Post Graduation Thoughts – May Be Interrupted by World Cup Events

Imagine the possibilities if all the world's women were educated.
". . . [O]nce its benefits are recognized, investment in girls' education may well be the highest return investment available in the developing world."
---Lawrence H. Summers Former Chief Economist The World Bank

One year of secondary (Gr. 7) education for a girl/woman means ain increase in income of 25-35%. Infant mortality drops with at least a Gr. 5 education and the number of children drops to sustainable population levels. Each year of school means an average of one child less. – Turning Stones into Schools.

If you teach a boy, you educate an individual. If you teach a girl, you educate a community. – Turning Stones into Schools.

Graduation went well. Officials from Tegucigulpa arrived on time and we started within half an hour of the slated schedule. Many of the students had families there for the event which was nice to see.

The ceremony had a number of speeches but was over within an hour. The cake was well received and none of it left the hall unscathed.

The local TV station interviewed Manuel and I before the ceremony and, they said later, aired the interview that day. I haven’t heard of anyone who has seen the interview so have no idea if that is the case. As it is a very local station, it may have gone unnoticed by the majority of folks.

Last week we went to Tegucigulpa for meetings with the Vice Minister of Education and the folks from Educatodos. The meetings went surprisingly well and we are very hopeful that an agreement will be signed before the end of July. The Vice Minister has known us for some time and that helps. She is part of the new government and they are very concerned about improving access to education. She even intimated that she would be advising the President of our program. That would be wonderful. Such heady heights.

The trip to Tegucigulpa brought up the issue of translation again. Motel and Hotel are NOT the same here in Honduras. Motels are rooms rented for hourly use and Hotels are for the whole night. I was driving and turned into a motel to check out a room for the night. Well, this motel was equipped for privacy. Each room had a parking stall underneath with a curtain that was drawn as soon as the car entered. Obviously the clientele was not wishing to advertise their presence. We very quickly left the courtyard and continued the search for lodging – the word HOTEL firmly in mind.

Driving in Tegucigulpa is not for the faint of heart and, most certainly, not at all good for the vocabulary. An interesting Reality TV show would be to stage a race across Tegucigulpa. There are virtually no street signs and the signs that do exist are often misleading. Roads regularly change names as they wind across the city so you may be happily on one road one second and unhappily on a different one the next without having turned or veered.

Tomorrow, Honduras plays their first game in the World Cup. The game starts at 5.30 a.m. It will be interesting to listen to the neighbourhood as every TV will be on and the volume at maximum. It turns out that the manager of the Honduran team is also the owner of one of the professional teams in Honduras. In order for him to transfer some of his players to the European market, they need international experience. Thus, the team that is in South Africa is significantly different than the team that qualified and features more than a fair share of players from this man’s team. Hmmm. My hope is that they will score one goal. Since Greece has yet to achieve that mark, despite several appearances, this is a very difficult mark. When one considers that the U.S. players will all be millionaires should they go through to the final rounds, it is hardly fair that players from smaller, poor countries are being asked to play for nothing. We will continue to cheer for the underdogs ... well ... and Brazil.

On Saturday, we brought eleven more computers to the school. We are eager to get these out into different villages and see our student numbers rising. The problem is that we are getting fewer students in the school itself. This is good and bad. The good news is that we have more students studying each day without having to spend precious funds on transport. The bad news is that our school looks decidedly lonely some moments. This week’s project is to get more bodies into the seats here. A great challenge.

We have a TV in the school so that any World Cup action will not be missed. Since we can hear game starts immediately, we really don’t need much of a schedule to keep us on track.

Last Saturday, CPI officially gave eleven families new homes. The homes still need some finishing work like windows and eaves but few families will wait for those minor details before moving in. As some of the families were living in plastic sheet walled dwellings without any type of normal housing details, these new homes represent a wonderful opportunity. It will be a huge adjustment for them though as they move into the realm of home owner, mortgage holder and land owners. It will be interesting to see the bumps that will be coming their way.

We hope that as these people make payments on their homes, the funds will be used to build other homes and provide land for other landless families. Access to and ownership of land here is such a huge issue and creates so much difficulty and conflict.

TTYL
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