Water advocacy

The rainy season was supposed to start here in mid-May. There have been a few torrential rainstorms, but the campesinos who work the land are saying that it’s still the dry season. If we don’t have good rains soon, we may have a serious drought.

But another real issue for many rural communities is water for drinking and for household chores. Many communities here have water but the quality is questionable.

Caritas of the diocese of Santa Rosa de Copán has a project, Strengthening Citizenship, that began to work in the Dulce Nombre parish this year. When a Caritas worker visited a parish zone meeting in El Zapote de Santa Rosa, several brought up the issue of the village’s water source.

Caritas arranged to do a test of the water and I accompanied the village’s Water Board and two Caritas workers to the source.

Water source

A laboratory in Santa Rosa found significant contamination with bacteria and fecal mater. A later test, after a few rainstorms, revealed more bacterial contamination and more than double the contamination with fecal matter. They also tested tap water from El Zapote.

The water source supplies not only El Zapote but also two other villages. So today a Caritas worker, Eliezer, met with representatives of the Water Boards of the three villages.

He began the meeting asking the El Zapote Board if they chlorinated their water at the town’s water tank. They checked it about every week. The cost for the chloride is about $17 a month.

Their efforts have resulted in no contamination of the water.

Eliezer also asked the other two boards about chlorination. One hasn’t chlorinated since February, because they had no chlorine and couldn’t find it in Santa Rosa or in La Entrada. The other village hasn’t chlorinated for about a year.

With the help of the El Zapote Water Board president, the two villages will take samples in a few weeks to be tested. I’m also sure they will find serious contamination.

Eliezer called someone from another municipality where Caritas works. They have a “bank” of chlorine that can provide one barrel to the two villages here.

The three Water Boards are going to meet and put together a statement to give to the mayors of the three municipalities involved as well as to the local association of municipalities. They also decided other matters.

What really impressed me, though, was how the El Zapote Water Board was so thorough and prepared. It was a little discouraging to listen to the lack of initiative in the other villages.

But efforts are being made that will, hopefully, bear fruit.

Eliezer asked me to say a few words before the meeting ended. I congratulated El Zapote for their work and mentioned that Caritas was ready to accompany the three villages in their work. But I emphasized, as did Eliezer, that they had to take the initiative, they had to be the protagonists. Caritas wouldn’t do it for them.

That is part of what outside organizations can do – accompany, encourage, motivate, help them make connections, and – when necessary – provide a bit of money. But the people must be the protagonists.

Organic agriculture workshop

Yesterday I went with some Caritas employees who work in a project in La Labor, