Canciones and the Whirlwind tour

May 5, 2011

These kids love to sing. Particularly Filomena. Marta, Filomena's aunt, teaches kindergarten. She has a book of songs that are part of the curriculum for the kindergartners and she let me copy the songs so I can give them to people going on future mission trips. Some of the songs are about washing hands and brushing teeth - things we teach them about when we are there. I got a bunch of the kids to sing them into my iPhone. Here's one of their favorites, Conozca Honuras.

May 6, 2011

This was the first day that I really got anything done for my survey. Regino managed to get someone from the Co-op to drive me out to almost all of the communities to collect water samples. They will be tested for fluoride levels. We started with the farthest community, about an hour away, and rocked out to 80's love ballads along the way. I resisted the urge to belt out "Take my breath awaaaaaaayaaaaayaaaaay!" as we pulled up to the first community, Panina and made a mental note to come back to that community first. There was already about 4 inches of water covering one part of the road, and the rainy season is only just getting started.

From there we backtracked through the six other villages between Panina and Las Mercedes, each time Regino introduced me to the locals, I took a water sample, and we told them I would be back soon to do the surveys.

In San Nicolas, there is already a clinic with two or three nurses and a Cuban doctor completing his service year. The nurses are from the local community and studied in La Esperanza. I chatted for a while with the doctor and a nurse about Metallica, the services they provide, and what they think are major heath problems in the area.

The clinic is open five days a week and sees about 30 patients per day. They think water supply is one of the biggest problems. Some of the larger communities in the co-op get water piped in from a spring (fuentes, or primaveras), but the others get their drinking water from wells (pozos) or the river. I had been under the impression that most families had a water spigot (llave) and a "toilet" that flushes to gravity (latrina) because that's what I saw near the clinic in Las Mercedes.

On the left there is a washboard, to the right is a basin with the llave, and to the right of that is the latrina. This is outside the clinic where I'm staying and is similar to that I've seen around Las Mercedes.

Apparently most of the llaves are for the community, if there is one at all. The doctor also thought that open defecation is fairly prevalent and is leading to water contamination, particularly in areas farther from community centers. Although he also said that families didn't boil their water, the woman who gave me water in Las Crucitas gave it to me out of the pot it had been boiled in. I guess that's the danger of getting your information from outsiders like us.

The community health worker, Gustavo, also informed me that the co-op is working on installing chlorination systems in 5 of the communities. These communities already have piped water, but since it comes from a central source, it can be treated. If they can chlorinate they could fluoridate... I tossed the idea out to Gustavo.

Overall, the trip gave me a much better impression of the variability of resources even within the co-op. If I had any doubts before, I can see now there there is still a lot of opportunity for development in these communities. They've come a long way, and there is a long way to go.

... and next week I'll take more pictures...