Happy Father's Day!

So, this past Saturday was Father's Day here in Honduras and I thought I'd share some pictures of our little celebration.  We had a special lunch on Friday at the office followed by a giant cake!  I was in charge of buying the cake so that was fun.  The only hitch was that I didn't realize we were only expecting ten people and the cake I picked out was supposed to feed 25-30 people.  Needless to say, we ate a LOT of cake that day and there was still leftovers to take home. 

Father's Day in Honduras isn't nearly as big as Mother's Day (which is celebrated in May, just like in Canada).  However, this holiday is still an important celebration for families in the community.  In many homes fathers are either uninvolved with their children or totally absent.  Unfortunately incidences of domestic violence, child abuse and alcoholism are pretty common.  It is really a privilege if a family has a stable and loving father-figure in their home.  At church, some women came forward to give heartfelt thanks to all the wonderful fathers and role models in the community.  It really made me think about their influence on the father's of the next generation and about the future of the typical Honduran household.  It also made me miss my own dad so, of course, I gave him a call later on Sunday afternoon!

Diaconía's Microcredit Program

So far, my favourite part of my work here in Honduras has been assisting with the microcredit program.  Microcredit is a way of fighting poverty by providing small loans to people in the community so that they can build their small-scale business activities. Pioneered by the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh under the direction of Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the microcredit model emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s.  Microcredit programs proved that people living in poverty could make good use of credit and other financial services which until then, they had rarely been able to access. As the concept of microcredit spread, organizations adapted it to fit the needs of other regions, economic climates, and populations -- urban and rural, literate and illiterate, male and female.

This program interests me because it targets women and helps them to organize and support each other.  Training individuals as part of a micro-credit initiative involves more than just dispensing loans: it empowers and strengthens the community.  Diaconía works within the neighbourhood to improve business strategies, build self-esteem and accountability, foster valuable family relationships, and develop household management skills.  I have had many opportunities to visit with loan recipients and I have seen their flourishing businesses.  I believe that this approach to development has the potential to truly transform a community through the empowerment of individuals and by nurturing a strong network of support.

At this point, I am still learning the loan process so I’ve been assisting the other team members.  Together we’ve gone to communities around Catacamas visiting potential clients and businesses.  Since the credit program involves investing a lot of time and effort into training and supporting its clients, Diaconía prefers to start with a few preliminary visits to get to know one another.  The priority is always to foster a strong relationship between the organization and its participants. 

This past week I just finished working on a pamphlet and PowerPoint presentation to help us better communicate to our clients their rights, responsibilities and benefits within the program.  We’ve really tried to simplify our message and emphasize the characteristics of a great relationship so we named it “La Receta del Éxito – The Recipe of Success”!  Hopefully this will aid our individual borrowers and loan groups to understand that DN is ready to support them but that they ultimately hold the key to opening or closing the door to this opportunity. 

Our most successful participants are those that take this cooperative relationship very seriously and also take great pride in their businesses.   They realize that we are not loan-sharks out to take advantage and make an enormous profit.  And yet our loans are not charity either because our clients know they have to invest wisely and work hard to pay it back. 

In addition to working on pamphlets and presentations, I have been filling out loan application forms with our potential borrowers and sending the documents to Diaconía Nacional’s head office in Tegucigalpa.  Not everyone can read and write very well so we have to sit down with each applicant – which also helps with my Spanish skills too!  My other tasks include all that fun office work like making photocopies, sending emails, answering the phone and of course filing, filing and more filing.  It seems like almost every job I’ve had involves a mountain of papers that need to be organized. 

All in all it keeps me busy - which is great - and I find the whole program very intriguing.  It also looks like I’ll have a break from the office work starting next week as we are expecting a work group from a church in British Columbia March 23^nd.  I bet I’ll be ready for more filing after a week of digging and mixing cement! 

My Roatan Vacation

So I just got back home to Catacamas yesterday afternoon from Roatan, one of the Bay Islands on the north coast of Honduras.  I left here on Saturday Feb 19th and took a 5-hr bus trip to Tegucigalpa.  I was so happy to spend the night at Dilia's house because the next day was an 8-hr bus trip to La Ceiba on the coast and then an hour and a half ferry ride to Roatan.  Honduras isn't a very big country but even domestic travel can be quite an ordeal.  My parents and my sister flew into Roatan from Houston on Feb 20th and I met up with them at our hotel later that evening.  It was really nice seeing my family again but it also wasn't some kind of gushy reunion either.  After all, it's only been six weeks!  It was strange saying good-bye yesterday though, since we won't see each other until Christmas- wow!

