2010 Honduras Trip Journals

Yoon's Honduras Journal

Copans Ruins
We arrived at San Pedro Airport on the morning of January 9, 2010 where we were greeted by Sarah, Dan, Leo, Antonio, and Jorge. The team then moved to Copans where we hiked to a town without any water treatment process. The hike was a great team-building exercise and I was really impressed with the tough people who have to endure this beautiful but rugged terrain every day. I was also able to get a tour of the Mayan ruins.

Santa Rosa
We visited and explored the town of Santa Rosa. We met with the mayor and received a tour of the water system there.

Gracias
The team was welcomed by the mayor and several members of the Gracias community who provided us with free meals, a stay at the best hotel that we will have at Honduras, and a trip to the local natural hot springs. Nice. I attended Dan's Aguaclara briefing to the mayor of Gracias.

Siguatepeque
Besides visiting the local conventional water treatment plants, the team visited the site for a future Aguaclara plant. One important observation that various team members found was that almost all Honduran families always seem to gather together around night time to talk. This was a reoccurring refreshing sight.

Agalteca
Dale and I stay with a Honduran family who demonstrated the depth of generosity and compassion of the Honduran people. Our family actually moved a member of their own family to another room to make room for us. During our entire stay the Lady of the house was like a mother to us who always ensured that we were well fed and in clean clothes(she taught us the right way to do our own laundry). I also helped out at the local health fair and participated in one of the most one-sided soccer game to occur in Honduras. The Doser Team and I also set up the prototype doser so that it can be put to use when the plant goes into operation in March of this year. I was truly impressed by the hospitality of our host family.

Tegucigalpa
The team checked out the local SANAA plant and the Aguaclara plants at Tamara and Cuatro Communidades.
I was very impressed with both plants. The compactness of the plants really appealed to me. The nice flower arrangement at Cuatro Communidades was a plus.

Marcala
Enroute to Marcala, we visited the FIME plant at Tutale. I was interested with the simple ingenuity of the multifiltration process. We visited the Aguaclara plant here. It is currently the largest Aguaclara plant in service. The plant employs two dosing systems based on tube head loss since the alum flow required from a single doser becomes turbulent and unable to be delivered by a system based on tube head loss. Our nonlinear doser based on orifice which handles both laminar and turbulent can eventually replace that. I also met Fred who started out in the first Peace Corps back in the 60s! It was an experience to hear his stories from back then and impressed with this great man who is continuing his service even in retirement! Marcala has the best coffee in Honduras. I got to buy some cool local modern art. Dan took us an awesome hike and I swam under two water falls: it was awesome! We returned home to Ithaca on Saturday January 23, 2010.

Honduras is a beautiful country with an even more beautiful and gracious people. Our hosts could not have done more. I got to learn a lot about my great team members and about myself. This was one of the best trips of my life.

Matt's Honduras Reflection Entry

I really enjoyed my time in Honduras. While visiting water treatment plants, attending meetings with important officials, and learning how NGOs work and communicate in that country were wonderful experiences, however, I think I gained far more from the experiences I was fortunate enough to have with the people.

The food, the external beauty of the landscape, and the inner beauty and openness of the people made the trip. The host family we stayed with in Agalteca welcomed Jeff and myself with open arms and allowed us to share a part of their life.

Of course, being there, I saw many cultural differences between us and them. In some ways, I could see parts of the Honduran culture that was gradually being lost to an ever encroaching global culture. In many ways it reconfirmed to me that while there are cultural differences between different groups of people, many times we have similar innate desires. One such commonly held desire is to have a safe and secure world for yourself and your children. Another desire is to allow children to dream and believe in big ideas. The host family had a nine year old named Mario who dreamed of becoming a doctor or a Spanish professor in spite of the hardships and the challenges of doing this.

I realized how fortunate I am to live where I am at and to have the experiences and education that I have. I reflected on something that Jorge, one of our guides on the trip, that AguaClara is a light to shine on Honduras and give hope. I think that the project is successful, but even moreso, beyond the success, is the hopes and dreams of the Hondurans that want their children to be happier and healthier. I think that what makes this project different is that we can inspire people to dream and hope of a better future.

Now more than ever, I am motivated because I saw that our presence could inspire and give hope, powerful human emotions that have overcome much adversity.