Once the Un Mundo building is finished and we will be in El Pital full-time, we plan on beginning our entry into the community by going door to door to meet each family and conduct an informal survey while introducing ourselves.  We hope to gather information on who and where everyone lives and what their main concerns and needs are.  We recently meet with some local youth who are receiving a local scholarship to attend universities in La Ceiba.  As a part of their scholarships, they are required to conduct community service projects, therefore, they will be volunteering with Un Mundo to assist with this community assessment.  We hope that this initial involvement will generate greater project leadership amongst these youth as it becomes clearer what projects we will focus on for the year.

When we entered the abandoned building our first week in Honduras we often were asking ourselves, “Where do we begin?”  Six weeks later we are still asking the same question, even after much progress.  The first two weeks we scrubbed all the mud and bat feces off the floor and started clearing the area where we planned to construct the shower.  As soon as we began to make some progress, the rain came unrelentess for four straight days.  Finally, the rain stopped and we returned to the building to find all of our work ruined.  The house flooded with water, there was a mini landslide behind the building, which piled up on the area we had previous cleared for the shower.  But we didn’t let the bad luck hold us back.  The next day we started working on our composting toilet, which has been an object of oddity to those helping us, and at moments, to us as well.  But we hope that once it is complete it can be used as a model in the community as a sustainable latrine option for human waste management and a way to improve water quality in the River Valley.  

Obtaining electricity has been another challenge in this rather remote location.  But after many obstacles, we are excited to report that today a transformer is being installed that will be able to power the Un Mundo building and the surrounding homes of our neighbors. 

We have been making a lot of progress so far, but we’ve had a lot of set backs as well, although, this gives us all the more reason to celebrate our small successes, such as the steps to the back door, a wash basin, and the kitchen sink, which were recently completed and even more noteworthy, have running water. 

We hope to be able to be in the building full-time by the first week in April.  In the meantime, we are enjoying camping out a few times a week and getting closely acquainted with the current residents, the bats and scorpions.  

It’s been almost a year and the time is quickly approaching for the big move down to Honduras. Elly and Rob have been working hard over the months preparing for Un Mundo’s reinstatement in the Cuenca.  It all started back in January 2007 with an email from Tim.  Over the months, one thing led to another and in June we flew down to Honduras to meet Ken and the community of El Pital for the first time.  Since then, we’ve been busy gathering information, talking with past volunteers, coordinating fundraising events, cultivating partnerships, and planning for Un Mundo’s future. 

Our first real dose of Un Mundo work came in October when we attended Project Honduras’ Conference in the beautiful town of Copan Ruinas, near the Guatemalan boarder. While we were there, we began to expand Un Mundo’s network and gathered tons of resources.  A panel of Honduran professionals introduced us to some of the most pressing issues facing rural communities today, particularly the impacts on the youth, which was the main theme of the conference.  We met other individuals and organizations working to combat different challenges throughout various regions of the country.  We intend to deepen the relationships formed at the conference in hopes to forge lasting partnerships, particularly those working and living near the Cangrejal River Valley. 

Recently, we’ve been working with an organization called WorldCamp which is based out of North Carolina. We’re trying to collaborate with World Camp to bring college students to Honduras during the summer and work in the public schools to educate students on issues surrounding HIV/AIDS.  We are also researching the possibility of conducting a community needs assessment in El Pital this coming year.  If implemented, this assessment will be a collective project to gather information about their needs, existing conditions, demographics, etc.   We are hoping to generate support from local and international universities, using professors and students to assist with the assessment.  We’re excited about all the work that lies ahead.

 Rob & Elly