The last time I wrote, President Mel Zelaya had just been thrown out of Honduras and the country went into chaos. Today as I am writing, Mel Zelaya managed to sneak back into the country and once again there is major political unrest. I know in July when all this started the schools were closed for almost a month and students were robbed of class time hindering even more their already minimal education.  Currently there has only been a two day curfew, completely halting any activity in the country including businesses and schools. It is definitely a strange feeling to know that I can potentially be arrested for walking down the street to work in the morning.  I am just hoping this conflict gets resolved quickly and the schools do not close for a month again. If these students do not have the opportunity to finish their classes, many will move onto the next grade being cheated of any actual education for this year.

            As for life in El Pital things always seem to stay pretty tranquilo. Rob, the co-director of Un Mundo, and I have been working with two families to finish our pilot project for the composting toilets. I mentioned in my last blog that Elly and I went to do a site visit where another organization had introduced composting toilets. It was then that we decided this would be a great project to bring to the Cuenca, where we live. The project has been moving slower than expected due to the first big problem of the wrong toilet seats being delivered. A composting toilet separates the feces from the urine allowing the feces to change into compost with the help of ash or woodchips. In order to separate the two, a special toilet seat with a hole for the feces and another for the urine is required, which was not what we received after the first delivery. That hindered us for a couple weeks, but as of now the two chambers for the toilets are complete. Now it is the responsibility of the families to finish the top half of the toilets, which includes the walls to the bathroom and the roof. We decided to have the families finish the top half of the bathroom alone, to give them more responsibility and ownership over the bathrooms, so it is not seen as just a gift.  As soon as the families have a chance to finish the top half our first two pilot toilets for our composting toilets will be complete. It is really exciting to know that two composting toilets have been introduced to this area. El Pital and all of La Cuenca Cangrejal is surrounded by lush rainforest, so the importance of the protecting the environment is always on our minds when implementing projects.

As for my other projects I held a women’s group meeting this month in which we discussed the idea of recycling and the economic and environmental benefits of such a concept. In order to represent the idea of reusing we used old plastic bags fused together to make smaller tote bags. The women each designed their own bag of different colors and designs, and they were able to physically see in action the meaning of ‘ones mans’ trash is another mans’ treasure’.

The month of July has quickly come and gone. A lot has happened since I have last written my blog, which was only 2 months ago. In June, Elly and I held our second women’s group meeting. We decided to hold a cooking class with all the women. Our recipes were for Gazpacho, pizza and oatmeal pancakes. It went well for the most part, except the pizzas took a lot longer to cook than one could have guessed. All in all I think the women really enjoyed the class and they are all really excited that they now know how to cook a pizza. Really though, who doesn’t love pizza? Having the women’s group meetings are really interesting also because I can see the relationships amongst the women and how they work together as a group. I am definitely getting a better understanding of each individual woman and community dynamics. I have also had the chance to meet new faces and get to know better the women I already knew, so I love it. I wasn’t able to attend the third meeting but Rob and Elly made an awesome presentation on bee harvesting nad honey products. I hope the next meeting in August goes as well as the other meetings have been.

Elly and I also went out to do a site visit in San Antonio de Cortez, to see composting toilets built by another organization. We will be starting our pilot for the composting toilet project in August, so that was a nice way to see what other organizations are doing. We were able to see 5 diffeannt building types for the construction. Some had only one chamber while others had 2, some were made of wood, some of brick, and others of concrete, so it was nice to be able to see different takes on the construction of the toilets. With the help of volunteers we have coming down in August we hope to build two composting toilets in La Lucinda. Our future plans are to extend this project to the upper valley where communities are more remote and there is a much larger need for proper sanitation.

As for my time here in El Pital, I have been very out of the loop recently. I went home for a long weekend to renew my visa and see my family, but that long weekend quickly turned into almost a month vacation. If some of you do not know, there was a military coup on June 30^th, in which the military physically removed the president Mel Zelaya from office and from the country. There was protesting in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula, with various roadblocks throughout the country. Along with this, there was a curfew that allowed no one in the streets after a certain hour. Since I wasn’t sure of what was going to happen with the protesting and rioting I chose to wait a couple days before returning to Honduras. However one thing after another kept coming up, and as the days went by I started to think I would never return to Honduras. Luckily though, I have returned and I couldn’t be happier. Although to the outside world it seems like Honduras is in chaos and under no rule, things seem the same here in El Pital. The one big change however is that there has been no classes for the past couple weeks. It’s a shame for these students to miss so much school for such an extended period of time. A lot of these students are already behind for their age and this dilemma is certainly not helping.

