Water and What's In It: Building Poopers

 Every year, when rainy season hits, the little mountain town of Belen Gualcho in western Honduras has a Hepatitis A outbreak.  Many houses have no, or inadequate, latrines.  Fecal matter gets washed into the streams by the rain water and the folks below, who use this water directly out of the steams, get sick.  Basic right?  It's more complicated than you might think.

Here's a photo journal of a latrines project being carried out by my workplace, ASONOG,  with funding from the Sources youth leadership water project, of Canada World Youth.

 This household already has a latrine, but it's full, and there ain't no pump trucks in this neighbourhood.

The owner of this house does not want to sacrifice his peach tree to erect a latrine, shared between his household and that of his grandson (background).  Peaches would be a valuable asset too.  What to do?

Belen Gualcho means place of many waters.  So, it's no suprise that after digging the 3m needed for the new latrines, some beneficiaries hit water and must relocate if possible.

Houses on hills.  Water and what's in it, flows downhill to communities below.  When your upstream neighbours don't have latrines, and you drink the water directly out of the nearby stream...eww.

A kid herding mules on a mule. The pic is here because I love that shit.

Unloading the 40 of 100 toilet bowls in one of five neighbourhoods benefiting from the latrines project, funded by Canada World Youth, as part of the Sources water project.

More materials for the latrines.  Counting and recounting the metal sheets.  Everybody on the list gets two!

PVC tubing, bags of cement, rebar, and sheets of metal for the latrines. Overheard, "I'm just going to put this long tube directly into the stream." Oh man, that defeats the whole purpose dude!

The local municipal office.

Daniel leading a workshop for the beneficiaries of the latrines.  Why, where and how to construct their latrines. Cell phones on vibrate please.

Carrying off the materials up the steep hills to their houses.  The concrete and toilet bowls are awaiting them at the top.  Hopefully the materials get used for latrines and not improvements to the TV rooms in their  adobe houses (mud huts).  I'm not kidding about the TV rooms.

Women are better than men at...

I just played two awesome games of  co-ed volleyball and soccer with a group of visiting highschool students from the island of Utila, here at a the Hacienda El Jaral hotel/resort where I am enjoying an overnight stay.  I am  participating in a  2 day workshop on citizen participation and influencing decision makers ( "learning to lobby" doesn't quite translate to "incidencia politica" but that is a close approximation without the negative associations...).  The workshop is interesting, but the two games of competitive rec sports, in bare feet, on lush green grass really made my day.   Adding to my entertainment were the fellow players'  unique accents: a really interesting mix of Carribean English, with a few Spanish words thrown in for good measure. When they needed me to understand what they were saying they'd switch over to an American-ish accent for my benefit.  Great all round entertainment!

The co-ed nature of ths game was pretty special too, as that is really rare here.  It's almost always boys or men playing, and girls watching or texting on their cell phones on the side.  Gender considerations are big here.  All of my current/future projects have gender as a transversal theme and last week I had the opportunity to observe and assist with half-day gender and empowerment workshop in a nearby pueblo (small town/village).  My employers have some baseline data for these areas on attitudes and knowledge about health, sanitation, nutrition and food security.  One finding is that 65% of the women have to ask for permission from their husbands if they want to see a doctor. Most of them have to ask permission to visit a female friend. Most of them always eat last, and save the protein for their husbands and children (in that order), even if they are doing agricultural labour, are pregnant and are breastfeeding...all at once.  Consequently, gender equity is recognized as an important part of the Honduran development landscape.

I have translated one of the exercises from the gender workshop below.  We answered 20 true and false questions.*.  I invite you to take the test!   Not surprisingly, this Canadian girl with  university courses in the anthropology of gender under her feminist belt scored way high on the gender equity side of things. I admit, I did answer that  women are better at taking care of small babies, but I thought that milk filled breasts really give us the upper hand at this one.  My high equity score gave the facilitator a chance to contrast my upbringing, and my societal learnings, with those of rural Honduras.  "You are born with a penis or a vulva, but your gender is a learned thing, and a role you take on." (direct translation...don't get on my case about M/F not being the only sexes...I know, I know, but rural Honduras just ain't ready for that yet!).

Here you go, True or False?

I wanted a donkey, I got worms instead.

Originally my posting as a food security advisor was going to be in a very small, rural community in Western Honduras. Upon hearing this, I had made big plans before I left Canada to scrimpt together some of my volunteer honourarium and get myself a donkey. Nothing fancy, just an "A to B" model burro.  His name was to be "Toyota", or alternatively, "Vamonos" (Let's Go).  I arrived, and as we were warned in training could happen, plans had changed, and I was now to be stationed in the much less rural, larger centre of Santa Rosa de Copan.

Oliver Twist Surrealism: Visiting the Orphanage

Every Wednesday afternoon, my neighbour and good friend Mirian, visits one of the orphanages here in Santa Rosa de Copan.  She goes with her own children and a couple of her friends.  I asked to join her this week.

It's an orphanage for children aged 5 years and under.  As we walked through the door, we were rushed by the children.  They came running to receive hugs and smiles and some much needed individual attention.  They had never met me before, and yet, some of them were instantly crawling up into my lap. At one point I opened up to their love and to mine, then I got scared.  This is too hard.  A protective crust enveloped my heart, but recognizing it in time, I willed myself back to the love.

Condoms: for or against doctor?

We received a very thorough health briefing from a very Catholic doctor yesterday (screen saver...Mother Mary).

 

Summary: don't eat, don't drink, don't breathe, don't F-(werd)
                                                                            

 I was with him all the way, until he told us that actually, condoms don't protect against HIV/AIDS because they promote promiscuity.  I kept my mouth shut, but I was a little aggitated at him for being so irresponsible with his religious propaganda. Uhh, dude, ever heard of your duty to public health?  Probably best not to argue with the guy who might later be treating me for multitudinous tropical illnesses, from parasites to viral infections to food poisoning and beyond and who actually speaks English fluently due to his studying medicine in Canada at McGill.