a whole lot of agua

Our beloved Honduras has been hit pretty brutally by tropical depression 16. I'm not sure if 16 is the name of the storm or if it's some kind of rating system (my knowledge of tropical depressions is limited) but from what i've seen just here in El Progreso I can tell you that it is ferocious. Yesterday Josue and I took the truck to help his friends transport furniture from their casas inundadas to drier homes further from the river. The barrios by the river are totally wrecked. The houses are flooded, the parked cars are just sitting there, filling with water, the streets are now little more then muddy rivers running through the neighborhoods. We saw people piling into big trucks to be taken to schools and churches where they can sleep on the hard- though drier- cement floors. Even on the way to Copprome from el centro I looked to the left and saw three kids paddling a life raft down one of the side roads. Impresionante.

Our apartment is in a lucky location, on high ground and a safe distance from the river. Unfortunately it's mainly those families that are not so well off, whose homes were already shantily made, that are dañificadas. Sor Tere has been going daily to the local schools that have become makeshift homeless shelters with food and supplies for the families. A number of the older Copprome kids have been going with her, as well as a few of the medical brigade members (which, by the way, there is a medical brigade here this week as well). I talked to Sor Teresita a little today and she was saying that some 13,ooo people have been displaced by all the flooding and that just today in Progreso a three year-old got swept away in the strong waters and drowned. On the grassy medians on the larger roads there are mass numbers of temporary homes set up using rope and tarps. You can just drive by and see where these people are surviving under little more than a thin layer of cheap plastic fabric. Cosmo said that on her trip today to San Pedro the damage was even worse than here in Progreso, with an astounding number of tarp-houses on the sides of the road.

Between responsibilities at Copprome and our obligations to helping translate for the medical brigade, I hope that there is time to help out because this country needs it right now. This storm just came out of nowhere and people are suffering all over.

I imagine it's easier to digest that a country has been wrecked by some natural disaster when you are far removed. But imagine being in your hometown, in your house with your family as day by day the rain that doesn't stop just keeps adding up in the streets outside. First big puddles that are making the dirt roads worse and worse, then it's almost a foot deep. Then after five days you and your family are trudging through knee- to waist-deep brown water for three or more blocks, carrying your sofa, your refridgerator, every possible piece of furniture in your house to the closest driveable street. Hopefully some family member is waiting there with a truck to take your belongings to a drier house in another barrio. Hopefully you've got family around who can take in your furniture and give you a place to sleep. But maybe it all will just be ruined, these belongings that you know won't be able to afford to replace once the water finally dries away, whenever that might be. And maybe the only place for you to go is a tiny public school where you and 30 or so other families will share the damp cement floors as a site of respite.

And here I am, typing away on my laptop with my fast-speed wireless with a fan blowing on me sipping on some tea.

-Eva Jane

News from the House of the Holy

So this morning I have experienced a miracle. I slept through the previously mentioned over-zealous pump-up jesus music and managed to finally complete the 8 hours of my REM cycle. I feel so refreshed and rejuevenated. Today is a day to dream big.

Today is also Tuesday, approximately 2 days and 16 hours after the much anticipated Copan Conference had finally adjourned its many meetings. The conference lasted 3 splendid days, starting on Thursday. We got there on thursday as well. only at 2:30 in the morning. Don't ask me how Marcio managed to drive so fast for so long, so late. But we all arrived in one piece, granted a little puffy-eyed and tousle-haired, to stumble into our cute* little moldy hotel for a nap before the festivities.

*disclaimer: the usage of the word cute here signifies the griminess of a mildewy hotel at the top of a cliff-like hill. We loved it so much that 3 out of 4 of us came home sick.

