New Lodgers

Yesterday afternoon I returned from the bank to find that our landlord had begged to leave two cows at our place. They are tied up below the school and are providing background music for the students studying. What can you say - more material for our worm bin. As long as they don't get loose and do a number on all our trees and plants. Only for a day????? We'll see.

Sunday Excursion

Keeping a blog/diary of one's life is a wee bit challenging. Much of my life is spent doing the regular mundane things that are necessary for living and for keeping an office running. Fortunately, for me, I get to do many of these ordinary activities in a setting which lends itself to colour and adventure. Consequently, the ordinary is often interwoven with the extraordinary.

The electrician - from the last blog - the green rope hanging from his belt is his safety belt.

My family is here in Honduras for a few weeks. In an effort to make sure that they experienced Honduras, the staff organized an excursion yesterday. What a wonderful gesture and so much appreciated.

We met everyone near the town centre and loaded the truck with staff, a cooler full of water, juice and a watermelon (an excursion without abundant food is not really an excursion - even Winnie the Pooh knows that). A quick stop to pump up an inner tube and pick up a watermelon from a huge pile being sold at the last intersection out of town (they kindly cut out a small triangle so that the girls could see it was ready for eating) and we were on our way.

We headed out of town, past the road construction (since it was Sunday they had taken down the signs and so forth so ... only those who knew that it was taking place were slowed down ahead of time - we were) and then down the road to Pino Lapa.

All the 'swimmers' at the falls

Alyssa, myself, Yeni, Edel, Maricella and Ardythe

Really now ... can't you take turns?

In Pino Lapa, we met the Principal for Santa Cruz (think Superintendent) schools. She took us to her father's property where we unloaded our gear and started hiking to the swimming hole.

We went through the corral and were at a small stream within metres. I felt a wee bit like Naaman looking at the Jordan. It seemed a big stretch to look at the barely oozing trickle of water and think swimming. Fortunately, this was not the destination.

Past a herd of cows enjoying a snack of sugar canes (their herders also holding a stalk each for themselves), up over a hill, a stop to look at scenery (the Madriado trees are in full, pink bloom right now), down a steep stretch and we were looking at a waterfall with a super swimming hole at the bottom. Towering trees with long vines guarded the hole and kept it well shaded. Just enough sunshine peaked through to make the falls sparkle and checker parts of the pool with long lines of light.

We changed and got into the pool. It was a bit of a worry to have a couple of people who really didn't know how to swim. But, we made it over that hurdle. The swimming time was interspersed every thirty minutes for food or drink ... lest we fall faint by the poolside. We had some swimming lessons, enjoyed the pounding massage of the sitting under the falls and the sweet eating of watermelon without worry of getting sticky.

Near the end of the morning, four boys came to swim. They showed us how to use the cliffs on one side to good advantage. It was a great chance for them to show off to an audience and a great spectator opportunity for us.  They would climb back up the cliff and watch us for awhile (reality TV at its best) and then take another plunge. One of the little boys made four jumps without losing his baseball cap.

The morning over, we headed back to the home of the principal where she had a wonderful lunch of fried tilapia, cabbage salad and fresh pickled onions (with pickled jalepeños to give it a kick). Delightful.

We took Yeni to her home and got to see the baby for a few minutes as well. All this in sixteen kilometres - and still time for a Sunday afternoon nap.

Maricella, Anna (far side), Alyssa, Yeni, (near side), Bryan and Ines (Principal)

Madriados dressed in pink Easter frocks

TTYL

BB

After A Long Drought

After what seems forever, I am back in Honduras. It is nice to be home again. The pile of things needing attention is rather daunting but my team here were magnificent and have everything under control. My job is to cheer them on.

We arrived with seven more computers. Each of our carry on suitcases had a CPU (entailed a longer than usual time at the security checkpoints) and then monitors, cables and screens were in the other luggage. There was room for a little bit of our stuff ... but not much. Well ... important stuff like a couple boxes of Red River cereal made it. Life can go on without other things.

The dry season has arrived along with dusty roads. However, only a few weeks of that and it will begin raining again. In fact, it will likely rain once a week during the dry season. The plants and trees are still doing well and continuing to grow. Some of the trees use this time to flower so there is still lots of colour and, in the right places, some lovely scents.

Yesterday morning, the electricity in my house went haywire. The cable connecting the house from the pole has been repaired a number of times over the years and the road dust interferes with the flow of electricity. For whatever reason, there was power in one part of the house but not the other and the bulb in the kitchen was on SUPER bright. We called an electrician and he showed up to help. The end result was replacing the cable to the pole. The electrician climbed up the pole and replaced the cable and then connected it to the house - all with live power. I certainly was in awe. I know how much I sweat working with switches when the power is firmly off. Doing it in +35' C and with live power ... I will be the spectator thanks. I do know from experience that if you cut through a live wire with side cutters it can create the perfect size wire stripper.

Centre in Havanna - amazing production

15 year old centre

A 100 bed set up - Intercropping and Irrigation

Field approach to organiponics - 2 acres or more

While away, I was able to visit Cuba and see some of their vegetable growing techniques. They have a raised bed system which is very efficient, uses no chemicals and produces astounding amounts of vegetables. I would look at the beds, do some math and then go back and start the equations all over. A family in Honduras could earn a minimum wage income with three beds. In Cuba, one person is able to take care of 15 - 25 beds. Truly amazing. There were many things about Cuba which were fascinating and educational. There were even bookstores with books. Prices were very cheap so families could afford to buy books. An odd feature was the sections of Danielle Steele books in Spanish. I refrained from purchasing those for our digital library in Honduras.

The community of Yajoa, which I talked about in an earlier post, is really taking their education seriously. They now have 48 students (many adults - hurrah) and are raising money to buy computers. We will provide two after Easter (Easter being the national swimming week so studying is very much off the radar).

I would so much like to find a way to provide Yojoa and Las Delicias with a container computer school. It would be a lovely prototype for schools in general and would give the ministry of Education another option for providing education to the many communities without access. Do you know any welder, handyman type people who would like to work on such a challenge?

Manuel was in San Pedro working on some documentation. While returning to one office, a fight broke out across the street. An inebriated man attacked the school guard with a machete. The guard had a machete as well so it was much like an old fashioned sword fight. There were sparks flying (literally) and chaos in the school grounds. It was a Father's Day celebration so parents and children were trying to get out of the way. Fortunately, several of the crowd were quick, brave and amazing enough to subdue the attacker. Knowing how sharp machetes are kept, I am in awe of their actions.

In Cuba, we bought a bottle of perfume made from Vetiver Grass. Yesterday I brought it to the school and had the staff smell it. I put a bit on the wrists of each staff member. The first person was totally amazed and then made sure they were watching the reaction of the next staff. By the last person, everyone was in on the excitement. So ... another project on the 'to learn about' list.

A number of meetings in Canada were encouraging as it was good to talk in person with the many people who are doing so much to ensure that this project continues.  They are such an integral part of our program.

Must run.

TTYL

BB