Water, Latrines, Corn Grinders, and Justa Stoves

Members of the construction committee met In La Montanita with Jaun Murcia, head of the water board, latrines and Justa stoves; Pastor Adrian Soriano Gonzales; and Jose Santos. An add-on water line to service seven homes on the far side of the gully was discussed. These homes also are in need of latrines as they are contaminating the adjacent stream. Senor Murcia gave a very well thought out proposal for dealing with the situation. A parallel line would be run from the supply tank to the homes and then those homes provided with latrines (which require water for flushing). Until the new water line is completed, latrines will be provided for homes in need but having water. He gave us an itemized bill of materials for the new line suitable for estimating the costs.

Although many of the ladies would like a Justa stove, we pointed out that our funds are limited and our main mission was to alleviate health problems. Pastor Gonzales has a child with asthma and he is such candidate. Mr. Murcia will give us a new, prioritized list of Justa stove needs.

Jose Santos was informed that he was suggested as an instructor for the building of Justa stoves for a sister mission organization. And should he be agreeable, he should expect to be called upon for his expertise. Also discussed was the possibly of interest in a microenterprise for providing the service of maize grinding and of assuming the responsibility for a sizable loan to purchase the equipment for doing so. Senor Mucia agreed to investigate to determine if any ladies would be interested in this proposed endeavor.

All in all it was a very informative and productive meeting. What has been thus far accomplished in La Montanita and having met face to face with them gave us a lot of confidence in their ability to carry out tasks if provided with adequate funds.

Hygeine, Dental, and De-worming Clinic

We spent the first part of our afternoon teaching two things: hand washing and tooth brushing. We administered two items, as well: de-worming medication and fluoride treatments (30 second mouth rinse). The children were very enthusiastic and eager to participate. It was rewarding to note a few parents came along with their children and followed through with this program, setting a good example for their youngsters.

Fun Time with the Crafts

Thanks to your response to our last minute request for yarn, we were able to show the interested girls how to decorate flip-flops. They learned quickly and were pleased. Having only 4 pairs of slippers for teaching, we had to draw lots but we also had 2 girls wash their own flip-flops and gave them yarn and directions to cover these. A fun time was had by all and we have yarn left to take to Teo on Thursday.

Meeting with Pastors in LaMontanita

The team met with the Pastors of two of the churches in LaMontanita (Church of the Good Shepherd and Church of the Good Samaritan/ Assembly of God) and a leader in the Roman Catholic Church (Sabrina Zamora). Each one described their church, their challenges and plans. Of special interest were their plans to collaborate with one another.

During the October team visit, all had expressed interest in receiving Bibles for personal use by families and coloring books and children’s storybooks. They were delighted to receive the materials they had requested. With the participation of Lety, the Agape Promises teacher, they brainstormed ways to utilize the materials. It was good news to learn that all have Sunday School classes for the youth.

As we said our goodbyes to the Pastors we knew it was a special God moment as the children picked up the story books and started to read aloud.

George, Bruce, and Jim went back to San Pedro Sula on Monday to gather information on corn grinders. HAF is exploring the possibility of helping La Montanita and Teo acquire corn grinders through micro-economic loans, like they did in Santa Clara. A corn grinder is not simply a convenience item. The women, and many times the children, spend hours per day hand grinding the corn.

We visited two suppliers and collected general information on the grinders, along with price quotes and maintenance requirements. One supplier offered us a 15% discount and the other 25%. We will visit La Montanita on Tuesday and Teo on Friday to discuss these projects.

On Monday PM, several team members visited Tejares to follow up of four items. A woman needs help to complete a latrine project. We will return on Friday to work with Rigo, our construction coordinator, to pour the concrete cover for the cistern and a pad for the toilet building.
We then visited a woman’s house across the very busy highway to determine if we could repair a stick-mud house that was on the verge of collapsing. The woman said that she could hear the house moving at night. There are 7-8 kids living in this house. A log had been “planted” against the front wall to keep it from collapsing. The back wall was leaning inward at least 20 degrees and there was no practical way to support it. Rigo suggested that the back and front walls and the tile roof be replaced. We all felt an immense sense of urgency to fix this severe safety problem. A proposal was sent to the Board with the hope that this safety problem can be fixed quickly.

Cervical Cancer Testing and Paper Flowers

This afternoon 13 women from LaMontanita arrived on the busito at the Quimistan Hospital for testing. Dr Elsa greeted them and attended to each of them. The women from our team joined them in the waiting room. You could tell they were nervous. The crafty members of our group began teaching them how to make paper flowers. Five minutes later there were smiles all around and happiness from sharing a joyous experience. Two mothers brought their babies who were passed around among them and us for lots of love and laughter. Two hours later we waved goodbye as they left carrying their bouquets and lots of fond memories for all of us.