So, the festivities. About 18o people braved the potholes and winding roads to gather in a freezing banquet hall in Copan's municipal building like some sort of Honduras volunteers pilgrimage. We each came to worship the conference leader, Marco Caceros and his unbelievably sweet wife's, coordinating skills. And, to admire, to critique, and to learn from the different projects going on throughout the country. That freezing cold banquet hall in the Copan Ruinas Municipal building drew quite a varied crowd. First off, there was the US Embassador, Hugo Llorens, (whose business card I now have!), some other SHH prospective volunteers, like Claire from G Mason, some with interesting names (Mr. Turnipseed), and of course the most large and in charge group of awesome people, the SHH team. I think we surprised everyone by bringing 9 of our meanest, Copprome-hardened volunteers to the event. Indeed, we ended up taking over two tables in the very front of the room. And if thats not intimidating enough, Cosmo's presentation blew everyone out of the water, prompting a personalized mini-speech out of Marco at the end. For full details visit the 21 minute long YouTube vid.

The conference was all about networking and network we did. We found hundreds of useful contacts for our various projects. And some more, just of the people that we admired or got along well with. We also made friends outside of the conference, such as the chilean-italian street-vendor couple who sold the craziest things. And of course, Eva, being such a sweetie, made friends wherever she went; the rest of us were too busy holed up in our hoodies with our noni tea, coffee, and Sudagrip cough medicine.

At the end of the weekend, we put so much into the conference that we visited Copan without ever seeing the ruins there. But alas, it was worth it.

On a short note- On Sunday, we took the Copprome kids to the Tela beach to celebrate Kate' as it was her last day here. I must say, I have never seen as many half-naked, sandy Honduran children at one time in my life. for good reason. Yet they splashed their little hearts out in the surf, catching sand dollars, rolling in the sand, and annoying Pantera. And to those of us here in the SHH house, it was the perfectly tiring ending to a long weekend. With its fun bits as well of course.
Well it looks as if my stomach might start digesting itself so I'm off to go make some delicious breakers. Peace out, or as the germans say, Tschusse!

two weeks plus a kitty

two weeks ago at this moment i was passed out in the window seat of an airplane headed for a connection stop in miami. and right now? i am seated in the dining room of our sweet apartment at our dining table doing my usual early morning emailage and listening to the painstakingly loud voice of the woman at the evangelical school next door shout into a microphone to the small children in the courtyard. this is an everyday occurrence, people. like clockwork every weekday at 7am Christian music blasts from the speakers and this same female voice gets these tiny students excited for the day. yes, 7am. not that i don't already ALWAYS wake up at 7am, of course. but clearly alarms are not necessary in this house.

this morning, a nice little monday, i've got a 9am meeting with Cosmo about one of my projects which is to evaluate and reconstruct the High School Scholarship Program as is stands. basically Cosmo is going to give me the complete lowdown on who has scholarships, what the terms are for the scholarships given, who is failing in school and how the program is currently structured. then i will pick it all apart and figure out how to make it better. mind you, this will not all occur at our 9am meeting, but some rigorous detail-sharing will go down.

until then i will continue with my morning rituals: devouring coffee (olivia that sweetheart has just made us a pot), fixing some delicious and nutritious oatmeal with plenty of raisins and a splash of soy milk, sending the family a mass email that maps out my plans for the day in minute detail and then realizing that a 4-page daily email is unnecessary and that no one will actually read the whole thing, and hopping onto the washingtonpost.com to see whats going on in my old stomping grounds of the U.S. and A. but the new addition to my morning? CLEO! yes people, we have a kitty.

and what a kitty. she's tinnnnny and adorable. granted she won't shut up and meows a lot louder than you'd think a 1-pound critter would ever be able to, but she is just cute as a furry, little black and white button. cosmo gave us this sweet little animal this weekend after someone left it on her front porch. we have been four women obsessed ever since. she is our baby and olivia and adele especially have taken it upon themselves to nurse this lovable vermin to perfect health and spoil her rotten. in three days they've done pretty well thus far. Queen Cleopatra of the Moon in Siberia Eating Tacos. or cleo for short. she's a spunky little one but darn if she isn't just the light of our lives.

