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. …

            Each morning, waking to the sound of the roosters of El Pital crowing even before dawn blesses the valley, I must be thankful for finding myself so fortunate (as we all must, as we see each new day).  I have spent my first month in the cuenca cangrejal spending time in three different homes, the hosts in which have all been incredibly gracious.  Rob and Elly have been very helpful in sharing their thoughts, time, and living space with me (not to mention food) as I become acclimated to my new environment.  Waking up one day in the middle of a Wisconsin winter, and waking the next day breathing tropical air can be funky for the body and mind.  After the first few days and nights just getting to know the area a bit, I spent two weeks with a wonderful family who taught me many Hondureñismos, the art of tortilla making, and a plethora of things about daily life in the cuenca.  Living with this family was truly a heartwarming experience.

During the days here, I’ve been focusing my energy on developing a curriculum for teaching twice-weekly English classes in the mountain village of La Muralla, establishing relationships with people of all ages in El Pital and neighboring aldeas, and brainstorming, writing down ideas, planning for the year.  The latter mental activity has been primarily directed towards:  the “Biblioburro” program we are developing which will bring books and magazines, as well as a book- making workshop, to some of the more remote villages in the area via burro, or donkey; a potential music program, most likely centered on learning about different musical cultures around the world as a vehicle to increased awareness of different people, places and sounds; and developing a questionnaire/survey to take with me to all of the schools in the cuenca so that we may gain a better understanding of the educational opportunities offered in all of the communities here.  On Tuesday and Thursday mornings, I make the hike up to the village of La Muralla to give English lessons to the twenty or so elementary school kids there.  It’s a multilevel classroom, with a handful of kids in each grade, first through fifth, so I have my work cut out for me. Nevertheless, it is a blast working with these children, as well as learning from the teacher there on how to accommodate such a wide age range of learners.

I was also invited to play guitar at the wedding of a newly made friend the second week I was here, which was a great opportunity to meet many people and “break the ice” so to speak.   The church was packed and I think people enjoyed my rendition of “Is this Love?” by Bob Marley.  Also in the music vein, I’ve been organizing a couple of music fundraisers for this summer, as well as a small book drive (both back in the U.S.) to raise awareness of this area of the world in the case of the former, and to get a start on building a library for the Biblioburro program.

But, of course, much of this first month has been simply soaking in the new, and listening.  More to come soon…

When conducting an official census, what are the unofficial, unaccounted for questions of a community? Are some facts more significant than others? Who asks the questions and who gets to answer them? In this project, we set out to explore the questions that go unaccounted for in an official census by inaugurating a “census of the senses.”

The seed for the idea emerged from that fact that El Pital recently went through the census process to gather information and capture facts related to livestock, literacy, yearly income, number of people per family, etc. Rachel and I thought about how the official anything always omits the unofficial everything of life. We wanted to pose the idea of politicizing a census through a poetic investigation of it. Some might call this a kind of "mocking" of official census gathering, but we like to think of it more like a lovely counterpart to the official work of gathering community information.

In partnership with Un Mundo, the students of El Pital, and Break Arts, we designed a workshop that would encourage students ages 13-16 years old to investigate the hidden and layered feelings of a community. We knew we wanted to combine the power of text and image with the public performance of a cordel, based on the tradition of “string literature” hanging from ropes in the public squares of Brazil, dating back to the 1500’s (appendix A). Beyond that, we invited the students to guide the direction and scope of this project, asking the students to direct the content and questions (appendix B). We wanted teenagers in El Pital to consider the differences between qualititative and quantitative research, and to consider the poetics that exist behind census numbers. Finally, for ourselves and for our students, we wanted to use the arts as social practice to help us "make sense of a census" by playing with the notion of "official" when speaking about feeling. In this way, all of us were digging for and illuminating a kind of intelligence rooted in feeling.

We hoped that this project would instigate meaningful and otherwise muted conversation on a question of collective interest and significance. The project is multi-disciplinary to capture voices and perspectives. This was a four day project, limited by the fact that Honduran teachers had been on strike due to not being paid for over 6 months of work.

For more information on this workshop visit:

http://www.censusofthesenses.blogspot.com/

Written by Amanda Leigh Lichtenstein

Thanks to the many generous donors, in December, I was able to return to El Pital, Honduras. During my week back, teaching dance to the
children I had worked with this summer, I was able to reconnect with
the Lobo family, organize a community art project for Maria’s memorial,
and put on the dance concert that was postponed this summer. 

As you may remember, I spent
five weeks in Honduras this past July teaching jazz, ballet, and hip-hop
to children in the five-hundred-person village of El Pital. The day
of the concert, we learned that Maria Lobo, an incredible woman that
I stayed with my second week in Honduras, had died in childbirth.   

When I left Honduras this summer,
I felt my work there was not complete, and I wanted to help the community
honor Maria in a way poverty had not allowed. I have been overwhelmed
by your response to my story and am thrilled to share that together
we raised over $1,600 for the people of El Pital.

Those funds made three major
projects possible: First, I was able to return to Honduras the first
week of December to teach refresher dance classes and lead a dance concert
on Sunday, December 8^th. Second, the community was able to
express their thoughts about Maria on ceramic tiles that we decorated
and will cement over her resting place. Finally, ten children with special
needs will be able to attend a school in La Ceiba, Honduras for the
first time in their lives, starting in February 2009, as the funds will
cover the transportation and entrance costs their families cannot afford. 

The dance performance was a
wonderful experience for me, and I believe equally so for the kids and
their families. Although the power went out for two hours before the
performance, leaving us without music to practice, it was restored just
in time for the show. After the boys and girls performed their individual
numbers and did a coed merengue dance, the kids continued dancing when
the show was over and wanted to know when we would have our next practice!
I hope to return to El Pital in a summer or two to teach classes again,
but for now, I feel so thankful to have had this opportunity. 