A New Eye Testing Device

Thanks to a donation from St. John’s, our new Focometer went into use for the people of Tejeras. After a slow start, the team helped us to get organized and we tested almost 40 patients. The God moments were many. People who had extreme difficulty reading or who had poor distance vision, were overwhelmed when they tried on a pair of glasses that changed their lives. Their smiles and happiness brought tears to our eyes.

One man who was 79 and had lost one eye is a wonderful story. He wanted to be able to read better, but could not afford glasses. He was fitted with reading glasses
and also given a pair of sun glasses. There was a dramatic change in his ability to read. He was so thankful, he expressed his gratitude to most everyone he could. He was grateful the HAF missionaries came to help him, his village and his friends. He said God surely sent us to help them lead a better life. It was truly a very emotional experience.

Catherine Vandegrift and Denny Mcgurer who were handling our check out table said everyone who left thanked them, even gave them hugs in appreciation for what they had received.

God was truly with us all today.

It was our distinct pleasure to have Maynor, his fiancée Jessy, and Dr. Constantino as our dinner guests. The entire team was in agreement with Maynor’s choice for his bride. The wedding date is planned for March 17, 2011. We wished them both much happiness. Dr Tino said he would get them a discount in the maternity section of the hospital.

Dr. Tino was asked many questions by the team about the hospital’s future plans, the success of the medical brigades, his background and experience, malaria and aids. He answered every question with openness and honesty. We were all very impressed with his dedication to improving the health of the people of Honduras.

He spoke about the impact of Justa stoves on respiratory problems in LaMontanita. His response was that there has been a significant reduction since their installation. Additionally, now that the Community Health Care workers have access to the nebulizer, they are able to treat the symptoms much quicker. When asked what the major health problems were in Honduras, he stated pneumonia and diarrhea.

Dr. Tino is returning on Thursday to provide an annual review.

Like travelers of old, a semi-caravan of four cars left Aiken Friday ranging from noon to 2:30 for the easy drive to various hotels in the Atlanta airport. After excellent dinners at several restaurants and a good night’s sleep, we met at Gate B16 (after first reporting to E18 as directed during check-in) for the 3 plus hour flight to San Pedro Sula. The flight was early, but the immigration lines were packed and we had to wait in long lines. Fortunately, an immigration officer recognized June and we were moved to a much shorter entry lane — it pays to have recognizable team leader. After claiming our bags and the team trunks, we boarded a bus and a SUV for the one hour trip to Quimistan. George, Jim, and Bruce attempted to visit several merchants in San Pedro Sula en route to Quimistan to price corn grinders; unfortunately, these merchants were closed.

After a few minutes to put our bags in our rooms, the team took a short tour of Quimistan to acquaint the new team members to our surroundings. During a quick tour of the hospital in Quimistan we had a bit of a frustrating period as the bus’ battery started acting up, fortunately repairs were made, a la shade tree mechanics. Saturday evening after supper we finished formulating plans for Sunday’s AP celebration program, and then good fellowship followed by much needed sleep.

Sunday morning we finally got the internet connection to work – would you believe how much better the connection is when you have the correct password. After devotion and , we brought from storage to the community room case after case and box after box of donated glasses. We have to sort these glasses tonight in preparation for the several eye clinics we will hold, the first one tomorrow morning at Luz Del Valle school for the people of Tejeras. The team then departed for a short drive into one of the Quimistan neighborhoods where our hostess Martha holds an excellent and heartwarming Sunday school. Started two years ago with just 14 students, the children’s bible study has expanded to about 300 students split between two sessions on Saturday and one Sunday morning. The children ranged in age from toddlers in care of their 4 to 6 years siblings to 6th graders. All were well dressed, cleaned, and very attentive to the hour long program.

One of the moving moments of the morning service took place when Martha asked for all the first born males present to step forward. Individuals from Honduras, Guatemala and our mission group members George, Allen, Bruce, and Denny were included. Martha then offered a special blessing and referenced the responsibilities and faith that the Lord had given and placed on us. As we now prepare for doing the Lord’s work in the Quimistan Valley, we are also basking in 85 degree weather with a bright sun and a gently breeze vice the projected snow and ice storm for Aiken tonight.

