The past couple of days have been really tiring and the heat has begun to take its toll on us gringos. Since my last update, we’ve done so much! First, we’ve continued our research by doing the informal interviews in the village. Basically, we’ve broken up into two groups. Each group visits 4 houses in the various barrios (neighborhoods) to conduct interviews. Through this process I’ve been able to really identify many public health misconceptions within the village. First, many of the people tell us that they think the calcium in the water is causing outbreaks of kidney and gal stones. Second, they think that drinking non-potable water doesn’t cause the diarrhea and vomiting, rather, it is caused by the dirt the kids are putting in their mouth. While the concerns with dirt may be true, we all know that the water likely plays a pretty significant role in diarrhea and vomiting. Lastly, they have told us that refrigerating their water will kill any bacteria and parasites the water may have. This is obviously incorrect. Refrigeration may slow the progression/growth of bacteria and parasites however it doesn’t kill them.
I continue to be amazed by the level of poverty here in Honduras. Before I came here I learned that Honduras was the second poorest country in the world, yet, I didn’t really comprehend how poor it was until I came here and listened to the villagers’ stories. Yesterday I spoke with a woman who told me that she began to care for a young girl after her parents passed away. She embarrassingly admitted that she regrets the decision to care for her because she can barely take care of the girl, let alone herself. She has fears about not having enough food to eat, water to drink and other basic resources you need to survive. She continued to say that she feels so bad for the young girl living with her because she literally takes care of herself. She cooks, cleans and goes about her business. This story was very humbling. As is everything I’ve done here in Honduras. We also had the opportunity to visit a small hilltop village called La Bomba. In this village we met with a woman who had a pretty serious stomach tumor and because of this, she lost her ability to walk. She was incredibly thin, and didn’t look well. She had a wheelchair, but the bottom of the chair was broken, leaving it inoperable. She will be a recipient of one of the free wheelchairs I mentioned in a previous blog. We talked with her for a while and she told us her story. She ended with telling us that she must keep believing that God will make her better.
We also made a trip back to the most dangerous city in the world-San Pedro Sula. We were on TV!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This was so cool!!!! Janice (the woman from Washington Overseas Missions) translated for us as we told viewers about our projects and future work in Honduras! After we left the TV station, we went to the market and shopped! This was a cool experience for me because we had Miguel (native Honduran who attends school in the states) barter for us as we made our way through the different vendors. I picked up some souvies for friends/family and a bag for myself! J
Tomorrow we have our first focus group meetings with the PhotoVoice participants! J I expect to be amazed and awed by the participant pictures and their stories. I hope to have access to the Internet quickly after so I can update you on how it went. If not, I promise to post soon! After the focus group we will make our way to Landos Chicken Express…..half chicken store/half dance hall. This should be interesting…I’ll update you soon!
Until next time, Hasta Luego!!!!
SheWhoTravelsForJustice.
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