Hands to Honduras 2007 and 2008

Last Day

2008-02-06T05:07:00.000-08:00

ok - we have been so busy that finding the time to write is not so easy.

Today is our last day and we are heading out to Jazmin for the morning - hoping to be able to finish what we can there. Yesterday we were there with only 4 of the guys - Wilson and 3 others and we got a lot done. More on that later.

I also have loads of pictures to upload but that's also not so easy.....

We are both doing well - bed early, up early. It's an hour earlier here and we are usually up by 5:30, downstairs for breakfast by 6:30. And we usually leave for work around 8/8:30.

One small thing I should report - I have at least 28+ flea bites on my lower left leg and 21+ on my right leg. In fact there are so many I could go dot to dot and have an entire farm scene on my leg. Or better yet - I have the little dipper, the big dipper and at least a couple more constellations down there!

All I can say is yuck! Red dots everywhere....very attractive. But I have now been wiping my legs with Bounce Dryer Sheets - yes Bounce!- and I haven't gotten any new ones...Just makes you wonder what kind of chemicals you are walking around with on your clothes if you use those sheets in the dryer!

We are leaving here at 5:00 tomorrow morning - getting a ride with a guy from the hotel - Hector - to the airport. He speaks English so I made him promise he'd wait with us to make sure we checked in etc as I speak no Spanish. Actually I am surprising myself and am actually getting some of it - osmosis? not sure, but am feeling a little bit more comfortable with the language....if only this was French or German speaking.

Anyway - from San Pedro Sula we head to Miami, to Dulles (Wash DC) and then to Burlington. We'll arrive late Thursday night and I bet our luggage doesn't make it...but rather lost on the way home than on the way down here.

Can't wait to see everyone! Business as usual on Friday!!

Day 4 - Sunday

2008-02-03T17:08:00.000-08:00

Today was our day off....we went on a boat cruise to Punta Sal and on the way went down a river where we saw tons of different birds.

We saw some guys fishing - actually crabbing. They sat traps with fish pieces, then drop them to the bottom and end up catching crabs in the netting. Pretty cool. We stopped on of them and asked him to pull along side our boat and asked him to show us his catch - he had a huge rice sack full of crabs that he said he was going to see for 3 Lempira each) that's about 15 cents!

Just down the river we stopped at a village called, of all things, Miami! Who knew we'd go to 2 Miamis this trip! It is a Garifuna village right on the beach - we got some great photos!

Then off to the rainforest where we hiked around - we saw baby jaguar footprints on the beach and plenty of monkeys high up in the trees. No howling this year.

Off to a remote beach for a swim and a soak in the sun - just the most beautifully clear (and clean!) water. And thankfully this year no coral stings.

Back into the boat for lunch at another Garifuna village - Scott got the back end of the fish and I the front, with rice, beans and fried plantains. No hot sauce, though - that was a bummer. Scott also had a coconut for a drink - I stuck with a 7UP.

Eventually we headed back to Tela - and on the way we say a school of dolphins. The boat driver was reving the engine and it was making them all line up next to us and jumping out of the water. Every time we tried to get a good photo our cameras were just not fast enough - so it looks like we got pictures of lots of sharks with their fins just above the water!

More on the day later - gotta go.

Day 3 - Saturday

2008-02-02T05:07:00.003-08:00

Change over day. Today everyone who got here last Saturday (or Sunday) is going home. They left the hotel around 10:30 so we hung around until they left so we could say goodbye.

Scott worked on his Science project on my laptop while I worked on the hotel laptop. We were both grateful to get a moment to catch our breath and relax a little. We also got a chance to walk around town a little bit – I went back to my Diet Pepsi person and enjoyed every last drop. All I have been drinking is liters of water and beer…let me clarify – liters of water and a beer or two – NOT liters of beer!

After the 2 vans left we walked down with Liz, Mary and Sally to see the container. It had finally arrived and was being unloaded into a storage unit. It was a Chiquita Banana container that (I think) was donated. I’ll have to check with Norm on that one. By this time it was really getting hot so Scott, Liz and I decided to head to Telemar for the afternoon.

It took us about 15 minutes to walk there and it was well worth it! We had to wait in line behind a car waiting to pay to enter the grounds. It was 150 Lempiras per adult and 100 per child – they gave us a blue armband and a coupon worth the same amount to use at their restaurants for food or drinks. We headed straight for the beach. It was huge compared to the one by our hotel. We rented chairs – YES! So comfortable. Scott went in for a dip while Liz and I just relaxed – it felt soo good!

Lunch on the beach – a hamburger (I haven’t eaten one since I saw Fast Food Nation) which was made Euro-style with breadcrumbs – it tasted delicious!

Then Scott decided he wanted to ride at ATV on the beach. They were renting them - but the deal was that HE had to negotiate the deal! So he walked over and started the gesticulation of negotiation.

Then he walked back over to me - unsure if he had indeed negotiated the correct deal. I gave him some money - 100 lemps (abt $5) and he went back over.

I could see him kneel down - flatten the sand with his right hand - making a flat place to write in the sand. And that was his negotiation:
15 min
100 Lemps

Done. Deal. He got on the small ATV, had a mini lesson and off he went. And just as he started his back on forth on this ATV, another child came cruising by on another ATV - it was the biggest thing I had ever seen - huge pumped up wheels and the child atop this beastly machine was probably half of Scott's size.

I wish I had been able to pull out my camera in time - because the image of Scott on the smaller ATV and this small child on the HUGE ATV made me laugh so hard tears were streaming down my face.....

Juanita

2008-02-02T05:07:00.000-08:00

Here is Juanita...

Juanita's house - look at her view!

This is her stove - we think that's pork rinds being smoked hanging above.

This is her sink - out her window.

