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)