Good Afternoon From Honduras!
Here we are busy preparing for the first Summer Camp at our bilingual schools. It's not quite Wimbledon or the World Cup but it's keeping us busy and will be an awesome experience for our students. The entire country was saddened by Hondurans loss to Ecuador yesterday.
I traveled to Oxford, Mississippi in April along with 3 other employees from the Olancho Aid Foundation in order to attend Clean Water University. The foundation I'm volunteering with has partnered with Living Waters for the World, an organization that provides purified water for communities in countries that don't have the luxury of safe drinking water. Clean Water U is their training program that teaches organizations the process for installing water filters and educating people about the importance of purified water. Like most 3rd World Countries, Honduras suffers the consequences that stem from contaminated water. Many of the Medical Mission Teams that have been to visit us here in Juticalpa have explained that without purified water they really can't cure much of the disease that exists. We hope that with these clean water systems we will see an improvement in health conditions.
Olancho Aid has already partnered with 2 villages here in Juticalpa where water purification systems will be installed. We will educate these communities about the importance of drinking clean water as well as help them manage the process for selling clean water and sustaining a water filtration system. In the U.S. we have clean water flowing from nearly every visible faucet, so training people to drink clean water is not really something we have to do. Here in Honduras that is not the case, so we will have to start by educating people about the importance of drinking and cooking with clean water. 5,000 children around the world die each day because of contaminated water.
Here one of our employees (Oscar) learned how to assemble the filters.
Here we are with Steve Young, Executive Director, Living Waters for the World.
The Lion's Club here in Juticalpa organized a 5K & 10K Run / Walk to raise awareness & money for diabetes last month. As I have mentioned before, exercise is not a common hobby here in Honduras so I was a little surprised to hear the event was taking place. This was the first time Carina and I had participated in a 5K together, it was a great event, they had about 600 attendees, complete with water stations, sponsors, and prizes. I do see more people walking and jogging since the event took place and there is another run/walk scheduled for September. Here they say "poco a poco"....little by little.
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Carina and I traveled to Antigua, Guatemala at the beginning of June to visit with my brother and sister. This was the first vacation we have taken with my siblings since we got married in November. My brother and sister wanted to meet up for a long weekend but Carina and I are 3 hours from an airport and don't have many options when it comes to direct flights. Antigua ended up being the perfect place to meet. We had a great time, Antigua is a beautiful city.
We spent the weekend touring the city, visiting churches built in the 1500's, attended a chocolate class, ate plenty, and even started celebrating my brothers birthday a few weeks early.
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The construction for Cindy and Carlos' house has been completed. Carina and I went to visit them a few weeks ago and they are enjoying their extra space. A place to cook, study, use the bathroom, and relax. It was a much needed addition for a brother and sister that had lived together in a space smaller than many walk-in closets. Thanks again for all your support! The project would not have been completed without all of you.
As I mentioned in my January post, we received great support for their project and felt there would be extra money. The cost of the project totaled $1,900 and if you remember we had raised $2,600. Carina and I had been contemplating who to help with the additional $700 and while several people came to mind it can be very difficult to help the extremely poor. In a country where so many people need help that may sound funny to you, but the truth is it can be very difficult to help people without enabling them, discouraging them, or creating problems. Most Hondurans work very hard every day for very little pay because they have the hope and dream of one day being able to afford their own home, send their child to school, or build an interior bathroom for their family. However, that hope and that dream is what encourages them to wake up each day and go to work . So the last thing we wanted to do was discourage someone from working hard or discourage them from accomplishing their dream of achieving something for their family. Additionally this money came from you, our friends & our family so we wanted to be certain is was being used responsibly.
That being said, Gardo, Maria & Pilar are the people that we have chosen to help with the additional funds. Gardo is a friend of Carina's family and I had the chance to work with him back in October when he was doing some repairs to Carina's house prior to the wedding. Gardo is a single father and works in construction. While he is a very talented person, there are a surplus of people in this community that can do the same type of work as Gardo, laying block, building foundations, repairing concrete walls, etc. So that being said, when Gardo does find work he uses the money to purchase food for his children and pay for their school expenses (public schools are not free here in Honduras).
Below is a picture of Gardo's home where he lives with his 8 year old daughter (Maria) and 9 year old son (Pilar). There are no separate rooms, just one room which contains 2 beds and a cooking area. There is no bathroom.
Here are a few interior pictures, the cooking area and sleeping area.
Here is a photo of Carina and Gardo discussing the possibility of some funds for constructing a home made of block.
Here Gardo takes some measurements as we were preparing the budget.
2 days after giving Gardo the initial $500 I stopped by to see if he needed any help transporting materials as he does not have a car. He wasn't waiting for any help with transportation, he got started right away, he had already purchased sand, block, cement mix, dug the foundation, and laid the first layer of block.
Here are some photos of the work he had completed by day 2. He will build around his current home so his family has shelter and then tear it down once the new home is complete.
Here is a photo of Gardo with his children, Maria & Pilar. Mom left about 4 years ago and has not been back.
The materials for a 2 room home for Gardo, Maria, and Pilar will cost about $1,500. I have given Gardo the $700 that was left over from Carlos & Cindy's home. If you are interested in helping Carina and I with the additional $800, we would love the support. You can mail a check or click the PayPal link below. THANKS!!
Or
Mail Check To -
Elizabeth Freesmeier
7244 Althorp Way
Nashville, TN 37211