Children at Jazmin

2008-02-01T10:07:00.000-08:00

Jazmin

2008-02-01T05:07:00.000-08:00

Day one - this is what the NEW school looked like when we arrived there on Thursday morning!

Day One - Thursday

2008-01-31T04:56:00.000-08:00

Today we worked at Jazmin. It was a drive - abt 30 km - and I was in the back seat of the van, middle seat....not the most ideal of seats but it was ok. We were 16 in all in that van. Anyway, we got there and all we saw was a one room school house (painted green) and a thatched roof open space which was the second classroom.

70 children go to school here - it is so hard to believe that they can all fit! So the job here is to make another room - a free standing new building to accomodate more children.

When we got there there were 3 walls - just about half way up - of cement blocks with open spaces for windows. We worked on building the 4th wall - sifting sand (throwing it onto a screen with a shovel which keeps out the bigger stones and pebbles), collecting these bigger stones and pebbles and filling them in the center hole of the cement blocks, carrying cement blocks around, mixing, filling in cement etc.

It was HOT!

Around noon I went with Linda, Dave and Colleen to see this woman Juanita who lives about a mile down the road from the school - the mission was to deliver her a wheelchair. Wait until you see the pictures of where she lived! She was in a plastic garden chair because she had a broken femur and a yucky long term infection at the bottom of her leg. She moved around in her little shack in this green chair. Dave wheeled in the wheelchair and she got herself right into it and was all smiles, She finally had some mobility and a much more comfortable chair.

Colleen and Linda gave her a framed picture of the family who donated the wheelchair - the daughter had Down's Syndrom and had died last year. How amazing that Juanita now has this picture in her little house as a reminder everyday of the young woman who once used that wheelchair.

Colleen the took her outside - we think she hadn't been outside for many years. She was so thankful and all smiles.

She then asked for a cell phone!

There is much more to her story but will have to write about it later.

Back at the school we had lunch (plates of fried chicken, rice and potatoe salad). And of course lots of water.

We stopped working around 2:30 because we had to go the dedication of the Physical Therapy Buliding. That's an entirely new entry which I will have to do a new entry.

Back at the hotel around 5, swimming in the ocean, catching the waves. Dinner next door and our favorite waiter from last year was there - Mr. Dick!

He calls me Miss Scott.

We are here!

2008-01-31T04:38:00.000-08:00

Good Morning!

It's Thursday morning and we've been up since 5:30 - a crossfire of birds. It was like waking up in the jungle with birds almost arguing with each other from one side of our room to the other. Lucky though, because the van is leaving at 8:00 this morning and we've got to get all our work stuff ready.

We are waiting for breakfast downstairs on the veranda of the hotel, which is right on the beach. It's beautiful. There are 2 huge oil tankers not too far off shore unloading fuel for the town. It's a beautiful day which is great on the one hand but also means it will be hot working!

Scott and I have decided with work with Dave and about 16 others on a project at Jazmin. As many of the volunteers have been here a couple days this project is moving along really fast. They are building a school - well a one room school house. Similar to what we did last year at Jubilados. We can't wait because it's about 40 minutes away so we'll see a lot on the way.

Cher is here too. And yesterday she was able to skype to her kids back at CCS with a webcam. How cool is that. If we can we'll try to do that too.

Ok - breakfast is up (eggs, tortilla's, fruits, hot sauce, refried beans) - there is so much more to let you know about and we already have more pictures to post but that becomes a bit more difficult.

Until later.

en Route - Jan 30 - Wednesday

2008-01-30T11:07:00.000-08:00

We left the hotel (yes, all went smoothly) and tried to do curb side check in at American Airlines in Miami. They wouldn’t let us because they said the ‘system’ said we hadn’t paid our balance on the tickets. So we had to go to a special counter – and thankfully I was able to get our travel agent on the phone. I tell you travel agents are the way to go! Mine, Peggy is amazing. She has helped me in more precarious situations around the world!

Long story short, we had changed our return flight to one day earlier and the ‘system’ didn’t reflect that. We were pretty lucky that they found this now, today, instead of when we were leaving!

Almost there!

2008-01-30T01:07:00.000-08:00

We started the day with breakfast and our malaria pills.

I picked up Scott at school around noon at school today, after I nearly drove off the very icey roads!

We made it to the aiport, flight to Philly was uneventful. Flight to Miami was actually early and I was thinking we'd be lucky to be checked into the hotel and asleep by 10 or so.

Oh how wrong I was! The hotel shuttle bus took 45 minutes. The only good things were that it was warm and there were lots of others also waiting for our hotel bus.

We arrived at the Regency Aiport Hotel at 10:00. To our surprise there must have been 30 people in front of us waiting to check in. We just couldn't believe it. They were all froma TACA flight that got cancelled and each check in took about 20 minutes...

We got to our room at 12:15 am!

Lesson Learned: Never stay at the Regency Airport Hotel in Miami again.

Article in The Charlotte News

2007-02-22T09:51:00.001-08:00

Today my article was printed in The Charlotte News. It was shortened a bit to fit in the paper, so below you can read it in it's entirety.

Scott in Tela

The sun was coming up over the horizon, Scott was writing in his journal and I had a thousand thoughts swirling around in my head. Had I made the right decision in bringing Scott? He was only 9, well…just about 10 but still young to be coming on such a trip. And I had decided fairly last minute about going so we really hadn't had that much time to prepare. Was he going to be ok? Would he be okay with the work? the food? Would he get along with everyone? Would he actually enjoy it? All these questions popped into my mind for fleeting moments. The answers were always yes. He was going to be ok, it was going to be ok. Having traveled a bit in the third world on my own, the one thing I did know in my heart was that this was going to be a life changing experience for him. Not to mention for me.

We were on the plane to Honduras to work for a week for the Hands to Honduras Tela project.

