Thursday, January 12, 2012

Trip Reflections

At the end of the trip I got behind on my blog.  We had one more day at the worksite.  By the end of our trip, we'd dug a 4 foot trench along the jungle exterior, filled most of the trench with cement to prepare it for building a wall, and built several metal towers for the skeleton of the wall.  Based on the size of the security wall, our project will need to be continued with the next student group. 

Now that I am home here are my reflections on the trip.

Reflections
1.  Kids have it so good in the U.S.
You don't need to travel too far to acknowledge that children in the U.S. are living in a bubble from the rest of the world in terms of our high standard of living.  Honduran children were thankful for whatever food they were given, and did not fuss about much.  Children were running around barefoot in muddy waters and selling beaded bracelets, not for their own piggy bank but to help their family bring food to the table.  This is a whole different responsibility that children acquire at a young age in many developing countries.

One extraordinary (although onery) 12 year-old child I met escaped a gang and walked from El Progresso, Honduras almost to the border of Guatemala.  That's over 60 miles!  He was found by a member of SHH on the street and was brought to the newly built children's home.  It's survival stories like this that make you question yourself.... and say, "Could I do that?"

2. Job creation is critical in Honduras.
Now I know this is another obvious statement, but finding jobs in Honduras is much more difficult than in the U.S.  In the U.S. there are jobs available, many Americans just have standards and requirements for the job they take on, but there are always jobs available.  In Honduras, one of the best aspects of SHH was that it created jobs for women to cook and clean laundry for volunteers, for construction workers to help guide the building process for students, for bus drivers to haul volunteers around, etc.  When the founder of the SHH asked the community of Villa Soleada what they needed, he got an overwhleming response, "Jobs!" 

3.  Sometimes it's difficult to get people to work for what they want.
I read through the background story of how SHH got started in Honduras and how the town of Villa Soleada was first created.  A huge challenge in trying to help communities like this is that the people in the community want a better standard of living but are not willing to chip in manual labor.  Observing this in other town projects and noticing some indolence in Villa Soleada, SHH made it mandatory for all community members to contribute manual labor to the creation of the town.  I admired this requirement yet was astounded that it was even necessary to declare.

4. Friends make any time a good time.
Throughout our time in Honduras we spent a lot of time commuting on a bus and at the worksite, we spent a lot of time out in the sun or getting drenched in the rain.  I felt good knowing I was there to help the community of Villa Soleada, but what really made this a fantastic experience was sharing it with the new friends that I met.  (I know. I know.  How much more cheesy can she get?)  Honestly, I became friends with some quirky and fun people from across the U.S. and Honduras.  (*ahem You wonderful people know who you are.)  They were so full of life and knowledge that I couldn't help but want to keep talking with them and joking and all.  In conclusion, no matter what amazing things you do in your life.  It's always more amazing when you have friends to share it with.  (Alright put your tissues away otherwise I'll post my Haunted Bakery joke on here.)

That's it folks, for this journey.  To sum it up I would like to thank any one who made donations to help fund this trip.  Especially after seeing such a strong joint effort by students across the U.S.  I strongly believe that engaging in projects like this set a precedent for other people who want to help society but have little time to spare. 

To my readers, I appreciate you reading my stories and putting up with my novel-size blogs.  Let me know if you have any suggestions for the future blogs! 

Day 5: Cemento + Rain + Soccer = A Good Time!

We started the day by visiting the other towns in which SHH has built schools, this includes at least 5 other locations.  This really demonstrated how great of an impact SHH is having on not only Villa Soleada (the town we're working in) but throughout the region.
Here are two examples.  We visited a town where SHH is just starting a new school, but we had the pleasure of touring the town's current school...  It was a bar with old pool tables, corn being stored in the corner, clothes strung on a line through the room and a round table haphazardly placed in the middle of a room.  The new school being built by SHH will be solely used as a SCHOOL (Imagine that?).  Another eye-opener was in a town where SHH had already finished the school.  But before our organization helped them, their school was known as the "chicken coop."  It was one big room with three classrooms.  Ten desks faced one direction, ten desks faced another direction, and ten desks faced a third direction and at times they would have class at the same time.  I don't know college students with that much focus, so I don't see how children could learn in that environment.  Now they have three separate classrooms in one building.  Those were the two locations that really floored me in terms of classroom space.

