¡Después de un mes!

After a month, life here in Honduras is starting to fall into a regular rhythm and even the heat is beginning to feel normal! Our Water Project Team has really come together over the last few weeks, as our project was officially given the go ahead from the Canadian office and the Latin American Director came to lead a week of training for the new Honduran team members. Since this is a start-up project, there have been plenty of opportunities for learning as we work together to analyze and enter needs assessment data, develop Health & Hygiene curriculum and resources, secure sources for filter construction materials, test flow rates to develop procedures for sand-washing and installation, meet with and develop relationships with pastors and leaders in the communities, establish locations for construction and H&H lessons within the community and develop our plan of attack for the next three years! Currently, two communities have been selected as appropriate and very needy candidates for our program, they are both slums within the city, referred to here as 'bordos'. This will be the very first time that SP has done a water project in an urban slum and we are very excited to be a part of this pilot venture! The main source of income and housing supplies in these communities come from garbage collecting and you often see little horse-drawn carts around the city with bordo inhabitants carrying their 'goods'. The time that we've spent in the communities, meeting the families and seeing the distended bellies of kids suffering from parasitic infections has deepened my enthusiasm and hope for this project as I have been reminded of the reality of living in extreme poverty. Although we have not yet commenced building filters in the community, we feel very fulfilled in the work we are doing now to prepare will help lay down a solid groundwork to enable this program be one of high integrity and sustainability.

Los Bordos
The 'Filtros de Vida' TeamAspects of the filter construction/sand testing processSifting the sand
Washing the sandDemolding the filterOutside of our project, we have continued to keep ourselves busy trying to get involved in the San Pedro Sula community and get to know this beautiful land! A few weekends back, I had a wonderful opportunity to help out at a camp near the mountains and be the resident "pyro", building huge fires for the 150 campers to cook on. The scene was perfect as we had to hike through the junglish woods for a kilometre and cross through a river to get to the fire sites, where we were met with the challenge of fire-starting with damp wood and no kindling! It was cool to see the Honduran alternatives to some of our Canadian trip favourites, as they made what we would call a 'tinfoil dinner', except here the food was wrapped in a banana leaf! Awesome! Another weekend, two friends from work and I traveled to Lago Yojoa in the interior of the country, apparently the nation's only real lake. It was a gorgeous spot in the shadow of the mountains and we had a fun time sleeping in our SP Canada-provided 'mosquito tents' at the base marina of the Independance Day sailing regatta! With our see-through netted walls, headlamps and guacamole we were quite a sight, but I think we provided some good entertainment for the locals..and the machine gun clad, military attire guards that passed back and forth all night :)

Lago Yojoa In the city, we've kept ourselves busy attending Honduran soccer games, visiting local markets and one early morning I got to hike up one of the surrounding mountains to get a beautiful view of the whole city. On the way up we had an exciting sighting of a REAL TOUCAN!! My new friend, with a well-tuned ear for tropical birds (?!), heard it calling and spotted it on a nearby branch. I was pretty much over the moon at the idea of seeing a toucan in its natural environment and was once again reminded of how lovely our surroundings here are! We have also been taking advantage of this tropical setting by making fruit a VERY regular part of our daily life...so basically, I'm in heaven :) This weekend we came upon the MOTHER of all papayas at the downtown market, 12 lbs of deliciousness! We have decided that any Halloween celebration we hold will need to include papaya carving!
Our Spanish classes at a local 'Academia' have recently ended and Anthea and I were sad to leave our slightly scatter-brained, yet incredibly sweet 'maestra', Arele. We enjoyed many a hot and sometimes stormy afternoon with her, working our way through an array of 'cosas de Español' and enjoying a regular 'cafecito'. Although my ability (or inability) to communicate still frustrates me somedays, I know that my understanding and comprehension has improved- which says a lot here, where muttering, slang and consonant-dropping is rampant!
The weeks ahead hold lots of promise for more adventures, challenges and deepened relationships, big steps in our project and as always, lots of opportunities to learn and have FUN! I am feeling God's blessing so richly during this time and am so thankful for all the support, prayer and kind words I have received from home!
The beautiful view of San Pedro from the mountain top.Kara and I at first Honduran 'futbol' game!My desk at Spanish SchoolMr. ENORMOUS papaya and his little fruit friends