Remember when we were in grade school, and on Earth Day everyone put on latex gloves, grabbed a garbage bag, and headed off with their classmates to clean the streets of their town. I always remember it being such a long day. We were out picking up trash for hours, but hey, it beet the heck out of being in the classroom! Today, I got to see the Honduran version of “trash-pick-up day.” It was very similar, but then very different at the same time. When I was in school, the teachers were always watching us like hawks telling us when we missed something and that we needed to pay more attention to the task at hand than to the games we were playing with our gloves, bags and garbage! Here in Honduras, the teachers sort of just strolled along behind us. I think it was just as much a break from class for them as it was for the kids, so they were not paying that much attention to how good of a job the kids were doing! Let me go back to the beginning a little bit:
What a day it was. This fine Tuesday morning, I went to the health center, at 8 a.m., as per usual. There were not very many people in the waiting room, which is not unusual for a Tuesday. I was just putsing around finding things to help with and talking to the nurses, when Carlos came in. Carlos is the Health Educator-type person. I don’t know what exactly his title is. He is always running around to the different communities testing the water and telling people when they really need make sure and boil their water, but that they should just ALWAYS boil it. But, then he also makes sure that our health center follows the rules such as, our nurses wearing their uniform and doing their paperwork correctly. He has a lot of responsibility, but I’m not sure what his job title is?
So, this Tuesday morning when Carlos came in to say good morning to all of us, he told me about a “meeting” going on in a nearby aldea. I didn’t really understand what he said or what the meeting was about, but I caught the part about trash pick-up. It wasn’t really important what it was all about, I said that I of course wanted to go with him out there. I jump at every opportunity I can to go out to the aldeas because I want them to get to know me out there, so I can start some projects with them, too. I rounded up my stuff in the health center and joined Carlos for the under 10 minute drive out to the aldea. When we go there, Carlos introduced me, dropped off some black garbage bags and was on his way. I had miss-understood what he said to me at some point, because I was unaware that he was only dropping stuff off and wasn’t participating. But, it didn’t really bother me. Since arriving in Honduras, my nervousness of new situations has really begun to dwindle. I’m in a new situation pretty much everyday, and at some point, you just have to learn to deal with it.
After Carlos left, I was left with two teachers and a mob of kids. We were headed out on the first trash pick-up of the year for this community. I’m not sure if it was the first organized trash pick-up, ever, but it kind of seemed that way. The kids each got one latex glove and a small black trash bag and then took off running down the road. I took up the rear with one of the teachers and about five kids. We took our time picking up all the trash that the kids in a hurry had skipped over. We only did the main street, and only about 150 yards of it, I would guess. But hey, it is a start! At least the people in this community are aware that there is a trash problem. The fact that everyone in Honduras thinks it is ok to eat something and then just throw the rapper on the ground, baffles me. This is only because in the states, we were taught from a very young age that this was not allowed - and in fact is against the law. Sure, all of us United Statesers have thrown trash on the ground, but we always try to do it stealthily and usually only when there is no garbage can around. Not the Honduras - they just chuck it right out bus windows, car windows, over their shoulders - and in front of anyone and everyone.
We picked up trash for under 30 minutes, and for 10 of that, I was just taking pictures, which meant the kids were not doing anything except for posing for me. Kids here tend to love when you take pictures because they are able to look at them in the digital camera! There are of course the select few that don’t like their pictures take, but they still like to look at the pictures of the other kids. After we went back to the school, I was taking pictures of the kids on their play ground. The boys kept climbing up things trying to make good poses for the camera, it was adorable. But, they kept pushing each other around trying to get each other out of the photos, which made me nervous. I didn’t want anyone getting hurt, so after about 20 minutes of that, I put the camera away to keep things on the safe side.