After spending a few days on the beach in Roatan, my parents were ready for a taste of the 'real Honduras'.  Of course Julie was just here in May for the King's Water Project so she already knew that the tropical vistas of Roatan didn't capture what it's really like to live in Honduras.  My family wasn't really interested in the 8-hr bus ride to Tegucigalpa so we flew instead.  Not to worry, the 5-hr trip to Catacamas following the flight was enough for them to get acquainted with the bumpy Honduran highways! 

We spent two nights in my house and my mom was very excited to do dishes in the pila – which was totally fine with me because that meant I didn’t have to do them! We only had time for one full day in Catacamas so we started off with a little tour of the Diaconía office.  Isaí made a valiant effort to give us a little presentation in English about DN’s work in Olancho.  It was great being able to share a bit more about my work here.  Now my family will have a better idea of what/who I’m talking about in my emails and phone calls. 

Next we went to the famous Cuevas de Talgua near Catacamas.  There was a bit of a hike up to the caves up it was totally worth it.  There are actually a lot of great caves in this area but Talgua is the only one that’s developed for visitors.  The rest of the afternoon was spent hanging around in hammocks, sipping cool drinks and eating this awesome hot bean dip with tortillas.   We left at 7am the next morning and instead of taking the bus again, Dilia was nice enough to take us in her truck.  In the end it was a lot of travelling for just one day in Catacamas but I think it was important for my family to see all of it.

I’d like to say that I spent all of last week lounging on the beaches of Roatan but I was sooooo sick.  I went to the clinic at least 5 or 6 times for tests, IV’s and prescriptions and I think my parents spent more on cab fare than my food for a week.  At first the doctors were pretty sure it was classic Dengue Fever or Malaria (both of which are spread by insects) but the blood tests were negative.  After about 5 days of antibiotics things seemed a little better so it must have been a bacterial infection.  I’m not 100% recovered yet but at this point I don’t really care what it was.  All in all, I spent more time in bed than in the sun but it was nice to have family around through it all.  I just hope I wasn’t too much of a bummer to ruin their vacation.  Fortunately I was feeling alright on our last full day in Roatan so I got to go horseback riding as little treat- yay!

So now I have to get back into my Catacamas routine.  Vacation time is over – time to get back to work!  I think I’m only in the office for another week and a half and then there is a work group coming from a CRC church in BC.  I’ll be joining them in El Coyolar as they construct latrines, pilas and concrete floors.  I think Diaconía has a North American work group lined up for each month until July so there’s a lot of work to be done in preparation!

Un poquito sobre mi casa... A little bit about my house

The internet drought is finally over! Hurrah!!! For some reason my mobile internet stick wasn't connecting to the network properly for almost two weeks but it seems ok now.  And so, the first order of business is to describe my new house.  I can't believe I haven't posted any pictures yet so here they are.  I guess this is just a little sneak peak for my parents and Julie since they'll be here to see it in person in about a week!

So, mi casa is about five minutes off the main road that runs through Catacamas.  It's certainly not a very big house but that is totally fine with me considering I have to clean it!  There is so much dust from the roads that I have to sweep every day and all the dishes need to be covered with tea towels.  Right next door lives Doris, the administrative assistant for Diaconía’s Olancho office.  Her house is pretty much a bigger version of my house and she lives there with her husband Noé and her children Pedro and Alejandra.  It's nice having a family nearby, especially when Doris makes delicious soups and other treats. 

The view of the yard from my back door.
There are about three medium-sized mango trees and a few plantain trees too.

I am really thankful to have running water!  Noé works for our neighbourhood water board so I just pay the monthly fee directly to him.  It costs about 100 lempira or $5/month.  We get water every second day and that is more than enough to fill the pila and the large black tank above the house.  The tank supplies water to the sink in the bathroom and the shower.  The shower head has an electric heater to warm up the water as it passes through but it is often so hot here that the water is already hot from sitting in the black tank all the time. 

My pila!

I use the pila to wash my dishes and my clothes. Learning to do laundry was quite the experience and the first couple weeks I got friction burns on my palms.  I buy a 5-gallon bottle of water about every two weeks for cooking and drinking.  So far I haven't had many problems with the water.  I did get a little sick for two days after accepting a coffee with milk from one of DN's micro-enterprise clients.  All in all, it was pretty minor and totally normal for foreigners. 

