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The
update: Andy, Laura, and Luke
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July 31
Two students.
That's all I had in my morning class, which used to be comprised
of about twelve scholarship students. So you may be asking, "What
happened?" Well, I think most of them have either failed a
class this semester (making them ineligible to continue with their
scholarship) or have begun their health-promotion practica or hands-on
learning in a health clinic for the month. One student who
actually passed her classes was sick.
It is rather disappointing. It is hard to conduct class with only
two students. I plan activities and exercises for a group.
It shows me that someone needs to be responsible for following up
with students BEFORE they fail classes, which, unfortunately, could
easily be a full-time job (meaning, one that I cannot and will not take
on at this moment). Someone needs to pursue these students to
help them figure out what they are learning and to give them study and
organizational skills.
However, at some point, these students need to take initiative on their
own to ask for help. Almost every class, I remind them that if
they need help, Nelson and I are available to help them; but they have
to ask. I have had a few takers. A few diligent students
have asked for help BEFORE the night before an exam or project, mostly
with computer skills.
Well, this is a learning experience for everyone. Hopefully, this
year will help us to hone the program for next year, including the
requirements of the students and the program. I feel fortunate
that I have gotten to know these students over the past months and that
they feel more comfortable in class, comfortable enough to share and
discuss. That is a praise! So the ones that show up are
learning something.
P.S. I did get most of my clothing back, I think.
July 22
Stolen
intimates! Yes, I have had my ropa interior, (literal
translation: interior clothing) taken. It all came about by
accident, actually. The theft was not an accident; but the way the
clothing was placed in the hands of someone who would want it was.
It all started when there was no water at the clinic.
Having saved up my clothing for a week in order to do laundry
on Friday, we were in need of clothes when Friday arrived with no
water. Tino, a hired driver, who was already taking a group
through town, volunteer to drop off our four bags of clothing, sheets,
and diapers with our normal washing lady, Estela. The error
came when two days later Estela did not show up with our clothes but a
certain other washing lady who shall remain unnamed did appeared at our
door with bags in hand. Apparently, somehow, our clothes made
it to Estela's next door neighbor instead of Estela. With
Estela I never count my clothes because I trust her. After
all, I am employing her youngest daughter to watch my son. I
had no reason to doubt anyone else either . . . until I realized that a
few shirts and interior garments did not return. The problem
is that I only realized this after two or so weeks had passed, when I
wanted to wear that favorite blouse but couldn't find it. So
I asked her about it. I told her that some articles of
clothing did not return. Would she know where they are, by
chance? She thought for a moment and said that she would look and
return them tomorrow. I also asked if there was anything else
missing. No, nothing else, she said. So today is
tomorrow. I headed this afternoon to her home to retrieve my
clothing, also noting that, indeed, there were other articles of
clothing that had escaped my notice previously which were missing.
I asked her about these. Surreptitiously, she was
summoned by a daughter to the side of the house. She came
back holding my missing shirt! She failed to find one other
article of clothing. I had to tell her that this was
unacceptable. I trusted her to wash and return my clothing.
I would not be able to trust her in the future, given what
had happened. I realize that I should have counted my
clothing before sending it out, though I thought it was going to
Estela. So I have learned. Next time, I will wait
until we have water or walk the clothes to Estela myself! In
the end, I feel sorry for her. I feel sorry for her
daughters.
July 21
Lempira Day
was yesterday. Lempira
was a national hero who managed to unify many
different tribes
to fight the Spaniards during the conquest of the land. To
celebrate the day the colegio (high school) put together a morning of
traditional dances and dramas from 8 to 12. Florencia and
Jack and Luke and I went to the school to watch some of the
performances. The dances were beautiful, and the dramas were
interesting. Kids who didn't perform spent the day before
cooking tamales and tamalitos to sell. Really, most of the
town was involved in some way or another. I got to see some
of my students performing and got to talk to others. The
funny thing is that, while we were sitting, the kids passing by would
say, "Hola, Lucas." Everyone knew him. Of course,
the girls all wanted to hold him. He did very well.
He was even able to beg part of a tamale off of a nice
colegio student.
Some of our downpours of note this week:
1) Last Sunday, we were preparing for church when it started
to rain. This wasn't a drizzly rain. It was a
downpour. And it came on fast. We were in the
driveway with our umbrellas down and no rain, though we were prepared
as
it looked like it was going to rain. A few drops later we
were starting to get quite wet. We opened our umbrellas and
pressed on toward church. We were wearing sandals, which was
good because our feet were soaked by the time we got to church, along
with Andy's pants and the back of my skirt. Luke was even
wet though he had the most protection from the rain. One of
the summer rotators, Paul, had decided to come with us and was using
the other umbrella. He was wearing his nice Sunday shoes and
pants, which was unfortunate given the rivers of water flowing in the
streets. He seemed to have a good sense of humor about his
sopping wet feet though. When we got to church, almost no
one was there. We had even managed to lose along the way Ada
and her sister Dinah and Belkis and Nelson who had started the journey
with us.
2) On Wednesday afternoon, about 3pm, the sky grew dark and
the wind started to blow. Then the rain started to fall.
All
of a sudden, I hear a big crash and look out the bedroom window to see
a HUGE tree branch just a few feet away from the building that had
split off a tree and come crashing down. Because of the
combination of the wind and rain, water was flying in our windows!
I had to run around the apartment closing windows with Luke
in my arms. (He had woken up very scared from his afternoon nap).
Around town many branches and trees had fallen and shingles
had flown off roofs. Amazingly, though, we still had
electricity after it all.
One other adventure: On Thursday afternoon, Ada and I went
for a walk with Luke. She took me up to El Cerito, an
overlook on top of a hill on one side of town. At the top of
this hill lives Doña Elvirita. She often comes to
church. She is as tall as her
rainwater catchment barrel and is a cute wrinkled old lady.
