Thursday, January 8, 2009

I skipped breakfast again and went with the AguaClara group to Ojojone. Before this, I took a cold shower. It was hard at first but I managed it. I avoided touching the concrete walls because they seemed to be dirty. The toilet room also smelled very bad. Despite these bad descriptions, the shower was nice and refreshing.

At Ojojona, we walked to the water plant and learned about the cleaning process of the sedimentation tank and met the operators. To clean the tank, the water was drained though an opened pipe. Then the lamella was washed with a hose. After the water plant tour, the group had lunch with Ileana Gonzalez and with the Junta de Agua. During and after the meal, the students discussed about their experiences of AguaClara plant. In addition, we talked about the difficulty of raising water tariff.

Afterward, we were given a pottery artisans tour by a PeaceCorps volunteer. We visited a man who made a living on clay products. He is the first who started the clay design production. He even built his own pottery wheel with a wheel and etc. Before his pottery career, he was originally a woodcutter. At first, many women made fun of him because pottery is a job for woman. However, his mentor encouraged him to do pottery because he can prove the other people that they were wrong and that he can make a living with pottery. Now he has land, money, family, etc. Furthermore, his son plans to follow his father's path in pottery and further excel in pottery.

Then we went back to the town center to buy some pottery at the price of 20 lempira each. Afterward, we drove back to Tamara. While I stayed in the host family's house, the other students went to the presentation with UNAH Professor Jorge Antonio Rodriguez about Water Resources in Honduras in Cultural Center (Contact: Daniel 9917-0994).

For some unknown reasons, I really feel sick and wanted to be alone. When dinner time came around, Sarah, Henry, Kelvin, and Amelia came to get me. However, I was too tired and sleepy. Basically, I spend the night alone and making origami. After a period of time, Sarah came back from dinner. She explained that everyone seems to be concern about my health. From this trip, I noticed that everyone is very close with each other. Even if people spend a long time with each other, they may not be close with each other such as coworkers in an office. Why and how everyone got to be close to each other? Is the open atmosphere of Honduras??? However, I sensed that I am not as open as others. Is that true???