 

My house also has electricity which is great but it isn't always very reliable.  Our power grid supports a lot of communities around Catacamas and it doesn't really have the capacity to meet all the demand.  As a result, the lights often dim around supper time and sometimes the power cuts out completely for 30 minutes or more.  When the power is eventually restored it sometimes sends an initial surge of electricity which can damage stereos, computers, photocopiers, etc. 

The Diaconía office here in Olancho had to replace some of their equipment recently because of this type of wear and tear.  It is possible that in the near future DN will need to submit a proposal to install a solar panel.  This potential solution could offer more consistent electricity and support the development of sustainable energy sources.  One of the things we are praying for is that Diaconía might find a partner organization to sponsor this solar panel project.  Of course there are a lot of projects we would like to accomplish but I thought this one was especially intriguing! 

A view of the mountains from my yard. 

CRWRC's Evaluation of Diaconia Nacional

Sorry it has been so long since my last posting.  The last couple of weeks have actually been pretty busy which is great.  I am starting to feel a little more settled in my new environment and my position with Diaconía Nacional.  January 25^th to 28^th we were all busy traveling around the department of Olancho to meet with community leaders.  Every three years CRWRC completes a comprehensive evaluation of their partner organizations and these meetings are an invaluable part of the process.  So some of their representatives travelled from Tegucigalpa to see what Diaconía has been up to in these communities for the last three years. 
 

Each community meeting followed the same general format but it was interesting to hear their unique experiences, priorities and attitudes.  Honduran culture is very relationship oriented so, after the opening prayer, each person took the time to stand up, introduce themselves and describe their role in the community.  The next order of business was the history of the community – when was this area settled and what was it named after?  For the most part, the CRWRC workers had never been in that particular community before which makes it important to start with this fundamental narrative.   



Our meeting took place inside the
 Christian Reformed Church in El Carrizal



CRWRC is also very concerned about the future of the community and they asked a lot of questions about their plans.  When Diaconía starts working in an area the first thing they do together is write out the community’s major goals and vision for the next 5 to 10 years.   Ultimately, CRWRC wants to know their priorities and how Diaconía Nacional’s projects are helping to actualize these goals.   Some other key elements of the evaluation process involved themes of social justice and equity, the role of the church in the community, women in leadership positions, communal decision-making, and co-operation with other local church denominations.  



The Olancho evaluation team visited four communities: El Carrizal, El Guanabano, Escoto, and El Coyolar.  As I expected, the coffee project was an important topic for El Carrizal as the farmers have really benefitted from a few years of training in soil conservation and organic farming strategies.  It was very encouraging to hear the stories from Guanabano.  They highlighted the community’s effort to work co-operatively with the local Catholic church and their hopes for an even more productive credit union this year.  The meeting in Escoto dealt a lot with their plans for a water project.  Most of the neighbouring barrios have gravity fed water systems but Escoto struggles to power the pump necessary for their system.  El Coyolar was another great community to visit – especially since the King’s University’s Honduras Water Project team was there just last May!  The water project was completed only a few months later and the people of El Coyolar were very appreciative of Diaconía’s support. 



An individual from El Guanabano showing CRWRC staff
the results of his training with DN regarding the environment and agriculture.

 

The last question (and probably one of the most important questions) involved suggesting a hypothetical scenario where Diaconía Nacional would have to withdraw support from that community in order to meet the pressing needs of another community – how would the community respond?  Every non-profit organization faces the same unfortunate reality: limited resources to deal with a daunting list of needs.  It is really rewarding and engaging for the DN staff to work with enthusiastic communities but there is always a point where the people need to take ownership of their own development plans.  The mission statements of CRWRC and Diaconía both illustrate the importance of honouring and developing the potential of individuals and their communities.  The goal is to equip people to recognize their strengths, support one another, and ultimately take action to work for a better future.   

In response to this scenario, all the groups communicated their desire to continue working with Diaconía Nacional.  However, a few leaders reverently stood up, expressed their sincere gratitude to DN and then graciously admitted that there are a lot of communities in worse situations.  Essentially, these admirable leaders recognized their needs in a larger context and committed to maintaining their development plans should DN have to withdraw its support.  That may have been one of the clearest indications that the work of CRWRC and Diaconía Nacional is genuinely empowering individuals and transforming their communities.



Our lunch in El Coyolar was interrupted
by a sudden downpour so we all had
 to squeeze in underneath the porch roof

 

DN staff member, Isai Moreno, with a parrot from
 Escoto that was unable to attend the meeting...