Wow – Finally Time To Talk

The graduation held on the thirteenth went well. A few minor glitches but ... that is to be expected. The final number of students finishing a grade was 91. Over 200 grade levels have been completed since we started two years ago.

Grade 8's

Grade 9

 

What is exciting is to see the interest among parents and communities growing. There were many family members at the ceremony to demonstrate the pride and sense of accomplishment they felt at seeing their children have this opportunity.

The same week, we had Fernando Cienfuegos, a video photographer, spend a few days interviewing and filming our various projects. Since he hails from Mexico originally, he was able to carry on his work without a great deal of help. I was the designated driver and Santiago the equipment man. We are looking forward to seeing the footage and will let you know where to view it when it becomes available.

Las Delicias Students

At the end of the week, I set out by bus to Costa Rica. The government policy of having expatriates leave every 90 days is tedious at best. Our efforts to get a residency permit have been moving at a snail’s pace so that adds to the frustration.

Two fifteen hour days on the bus and I was in Costa Rica. I stayed with a couple I knew from years back and it was wonderful catching up on their lives.

Highlights of the trip. At the Honduran – Nicaraguan border we watched a string of men on horseback carrying bulging bags of high value goods clatter by. Obviously, they were smuggling the goods but the enforcement agencies weren’t all that concerned. The difficulties for truckers was also brought home as I happened to look inside one of the offices that was being renovated and saw huge piles of documents stuffed into gunny sacks. Obviously the paperwork is of little value and simply consumes time and energy.

At the Nicaraguan – Costa Rican border the Christmas travel rush became apparent. There were never less than fourteen big passenger buses in the parking area. Needless to say we spent well over an hour at each border.

The bus company made sure that the air conditioning worked on the bus. I spent the second day in toque and jacket to try and keep warm enough. Other passengers had heard about the temperature before hand and came equipped with blankets and sleeping bags. Lesson – travel with a friend.

I flew back to Honduras. That trip was less eventful but still interesting. At first the clerk was hesitant to give me a boarding pass because I did not have an ongoing ticket out of Honduras. As I went through security check, I realized I had my leatherman on my belt. So ... back to the check in desk I went. Fortunately, I had not checked in my sparse luggage so was able to check that in and return to security. After a twenty minute delay, we taxied out to the end of the runway. Then, after the engines had revved up and down, the pilot came on to say we were returning to get more fuel – one might have thought that checking the fuel gauge might be on the list of “To Check” before starting – it isn’t like you can park by the side of the road and walk to the nearest gas station.

Yeni's new baby - Yeni was okay with seeing the 'football' hold

The decorations - who says it isn't a big deal?

Christmas Eve I went in to San Pedro Sula to the Cathedral for mass. The trip home was accompanied by fireworks and firecrackers going off in every village that I passed. Today, they are still sounding all around – they did wait until 7.00 a.m. today so that was nice.

Thank you to all who have travelled along with me this year. I trust that the coming year will be one of interest and opportunity for you.

TTYL

BB

Manuel Tries the Cooking Box

Just an update from yesterday. Manuel took one of the boxes we made home last night and tried with spaghetti and vegetables. The pot was too big for the box so the top part of the cooker was replaced with towels. Still, it worked wonderfully. It saved over 50% of the cooking with fuel time. When you buy gas to cook with, that is significant.

Wrapped Up and Cooking

Graciella, Manuel's Wife

Cooked

Testing  - Gabriella

Yesterday afternoon, I packed up my laptop and the bucket and found a seamstress to sew me some pillows and packing rings for the bucket cooker. Between pictures on my computer and my fumbling Spanish the point was made. One of the amazing things about this concept is that, so far, everyone who sees it grasps the idea and, even better, begins to verbalize how they can use it, expand upon it and so forth. I have had very few ideas where the value of the project was so quickly grasped. Let us see if it continues.

TTYL

BB

More Projects

This morning a number of students went to fill small bags with soil for planting trees. They filled over 1100 bags so that will be a significant contribution to planting trees somewhere. If even 20% of the trees grow it is a well spent day.

Three other boys stayed to plant Arachis pintoi and to help make two box cookers. We used styrofoam, cardboard, tinfoil and some plastic to make panels that would line two plastic boxes.  These boxes will allow someone to cook two or three different pots at one time. Manuel is going to take one home tonight to give it a trial. I will try the smaller one at my house.

That is today's projects.

TTYL

BB

Student Project Time - Again

As students finish their course work, it is time for them to do a small community project. This week is a bustle of activity as each student is assigned a task. With over seventy students finishing a grade, that is a lot of bustle. Fortunately, many of them are studying in other communities so that relieves some of the happy confusion.

Today we have about twenty primary students reading stories for the first time in their lives. As you can see from the pictures, these little children dressed up to come to the school. Tooooo cute. Right now, they are busy taking turns reading aloud. Each computer has three to four students sharing a story. What is neat about this digital library, is that each computer can be 'tuned' to the same page and the same story so that larger groups can participate. The size of the font is adjusted so that all those who need glasses can read without problems. There is not a lot of running around - everyone is glued to the stories.

Dressed Up To Read A Story

Reading A Story - First Time

Drawing A Picture Of The Story

Other projects include, as always, planting more trees, grasses and ground cover. A group of four boys harvested a bag of Arachis pintoi for ground cover. They got very enthusiastic and the bag was about the size of Santa's. We needed about 200 plants - we got 2,000 ... or more. Fortunately, I have places for all of them and by this evening, they should all be taking root somewhere. In June we planted some Vetiver grass. As we separated slips from the clumps we tossed some 'dead' roots and pieces aside. A month later, Santiago and I noticed these 'garbage' pieces were actually sprouting. We planted them and, yesterday, we harvested eighty more slips to plant.

Santa's Sack of Arachis on the Left

The last three days, three girls have been learning about hay basket (retained heat) cooking. I have wanted to try this for some time but thought I needed more things to do the insulating with. Finally I just used a pile of polypropylene gunny sacks we had and a plastic bucket. Our first try was rice. We boiled it for one minute and then popped it in the bucket surrounded by sacks. One hour later we opened it up and, presto, the rice was cooked perfectly. Yesterday we tried two things:  rice with vegetables and pork stew. The rice with vegetables only took an hour and was, again, perfect. The pork stew was boiled for fifteen minutes and then covered with towels and blankets for five hours. Perfect. We all enjoyed trying out the food. The next project is to make one or two 'hay basket' cookers that are a bit more permanent. (If you want information about hay baskets, send me an email and I will send you what I have.)

Rice and Vegetables

Pork Stew and Rice and Vegetables

Three other girls are working on a sprouting experiment. We are trying to sprout maize and three kinds of beans. We will then cook the sprouts and see what the results are. The cooler weather is not helping the sprouting process but it is not causing them to spoil either.

Yesterday I went to Ada's house to help her and Eduardo, her brother, begin laying out their yard for planting. We set up a water level and made some contour lines. They have a lot of work now to dig the lines and plant the several hundred plants that I took them. I do so hope that the plants grow. Ada has already planted some of the seeds I took her a week ago and they are sprouting so that is encouraging.

It is cold this week - down to 16' C at night. Most people are bundled up (including me). I stopped at the hot springs in Santa Rita last night to enjoy being toasty warm and to watch the steam rising into the night air.

Will stop for now, put in some pictures and post this.

Ada Recording the Different Plant Species

Making Sprouting Containers

TTYL

BB