As for my daily life in El Pital, it has been great. I am still living with Lourdes and Ramon. Ramon is currently finishing up an apartment below their house, which will soon be home for me and Elly. I am a little sad to not be living in the house with the family, but I think it will be better for both them and me. It will allow me to actually get work done when I am at home. As of now whenever I am in the house I am not able to do anything except play cards and chat, which really isn’t so bad.  The apartment will allow them to have a little more room in their house so Joseline can have her own room, which I am sure she’s excited about.

A lot has changed since the last time I wrote my blog. I really feel a part of the community now. Walking down the street I hear ‘Hola Mauri’ from every direction. I am currently living with the same family I stayed with the second two weeks I was here. I moved into another house for a month which was nice because it gave me a chance to get to know another family. However, their brother was moving home so they needed the extra room, so I moved back with Lourdes and Ramon. It’s perfect; my relationship with Lourdes is amazing. I can definitely say she is my best friend here in El Pital. There building a new house which is almost done so we should be moving into that house very shortly. I know the family is really excited to move especially because the father built the house by hand so it is quite an accomplishment. I am definitely going to miss my current neighbors though. I play cards and draw pictures with all the little girls almost every night. But at least I am only moving across the street a little ways so it’s not bad at all.

As for my work, it has really picked up. I am still heading to the clinic in El Pital and in Yaruca two times a week. The clinic in Yaruca has a lot more help than that of El Pital so it is interesting to see the differences. The clinic in Yaruca has a Cuban doctor who will be working with them for the next two years. They also have a technician, Don Rey, who does mapping of all the aldeas around Yaruca. One of the first days I went to the clinic I had the chance to go out with him and give rabies vaccinations to all the dogs. You can only access this village by walking up a small path for about one hour.  It was really interesting, especially because I have never stuck a needle into anything let alone a dog that is trying to bite my head off.  He also taught me how to check for mosquito larva that can spread dengue and malaria and then how to treat the water. I think I will get a chance to learn a lot about the surrounding areas from him, which will be interesting.

To think that just two weeks ago I was sitting on my couch listening to the newscaster talk about the cold and windy day we were going to have. Now the thought of cold weather is at the back of my mind and air conditioning is like a dream. I think I can get used to the weather, though, along with a lot of the everyday life in El Pital and La Cuenca Cangrejal.

The Cangrejal river valley is beautiful, including everything from the mountains to the people. I have been living with the family of Lito and Suyapa. They have three beautiful girls, Ericka, Jaime, and Miley, along with a son who I did not have a chance to get to know while living with the family. However, he recently came home from working in Copan and I did get to meet him. He seems just as amazing as the family described and I can see why they are so proud.

Don Lito is a pastor at one of the Evangelical churches in town. There are currently two Evangelical churches and one Catholic. It’s safe to say that religion is a big part of the lives of many families in this community. I had the experience of accompanying the family to Mass a couple times. It was much different than the typical Catholic masses I am used to and much longer. The pastor and other speakers are very passionate and full of emotion and the whole church is involved in singing and dancing. It was a great experience and I was really happy they invited me to come.

The second family I am currently living with is that of Lourdes and Ramon. They have one beautiful daughter together named Joselin, who is 12 years old. It has been a great experience living with two different families. It has definitely allowed me to really get a sense of different family life in the community. In the second house, due to its location, I have had the ability to meet a ton of the children living in El Pital along with other mothers. I can definitely say playing dodge ball is still one of my favorite sports.

During the week I have been spending my time getting acquainted with the nurse, Mundo, at the El Pital Health Center. He is fairly new to this health center so I think together we can make big improvements. Since he is the only worker at the clinic as well, I think he enjoys the help. To help me get an idea of the health concerns and issues in the area I have been giving consults with him and looking over different statistics of the area for the past year. Soon I will have the chance to meet the members of the health committee in El Pital, which I am really excited about as well.

Kency, a highschooler in El Pital, also joins us in the afternoon. She has become a good friend of mine and recently invited me to the Father’s Day celebration at the high school. All the high-schoolers got together and put on drama shows and dances for the fathers in the area. It was fun and I was happy to see they have such a great celebration for fathers.

I have also had the chance to meet Dr. Black, who is from Texas and currently lives in La Ceiba. He runs a health clinic in Las Mangas, the closest aldea to El Pital. He has been working is this region for eight years now, so he will definitely be a great resource for any issues or concerns Un Mundo may have. I am excited to begin planning different projects related to health and really start making things happen.

As of now though I can definitely say I am glad to be a part of Un Mundo and I think they work they have already done and the work we hope to do is an amazing thing. Can’t wait to tell you more soon. …