_____________________________________________________

Dear Supporters, Family and Friends:

THANK YOU!!! As of today, November 17, 2008, we have raised a total of $1,255 for the dance concert this December. I am speechless with gratitude and feel so excited to share your generosity with a community in need.

We were able to find very affordable transportation for my return to Honduras, so your support not only fully covers that transport, the concert, and the permanent art memorial, but has allowed $500 to be set aside to help start the "Special Needs Scholarship." This Scholarship will help get children with disabilities in Honduras into school for the first time. It will cover the cost of transportation to a special school in La Ceiba, as well as school supplies that families in El Pital cannot afford.

One child in particular that will benefit from the program, is a nine-year-old boy born with Cerebral Palsy, who doctors believed would never speak. Remarkably, this boy started speaking at six-years-old without any formal education. This August, Elly and I worked with him one afternoon on learning the alphabet. We showed him "A, B and C" and noticed him the next day, tracing these letters into the dirt outside. His desire to learn was so inspiring, and I can't wait to see him in school for the first time.

There are many children in the area that hope to attend this special school, and further donations to Un Mundo on my behalf will go directly to the operation of the "Special Needs Scholarship." A gift of just $50 will allow a child to attend school for a month. If you are interested in donating to help children with special needs in Honduras attend school, you can donate through this secure website.

Thank you all again for your encouragement, generosity, and support. The people I met in Honduras changed my life. They treated me with such kindness, hospitality and generosity. I am so glad, to now share those things in return. If you would like to know more, please email me at meredithferrill@yahoo.com

Your continued support means so much to me, Un Mundo, and the families in El Pital.

Meredith

____________________________________________________________________________

Dear Supporters, Family, and Friends:

The first week of December 2008, I will be heading back to El Pital, Honduras to teach a week of refresher dance courses to the students that I worked with this summer. At the end of the week we will hold a performance for the kids to show off their incredibly hard work to their families and friends. This performance will also be in honor of the woman who passed away this August, and we will offer everyone the chance after the show to participate in making an art piece that will be displayed at her resting place.

I am working to raise $1,000 to cover the costs of transportation back to Honduras, funds for the food, drinks and set-up for the concert itself, and finally, funds for a permanent art piece in honor of this woman's memory for the community to participate in creating.

All of the funds raised over this amount will support Un Mundo's on-going projects, including building the first public high-school in the area, starting a library in the community, and securing funds to help children with special needs afford transportation to attend a special school in the city of Ceiba. Un Mundo, also, will continue to work over the coming years to provide improved health services to the people in and around El Pital.

If you would like to find out more about my fundraising project, please email me directly at meredithferrill@yahoo.com. Please click on this link to donate to Un Mundo and to help us reach our goal of $1,000: http://www.unmundo.org/en/howtohelp/donatebyweb

Thank you for your continued support!!

Meredith

I came down to Honduras in July 2008 with some cds burned with dance music, my tennis shoes, and very little knowledge of Spanish. The first few dance classes were, well, exhausting. I taught one group of girls, and one group of boys, mostly ages 8 - 12. My first class, I showed them clips from "Step Up," and tried to introduce myself in my very sorry Spanish accent. These beginning classes showed me how much the kids wanted to dance, as they stared glossy-eyed at the dancers on the screen, and moved shyly to the music, but also how much I would need to keep them on track if we were going to get any learning accomplished, especially in time for the concert at the end of the month. When I pressed play on the ipod, the entire town was enticed to come and watch the classes, especially the young children who during two classes, chanted and threw the pits of their eaten mangoes into the high school while we tried to learn.

Into the second week, I started to nail down some Spanish words and realized that I needed to keep the kids moving throughout the entire hour to make sure that they stayed focused on dancing, and not on the spectators. I started to teach them each a specific dance combination, and then started teaching plies, leaps and turns. As El Pital adjusted to my loud music in the afternoon, the classes became more focused, and the kids came back every week, showing off their leaps during the final minutes of class and enjoying the free dance that included some of their favorite style, Reggaeton.

By the final week, my boyfriend Evan had joined me in Honduras, helping me communicate much more smoothly with my students in Spanish, and encouraging more of the older boys to join in the dance classes. Now, both the boys and girls finished learning their dance combinations and we started to discuss costumes and final details for the performance. We did a dress rehearsal the night before the show was to happen, and I can truly say that seeing them dance with such enthusiasm, filling the room with their stomping and leaping, with their shouts and turns, and showing me how well they had learned the combinations, made the entire trip worth it, in just those two short hours.

The day of the performance came, and we rode in the back of a pick-up truck to the school with pizzas, watermelons, sodas and scarves. The kids waited in front of the school gate in their "costumes:" white or black shirts and jeans. Shortly after we pulled into the school, however, we learned that a wonderful woman in El Pital had died in childbirth that morning. My second week in Honduras , I stayed with this woman and her incredibly accommodating family, and the blow of this news was too great to even think about continuing with the performance. One of her daughters was in my dance class, and out of respect for her, and her family, we cancelled the concert.

Looking back, I have several memories about my time in El Pital. I remember the fantastic views over waterfalls and in the mountains that I had no idea existed there. I remember the families I stayed with, their baleadas and soda and constant attention, and I remember sweating like crazy with a bunch of kids while the music blasted. I am hoping to return to Honduras in December for a week to put on the performance that was postponed, and to honor the memory of the woman who we lost that day. And finally, to see those kids get a chance to show off to their families and friends all of the hard work, joy and dedication they put into learning to dance.

Meredith Ferrill, Un Mundo Volunteer