After lunch we climbed back into our van and SUV and headed to Kinder school in Quimistan to attend the AP student’s Sunday afternoon’s bible study. This week’s activity consisted in having the younger children, with the older kids mentoring, drawing their own face on a balloon. They then attached their balloon to card stock and passed it around their small group. Each child in the small group wrote a characteristic of that child on the card. Pre-printed on the card stock as the phrase “God created the human being to his own image.” “God looked at everything he had done and considered that it was very good.” A healthy prepared meal was provided to all the younger children. The team then hustled back to the “ranch” to prepare for the arrival of the AP high school graduates and their family. Each AP graduate was recognized and the team joined them and their family to an excellent fried chicken dinner. Graduation gifts were presented from the Honduras Agape Foundation to this year’s graduates: Carlos Miguel, Albania Carolina, and Denia Catalina. Keyla Merari was not present to be awarded her gift. Leticia Martinez, the AP Bible school teacher was recognized and presented a token of appreciation, the book, “A Mile in My Shoes”. Each of the graduates expressed their appreciation to God and the Foundation. Additionally, three previous graduates expressed their appreciation: Vilma Aguilar and Laura Garcia spoke in English while Carlos Rapalo spoke in Spanish.

 Well, today was our last full day in Honduras.  Sadness has settled in, but we are going to power through it.

Today we set out to place a Bio Sand Filter in a home in Tejeras.  When we arrived, we (luckily) realized that the sand had NOT been washed yet – a major catastrophe had been averted.  While George, Maynor, and Pastor Wilmer stayed at the house, placing the large and small gravel in the filter, Justin, Jenn, and Kandace headed back to wash the sand that had been prepared.  After washing it, we spread it out on a tarp to dry in the sun…. except the sun wouldn’t cooperate.  It quickly became overcast, and a rare mid-morning shower hit.  We were not deterred; we moved the tarp to a covered area and brought it back out as soon as we could.  We stopped to eat a quick bite of lunch of delicious tacos (what would be called “flautas” in some parts of the U.S., but I am told that in Mississippi, this dish is pronounced “fa-lu-tas”) and proceeded back to the sand.  After gathering up the sand, we headed over to the house to place it in the filter.  We were VERY short in our estimate, so we dashed back to sift and sift and sift (and wash) more sand.  It was quite a process, one that makes us very carefully consider what may be in the sand at the beach!

After speed-sifting (thanks to Justin, Maynor, Pastor Wilmer, and George) and power-washing (thanks to Jenn), we raced back to the house to place the rest of the sand.  We did notice that the water started to run more clearly, which made us all feel much much better.

While we were all madly running about, finalizing everything with the sand, Kandace bravely volunteered (or was volunteered; the details are a little murky) to wash Enrique the Expedition.  Now, if you have watched the video we posted yesterday, you know what a task she had ahead of her!  Her job was interrupted several times by our need to use the car to transport sand.  But she was not easily deterred, and Enrique was a gleaming sight within an hour or two.  After another rain shower honored us with its presence, Justin & Jenn & George came over to help with the arduous task.

After dinner, we returned to the Vasquez home to do a chlorine disinfecting wash in the output tube.  Even though Justin looks like a miner in this picture, we needed his light to see, because the lights at the home are not very strong.

After convincing Sra. Vasquez to pose for the picture:

 (her protest: ¿los niños?, meaning she’d rather have them in the picture than herself – can’t most of us relate to that? :)), we bid her good night with a prayer and she again expressed her gratitude to us for the filter. 

All in all, a fantastic end to our July Honduras adventure!

Thanks for keeping up with us – we are returning to Atlanta (and eventually Beaufort, SC)/Houston/West Point, MS tomorrow!

Hello to all of our fans anxiously awaiting our next post.  We again apologize for the delay, but thankfully, our lovely hostess Martha called the “internet repair guy” and he was able to make it out last night to repair the damage.  This was before he left us at 7pm to head to Santa Rosa de Copan, which is about 3.5 hours away.  He was still working that late!  Makes us wonder why we can’t count on such diligent service from our internet repair guys… but I digress.

We’ve been up to lots of great things.  Here is as quick a summary as I can make:

Sunday afternoon, after the amazing Spain victory in the World Cup Final (sorry, Justin.  But The Netherlands sure put on one great World Cup performance!!), we headed over to the kindergarten to visit with the Agape Promises students.  We arrived just in time to help serve the snack: delicious baleadas and tasty tamarindo juice to drink.  It was wonderful to see all the children gathered together to study and worship!  We headed back home to clean up before church at La Cosecha at 5pm.  We were asked to come to the front of the congregation to be prayed for on our trip, which was a very moving experience.  The sermon was about the importance of honesty, and how there aren’t really any “harmless lies” – interesting stuff to ponder.  We headed over to El Comedor Fermin (more commonly known as “Goyita’s Restaurant”) and enjoyed a wonderful meal.