The Hands to Honduras Tela Program is a partnership program bringing together North American and Honduran communities to provide educational, technical, cultural, and humanitarian assistance to the Atlántida coastal region. The program is organized under the charitable wing of the Charlotte-Shelburne Rotary - by a committee of - Al Gilbert, John Hammer, Sam Feitelberg, Linda Gilbert, Colleen Haag, Dorrice Hammer.

Watching the sun rise from the air was inspiring, amazing. The clouds below looked like a sea of small waves shimmering the warmest reflection of red/orange I'd seen in a long time. Every once in a while I'd lean over and ask Scott if he was excited. "Yes", he'd say. And I'd wonder if he really knew what to expect. What were his expectations? What did he think it was going to be like? He of course had no pre-conceived notions of what going to a 3rd world country was like. He knew it meant that people were poor, but he had no real idea of what that would look like. Or, at least that's what he told me.

I knew I was excited. We were on an adventure, just Scott and I.

We arrived at San Pedro Sula in the warm afternoon sun and dressed in our Vermont winter attire, we were hot! We all piled into vans and headed north to the coastal town of Tela. Scott got to sit in the middle of the front seat of the van, while I was further in the back. Al was to his left driving and a soldier with a gun and no "pointer finger" was to Scott's right. He was in 7th heaven. He thought this was just so cool - to be in the front and next to a soldier! I smiled and felt a sigh of relief. Scott was going to be just fine. He was chit chatting with Al the entire drive, asking questions, watching, looking, soaking it all in and not seated by my side. A surge of emotions almost brought on tears. I was so proud of him. And to think, this was just the start. Not a day would go by without these feelings.

Watching Scott interact with other volunteers - ruthless teasing with Michelle, asking Butch to come work with him at the PT Center, snorkeling with Tim, going on an adventure with Collin, carrying on conversations with Liz and Nancy, riding the waves with Nancy in the rain, learning how to make rebar squares from Michelle, doing his Math homework with Charlie, Painting with Jeri always sitting in the front seat of the van with Al, discovering a huge frog with Kim, telling Linda about his day, sorting stuffed animals with Will, handing out lollipos with Colleen, etc. The list goes on. He made relationships on his own with each and every volunteer!

Having been born in Switzerland, surrounded by many different languages when he was young, I really thought he wasn't going to be that intimidated by the language. I was wrong - he did feel insecure - at least at first. But by the third day he was ordering and paying for his own drinks in the hotel and by the 4th day wanting to venture off by himself to Mario's to check out the machete that he really wanted to buy. It's amazing how a couple of days gave him the confidence he needed.

Every day we went to a different place to work: Cuatro de Enero to scrape and paint, Jubilados & the PT Center to make rebar and cement and Inhfa where the plan was to make a new playground including a soccer field. And each day brought new experiences, adventures and children. They were so endearing, even to Scott. He somehow managed to make a connection with at least one child at each place we went. I suppose that the curiosity was two-fold: from Scott to the Honduran boys and from the boys to Scott, who were probably wondering why on earth this boy was here working on their school? These boys worked hard, They were all wanting to help, sharing jobs with Scott, sharing work gloves, pushing wheelbarrows of rocks, and even sharing water and food. Once again, whenever I took a moment to watch Scott, those emotions would swoop on in and I'd have to fight back the tears brimming up in my eyes.

Scott also gained a huge appreciation for how hard it is to build anything with no machines. Everything was done by hand. Sawing the rebar, bending it, cutting the wire, putting it all together, sifting sand, making cement, carrying water, shoveling cement into buckets, carrying cement block etc. The list goes on. Everything was done by human hands, everything was slow and everything was not perfect. But that was ok. We both felt that the Hondurans really appreciated what we were doing and we enjoyed every minute of it.

Each and every day had brought something new. Going with the flow, having a layed back attitude and no personal agenda we never knew what each day would bring. Not only did we learn about a new country, its people, culture and language, but we also learned how to communicate, build relationships and work with others in a relatively short period of time. We also gained a new understanding and appreciation of how hard life can be without the help of machines and modern technology. Life is very different without the materialistic things we fill our lives and homes with. Do we really need all the things we have to be happy?

Those ten days away were the most rewarding ten days I have ever had. It wasn’t just the experience of being in Honduras, working there, and befriending all the other volunteers that was so incredible. But, it was also the opportunity to spend that time alone with Scott and to watch him grow and mature right in front of my eyes. I will treasure every moment, every memory from our trip for years to come.

Photos in the Shelburne News

2007-02-22T09:51:00.000-08:00

Today there was a spread of photos in color in the Shelburne News - pretty cool! We'll add that page to Scott's scrap book that he's making.

Scott's Presentation at School

2007-02-12T09:51:00.000-08:00

Today Scott gave a mini presentation to his class at school.

We set up the overhead in the library and went through the 500 pictures that I took. He told the class about the pictures and explained a bit more as the slide show went on. I was so proud of....he didn't speak in the loudest of voices but he did a gret job!

We also brought in things to pass around - the machete sheath, some money, our stained T shirts, our gloves (which showed the paint colors we used at Cuatro de Enero) and even one of the reject rebar squares that Scott had made.

I think it made it all very real for them all. And Scott told me that afternoon after school that the kids were asking him questions all afternoon.

That was like music to my ears.

Some of my favorite photos

2007-02-02T09:51:00.000-08:00

Working Photos from Cuatro de Enero

2007-02-01T16:48:00.002-08:00

Faces of Infa

2007-02-01T16:48:00.001-08:00

Photos from Cuatro de Enero - Children

2007-02-01T16:48:00.000-08:00

Monday - Back to Work - at the PT Center

2007-01-29T10:57:00.000-08:00

This is our last day of work. Neither one of us wants to leave. We both want to stay - work more - explore more. It feels like we are leaving in the middle of things.

