Week 6

(My buddies and students - math stars in the making)

I believe that consolidation must accompany progress. Every now and then, time must be spent evaluating your current performance and reevaluating your goals. Otherwise, it is easy to become scattered among too many tasks. This past week was epitomizes this approach. The fundraising for the security wall at Pedro Atala had come to a close and it was time to reflect on my performance. It was also time to begin considering my next projects. My options have been narrowed down to three possibilities. They are: addressing the water systems in Pedro Atala, Nuevo Paraíso and Flor Azul (part of Sociedad), as well as in Nuevo Esperanza and San Jose (two adjoining towns that are affiliated with La Sociedad), working to secure funding to pay the teachers at Reyes Irene Valenzuela (a school teaching 400 working maids/girls who have had to give up school to work), and to secure funding to provide food for Flor Azul. All three of these projects are of importance and I hope to address each one.

While it has been exciting to expand my understanding of the needs of SAN, my true gratification remains in teaching math five days a week at Pedro Atala during the afternoons. I now help two classes and we have successfully had two math competitions. Every day I am challenged to present such a dull subject to children and trying to find ways to keep them both engaged and excited. I think a story that epitomizes my work with the children is the following: There are four houses at Pedro Atala and in each house, one room is designated a classroom and there is a teacher for each room. Every day the children go to one of the classrooms from 1:30 to 4pm to complete their homework and practice reading and math afterwards. I help in one of the houses with the older children (Grade 4). On Wednesday, a teacher from another house saw me working with the children and asked if I would help her class the next day. I agreed and spent Thursday practicing multiplication tables with her students. On Friday, I returned to my regular class, where the teacher had decided she’d let the kids spend the day coloring. Rediscovering my subdued passion for coloring, I happily joined in. Well, when I walked out of the room I was greeted by four young students from the other class demanding an explanation as to why I was in there coloring while instead we could have been practicing multiplication tables instead… I was dumbfounded to say the least, but I was also left with a sense of accomplishment that they children are excited about math.

Probably the most exciting part of my week this far would be going to a market with one of the Hondurans from the office. This market was however located in one of the very poor areas of Tegucigalpa and it gave me a fresh taste of Honduran life. An Australian came with a group earlier this week and he was telling me of his work in Cambodia. It was very interesting and I told him that I wanted to hear about his comparison between the two places. I think that a lot of people initially come to Honduras and after the initial freight of a developing country subsides, they feel like it isn’t so bad. I felt this way, but I now am coming to see the small nuances that make life difficult. Gangs are a huge, huge problem here. I wonder if there are problems with gangs in Africa, not militias, but gangs. A few nights ago, Tuesday I think, I was woken up by gunshots, clearly audible outside. This was initially a bit disconcerting, but I figured there were gunshots in Harlem too, or maybe nicer places than that. But Colonia Miraflores is a relatively nice part of Tegucigalpa, so I’m sure it is much more common in other places.

Week 5

$8,500 in eight days!!! Construction of the wall at Pedro Atala will begin Monday, March 12! Thank you for your support!


-This is Jami, she's in kindergarten student at the one room school house of Quiscamote, Honduras... and this is her "smile"...-


-awkward smiles to unsuredness to a sense of accomplishment -
playing and likely hearing a violin for the first time

The week began without any notable excitement. (Well, except for the fact that I reached my mark of $8500 in pledged money on Monday, meaning a the fundraising only took eight days!) Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, I went to the office during the morning and early afternoon and to Pedro Atala from 2:30 to 4pm to help the kids with math, particularly division.
On Thursday morning, at 6am the excitement began. I left with Sister Maria Rosa and two other people to go to the Santa Rosa de Lima Clinic for a ceremony to officially recognize the partnership between Cuba and Sociedad Amigos de Los Niños. Clinica Santa Rosa de Lima was built by a Canadian philanthropist and acts as a general clinic for all patients. The intent of the clinic is to offer quality health services at a minimal cost to the patients (each patient pays 30 lempiras for a consultation ($1.50)). Cuba has also played a pivotal role in the development of the clinic by providing the equipment and doctors to operate a two room surgical facility treating only eye problems. Mainly Hondurans are treated, but as this clinic is the only eye clinic in Honduras that provides these surgeries, patients come from all around including Nicaragua. The services provided by the Cubans are completely free of charge to the patients and Sociedad Amigos de los Niños provides the housing for the doctors, the medical facilities, and all of the necessary utilities. While the surgery center is expensive to upkeep, the service provided to the people is very important. A possible upcoming project for myself is to identify ways where Clinica Santa Rosa de Lima can become self-sufficient. Another possible project is to address the diminishing water supply affecting three surrounding communities (including Nuevo Paraíso where La Sociedad houses a number of children and operates a k-12 school). Water is also needed for the Clinica Santa Rosa de Lima.

