General - Veterans David Makepeace
and Doug Young along with new recruits, Keith Lyons , Phil Schedlbauer and Ryan
Ferguson were met in San Pedro by NY/HELP in-country coordinator, Yovany
Munguía and went immediately to Yoro where we stayed over and bought supplies
for our stay in the villages. We visited the house we used to support in Yoro
and had a nice talk with Petronila and José Feliciano and admired the progress
in expanding the house capacity. We were excited to be working past La Laguna
and down in the low villages of Mescales, El Chorro, Las Brisas and Los
Cuchillos. As our supporters know, the tribal council directs where we work
(with the agreement that we spread our efforts among all villages). This is the
most remote area of the tribe, and they were happy to receive our visit.
Through our local part-time
facilitator, Joel Ramírez, Yovany had done a fantastic job setting up our work
projects. The trip began in La Laguna with a meeting with the Health Committee
in the clinic. The meeting was productive, and the next day we headed to our
work area. Yovany stayed with us for the first two days, and our accommodations
were excellent in Mescales and later in El Chorro.
On Sunday, we took and break for a
three team soccer tournament before which NY/HELP was welcomed with
presentations and skits by students in the Centro Básico in Mataderos including
a moving rendition of the Honduran National Anthem in Tol (the local indigenous
language which is experiencing a comeback in the tribe). We heard speeches of
gratitude, and David Makepeace gave a short talk expressing our gratitude for
their efforts in hosting our visit and reinforcing our point goals and
commitment. The soccer game was temporarily interrupted by a large bull which
scattered the crowd and gave some anxious moments. It felt like the Running of
the Bulls in Pamplona during the Sanfermines.
After the game we headed back to the
clinic for one more night, craft buying and successful meetings with the Tribal
Council and with Mauricia Castro at the Centro Básico. The next day we walked
down the hill and headed to Copán for two well-earned days of rest.
.
Projects - We completed or contracted
completion of 8 latrines. Salvador (our host in Mescales with his wife Ana) was
our lead carpenter; however, when it became apparent that our group was replete
with excellent carpenters in their own right, we were able to split into two
groups and, thereby, be more productive. We also built a house from the ground
up. It was originally scheduled as a new roof, but, upon arrival, we discovered
that the holes for the horcones (uprights for the house) were still being dug.
That did not deter us, and, by the end of the day, the house was standing and
the roof was on.
.
Health Committee Meeting
-
At
the start of the trip I met with Seydy, the nurse at the Centro de Salud in La
Habana. She has begun construction of what will be an analysis lab and a dental
office. She is very energetic and is interested in cooperating with us as she
needs support. I told her that any support would have to go through our health
committee but that I envisioned a flow of health care that began in La Habana
and extended through our clinic to trained personnel in each of the villages.
It, of course, would be a benefit to the tribe to have an analysis lab and
dental office there. I discussed the possibility of asking the health committee
or tribal council to send workers to help with the construction, and she was
very amenable. I also suggested that she and Mirtila could run capacitaciones
(training sessions) for personnel from the villages in the Centro Básico in
Mataderos. I discussed all this at the Health Committee meeting and they agreed
that it would benefit the tribe to have these facilities nearby.
.
Other items at committee meeting -
1. We
discussed the new form that Doug and Jeff created for Mirtila to report her
hours, and they (including Mirtila) agreed that it would be great now that she
is a full fledged 14 month employee. I left enough forms to last until August.
Gordon should bring more. We agreed the hours would be from Monday to Friday,
8:00 to 3:00.
2. The
committee wanted recognition for volunteering in the form of free services and
some medicines. I mentioned that they deserved recognition, but, in light of
the fact that we are trying to increase the income of the clinic and that the
members are among the wealthier members of the community, that would look bad
in front of the poorer people who we are trying to get to pay more. They agreed,
and I said we would discuss other ways to recognize them including funding of
expenses and opportunities to increase their knowledge about other centros de
salud.
3. We
discussed the need to have a contract for Mirtila and decided that NY/Help
would suggest something in August.
4. We
decided that members would receive 150,00 L. for transport and food for
meetings of more than 4 hours.
5. We
had some dispute about whether or not the money received by the clinic for
services should be deposited in the new account for the Health Committee (which
they opened by borrowing from Mirtila) and decided for the moment that Mirtila
needed to control the money for purchase of new medicines but that she would
continue strict accounting and that the
committee would have access once a month to those figures.
6. We
never got to a work plan from May to December but did discuss the importance of
inventory of medicines in the pharmacy as we know Mirtila gives free medicines
to her friends. The committee likes the idea of working with Seydy in La Habana
and planned to discuss quid pro quo for tribal support of the project.
Education
1. We distributed school supplies collected
by Camille Makepeace’s International Club to schools in La Laguna, Mataderos,
El Chorro, Mescales, and Las Brisas. We are sending her class pictures of the
kids with the supplies.
2. I met
with Mauricia and discussed increasing the utilization of the Centro Básico for
adult ed. She said they have 33 students and have lost the 9th grade teacher.
Because of computerized accounting by the government, we could not hide the
numbers and keep the teacher. I agreed they could use the extra room
temporarily for the kinder. She wants to take the lab and convert it into a
kind of museum. I said that was great but that we should a tables and chairs
also for conferences and adult educational activities. That is how we left it.
3. In
Mescales I agreed that we would fund the scholarships of the two children who
dropped out of the Maestro en Casa program because of an assault coming over
the mountain for the Saturday meeting.
4.
Apparently, the Maestro program in Mataderos is not taking students from the
Centro Básico as only one student is studying Plan Básico and the rest are in
carreras, and that one student would not go to the Centro anyway. I did discuss
with the Tribal Council the possibility of beginning a group in Agua Blanca of
Maestro en Casa offering the Plan Básico. This would be a way of opening junior
high to the low villages and is exciting. A member from Agua Blanca said he had
already been assured that if he could get 20 students, they would send a
teacher. He said he could get that number easily. This would be for next year
and needs to be encouraged in the tribal council meeting in August.
5. We took
pictures of our scholarship students and got the data that Jeff requested.
6. We
told them the new scholarship money would be released when they delivered
receipts to Yovany for the first half. They said that would happen soon.
.
Tribal Council Meeting-
1. This
group is similar to the Health Committee with María Antonia de Martínez
presiding. We discussed the Centro Básico and that student numbers are going
down in all of Honduras. We said we would try to increase the scholarship
program as we have been having success raising money specifically for that.
This fund raising should be discussed at a NY/HELP meeting.
2. We
reported the results of the Health Committee meeting and emphasized the
importance of initiating cooperation with La Habana.
3. We
had a long discussion about the Junta de Agua, which is essentially dead. Doug,
Keith and Phil took and interest in studying the issue and I had Yovany send me
the study that was done recently there, which I will have to translate for
them.
.
Highlights -
We were
very excited to treat Joel, our local rep to his first trip to Copán.
Interestingly enough the President of Honduras was visiting, and Joel and our
own Ryan Ferguson met him and had pictures taken with them. I made Joel get
copies and take them home. He was very excited.
New
members, Keith Lyons, Phil Schedlbauer and Ryan Ferguson were absolutely
invaluable and expressed to desire to make another trip.
Respectfully submitted,
David Makepeace
.
