change the world), we have provided incentives to have the kids attend school. It is pretty much unheard of for a student to continue past 6th grade. 2018 will be the first year we offer a scholarship for a student to attend Grade 7 in a community about 4 kms away. We will wait and see if the student accepts the opportunity.

The road to Carizalito

Always a fun visit. There is a game and snack and it is just enjoyable to “hang out “ for awhile and play with the kids.

We visited a school that couldn’t even pretend to be a school. Old boards slapped together as walls with huge gaps, no windows for light inside, and even a snake in the ceiling. A sweet young woman named Wendy was the teacher. (It was her first year of teaching and I am surprised she stuck it out for the year).

Why is everything up a hill? I think we might have to do something to support this community.

As always the inauguration was very special. The Mayor, Education Minister, Manuel Tabora from CPI and Consuelo (the lady who the school is named after) came with us in a three truck convoy. We were greeted by the community, all the kids, and a beautifully decorated school.

The flag entered, the national anthem was sung, speeches made and ribbon cutting done.

And then there was cake.

Over the rivers and up the hills…. to Santa Rita school we went. It was Inauguration Day but it has been unusually rainy here in Copan and the rivers cover the road crossings and the red clay roads are rutted and slick as ice.

Seriously…. this was the easiest of the three rivers to cross. The trip that would normally take about an hour took two…….. several standstills and needing to be pushed out of ruts by the local men meant that we actually got to the inauguration.