March 2012

March was a busy month helping with a vaccination initiative that took us to San Pedro Sula to help monitor the vaccination process. We went to several schools and the kids were all so beautiful 

(they are kids and I am partial to kids!)

We went to some schools in an area called El Merendon, it is a mountain,and the ride was very ,very bumpy, beautiful but very bumpy.



I tried to download a video but was unable to.


The weather up there was very nice and a few degrees cooler than in the city. The schools were so poor. There was a school that had two classrooms, in one they had 45 children in the other there were supposed to have 64. The children were not there that day because the teacher was sick and they don't have substitute teachers. Can you imagine a regular size classroom (maybe smaller )with 64 children? The children were very happy and while we waited for some preparations they showed us some games
 they play at recess.







Another school was even smaller they had about 12 kids and even though the school was supposed to start at 1PM it was about 2 o'clock and the kids were trickling in.
In another school while we were monitoring, we saw this little boy climb a tree outside the school's fence. Lo and behold the teacher sees him and very casually and non threateningly told him that even though he was skipping school that day he had to come in to get his shot. I thought it was funny that he was so curious about what he was missing and got caught to get his shot.
The violence in San Pedro Sula is so much higher than in Tegucigalpa that we were very happy to leave and come back "home".
There were some faces that will stay with me for the rest of my life. Something in their facial expression that was quite hard to pinpoint.

Holy Week in Tegucigalpa

Last week was Holy Week and in Honduras it is celebrated like a National Holiday. No one works and schools are out. People leave the capital to go back to their hometowns and the ones who can, go on vacation to the Bay Islands or to the beach.
The ones that stay participate in the religious customs which are quite a few. Among one of the showiest ones are the carpets made of colored sawdust. On Wednesday our landlords took us downtown to see the people making them. Oh, how I wanted to get down on all four and help!, I guess it was so obvious that Gloria (our landlady) mentioned that it looked like I wanted to join in. There were youth groups from churches and Scouts from Honduras and other people making them.





Then on Thursday they took us again to see them  when they were all finished and  before the procession would go through. My favorite one was "La Dolorosa", a Virgin with a tear rolling down her cheek, quite an artwork.



They cover the streets of downtown Tegucigalpa where the procession of the Holy Sepulchre is going to be going through, from the Cathedral to the  Church of the Calvary.  Needless to say once the procession goes through the streets all the artwork is gone. It is quite an amazing site.