So off we went to the PT center. We wanted to make sure that we had had an experience at every place. We started the day clipping wire, sawing rebar, carrying cement blocks, sifting sand , clearing out rocks etc. There was a bit of rain but that cleared up and it was sunny and hot!

I could feel the sun starting to burn my back, even though I had 45 on! The sun is so strong down here. Even Scott kept reapplying as he too felt that he was burning. We took breaks, drinking water, sitting down out of the sun and playing around with the kids.

Colin found a scorpion just in the grass in front of the PT Center - that was pretty exciting! They put it on the top to the garbage can and carried it around to show everyone. There was also a boy who biked up with a pet parrot perched on his handle bars - pretty cool. He even let me have the parrot on my finger. (I was glad too have had my gloves on!). Scott thought that was cool too, but not cool enough to put it on his finger as well.

One of the boys hung by Scott all day - it was pretty cute. They shared Scott’s gloves and Scott even gave him some of his food from lunch. For dessert we passed around some strawberry oreo-type cookies that Scott and I had bought at the local supermarket a couple days before. They looked gross but tasted delicious!

There was so much activity at the PT Center that day. I was told, it’s that busy everyday! Parents came with their children all day long - the flow of patients was steady. We saw one family arrive in a pickup truck with the Mom in the front seat with her son literally in a ball on her lap. He must have been a couple years older than Scott and his arms and legs were all folded up around his body. He had Cystic Fibrosis and was there to have his muscles worked on to let him stretch out. When they left - his arms and legs were stretched out. Amazing! (I know I am using all the wrong terms etc - so please excuse any errors).

One family came from across the field with their older son in a wheel chair - it was the only wheel chair we saw. It was pretty modern looking and it was both the Mom and the Dad. They clearly love their children and take such good care of them. These children are so loved! Clean, loved and happy! We can all learn from that!
Working there we also saw a herd of cattle come by us - some pretty cool looking cows, truckloads of green bananas and even a fire truck.

So much to see. So much to soak in. All in days work.

More Photos from our day off

2007-01-28T22:51:00.000-08:00

Sunday, our day off

2007-01-28T21:51:00.000-08:00

Sunday, our day off....we were so lucky...it was a beautiful sunny day.

We all made our way around the beach to these boats that would take us on our next adventure! We were 3 boats in total with about 10-12 of us on each boat. They actually made us where life jackets - so of which were those old fashion bright orange ones that you put around your neck! We looked pretty funny!

So off we went. The bow of the boat was so high up that there was one guy at the front directing while the other guy was at the back streering the motor boat.

Our first destination was The Jeannette Kawas National Park. She was an environmentalist who was murdered while trying to preserve the land. We piled out of the boats and headed into the forest. Pretty cool. Very little light at the bottom of the forest as the trees and branches prevented much sunlight getting through. We walked single file just looking up, all around soaking it all in.

We ended up on a remote beach, enjoyed the view and then headed up a small trail over a mini mountain to other side where the boats picked us up. While we were hiking up and over we heard howler monkeys - they are loud!!! Very loud! I turned around and went back down until I could see them. There were several of them all flying around in the trees. Scott had already gone ahead of me so he got to see another group of monkeys. I tried ot take pictures, but with my little camera and the lack of light they didn't come out very well.

Back in the boats we went around a peninsula and back to the most beautiful beach we'd seen yet. Blue/green waters, white, white sandy beach and nothing but two small shacks. Just dreamy!

Out of the boats we got again, found changing rooms amongst the banana trees (and more monkeys). Put out towels and then headed in the water for a swim. Beautiful! Refreshing! Just perfect!

Some people brought snorkeling stuff and Tim was so nice and offered to take Scott snorkeling with him. Off they went....and I found by towel and started to really work on my tan.

Perhaps 15 minutes later I could see Tim carrying Scott (yes, carrying!) down the beach. Scott was screaming, and I mean screaming! As they got closer I could see that there was some blood on his knee. So, I assumed that he had scraped his knee on the coral. He kept on screaming, wouldn't stop. "It hurts! It's killing me! There is poison in my knee!".

I was getting a little frustrated that he wasn't calming down. I thought it was just a minor scrape and couldn't understand why he was still crying 30 minutes later.

Our time on that beach was up. Back in the boats to another beach where the local Garifuna made us a great lunch. Scott of course couldn't really enjoy it - he was still in so much pain. We were so lucky that someone had a benedryl and a couple advils. That was very lucky - as what we found out later is that coral stings! Each sting is like multiple bee stings - and he had TWO! No wonder he was in so much pain. Poor guy...and to think I kept telling him to relax and stop crying.

The benedryl knocked him out and he slept the entire hour and half boat ride back to Tela. Once back, we headed to the beach and just relaxed there in the sun for another hour - the pain had subsided a bit so we just read.

It was a great day (even with the coral stings) and we got to see an entirely new side of Honduras!

Saturday - Jubilados

2007-01-27T14:35:00.000-08:00

Up early as usual...breakfast as usual...we've got the routine now!

Today we went to Jubilados where we are building a new kindergarten. When we first saw it on Tuesday they were still digging (by hand) the foundation. And today the foundation was done, meaning it had been dug and the cement had been "poured". I put that in "" because it wasn't really pured the way we think of cement being poured. It was done bucket by bucket of cement that was also hand made....sifting the sand, carrying over the water, the bags of cement etc. You can't imagine how much work!

So our job today is rebar and cement. There were some cement blocks on the poured foundation and now we were going to make another bit of poured cement wall. Please excuse all my incorrect terms and spelling because I have absolutely no background in any of this.....it's all new to me!

Scraps of wood were used to make the frame and then bucket by bucket we poured the cement into the frame. We did two sides today with the hopes of doing the other two on Monday using the same wood.