She is probably not as old as she looks. She
motioned for us to come in to her small enclosed yard in front of her
small cinder block house. She showed us the plants she was
growing and where the water bubbled out of the rocks when it rained.
She really wanted us to eat a bowl of nances, a fruit from a
tree near her house. Ada cleverly asked for the fruit to-go
in a bag, as it had been soaking in sugar water without refrigeration
for awhile. We thanked her profusely for her gift to us and
continued on our way. I hope to go back to visit with Luke
and return her kindness in some way.
July 13
Today is a
new day!
This morning, we have water and electricity!
¡Maravilloso! or Wonderful!, as my students learned
last
night in English class. (On a side note, English class is
going
well with three very dedicated students. They are learning a
lot
and beginning to try to speak and write more in English).
Things have been going well here, despite seemingly constant shortages
of one thing or another. Eventually, water or electricity
shortages become a part of life, and one adapts it. After
all,
everyone here has been living this way for much longer than we have.
I am reminded that adjustment takes time. We are still
adjusting,
but it doesn't feel as hard as it used to feel. We
are no
longer the newcomers in town. We know, more or less, what to
expect culturally from people we meet for the first time, from friends,
and from employees. We have changed or tried to get rid of
our
initial expectations, continue to try to be flexible, and have figured
out what we need to remain emotionally and spiritually healthy in this
environment. We are now part of this environment, and that is
exciting.
So no big news to report. I just wanted to say that I am
happy.
July 6
Summer
time, again, kind
of. For most of you, June, July, and August signify summer.
However, for us, summer is December through April, the dry
season. We are currently in "winter," which is May through
November, otherwise known as the rainy season. However, it
hasn't
rained in a week, which makes it more like summer.
Yesterday, we
had to put into effect water rationing and have been showering out of a
bag. This morning, we loaded three huge bags of clothes,
sheets,
and dirty diapers into the pickup which were dropped off with
Doña Estela (Ada's mom) to be washed. I had been
saving up
all week to do one or two big loads. I didn't know, though,
at
the beginning of the week that there wouldn't be water at the end of
the week. Oh well.
Our lack of water is due to three things: 1) no rain for a week, which
means our bottom tank doesn't fill up. The bottom tank is
used as
reserve water when the upper tank gets emptied. 2) A new
fontanero (the guy in charge of distributing water throughout the
pueblo) who, apparently, does not know how to do his job well.
People all over town are complaining that they haven't gotten
water in a week; that if they did get water, it was only for 30
minutes; or in our case, he only filled the tank part way. 3)
Having two families, 8 summer students, a kitchen, and a clinic that
runs off the water. Plus, there is usually a leaky toilet, a
patient who doesn't know how to turn off the sink faucet in the clinic,
and a faucet that was left open when there was no water (so when the
tank gets filled up and the water is turned on, the water just pours
right out again until someone finds the faucet).
All of this adds up to me not having to do any laundry or wash dishes.
Woo hoo!
July 5
Apple pie
and fireworks! We did celebrate the 4th of July, complete
with pictures behind
the American flag. I made apple pie with green apples brought
on
the bus by Miguel (Peace Corp volunteer) from La Esperanza.
What
a treat! James bought fireworks, aka gunpo wder wrapped in
newspaper with a tiny fuse, for everyone to light. You had to
light it and throw it,
immediately, or it would blow
up right in front of you; and they were
noisy. BOOM! That was it. An ear-splitting boom. Only
a few guys actually lit them. No one else was brave enough to
risk being blown up.
To the right is a picture of Ada and Luke.
This week has been a little hectic, as far as transportation and
doctors in the clinic. First, the 4WD on our truck broke,
making
it undriveable, except to the shop, a seven-hour drive away.
Andy
tinkered with the truck, trying to make sure that everything was
attached and in place for the drive. James volunteered to
take
the truck in and make the PriceSmart (Sams) run for both families and
the clinic. It was decided that Nelson would go, too.
Apparently, between Santa Lucia and La Esperanza the funny
noise
the truck was already making turned into a really bad noise.
James and Nelson took the truck to a mechanic recommended by
our
Hombro a Hombro driver Luis. On the way out of La Esperanza,
the
front left wheel fell off, not just the tire but the whole wheel.
James and Nelson had to get the truck put into the bed of a
bigger truck and rode to San Pedro Sula in our truck in the back of the
big truck. The truck has been in the shop since Tuesday, and
James and Nelson are waiting on that to return.
Meanwhile, back in Santa Lucia, Tuesday morning was a hectic morning
with two patients seizing in the clinic at the same time, an axe wound,
and a waiting room full of people. Tuesday is also the day I
teach my class, so Andy is usually with Luke and not in the clinic.
However, with James gone, they needed all the help they could
get. So he went down as soon as I got back. It was
decided
that two patients needed a ride to the hospital in La Esperanza, so
Ruben left with the patients in the back of the ambulance, one of which
was Florencia's brother (who was seizing). Florencia is
Jack's
nanny. She is the reason why Christy is able to work.
Florencia, however, needed to go with her brother to the
hospital. So as soon as she left, Christy had to return
upstairs
to watch Jack, which meant that Andy was alone in the clinic.
Whew!
Wednesday wasn't much better with Ruben sick, Christy with Jack, and
James nowhere near returning.
Today is Thursday, though. Andy has gone to Pinares, which is
good. He enjoys the change in scenery, the patients, the
slower
pace, and the cooler weather. He is training Lesly so that
she
will be able to run the clinic by herself as a nurse, relying on
consultations from the doctors in Santa Lucia. So Andy is
also
teaching, something he really likes to do.
Needless to say, the week has been very tiring on Andy. I
hope that this day is refreshing for him.
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