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Also in Copan, I got this chill of the environment being inherently familiar to me. I recognized it because of my mother, she is from Kingston, Jamaica and I felt what she has conveyed to me about where she is from through Honduras, but the speaking part was a big missing piece. I will tell you, the days picked up, the next day was faster than the previous one. Also Monroe's departure from the trip gave it group gave the time in Honduras an interesting feel. (I feeling.
Reaching back have more to write)
Vanish Grover's Honduras Journal Entry
Tegucigalpa
Today, two images really struck me. The first was when I was outside of Dan's apartment. I looked up and saw the top of a power line. What should be (and in the states actually is) a tidy set of connections was here a messy, tangled, dangerous knot of wires. I was told by Dan that poorly planned connection like this repeatedly caused power outages due to the overload. This wasn't rare in Honduras. For me, it summed up the magnitude of the lack of planning that plagues many parts of the country.
to some things that I overlooked in Honduras. In Siguatepeque, I made sure to ride in the front of the van with Jorge and talk to him. It caused my first thoughts not English to stop being French and Jorge was happy to just teach me. I overlooked this because I got caught up in thoughts while we were traveling and I did not ride in the front of the van with Jorge again. A second thing is, staying with the family of Charlie in Agalteca, the night of the party we did not understand what the party was, I thought it was a community party and all the families went and there were games for kids, etc. But when we were getting ready and leaving Charlie said she was not going and nor were the ninos. I figured it out later and now I wish we had spent some more time with Charlie because we were always in and out of her home and they go to sleep early. I would move us around in Honduras, just to single him out, Antonio was always putting in work for us, many people put in work for us being there. Jorge is a special person, Leo is talented, and Antonio is dedicated and caring, I am glad I able to begin communicating with them, hear their thoughts and words and tell them some of mine.
Vanish Grover's Honduras Journal Entry
Tegucigalpa
Today, two images really struck me. The first was when I was outside of Dan's apartment. I looked up and saw the top of a power line. What should be (and in the states actually is) a tidy set of connections was here a messy, tangled, dangerous knot of wires. I was told by Dan that poorly planned connection like this repeatedly caused power outages due to the overload. This wasn't rare in Honduras. For me, it summed up the magnitude of the lack of planning that plagues many parts of the country.
The second image I saw was at a basketball liked to spend court. A few of time with them rather than the party.
Whenever I looked at the tayo driving all of our luggage ahead of the vans, I thought, it takes a lot of resources the taller guys on the trip and I (the only one shorter than six feet tall) went to go play basketball with some of the local basketball players. We started playing at dawn, and the sun shortly went down. That is when we realized that there was only one street lamp (on the corner of the block) to light the entire court. Poor planning, I thought again. Then the light went out during a basketball game. I figured that everyone would go home and wait for someone to fix it, when Dan told me thatTegucigalpa, I did not know what to expect, but it felt like New York City to me (I am not saying they are similar in their intricacies),there was a vibe that I recognized as similar to how I feel in my home or New York City. Antonio drove me around the city looking for a tetanus vaccine and a clinic, I cannot say enough about him.
I learned a great deal about water treatment processes all around, effectiveness and ineffectiveness, well planned and poor planned, high maintenance, expensive and reasonable, well taught or proprietary, etc; getting the chance to visit and just study helps with conceptualizing. In Honduras you can see the physical expense of AguaClara, you see that there are people who are unconcerned with this topic and do not care for our presence in their lives making sure you maintain the awareness of the challenges to the work we want to do. In the midst of this, you get to work with amazing people and meet, teach, and learn from promising children along the way. (there is more to be written)
The second image I saw was at a basketball court. A few of the taller guys on the trip and I (the only one shorter than six feet tall) went to go play basketball with some of the local basketball players. We started playing at dawn, and the sun shortly went down. That is when we realized that there was only one street lamp (on the corner of the block) to light the entire court. Poor planning, I thought again. Then the light went out during a basketball game. I figured that everyone would go home and wait for someone to fix it, when Dan told me that this was a light that the basketball players paid for. One of them (called "the doctor" because he was a pharmacist) collected money from everyone in order to support the electrical bill for this one street lamp that they needed to play basketball twice a week. I saw that the Hondurans didn't leave or get upset. They simply waited for ten minutes until the light flickered back on, and resumed playing. Today I think I saw some of the resilience and patience of the residents of Tegucigalpa.
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