Language, found

From inside the school at Buena Vista. The Honduran National Anthem, translated into Chorti, language of the ancient Maya.

Buena Vista and neighboring villages are working to reclaim Chorti, their ancestral language. There aren't any living speakers, at least not around here. A few times a week, a teacher comes in from Copan and gives a lesson.

At a meeting inside the school, Jose Manuel asked one of the young girls to stand up and read some Chorti from a chart on the wall. First she read the Spanish, then the Chorti translation. Hello, good day, how are you, mother, father. Language recovery in progress.

Close-up

The outside wall on a new house in Bonete.

A mesh bag, a calendar, nails as hooks, electronics ads, a newspaper clipping, cut-out pictures of dancers.

Buena Vista housing project

For all those who donated, an update:

16 houses are almost finished (20 total). Currently, the community is putting roofs on houses. Next, they will pour floors. Then, move in.

Here's one of the finished houses, roof and floor.

Another house, almost finished. Roof, but no floor.

According to Jose Manuel, all 20 families have one person who learned how to lay blocks through the housing project. Now, those people can find construction work (and decent pay) in town.

Thanks again to all who donated. Your money is helping to build a lot more than houses.

This Machine Kills Fascists

Cerro Azul's finest. This place is really hard to get to - about 40 minutes straight up into the mountains outside of La Entrada. On a recent visit with a Heifer study tour, these guys serenaded us with songs they wrote about Heifer Project and Fundacion DIA and how the projects they received had improved their lives.

Second set. The small guitar was passed on to this guy who sang some traditional "Mexican drunk love ballads." Alba, who is also the local school teacher, helped on vocals. It was great.

The strings on the bass guitar are made from the same rainbow nylon people use to make the hammocks that are everywhere. "Jesus" is written in silver nail polish.

Boss man

Jose Manuel is the chief organizer in Buena Vista. About once a week he meets me at Las Sepulturas, part of the Mayan ruins, and we hike up to Buena Vista together. Fast. He always has on a different hat that looks a little big.

He lives in a house with 12 other people. His wife, Catalina. They have two little girls. One is named Lady, which sounds strange but also beautiful in Spanish. You kind of have to slow down to say it. Lay-dee.

This is it

Work on the library has been slow. I really underestimated the rainy season. It pours for hours almost everyday. The airport in Tegucigalpa has been closed, roads have been tricky, and the river near Buena Vista is swollen.

But this is the spot. And after a lot of planning and waiting, construction was supposed to start yesterday. (Still waiting to hear).

Meanwhile, I've gotten some book and furniture donations from a local development organization. Also opened an account at the hardware store. Sand finally made it into Buena Vista. So did the blueprint for the building. Met with a carpenter and discussed tables and bookshelves.

Things are happening. Slowly.

All work, no play...

...is not possible in the Honduran sun. Don Jose cutting coconuts open for the sweet water on a work break.

For mom

Lots of makeshift scaffolding around the new houses. Hard to capture just how shaky this stuff is in a picture. And every day they got higher. By the end of the week we needed a long ladder to get onto these "puentes." OSHA, where are you?

A-Team

In Copantle, the village divided itself into three groups to work on houses. Each group works on the houses of all of its members. Working with Don Juan:

Lupe and Tomas (r).

Lupe is in charge of the group. He gave me pointers on my brick-laying skills. Also taught me how to make a rebar column.

Tomas was pretty quiet.

Marlen.

The first woman I've ever met who knows how to lay bricks. She's really good. Spends a lot of time fixing our lesser work.

The whole team was great. We got a lot of (hard) work done. Left Copantle blistered, sore and a little sunburned. Earned my campesina badge on this house.

La Casa de Don Juan

This is the actual Don Juan, of children's song fame.

His wife makes these little fireworks to sell to someone else who sells them on the side of the road.

They live in this house in Copantle, a village outside of Trinidad.

Spent a week working on their new house, which is right next door.

More to come.

Roadside

Hats and baskets for sale on the side of the road outside of Santa Barbara

Snack time

Another school-turned-clinic for the medical team. La Pagrita, a small town in the mountains.

Tiny plastic chairs and big bags of corn. In Honduras, the government is supposed to provide schools with a daily snack for every student. The snack, la merienda, is really important in poorer places. Corn, beans, rice. Usually a group of moms is in charge of cooking.

Centro de Salud, pt. 2

Most of the places the medical team goes to don't have community clinics. In this town, La Cumbre, we set up inside the school.

Always cool to see what's on the blackboard. This was some kind of spelling game. Next to the picture of the tree it says "ar ___ ." Arbol is Spanish for tree.

Centro de Salud

From the health center in San Juan Planes. One of four stops with a medical team from the States. Makeshift, day-long clinics in each community. I helped with triage and translation.

A lot of people asked about vision problems. We only had a small supply of reading glasses.

The most common problem is probably parasites. This is amoeba season. Swollen, distended bellies and sore throats.

Research

(This library is yours. Take care of it, it's the future of your children.)

From a library in San Juan Planes, a small town in Northwestern Honduras. I spent a day talking with the librarians (there are two) and hanging out with the kids. Lots of good ideas for the library in Buena Vista. Every afternoon, one grade from the local school gets to spend time in the stacks. Books can't go home, unless an adult signs them out.

No library cards. Every family signs a contract to use the library and that gets attached to a book log and put in a file. The librarians gave me one of the files to take with me. It was from a woman who died.

Also learned the Honduran version of "Who stole the cookies from the cookie jar" from a group of second graders. This is how it goes:

Lena come pan en la casa de Don Juan

Lena come pan en la casa de Don Juan

Quien yo?

Si tu!

Yo no fui

Entonces quien?

Lena ate bread in Don Juan's house

Lena ate bread in Don Juan's house

Who me?

Yes you!

Couldn't be

Then who?