After the worksites, we had lunch in Villa Soleada.  This was before having a good time stomping around in the mud while making cement, or should I say cemento.  It reminded me of making homemade raviolis.  You know where you make a volcano with the flour and put the egg inside trying to ensure that it doesn't leak.  Only we were using sand, cement, stone, and water.

At 4:30pm we headed off to play cage soccer, tournament style!  "Arbedelo" (our team) kicked butt even though we started off a little rocky we definitely finished strong.  It was so much fun playing against the other schools that came from across the country and with some of the Hondurans we've been working with. And let me just add that our women's team were the champs of the match! Holla!

Monday, January 2, 2012

Childish Fun: Day 4

Today I did a lot of wire bending and cutting, and have broken in my hands for good... meaning I got my first two blisters.  Yuppers, folks!  I'm a bonafide construction worker.

We had our normal 6 hour workday, with some awesome pork barbecue sandwiches for lunch (I ate two and half... yeah that's how good they were).  The absolute best part of the day was later though.

See, it started to downpour while we were working, and by the time we came home we were soaked and muddy.  One of my roommates, (my partner in crime for the Amazing Race) said, "Hey!  We're already wet so let's go jump in the clothes with our clothes on."  (This is on her bucket list, so of course we wanted to help her cross it off.)  So it was still a massive downpour outside and five of us ventured out to the pool.  It was more like "shimmied-out" to the pool because we were so cold from being wet all day. Anyway, we made an event out of swimming in the pool with our clothes on.

IT WAS PHENOMENAL!

I felt like a little kid without a care in the world!

She even had an underwater digital camera... stay tuned on facebook for those lil' gems. 

I'm really fascinated by her bucket list.  She has funny things on it like jumping in a pool with all your clothes, and more typical ones on there like visit every continent.  I'm already inspired and have started planning my own bucket list!

At night we played an intense card game of Egyptian Rat (Cat) Screw, and finished off the night hanging out in one of our rooms and chatting.  Brings back the good ol' days of slumber parties and ghost stories.  All we needed was a campfire to roast marshmallows and a random man singing Kumbaya. 

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Realization and Celebration: Day Three

And on the final day of 2011 I realized that my Hindi was not as bad as I thought since I could hold complete conversations with family and friends over the summer. This realization came during conversations in Spanish that I attempted with the Hondurans in the community.  I took one semester of Spanish about three years ago and about two lessons two months before I came here.  They helped a little, but I think my mind is still in India while my body is in Honduras.  I continually slip into speaking Panjabi and Hindi words when I try to speak Spanish. Pani... errrr agua, anyone?

Although, since one of the workers recruited me to bend wire the whole day (...the best job in the world because it got me away from digging! Hallelujah!) anyway since he recruited me... we kept attempting conversations in Spanish and then other workers and children would find it amusing so others would come over too throughout the day and start up conversations.  Due to my inability to feel embarrassment when conversing in a language that I have no clue about... I think I'm going to get pretty good at this Spanish thing...

Anyway I'll stop bragging about my Spanish skills (or lack there-of).  Let's talk about the dance party celebration to open the new year!  After  a hard day's work, SHH organized a barbecue by the pool and a night at a dance club.  It's kind of weird being in Honduras over new year's.  Every time I hear a firework I consider that it may be a gun shot, oy vey.  My imagination gets the best of me sometimes.

The dance party was a blast!  When we counted down to 0 confetti fell from the ceiling, everyone hooted and hollered and kept dancing to the beat of music, and found everyone they knew (and others they didn't) to give them the largest hug they could.  It was definitely memorable.  For me, it was lots of fun.  I always enjoy a good dance party, but there's was definitely something missing.  For all you hopeless romantics out there, I was missing my fiance, Eric.  If you know him, then you understand that he's the greatest man you'll ever meet and the prime guy to celebrate the new year with!

Now after coming home and getting a well-deserved shower I am ready for bedtime.  We have a semi-early rise, waking up at 8:30am.  I am looking forward to another day at the work site.  Vamanos!