The inauguration event, formally recognizing the partnership between Cuba and Clinica Santa Rosa de Lima, brought the Cuban Ambassador, Felipe Pérez Roque and the Honduran Prime Minister of Health. While I anticipated only a small ceremony, the fanfare that ensued surprised me greatly. People filled every inch of the large clinic and with the primary responsibility of taping this event for Sister Maria Rosa, I quickly understood the relentless persistence typical of photographers, cameramen, and journalists. However, the event went very well and just as the government officials arrived (in helicopter with police escort and a small platoon of heavily armed soldiers), they left, leaving the clinic to resume treating their patients for free. The video below is of the ceremony at the Santa Rosa de Lima Clinic between Sociedad Amigos de los Niños and Cuba.


(Speakers: Sister Maria Rosa - Sociedad Amigos de Los Ninos, the Cuban Ambassador to Honduras, the Prime Minister of Health-Honduras)

After perusing the grounds of the clinic to compare the aftermath of the hype to the daily operations of the clinic, I ventured into Nuevo Paraíso to hook-up with an American teaching brigade. As the group of 10 Americans had not yet arrived, I hitched a ride with my good friend and partner in construction, Giovany, to travel out to Flor Azul to look at a prospective sight for guest housing. Much to my surprise, the mountain road quickly ended and four boys from Flor Azul jumped out of the back of the pick-up and we were soon bushwhacking our way up the mountainside. Satisfied with the view and the potential of the project, we descended down the mountain to return to the truck. The Indianapolis group arrived and took me into their group as if I were a fellow teacher.



Friday was a day that I had been waiting for since I arrived. Quiscamote is a small, rural town located in the mountains about an hour from Tegucigalpa. In this small village, Sister Maria Rosa has taken personal responsibility to ensure that the one room schoolhouse is able to operate year-round. My excitement for this project stems from that of Sister Maria Rosa, and upon returning from the school, all of my expectations were met and I hope to be of assistance to the school while I am here in Honduras.

Arriving in Tegucigalpa at 8am for breakfast with Sister Maria Rosa, it was comforting to be back, but I could not help feeling more connected to La Sociedad and the purpose of my work.

Week 4

“It doesn’t cost anything to dream.” These were the words of Giovanny, SAN’s construction foreman, after our conversation about the different approaches to building a protective barrier behind the Pedro Atala Homes. The central difference between dreamers and doers is that doers utilize conventional mechanisms of change (money) to reproduce their dreams; dreamers simply lay content in the fantastical images in their minds, unwilling to subject their thoughts to a cost analysis. Money produces results, which with proper planning leads to change (either good or bad), and ultimately writes history. Whether building a wall to provide children with security or revamping a countries’ healthcare system, without financial backing, all I can do is dream.

Two weeks ago from today, on Sunday February 11, 2007, I was made aware of an emergent security inadequacy to the rear of Hogares Pedro Atala. One week ago today on Sunday, February 18, I had finished putting together and sending out my proposal to construct a 125-foot, eight feet high, razor-wire capped brick wall costing $8,332.39. In seven days time, I have raised $7, 200 (86% of the total cost) from foundations and individuals concerned with the safety of children they likely will never meet. Not only has my concern with the feasibility of raising the funds subsided, but so too has my anxiety that the children will be in danger for an extended period of time. I now must raise $1,100 to ensure completion of the wall.

One of the core benefits of my proposal is that part of the materials will be supplied by other micro-enterprises within Sociedad. In purchasing the bricks for SAN, the contributed capital from donors can be retained. However, this benefit also presents a problem because construction cannot begin until March 10 because the bricks will not arrive until March 20 (it will take around 10 days to prepare the site). Therefore, to meet the immediate need of security for the children, a temporary barrier made of wood pallets was constructed this week to stop-up the gapping hole in the middle of the fence. This temporary barrier will have a dual function, as will the wall, to both keep children inside of Pedro Atala and to keep intruders out. Furthermore, the barrier was designed to withstand the wear and tear of playing children.


A constant stereotype that I am combating here is that I am unwilling to get my hands dirty. While my job places me within the office behind a computer, my age and gender create a tension that I am too good to work. While this is not bluntly expressed, small jokes and comments make it apparent that the Hondurans question my work ethic. I also think that the Hondurans want me to understand the true extent to which laborers subject their body to physical stress. Now, I will be the first to admit that the life of nearly all U.S. children (including myself) significantly differs from that of a poor Honduran, but I still want the full respect of my coworkers. Therefore, when constructing the temporary barrier, I worked alongside four other Hondurans and I plan to help when I can with the construction of the wall. Already, I feel a greater respect from the people with which I work.