We went home to resume the fierce competition that has arisen over Phase 10.  Such cutthroat playing has never been seen in these parts before! 🙂

Monday morning was a flurry of activity.  While George was preparing to drive Christa to the airport in San Pedro Sula, Jenn, Justin, & Kandace hiked off with Nemo, the amazing toothy fish, to 2 kindergartens in Quimistan to help reinforce the importance of brushing our teeth correctly.  The children seemed to remember very well that they are supposed to have their toothbrushes in a special place, that we brush in circles and not too hard, and we are supposed to brush twice a day.  Once everyone was back, we prepared to take glasses over to the Luz del Valle school.  We were able to see many people from this community, and we’ve just about wiped out the supply of readers we had after Monday and Tuesday (see below) – if anyone can get some more reading glasses donated, I’m sure they will be put to good use!

 

we quickly made our way to Vilma’s home, who turned out to be both a wonderful hostess and a wealth of information.  Her home also serves as the nebulizer headquarters.  Since there is no electricity in Texoxingalas, they connect the nebulizer to the car battery to get power.  Pretty ingenious!

She helped us walk to about 60 homes during the morning to conduct the census – so we’ve “censused” about half of the town so far, and she has agreed to get the information for the homes we weren’t able to reach. 

While we were at her house, we made the acquaintance of Paquito, the family’s pet bird.  He seemed nice at first:

Wednesday morning brought what might be the most harrowing travel so far!  We got stuck in the mud on the way to El Pinal to give parasite treatment and flouride to the children there.  We tried to upload a video for you, but after waiting for over 30 minutes, we decided to call it a night.  We will try to post the video in a separate post. After we treated about 50 children (and a few of the adults, including the cooks), we headed back to Quimistan.  Before we got there, we were faced with a road block:

We arrived safely back home, and started to prepare a Bio Sand Filter to be placed in a home Thursday morning.  We also rode with Sandra out to the land she purchased, to which the title/deed is being finalized this week!

Well, it’s Sunday, and we have had a hard time having reliable internet access.  This afternoon we find ourselves in El Restaurante Herradura (translation:  Horseshoe Restaurant) eating lunch, watching the World Cup Final, and catching up on email.  We’re so sorry for the delay!

We’ve been up to a lot since we arrived on Tuesday.  After an uneventful trip to the grocery store in San Pedro Sula to buy provisions, we drove up the hill towards Quimistan, the van loaded down with suitcases, backpacks, and lots and lots of grocery bags.  Of course, since our bags were on top, it started to rain!  Luckily, no harm was done, and we were able to settle in quickly.  We’ve had rain every day, and it has definitely cooled things off in the evenings for us.  We sat down with Maynor Tuesday evening to plan out our visit, and boy we have a busy schedule – stay tuned for updates.

First thing Wednesday morning, we headed over to Santa Clara to visit the White Dove School, and Ardyn and Christa, too.  It was great seeing the children and everyone there, and we were able to give them flouride treatment before we left.  On our way back to Martha’s house for lunch, we stopped by Las Brisas to see the Bio Sand Filter that the previous team.  In order to get to the house, we had to walk across a “hammock” bridge (una puente hamaca).  Fortunately, none of us fell into the river!

Thursday brought us to the town of La Montañita – we started to walk from house to house to perform a rudimentary census (“How many people live here?, How many children are in school?, Do you have a church affiliation?, etc).  After the sixth house, we met a woman who volunteered to get all of the information for us!  Since she knows everyone in the town, I’m sure the residents will be much happier to see a familiar face knocking at the door & asking questions rather than four North Americans. 🙂  We learned that this community has been busily embroidering tortilla cloths (mantas) for us to take back to the US – right now we have about 75 (!!), and we should have a few more by the time we leave on Friday.  On our way up that morning, we spied a soccer field in the middle of the mountain, so we headed back down there for lunch to look around.  All I can say is, the goalies better be very talented, because it would be really hard to retrieve the ball once it went over the edge!  In the afternoon, we assisted Dr. Constantino and Enferma Edith with a medical brigade.  Maynor and Jenn were filling prescriptions like mad, while George, Kandace, and Justin helped pass out reading glasses & sunglasses and played with all of the kids. 