Rebar...well that was an education. There are these long bars and you have 4 of them and then you have these square bars that goes around these 4 bars (and the square bars are all sawed and then bent into squares by hand). And then the square bars are attached to the long bars with thin wire (that all had to be cut to the right size) and then twisted and turned and then clipped so that it's all stuck together. When I can upload some pictures this will make much more sense!

So we sawed, we cut, we bent, we twisted, we clipped. All of it! And again it was hot!

We also filled some of the cement blocks with small rocks...(that's what the guy told us to do!). There are a couple Hondurans helping us out....one very hard young worker, Darwin, was great! Dave and Will ended up giving him a baseball hat!

The principal was also there working with us. She was dressed very well and was wearing her black leather mules....which by the end of the day were covered in cementy water! It was really obvious that she was very proud of her school. This was a well loved school and it was clear that the teachers also cared about it.

We could see the Science lab was filled....there was shelving on the back wall full of science related items and two big tables and at least 20 well made sturdy stools - it looked great and very inviting - a good environment to learn about science. After seeing so many classrooms with dust, cobwebs and not much else it was heart warming to see this!

The principle also took a moment to show us her kindergarten yearbook. She had every kindergarten class in one book (going back at least 5 years). There was a picture of every single student (much like Scott's school photos) glued into the book with their names in the most immaculately neat handwriting below. And the best thing was that every child was wearing one of those square black hats that graduates wear. They were all so cute, looking so proud to have graduated from kindergarten!

We lasted until about 1:30.

Friday - going to the bank

2007-01-26T20:59:00.000-08:00

Just a quick entry...we went to the bank today to change some money.

There was a guard outside, bars everywhere and you weren't allowed to take your cell phone or even a camera inside. And to get in you had to go through mini security and then through a small revolving door.

Once inside there was a very clear S-turning line on the floow showing us where one should stand in line. So we stood on the line, waiting our turn.

In came one woman and she just cut right in front of us.

In came another woman and she just cut right in front of us.

Of course we discussed this openly - it was the most blatant form of cutting a line we had ever seen. It was worse that in the ski lift lines in Europe! Imagine that!!!

It felt like we had to wait forever!

Once at the teller, he did speak a little English (YEAH!!) and he was so curious about us asking all sorts of questions. Where were we from? How long were we here for? Was Scott my son? Why were here etc? It was a pleasure to be able to communicate!

Friday - no real work

2007-01-26T16:39:00.000-08:00

We ended up not really working that day...there was just too much rain. But, we got to go to INHFA which is a daycare center. This is where we are going to build the playgroup and the soccer field.

When we got there there were some men working out in their walled in garden. The space was beautiful but there was a lot of debris lying all around. And water, water everywhere. The men, it turned out, were Dads of the kids in the daycare. They were helping out to do their part. A truck was going to come later to pick up all the brush etc that they picked up. The grass was very green, but the surface was extremely uneven with holes everywhere filled with water. There was no way we could work out there unless we had out wellies.

Jay decided he would repair all the electrical issues so he went around, assessed what needed done and made a list of things he'd need to fix everything.

In the meantime we just watched/played with the kids. Scott gave out some lillipops (before lunch!) and we took lots of pictures. Each child wanted me to take their picture and then show them immediately. They were so cute! Basically, they were hanging out in one room that had benches on one side, a wall of toys and games (not that many - there was space in the bookshelf for plenty more) and a TV in the corner. They all got a long pretty well...dancing and playing. It was LOUD! The age group in this room was about 4 and up. On the other side was another room for the smaller ones.

Lunch time - all the children came out onto the covered porch and sat at a very long picnic table which was just their size. It was made out of wood that had once been painted a bright blue....there were areas of the table where it was still visible. And one by one bright plastic bowls filled with a bit of rice and a piece of meat were brought out. These bright Ikea looking bowls on the antique/washed table with all their beautiful faces was a photographers dream. I took at least 50 pictures while they ate.

All the children were so happy! Chatting away....eating....smiling. All but one. There was one little girl who was just so sad. It made us so sad to see her. She ended up crying and one of the daycare volunteers came over and just help her and rubbed her back until she stopped.

Anyway, the plan here is to get some fill - truckloads of dirt to help with the drainage and the hole problems. Then level it, plant grass and then make the playground and soccer field.

We did have a little bit of excitement here......Scott asked if he could go with Colin, Jordan and Sarah and go back to the hotel to get some toys to give to the children. I thought about it for a moment - it was only about 6 blocks back to the hotel.....I asked Colin to watch out for Scott...OK he could go with them.

Over an hour had passed and they had not returned. So we all got a little concerned. Linda drove in the car, Jack walked back one way, Michelle, Colleen and I walked back another way while Jay stayed there.

We walked all the way back to the hotel and found out that they had just left. They had gotten a little side tracked and were opening coconuts with Collin's machete in front of the hotel! They were fine! And Scott said that Colin was very careful everytime they had to cross a street. I wasn't really nervous because there wasn't much trouble they could have gotten into in the middle of the day - but I just didn't like having Scott out of my sight, or having others having to worry about him, especially Linda and Colleen who have enough on their plates organizing everything and keeping track of everyone!

Eventually we all made it back to the hotel and Scott and I ended up going with Linda and Colleen to Jubilados to see whether or not we could work there tomorrow. It looked great - there wasn't too much rain!

Scott ended up taking a swim in the pouring rain with Nancy....oh that was a story too. The waves were pretty big and the water was very dirty looking - partly because of the sand being kicked around and partly because of the water that was flowing into the ocean around us from the town (no that's an entirely different entry).

So, Nancy had brought her shoes down to the water with her and once in decided that it was safer to leave them up by the hotel. So she got out, got the shoes, ran up, threw them in front of the porch and asked me to watch them. "Sure", I said with the plan of getting them when it wasn't raining so hard. There were a handful of people on the porch that afternoon.