I left the school at about 10pm, but not until after I mentioned starting Yo Merezco with the kids in that aldea after I finish with the school in my site. The teacher sounded very interested and said that I could do it, so that was exciting. I walked home, which took me about a half an hour - in terrible flat sandals! It was blistering hot, so when I arrived at my house, I was drenched in sweat - I was very thankful I had put on sun screen before leaving the health center! After a couple hours of being outside, I would have been burnt to a crisp. As it was, I still ended up a little red. When I got home, I ate lunch and rested up a bit before heading back to the health center. There was a meeting scheduled in the same community for 2pm, and Carlos had invited me to go with him. I wasn’t entirely sure what this meeting was about, but it was a community meeting, which meant the perfect opportunity to get to know more people in the community.
Before heading out there, I re-loaded up on the sun screen, which was a good idea because the meeting ended up being outside!
Carlos and I of course arrived a good hour before the meeting actually started, but that is better than being late. I like that there are a few Hondurans that do not follow Honduras time and actually arrive to events when they are meant to start. So, for the hour before the meeting start, I sat outside the building it was supposed to be in, with Carlos and three other guys. They were asking me all sorts of questions, and we got into talking about fishing. They all loved that I was from Alaska and fished with my dad and wanted to know all about it. I wish I had a wider vocabulary in Spanish, but I was able to get the general idea across! One of them had seen what I think he was describing was Deadliest Catch, so he thought that is what I did in Alaska, and it took a little while to make them understand the difference. Lots of time I don’t even try to correct people in the States when they think that is the kind of fishing I did in Alaska, so I gave it my best shot in Spanish!
We all re-located to the school for some reason that was unclear to me, but I didn’t ask questions, I just followed the mob of people that had congregated to the school. However, instead of going in one of the classrooms, we just pulled out a bunch of chairs and sat in the playground. It was just fine at first, but as the sun was moving across the sky, we lost our shade and were all burning up - especially me.
The meeting ended up being about the water situation in this aldea. They are going to build a new water tank in a higher location than the current one, so it can supply the whole town, as it as grown over the past 10 years since the first tank was put in. But, to build this tank, they have to form work groups, which they did during this meeting. The selected 8 group leaders, and all the men ages 15 and up have to participate. The groups are going to alternate working, in the sense that one group will work all day one day and then won’t have to work for seven more days while the other groups have their turns. After they finished with the information about the new water tank and formed their work groups, the floor was handed over to Carlos who talked about the health side of things. He told everyone that in a test he just conducted, in two cc of water, there were 9 (somethings) of poop. So, in one glass of water there are 250 cc (ml) and if you drink 8 classes of water a day - you are drinking around 9000 particles of poop everyday! He explained the importance of boiling the water from the tap, or purifying it with bleach and then went into explain the different diseases you can get from drinking the water if you don’t boil it our put chlorine in it: diarrhea due to different bacteria, parasites and viruses; dengue and malaria, colera, Hepatitis, and cisticercosis - which is the larva of tapeworms that you can drink and then will form in your intestines and grow up to 7 meters long! In a segue from talking about cisticercosis, Carlos went on to talk about pigs. Apparently you get this tape worm from eating contaminated pig, but then it can be passed through feces as well! In this community, there are a lot of pigs that roam the streets scrounging for scraps, and there is a law stating that pigs, chickens, and other animals are not allowed to freely roam the streets. Carlos told the community members he is going to give the town eight days to get the pigs off the roads before he does something - I didn’t understand that part, but I think it is something along the lines of fining people, or taking away their pigs.
After the meeting was over, Carlos had to leave very quickly, so didn’t get a chance to chat with anyone in the community, but just being at the meeting does a lot. It gets my face out there, so people will know I’m around, and someone will be able to tell them who I am and what I am doing. When I got back to my house, I went for a run, ate dinner and then was completely exhausted! I was in the sun, speaking and listening to Spanish practically all day - I am exhausted. It is time to go to bed, and thanks to my new fan, I will hopefully be able to sleep soundly!
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