Outside of working on the temporary barrier and raising money, this past week has been relatively uneventful. I have taken the responsibility of teaching basic mathematics to children in the afternoons from 2-4 pm at Pedro Atala, which is a wonderful diversion from the computer screen.
Times tables up to 12 by Julissa, third grade - she refuses to do the times table for the number 1

I was also able to meet with an American to discuss the current situation of Sociedad’s clinic and my nights consisted of playing soccer nearly every night in the street with a group of local Hondurans who attend the public University. However, I am most happy with the past week because I felt successful in raising funding for my project. I believe my work will go far in convincing Sociedad that I am not a dreamer, but a doer.

Week 3

In high school, before I realized that I could finagle my way onto the golf team, I ran track my freshman and sophomore years. There was one particular practice regimen, referred to only as “repeats,” that I both dreaded and enjoyed simultaneously. This practice called for eight to twelve individual sprints around the track (400m), separated by short breaks. While the exercise was exhausting, I enjoyed the opportunity to fully exert myself with each lap, knowing an intermittent break was awaiting my finish. I cannot think of any better analogy to liken my experience in Honduras to than this because every project is a race against time and I already have many projects lined up one after another to complete. This past week, however, my time counted and the race was real.

Hogares Pedro Atala, a division of Sociedad Amigos de los Niños, sits one block away from where I live. Here, four houses make up a community where up to sixty orphaned and abandoned children are given the opportunities that a child from a typical family life would be given. However, the children of Pedro Atala’s security has been compromised due to recent construction nearby and inadequate funding to make simple changes to the facilities of Pedro Atala to adequately protect the children. While my formal responsibility to Sociedad Amigos de los Niños was to secure funding to expand the kitchen and dining room at Nuevo Paraíso, I made it my personal responsibility to create a solution to keep uninvited people out of children’s homes at Pedro Atala. I was first made aware of the problem on Sunday, February 11, 2007. A formal proposal was sent to potential donors on Wednesday, February 14 and interested people and foundations began contacting me by Sunday, February 18. I strongly urge you to read, or at least glance, through the following proposal by clicking on each page to enlarge the text and pictures.

Please click on each picture below.



While this project rightfully commanded my full attention, I was still afforded the opportunity to attend the Olympia vs. Motagua soccer game. Both teams call Tegucigalpa home and the rivalry was electrifying. The importance of soccer in the daily lives of Hondurans uplifts professional soccer to levels unknown to many people who can turn to diversions outside of family and soccer. To illustrate the depth of commitment a person has to a specific team I offer the following real example: I have chosen to call myself an Olympista, as I support Olympia. One of the cooks in the kitchen, Doña Olga, has refused to cook or even serve me for the past nine days since she found out I had chosen Olympia. However, my food has been excellent because Doña Yolanda, a fellow Olympista, takes extra good care of me partially in spite of Doña Olga. In Honduras, and throughout Central America, soccer is life. Unfortunately, Motagua won.

I was also able to spend Valentines Day at Pedro Atala. The day began with a love songs from Mariah Care, Bryan Adams, Boys II Men, and Michael Bolton being sung primarily by myself to ten or so children, but with the lyrics (in both Spanish and English) in hand, the kids were soon able to sing, or at least follow, along. After lunch, I brought the seventy heart-shaped, cartoon encrusted suckers, which I had purchased the day before, to Pedro Atala for the children. While the nearly every minute of the week was put towards the proposal for the security wall at Pedro Atala, spending Valentines Day and really every day with the children in the afternoon provides a much needed break between ‘sprints.’ While I feel like I have a daily workout of “repeats” I am fortunate to be constantly surrounded by wonderful diversion from the computer screen, such as excursions to by sodas or eggs, playing or teaching at Pedro Atala, or being invited to watch a Mariachi Band wake up a girlfriend at midnight for her birthday; these experiences permit me to fully exhaust myself with my work because I know that I will soon have a break and the opportunity to reenergize myself. The only difference between my time here in Honduras and track practice is that I don’t dread a single moment of work here.

Week 2

The past week has been one of transition and introduction. A group of 20 people from Indianapolis arrived last Sunday to spend time working at Sociedad’s center for women’s career development, Reyes Irene Valenzuela Center. Their arrival provided the much-anticipated opportunity to watch the Colts win the Super Bowl. Our party consisted of beer and pizza in Sister Maria Rosa’s personal living quarters because she had the TV. On Monday, they left and with them they took Mae Valenzuela, my preceptor for the kitchen project. I then spent each day of the early part of the week planning to travel to Nuevo Paraíso, Sociedad’s rural project, but day after day something came up preventing me from getting to Nuevo Paraíso. The main reason that I needed to speak with Mae was that she had the information I needed to complete the letter of inquiry for applying to Central American Ministries for funding for the kitchen and dining room. Finally, on Thursday I was able to catch a ride. However, my trip was in vain in that Mae was constantly busy working with the group from Indianapolis. I am hoping to catch her as soon as the group leaves so that I can get my letter out early. Mae’s next group arrives on Monday.