I went inside for a couple minutes...no more....came out and magically....the shoes were GONE!!! I was horrified....my only job was to watch Nancy's shoes and they had been stolen!!

The assistant mayor was also on the porch so I went right up to him - told him what happened and asked him to ask the ladies selling bread if they knew what happened to the shoes. "No idea", she said with a stone cold face.

So I ran down to the water to get Nancy out of the water and tell her my horrible news. We were both upset! Back up on the porch we were all discussing it when suddenly a women says, "Over here!". The shoes were under a tree no more than 20 feet away - together! She explained that a child had picked them up and walked away with them and had then left them under the tree.

What are your thoughts on what you think really happened?

For dinner that night - in the pouring rain - we ran across the street to the hotel next door called Cesar's. Mr. Dick was our waiter and took our orders by name. So first you had to tell him your name and then your order.

Scott had BBQ chicken, which he ended up seeing falling on the floor in the kitchen as it was making it's way out of the kitchen to be delivered to Scott. Pour guy had to wait another 20 minutes while they made another plate. Patience is something that we all need here in Honduras....as everything takes time!

Friday - Day 3 of work? or not?

2007-01-26T07:51:00.000-08:00

Hola

It’s raining again today...and we mean rain...just pouring! The surf is wild and the ocean looks really dirty because all the sand is flying around.

We were going to go to the PT center and help dig and make rebar but we are in a holding pattern at the moment waiting for the weather to get a little better. They say it will be better tomorrow. So right now we are sitting on the veranda and just hanging...

Scott is playing jacks with a couple kids who are hanging out. Collin, Jane and the new high school students from Barre area are also playing with them.

Collin got a machete yesterday and learned how to split open a coconut with it. Scott just asked me if he could use the machete to open one himself..... am still thinking about that. And of course Scott is dying to have his own! Apparently you buy them dull and then the guy sharpens them for you. If I give in...it will definitely remain DULL...forever!

Kim (who is Mrs. Herrick’s sister-in-law (can you believe how small the world is?)) went today to a clinic here in Tela with Michelle. They brought a huge duffle back of medical supplies to give the doctors there. Kim went there by herself yesterday and told us all about it last night. It was so interesting! The Dr. she was with sees 40 patients a day. She had a desk with one metal chair on one site for and 2 metal chairs on the other for the patients. She writes everything down with lots of carbon copies and a fan that oscillates blows the papers all over the place. Most of the people had colds, a couple had asthma & a couple infections. She had to speak Spanish all day. She said that was really hard to dealing in Spanish all day. In the afternoon she got to go the hospital. Kim said it was really clean and there were not that many people there.

We’ve learned so much about all the other volunteers and hear about their lives throughout the day. And then in the evenings we hear stories of everyone’s days. It’s really amazing.

The Physical Therapists working at the PT center have some of the most amazing stories. They are all working with Sam (Cher´s Dad) and are working really hard. Someone from Vermont hand made a set of parallel bars that they brought down and are using when they see patients. Yesterday Mary told us a story of an 11 year old girl with has cerebral palsy who walked for the FIRST TIME using the bars. It brought tears to all our eyes. Can you imagine how rewarding for Mary and the other PT´s to change someone’s life so dramatically.

We can’t wait to spend a day there.Well.

We’re waiting to see what’s on the agenda for today.

Will write again!

Thursday - Day 2 of work back at Enero

2007-01-25T12:48:00.000-08:00

Up at 5:45 today...gotta love those birds...breakfast downstairs and off to work at 8 am! We decided to go earlier to try and beat the heat.

But instead of heat....today we had rain....and rain.....and more rain!!

When we first got there we noticed that one of the locks had been broken off the door to the first room. We looked inside and couldn´t really tell if anything had been stolen right away....yes...the entire 5 gallon tub of dark green paint - worth 600 lempiras! What a bummer. These guys will steal anything. Al had to go buy more paint.

We finished painting the black metal bars and doors. And then had a little supply difficulty - we were waiting for the dark green paint and ladders so we could get to the top with the light green paint. Along the way lots of kids came and wanted to help. At one point there were just as many Honduran children as there were of us painting. We had to put a stop to it because it was all getting a little bit out of control.

We were all a little frustrated with this painting - we were putting latex paint on top of oil based and it wasn´t really taking. We all had to lower our expectations of perfection....again!.

One coat on....had lunch (same as yesterday except that Scott had fried chicken today).

Wednesday - Cuatro de Enero

2007-01-24T19:01:00.000-08:00

Today was our first day of work!

Scott and I had a better night of sleep - we got up at 6! Somehow the birds just weren´t as loud as yesterday morning!

We had breakfast downstairs on the veranda and headed out in the vans to Cuatro de Enero (4th of January School). But first we had to go to the hardware store to pick up the paints. We brought most of the painting supplies in our bags. Ther hardware store was on the corner of a block so it gave us a chance to people watch while Al was inside.

There was a demonstration going on down the main street. We learned later that they are protesting the mayor, who has apparently raised some taxes/fees.

Then we went on to the school. It is a cement building with 3 rooms. Each room has it´s own door and 3 windows. The wondows all have metal bars....and lots of them. Our task was to take down the screen on the inside of the windows, scrape and repaint the bars, paint the top half of the front of the building a light green and the bottom half a darker green. Apparently these are colors that are chosen by the principal. We learned that people make requests for what they want done - so in this case the principal made the request to the mayor's office. I'm not sure what the criteria is exactly for who gets their project done or not, but I presume it´s based on need and whether or not it is feasible.

So in the boiling hot sun we worked - scraping, sweeping, hammering etc. A couple children came by, then a couple more. There is a soccer field right in front of the school with 2 homemade goals - just 3 pieces of what looks like bamboo in the shape of a wide door frame. Lots of garbage around everywhere too....