we're still trying to figure out what to do with her this week, though. wednesday night we are all headed for Copan until saturday (or maybe sunday?) for a long conference weekend for Project Honduras. i am super excited for this. i mean conferences... meh, you know? but what's groovy is that we will be meeting like-minded people who have invested interests in the welfare of people in this beautiful country and some glorious networking and mingling is going to go down. it will be the event of the season. plus it's in Copan! i think i might bring my chuck taylors. shnazz it up a bit.

so all in all things are going quite swimmingly. last week we had our first real week of work and were all dedicated in some way to the Sunshine Education Center. whether by helping out with the after school reinforcement program, running an art program or carrying out a computer course we all experienced hands-on how the center is run and just how ridiculousy amazing Iloany and Kate (the women who run the show there) really are in what they do. We wrapped the week up with a day trip to Tela yesterday. It was incredible... spending the day just sipping milk out of a coconut with a straw, looking out onto the gorgeous carribean sea, just kickin it with some amazing ladies. i couldn't have asked for a better sunday.

well, that oatmeal isn't gonna nuke itself, people. over and out.

-eva jane

Eatin' good in the neighborhood

Hola from the Progress, everyone!

We've officially been here a week, and it feels like both the longest and shortest week of my life, if that makes any sense.  We've been busy with work, play, and getting acquainted with our new barrio.  The volunteer house is super bueno and has an amazing view of the mountains (or hills, maybe?).  Momma Eva has been making sure that we're all eating well (our very own Paula Dean!), and we're all getting into the habit of going to the gym.  Which, by the way, is the best gym I have ever been to.  True, the equipment may be a bit on the old and broken side of life, and we may be ogled by a few sketchy Honduran men (whoa, shocker), but that gym has SOUL.  It has bright walls, a section that is part open air, a fountain that looks like it came from a Spanish jardin, and cardio classes led by a massive Honduran woman who I would never, ever want to get into a fight with.  But enough about our House of Sweat...

On Sunday, we went to a Honduran soccer game (my first ever!)  We made our way through the fray of elated Progresinos and found a few open bench spaces in the stands.  Directly across from us, on the other side of the field, was a giant ball of fire.  Now, if you're like me, you may think, "Hmm, giant ball of fire- must be a cultural thing."  But no.  It was much, much cooler than that.  It turns out that the fire was there to produce smoke, which was there to guide a skydiver, who was to parachute down onto the field with the game ball.  Sure enough, we  looked up into the sun and saw a plane drop a tiny dot into the sky.  That dot grew bigger and bigger until we could see a man steering down toward the field with a small Honduran flag attached to his parachute cord.  He landed safely on the field, but no game ball could be seen.  Nonetheless, the game started up shortly after, and I was left thinking that I must be in some strange parallel universe, or something crazy like that.

Despite our vast array of exciting recreational experiences, the volunteer team has been devoting a lot of time to getting organized and starting to dig our flip flops into developing projects at the orphanage and Villa Soleada.  We attended the weekly Saturday meeting at Villa, which was quite an experience.  Adele, Laurie, Eva, and I sat on a pile of rebar near the bodega, surrounded by the villagers who are going to move into Villa once they complete construction on their new homes.  I remember thinking how amazing it was to be there, amongst people who were hashing out plans and working together to form a community from scratch.  The details can be hairy at times, and life can even feel mundane, so sometimes it's good to think about the bigger picture.  It is times like these that I just feel so...lucky to be a part of SHH and the work that we do here in Honduras.

We've been spending a significant amount of time working in the education center at the orphanage.  (Note to anyone thinking about getting a nose piercing before coming down to Honduras to play with the kids: wait until you get back to the States.)  We've been helping out with the tutoring program, which runs every weekday from 1:30-5pm.  Both of my highs and lows for the week occurred while tutoring the kids.  I felt elated when I helped one of the younger children to complete his work.  He was so happy, and seemed truly proud of himself for getting everything done.  I felt sad and defeated when, that same day, another child became frustrated with his math problems and stormed out of the education center.  Working with the kids is a mixed bag.   You just have to remember to look for the small rays of light in each moment, while understanding that these children, while amazingly resilient, have had difficult lives and have dealt with concerns that few of us have ever had to think about.  Nonetheless, one thing about working at the education center is absolutely certain: you feel utterly exhausted after spending only a few hours there.  Those kids may be cute, but they'll wear you down faster than a 50 page research paper during exam week.