Now, that was the frustrating part. Here is the exciting happenings of my week. While I was at Nuevo Paraíso, I was able to gain an incredible understanding of one of Sociedad’s main micro enterprises, their brick factory, from Jim Hope of Friends of Honduran Children – Indianapolis. Jim is currently retired and he and his wife, Phyllis, spend a great deal of time working to help Sociedad. Jim has taken the brick factory under his wing and he and I spent hours investigating the interworkings of the machinery, visiting another factory, and talking together on ways to improve the process.














































(The competitor's brick factory after a strong gust of wind hurled the roofing of the shade through their kilns) I also was able to activate my cell phone with a Honduran provider: Tigo. This was very exciting because having a cell phone seems to provide a sense of permanency. A very good person, Geovany spent nearly three days taking me to seven different stores until we finally were able to leave my phone so that they could obtain the subsidy access code to switch it over. Geovany also spent nearly two hours yesterday with me trying to find a “firewire” cord for my apple notebook. Apple computers do not exist in Honduras and I’m going to have to order this product off of Amazon.com.

As aforementioned, the past week has been one of transition and introduction. After a week and a half x three meals a day of telling the cooks I don’t want to eat in the formal dining room, they finally let me eat with them. The novelty of living hear has not yet wore off and I am very excited to be here. I am constantly being introduced to new people and new aspects of Sociedad. Tegucigalpa, Honduras as a very wealthy side to it, although this business sector is not well developed yet. I understand that San Pedro Sula is where all the money is and where all the gang members live. I feel very fortunate to be living in the compound of Sociedad Amigos de los Niños and I still travel to Pedro Atala daily. I nearly know the majority of the children and hope to transition from playmate to homework assistant and playmate. My job has not been intensive yet because I have been waiting and waiting and waiting for the right people. I think that is going to change because that is not how I operate. The only other thing that has happened is that ABC no longer allows Gray’s Anatomy to be watched outside of the United States for free, so I have to pay $1.99 to download each episode on iTunes… it’s worth it!

I am hoping in this coming week to complete the transitions and to begin to make use of my time here. It's now time to turn up the heat... (heat coming off of the kiln after the bricks were baked)

Week 1

I arrived in Tegucigalpa, Honduras on Tuesday, January 30 around noon and was greeted by Mae Venezuela, my initial preceptor from Sociedad Amigos de Los Niños. My preparation for the trip was simple: clothes and books. Prior to my arrival, I was able to pair with a Professor Richard Hug from IU, Gary and Professor Anne Marie Thomson from IU, Bloomington, whom both work in SPEA. Professor Hug purchased a year subscription to Grantstation.com, which is an Internet based computer program that I can use to search for grants and Professor Thomson advised on the academic literature that I brought with me.
The administration of Sociedad has informed me that my job will be two fold: to secure funding through grants for SAN’s many projects, and to work with the strategic planning, finances, and database systems of the organization. All three of these do not currently exist and they have asked me to help initiate each service. This is very exciting for me because I am treated as a professional member of SAN. I have spent my first days traveling a great deal and being introduced to the different projects. This organization is very interesting in that the people seem to sincerely care about what they are doing. I am curious as to what my feelings will be in three months, but my first impression is that when I awake at 7am to get ready, it is not by my alarm, but instead by ALL of the employees already in the office and walking around preparing for brigades or new projects. I feel guilty going in to the office at 8, so I'm going to get up earlier.

As of right now, I have my own desk and my bedroom is small, but very nice. The rest of the facilities are very nice with lots of flowers and busy people. There are also kids always around. Pedro Atala, a home for 100 children, is right around the corner and I know some of the kids there from past trips. As part of my job description, Sociedad is "requiring" me to go to Pedro Atala every day from 3-5 to practice my Spanish and play with the kids. Talk about a tough job huh!
Right now, my first project is to secure funding to expand a kitchen and build a dining room at Nuevo Paraíso (the largest project in the rural countryside). Sociedad is breaking ground on to construct a 40-person dorm, where the various brigades can stay. This will allow them to recoup the money that they normally spend to rent housing in other places. To meet the needs of the people, they need a larger dining room and the ability to prepare more food. So that's my project, to get the money to make this project happen. The old dining room and kitchen...... Currently, 35 people can be accomodated, our proposed construction will accomodate 85 people, the new housing capacity at Nuevo Paraiso.
All in all, things are going very well. I enjoy my work very much and the people are very supportive. The food is amazing and plentiful. My first week in Honduras has literally been one to celebrate...

Fireworks over the city/mountain skyline...