We worked for 2 hours, drinking lots of water. It was hot! Around 11:30 we had lunch. We could order what we wanted earlier in the morning and Linda and Colleen did the pick up and delivery. I had a fruit plate with watermelon, bananas and pineapples. All sweet and delicious! Scott had BBQ chicken which was good and came with rice and beans.

We painted as much as we could on the top with the light green, got all the screens off, scraped all the metal bars and started painting the bars with black rustoleum. Around 1:30 Al came and got us because it was just too hot standing on the concrete. So packed everything up, put it all in the first room and locked all the doors!

Oh I forgot to tell you that Nancy was handing out balloons to the kids and Colleen was handing out lollipops. There are 3 in particular who are hanging out the most - 2 little girls and a boy. Today they told us they were cousins. I took lots of pictures of them and htey loved being able to see their faces on the screen. I really should have brought a Poloroid (Amy V had suggested it) and I completely forgot about it until I was taking pictures of these kids.

I´m kind of hoping to be able to send the pictures to the principal of the school and see if they can´t make their way to the kids.

So back to Hotel Sherwood we went. And right to the beach. It was just beautiful! The water is so warm that it doesn´t really cool you off....but it´s soooo nice! There are even some small waves to ride.

After swimming we wanted to go up and take a shower...not possible..there was no water in the hotel. So we hung out, talked, had a beer/coke on the veranda. Scott and I also walked around town a bit checking things out.

Norm gave a little speech about his life - being born in Tela, moving to the States, coming back on the Banana Boats etc...His Dad had worked for United Fruit (yes that would be Chiquita bananas) who had a huge compound here for it´s employees and families. Today it´s called Telamar and is an exclusive resort.

Dinner....tonight we went for Chinese...yes Chinese in Honduras! It was actually really good! Fried rice with shrimp, sweet and sour chicken and beef with vegtables. We had those 3 huge platters between 7 people - some beers/cokes and it came to 75 lemira per person which is about $4 per person. Not bad....

but....last night was even better! We went for pizza and it was $2 a person including drinks!

We are exhausted but loving it!

till tomorrow..

L & S

Tuesday - touring around

2007-01-24T05:37:00.000-08:00

Hola

Yesterday, Tuesday, we got up at 4 am.....thanks to the birds. They sang and sang and sang. It was like you were turning up the volume until 5 am and then turning it back down again until 6 am. We knew it was going to stop because of what we learned about birds in Four Winds!!

We had a great breakfast - scrambled eggs, pancakes, watermelon and papaya. Delicious!

We filed into the vans to check out all the sites - some that were completed last year and some that we are going to work on this year.

The PT (Physical Therapy) Center that was made last year was great. It was painted a pink/orange and had 3 rooms inside. One room had a table and a floor/mat space with some big balls, an office and a room with a couple tables for drawing, arts and crafts. There was a family there at the time. The mom was waiting in the entry hall sitting on a chair while her 3 sons were drawing. The boys were 6, 4 and 2 and they were there for therapy for the 6 year old. We weren´t really sure what was wrong with him but we know he couldn´t speak.

When they were finished, the mom put the 2 year old in the basket of her bike, the 4 year was standing on the bike holding onto the handle bars, the mom was pushing the biks and the 6 year old was walking.

The plan is to made a fairly large addition which would entail digging A LOT, a foundation (rebar etc) cement blocks etc. Quite a job!

Next we went to a school that we are going to repaint this year. It was locked because the kids are all on hoiliday (since Christmas......can you imagine?). But we could see that it needed a new paint job. It needed to be cleaned up as well!!!

Driving through these little streets are amazing. Mangey dogs are everywhere. Some places look well kept and as thought people have a little bit of money and others look barely liveable. But the one thing that Scott keeps saying is that people are not as poor as he thought they would be.

Next we went to lunch at the Tela Beach Club. It was nothing like any beach club that you might think of....but on the beach - beautiful white sand and no one around. We learned that lots of Canadians come here and just park themselves for weeks at a time. It was a long, very bumpy road out there with nothing around. So it meant you couldn´t even walk around town. There was no town out there.

For lunch we had 3 of the largest platters of delicious food - all sorts of seafood - shrimps, grilled fish, crab legs, chicken done every way, and lots of meats, rice with beans, plantains (which are like their version of potato chips) and fruit. We were all bummed we didn´t have on our suits.

From there we went to a school called San Juan where the group had worked last year. It looked very run down (again because they were not in school) and supposedely would have 400 students there in a couple weeks. Wait until you see the pictures....we took pictures into the classrooms too. You just won´t believe it!

We are here

2007-01-23T15:57:00.000-08:00

Hola! Buenos Dias!

We made it!

We had to get up at 3:30 yesterday morning for a 6 am flight to Atlanta. We switched in Atlanta and flew to San Pedro Sula. Several people´s bags didn not make it.....but luckily ours did.

We piled into 3 vans - 2 with people and one with all our bags and drove 1.5 hours to Tela. Scott sat in the front of the van with Al driving and a police escort to his right. Pretty cool.

The scenery was beautiful. Mountains in the distance and lots of poverty. Horses and cows were tied up on very short lines on both sides of the road. The landscape is lush so there is plenty of grass for them to eat...if they can find it through all the garbage. There is garbage everywhere! It seems like people just throw it out anywhere.

There were also lots of people (including children) riding bikes on the road in every direction.

Oh did I mention is is HOT HOT HOT!

We arrived in Tela about 3, got our bags sorted and got to our room. We were psyched to see that there was AC and after thinking there was a computer on the desk Scott finally realized it was a TV. Lots of American TV shows on - either dubbed or with Spanish subtitles.

Oh did I mention we can not understand a thing!!!!! We both decided we have to learn how to speak Spanish for when we come back next year.