Well, that's all about all I have to report from La Casa SHH sobre La Vida SHH.  Until next time- stay classy, US of A.

~Olivia

our first sunday...

i have to admit, i've never blogged before so this is a first. y como se dice "blog" en espanol? el blogo? probably. this week has been pretty interesting. it was nothing too new for me, arriving into the san pedro sula airport and immediately feeling like i wish i were jumping into a pool. good ole central america, you put florida to shame in mugginess. i snuck up on cosmo, jack, laurie, olivia and adele who were waiting patiently for me on the floor of the airport. we swiftly forced jack to carry all of our 400-lb bags to the truck and were whisked away to el progreso (that means progress for all of you who don't speak the spanish).

first day, hmmm, i don't quite remember what we did. it was kinda blurry. i hadn't slept for a few days up until my flight here so i was kind of in a haze already. that crazy weekend fredericksburg night life will get you, i tell you. okay, okay back to honduras. this week actually flew by, meetings every day discussing business from house rules to the education center of copprome to villa soleada/ siete de abril and their community to our own personal research. none of us i believe have actually decided for certain what our long term plan is going to be, but we're all definitely starting to create our own image of what we'd like to see ourselves doing and goals for our time here.

i have to say, the people i live with are WEIRD. super weird. i'm pretty certain i will be holing up in my room as much as possible. laurie? the philipina? oh man, that chick is crazy. always running around the house naked, singing metallica at the top of her lungs. at crazy hours of the morning, too. i mean, maybe that would be acceptable in the afternoon to mid-evening on the weekends, but tuesday night at 3 am? come on.

and adele? don't even get me started. she claims she's fresh out of high school but she has an accomplished chicken fighting ring going on out of our downstairs kitchen. she thinks we don't know, but it's obvious- there are no doors to the kitchen. and the thing is, she runs it like a pro. she's down there making bank, bringing in some of the best trained chickens in the area and they started calling her the godmother after 3 days here. i'm very cautious of that one. "adele," haha yeah sure. a likely story. i'm onto you, hunny.

and olivia. that one, she's sneaky. i'm fairly certain that she is sprinkling some kind of illegal add-in to the coffee to make it so delicious and addicting that i can't go a day without it. how dare she. i'm on to her, too.

so, all in all it's awesome here in the house. i'm anxious to see where this week takes us, i am going to be working with alejandro- who is visiting copprome for these next couple weeks and helping out- and also laurie on a week-long computer certification course for the elementary kids. we are going to plan out the details today and then kind of finalize it all tomorrow at copprome. we'll have a little certification/graduation ceremony on friday, which should be crazy fun. i remember my own computer certification/ graduation ceremony back in elementary school. whoa! it was, i mean wow, good times. some of my best and craziest memories. one kid ended up with a tattoo, another kid actually wound up in southwest mexico married to a woman named angela... it was quite the party. we'll see how this friday goes, i will keep you all posted. all of you reading this blog, the number of which is difficult to measure at this early a stage, but let's say around ten or eleven thousand readers. give or take a few.

okay, i should start working. there is much to be done here and i have until december to get a lot of it done. i'll go home for a month then be back with full force to do more here in el progreso, honduras. the love capital of the western hemisphere as was pointed out to me last night by kate kilduff--- whom i totally adore, btdub.

over and out. paz afuera.

HEYO!!!

Hola! from life on the ground! We are now at the close of our first week here in Progreso, a fabulous week as well. Its been good getting acquainted with the rhythm of life here, meeting the kids, cooking up some splendid meals, chatting with Villa Soleada folks, etc. As we get prepped for another week, look for more volunteer postings! -Adele