August Honduras Trip Completed, Travelers Will be Home Soon

Things have gone well on this trip, tho 2 of us did get ¨traveler´s diarrhea¨ for a few days. They´re better now. We had a moderately busy clinic, tho the 2 days the others were gone, there were only about 10 patients a day rather than the usual 20-25. Still, very interesting cases. The rest of the group went to La Kiloma, 2000 feet elevation BELOW La Laguna´s 4100 foot altitude, and built some 7 or 8 stoves and 10 latrines (mas o menos) and several more stoves in La Laguna. We delivered the two computers to the Centro Básico, and the kids were almost delirious there! They were practicing with the computers by the time the morning was over, and were better than the teachers by then!

There are 5 computers at the Clinic, which are used mostly once a day by the elementary school in La Laguna (but I watched the kids in 5th and 6th grades and they were learning a lot!).

We had meetings with the Health Committee, and are trying to improve communications between our nurse Mirtila Garcia and the Committee. They have a lot of questions that they want us to answer, and we will need a meeting soon to discuss these (and then send them a response).

Last night, there was a banquet for Yovany Munguia, our NY/HELP coordinator, who is leaving his day job with Sustainable Harvest at the end of the year. He says he will be working on community development projects in Yoro, and will still be helping NY/HELP.

More later!

hasta la vista,
Gordon

NY/HELP Report from Yovany

A Welcome for NY/HELP at the Centro Básico (Middle School)

Yesterday (Sunday) was a day of rest and the whole NY/HELP group was on the football field in Mataderos, enjoying the sun, grass and good football, sponsored by New York, who gave prizes for the three top places.


The community of La Laguna was was fairly, the first place winner.

Today (Monday), part of the group was to complete the construction of stoves, other completed an improved roof. Judy, Austin and the girls (Carrie and Emily) were in the Centro Básico (Middle School), installing computers and teaching the first steps of computing to the students.

Meanwhile Dr. Gordon continued with 30 to 40 patients a day at the clinic.

Everything has been busy today as the afternoon had meetings with the Tribal Council, some materials were delivered to families, and handicrafts produced by women were bought.

Tomorrow will be the last day working with the tribe and they continue to work until noon, leaving La Laguna at 2 PM and arriving in La Habana, to stay there and leave early on the17 for San Pedro Sula, for a deserved rest after week and a day of hard but rewarding work on behalf of needy families of the Mataderos tribe. Some members go to Yoro to visit the Boarding House (and Petronilla, the house mother), which still supports NYHelp, and learn about their current situation.

Some of the activities, we send in photos ...

Yovany

House with a bad roof.

House with an improved roof.

All is Going Well

I received an email from Yovany Munguia today. He is our in-country coordinator who works for Sustainable Harvest. Below is what he reported.

I got Craig on Monday at 5pm and took him to the hotel and all well. (Craig's plane had been delayed & he arrived one day later than the rest of the group) On Tuesday we went to La Habana and then to La Laguna and joined the group, who had come to La Laguna yesterday, after shopping for school supplies and food for their stay in the tribe.

Yesterday, 6 of them went out into the community of Kiloma, loaded with materials for families, and school supplies for three schools and a kindergarten. They will stay in the community and work on it and in El Paraíso, building latrines and improved stoves. It was a tiring trip, and some were on foot and others on a beast, at least 5 km in the company of at least 8 members of those communities that accompanied them. They will be there until Saturday, returning in the evening of that day. Everything is going well so far.

Dr. Gordon remained in the medical clinic working with Mirtila. I will see him again on Sunday 14, which is a day of rest and we will have some meetings. That day there will be football (soccer to us), which is done every time NYHelp is in the villages. Participating teams are La Laguna, Mataderos, El Paraíso y Kiloma, which are communities where the group will work on this trip.

Good. On Monday, the 15, I will report more about how the work progressed.

When I hear more I will post it.

August Honduras Trip Underway

Seven people left from 3 different airports this morning headed for San Pedro Sula, Honduras for a two-week mission trip. Just getting there has been an adventure, apparently. Gordon and 2 college students, Emily McCormick & Carrie Richter were delayed leaving Chicago (the first leg of the trip from Buffalo to Honduras) for 2 hours due to engine trouble. The plane out of Miami apparently was delayed also, but not as much. It looks like they will arrive in San Pedro Sula about a half hour late. One group from Syracuse (Judy Toner & her grandson Austin) was on time as far as I know and should have arrived at 4:30. Dick DeNise flew from Rochester and was due to arrive at 4:30 also. Craig Wilson, who left earlier than the others from Syracuse did not have as much luck. Within 5 minutes of landing in Miami, his plane was waived off due to weather. By the time they were able to land in Miami, the plane to Honduras had left. He is spending the night at a hotel in Miami with the home of getting on Monday afternoon's plane for Honduras, thus arriving 24 hours late. The twist on his adventure is that all his belongings are in his back-pack, which the airline would not allow him to carry on the plane, or gate check, and has not been reunited with him as yet. Hopefully, all will be reunited tomorrow afternoon and by the time Craig arrives the supplies are obtained so they can head up to the mountains.

The good news is we were able to obtain two donated laptop computers to take to the middle school in Mataderos. Both are Dell computers which have been refurbished, one by a man in Arcade who does this for a hobby to donate them to missions. The other was worked on (it has "issues" mostly a virus) at a newly opened computer store here in Arcade, who donated his time. We really appreciate both of these folks for their donations.