We had drinks and dinner on the hotel veranda which is right on the beach. When you step off the veranda you are on the sand and then it´s about a 35 second walk until your feet are in the ocean. We took some pretty cool pictures last night but we can´t upload any pictures. We´re still trying to find a way......I brought my laptop with high hopes....

We are off to have dinner right now so will will write again later and give you the details on what we did today.

Hasta luego!
(I have no clue if that is spelled correctly)

p.s. all the prompts on this site as I write this are all in Spanish.
p.p.s. ask Scott when he gets back how he remembers the word GRACIAS!

Thank You Thank You for all your donations!

2007-01-20T09:08:00.000-08:00

Thank you all for your incredible donations! I picked up more clothing and toys than I thought would fit in our extra duffles. All the girls clothes I had to quickly pack before Anna saw them and started pulling them out for her. She loves hand-me-downs!

Everything is safely packed in 2 enormous duffles!

Daily Schedules

2007-01-17T11:35:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, January 23

7:00–8:00am Breakfast, Hotel Sherwood veranda

8:30am Orientation for group, Hotel Sherwood

9:15am Site - drive visit to accomplished projects and 2007 projects

12:00pm Lunch along the way

1:00pm Work day afternoon begins for Physical Therapy group; Work day afternoon for other volunteers – which sites to be determined evening of 1/22 or at Orientation – container item sorting may be an option

5:45pm Group gathering, Hotel Sherwood veranda

6:15pm Dinner on own

Work Days - Wednesday - Monday (Sunday is our day off!)

7:00–8:00am Breakfast, Hotel Sherwood veranda

8:30-9:00am Ride to work site

9:00am Work day

12:00-1:00pm Lunch break

4:00pm Pick up from site

5:45pm Group gathering, Hotel Sherwood veranda

6:15pm Educational talk

7:00pm Dinner on own (except for Friday: Buffet dinner, Hotel Sherwood Garifuna Dancer performance)

What we have to bring

2007-01-11T11:34:00.000-08:00

Insect block (small) the stronger the better as they are for prevention of malarial mosquitoes
Hand sanitizer (small)
Neosporin
Pepto Bismal
Immodium AD
Bandages (or small personal first aid kit)
(Pharmacies are everywhere but a few first aid items would be good to bring)
Sunglasses
Sunscreen
Hat
“Hard” shoes—steel toe – for those working around construction, available at Wal- Mart for about $20.00
Work gloves and latex gloves (for painting)
Cement trowels, tape measure, small 24” level, paint brushes, chalklines, Leatherman – type multi-tool (put inside your checked luggage), drill w/bits (optional)
Work clothes – plan on leaving your clothes there when you leave
Short sleeve shirts
Long sleeve shirt with high neck collar
ShortsBathing suit
Light jacket/rain/windslicker
Small length of clothesline and a few clothespins
Camera and lots of film, spare camera battery
Water canteen
3-4 copies of your passport—not to mention your passport valid until at least, 8/06
Copy of credit cards and other ID
A good, positive, flexible attitude
If you want to bring toys to hand out to small children, bring cheap and many of gender specific e.g., jacks for girls and soccer balls for boys. Girls usually get short changed. There is a crying need for school supplies such as crayons. No need for paper. They like T-shirts and ball caps with US themed logos, etc.

Donations - What we are looking for..

2007-01-10T09:25:00.000-08:00

We are each going to bring an extra duffle bag filled with stuff to donate to the Hondurans. So we are looking for the following donations:

shorts
t-shirts
bathing suits
dresses or other girl's clothing
games
toys

And keep in mind that everything should be in good condition and not too large or heavy!

Thank you in advance to anyone who donates!

Information Packets to 4th grade

2007-01-08T10:33:00.000-08:00

Today Scott handed out mini information packets to everyone in his class. The packet included the list of projects that the group is scheduled to do:

• Build phase II of the Physical Therapy Center for disabled children. In 2006, we completed phase I and we are currently providing treatment never before available to children in the area. There will be five VT/Maine physical therapists traveling to provide therapy and help train Honduran physical therapy assistants. A P.T. exchange internship program is also being developed.
• Build two classrooms – at Jubilado School and Jasmin School
• Paint a school – Vincente Caceres School
• Build a playground at the daycare center that has no outdoor play facility for children
• Build a playground with soccer field for children of Tela
• Provide a temporary medical clinic with a 16 member medical team - doctors, RN’s, nurse practicioners
• Provide a temporary dental clinic with a two member dental team
• Build six latrines in a rural school
• Provide latrines for 125 rural families
• Develop a ‘virtual library’ in Tela We are asking for his classmates to bring in their old T-shirts, shorts and any games and toys that they would want Scott to give to the children down there.

We'll have a box in the classroom for donations!

New T-shirts

2007-01-07T10:32:00.000-08:00

Today there was a meetingt for all the Volunteers - a place to meet others and learn about what's new. We could also buy T-shirts with the Hands to Honduras logo etc - I will take a picture of Scott and I in our new T-shirts and upload it later!

Time to get shots!

2006-12-20T00:29:00.000-08:00

Today we had to get shots for our trip. Scott lucked out and only had to get the Hep A. I,on the other hand, had to get a Tetnus & the Hep A. We will also have to take Malaria pills - once a week starting one week prior to departure and continue for a couple weeks after we are back.

My left arm is SORE!!

We're Going to Honduras

2006-12-01T10:28:00.000-08:00

We were driving down to CT for Thanksgiving and I collected our mail as we drove out of the driveway. Of course I had to read the mail - and there was a letter from the Gilberts about the Hands to Honduras trip. Six hours is a long drive and gave me plenty of time to mull over the idea that I wanted to go! And I wanted to take Scott with me.

So as soon as we got back - I called - and by the end of the following week (Dec 1st) it was all confirmed - flights/hotel etc!

Scott and I are going to Honduras!!

see some more info: http://www.handstohonduras.org/