On Friday, we set out for the town of Nueva Esperanza, about an hour and half up into the mountains from Quimistan.  We stopped in Pinalejo to pick up Sonia, the teacher in Nueva Esperanza.  After an extremely bumpy ride, we arrived at the school in town.  Since classes had been cancelled for the day, we didn’t expect to see many students, but of the 46 school-aged children in town, at least 10 came out to play with us.  We were able to pass out almost 40 pairs of reading glasses, and a similar number of very stylish sunglasses as well!  On our way back to Quimistan, we stopped in the town of Buenos Aires to take a few pictures – from there, you can see Quimistan as a tiny speck!  We also could see Guatemala in the distance – very cool!  As we were driving, we noticed lots of beautiful plants, including coffee and cardamom, and flor de izote, which is used to make polyester, and also happens to be the national flower of El Salvador.  When we returned, Gary invited us to watch the cows getting milked, which is an amazing operation in and of itself.  We were also invited to feed two new calves!  We then headed out to help feed the families in Tijeras that evening, and cleaned up to go to church at La Cosecha, where the power went out about 5 times during the 2 and a half hour service.  Talk about determination!

Saturday morning we drove to Tela, a beach town about 3 hours from Quimistan.  We stopped at a Burger King in El Progreso, and Kandace enjoyed a Hershey Pie with glee.  Once we arrived in Tela, we went to a bank to change some dollars into Lempira, as there is a rule preventing money laundering which prohibits the ease in changing money we used to enjoy in Quimistan.  After a very very long wait, we were on our way to the beach.  We ate at “Steakhouse Restaurant” which was beachfront, and then walked along the beach for a while.  Even though it was overcast, it was beautiful.  Justin and Pablo wanted to go to Punta Sal, but it would have entailed an expensive 30-minute boat ride, and some of our group weren’t quite ready for that level of adventure.  After hitting a few shops, we piled pack into the Expedition and headed for home.

So far this morning, we went to Martha’s Sunday School, and met with a woman in Tijeras that seems like a fantastic candidate for another Bio Sand Filter, which we hope to construct and transport to her home on Wednesday and Thursday.  We’ll be heading to the Promesas gathering in a little while, and on to La Cosecha for church at 5pm, followed by dinner at Goyita’s – we hope fried chicken is on the menu!

Thanks for reading all of this; we hope that future updates will be more frequent so they won’t be so long!

Thanks for keeping us in your prayers!
George, Jennifer, Justin, & Kandace

Friday, July 2

Today was an day filled with events. The events started with a filling breakfast. After breakfast, we secured Christa’s items and departed for Santa Clara. After arriving, we dropped off Christa and her items and went on a tour of her new home. The girls then went back to the White Dove school to drop off some school supplies and visit with three of the students-David, Ariel, and Roni, otherwise known as the “3 Amigos.”  Ariel demonstrated his ability to read and Roni entertained them with his smiles and silliness.  Several of the children from the village came by and were treated to balloons, hand/arm painting, bubbles, and frisbee.  Mike, Joshua, and Ron fixed Lencho’s water filter by adding new, finer, sand to slow down the flow rate and improve the effectiveness of the filter. Around lunchtime, we said goodbye and left for Quimistan.

Once back, we dropped off the girls and left for La Brisas del Rio to finish the water filter we installed yesterday. On the way there, we had to cross the suspension bridge over the river. At the pastor’s house, we flushed the tube of the filter with chlorine to disinfect it and gave the instructions for maintenance to Adam.

We returned to Martha’s, and the girls went to assist with the feeding program in Tejeras. While they were in Tejeras, the guys cleaned up the BSF equipment and stored them for future use. The girls returned as we were finishing and we decided to wash the car  in preparation for the next team (challenge for the next team… clean it as well as we did!!!). We then ate chicken tacos from Gloria and “Tres Leche” cake made for us by the mother of one of our sponsored children. We then finished packing up the team items and took inventories of the construction and BSF boxes. We then finished out the day by packing our luggage and some soccer.

Removing the older, coarse sand

The bridge to cross the river

Tejeras children waiting for food

Storing BSF materials and sieves

Afterwards, we returned to Quimistan for a brief visit to the the souvenir shop in La Flecha before visiting some more of the little kiddies that I’d met and had the pleasure of drawing from years past. I was successful in finding one of the girls in my picture, and her mother said the other two boys lived nearby so overall I guess it went well. The girl was really young when I met her, but I know her mom remembered us so I didn’t feel completely weird about giving it to her. From there we went and found Francisco, my grandparent’s sponsor child. Kids around here apparently have no qualms about getting into cars with white strangers. Mike and I took him shopping for a new shirt and shoes which he seemed to really appreciate. The rest of the team invited Ortwin, the Livingston’s sponsor child, to join them for ice cream while they waited for us to finish. Back at Martha’s, there was an epic “Machete Fight.”