October 15, 2007

Work & Leisure

Several of you got the following paragraphs in an email (these are updated) but for those who didn’t, here is an update on what we’ve been up to work-wise.

Luke is currently working on putting together a class on how to survey for the “técnicos” at his counterpart organization. Técnicos are basically guys with construction experience but no real education. The técnicos at his counterpart organization are in charge of overseeing the water systems that the communities put in (construction supervision), hygiene, health, watershed management, and environmental education, preliminary surveys, etc. However, their surveying skills could use some improvement. He feels that this would definitely be sustainable and something he will enjoy doing.

Luke has also started teaching math several hours a week to 3rd-6th graders at the school for street kids (the one I blogged about). The school year ends in a month and they’re only on page 15 of their math books (in other words, they’re WAY far behind). This can be attributed to the kids having some learning difficulties but mainly because the teachers don’t do much to push the kids or “teach” them in my opinion. Even though the school year ends and the teachers stop coming, these kids still show up at the school everyday Nov-February (months of vacation) so he’s hoping he can work with them through those months and catch them up for next year.
Starting in January or February, Luke’s counterpart organization will be starting new water system projects in 7-10 communities that are very isolated (like the one in my blog about the trip to the campo). We’re planning to commit 3-5 days every month staying overnight in these communities. Luke would work with the guys in the community and oversee the construction of the water system (also do surveying and the water system designing) and I would work with the nurse from the local health center (if there is one) or with community volunteers on health education. We’re looking forward to this. Luke’s counterpart organization gives us money to cover the transportation, lodging and food for us while we’re working in these communities so we don’t have to worry about that.

I’m currently finishing up working with the 210 5th graders (6 classes) that I started working with in June. We finished up all the sex ed charlas last week (they went way better than expected) and started HIV/AIDS prevention this week. I gave them a preliminary test just to get an idea of what 5th graders in Honduras know about HIV/AIDS and it was really surprising…many still think it can be transferred through mosquitoes and saliva, some think there is a cure, that you can’t get it after having sex just one, etc. I’m going to give them the same test again after 3 hours of charlas. Before the school year ends, I need to make my decisions about who I’m going to ask (5 from each class) to be in my youth groups that I’m going to form starting next school year (in April). The focus of the youth groups will be leadership and community service.

I recently applied for and received a small community grant to work with the People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) support group here in Danlí. There are about 30 people who come regularly to meet once a month. We’re going to do two sessions, covering topics like reproductive health in PLWHA, sexual health, dealing with stress and depression, and adherence to medication. One of the workshops is this month and another one is in November.

Other than work, Luke and I spend a lot of time reading, cooking, and watching movies on our computer (thank goodness for DVD rippers!). Our garden didn’t work out so well the first time (lack of good soil) so we’ve been busy lately organizing the re-plant (getting fertilizer, weeding, etc.). Of all the flowers I planted, only 3 zinnias came up but they sure are pretty! It’s been cool lately so we’re going to try and plant lettuce and spinach. We ate a lot of leafy greens in the States and here the only lettuce you can find is iceberg and occasionally some weird tasting spinach at the market. We have a trip planned to the west at the beginning of November to visit some friends of ours (a married couple) in Santa Rosa de Copan. For Thanksgiving (it makes me sad to think about spending this holiday here in Honduras) the volunteers in our state are getting together for meal. It’s hard to believe that when we get back from the States in January we’ll be just a month shy of having been in Honduras for a whole year. I wouldn’t say the time is going fast necessarily, but it definitely is moving along.

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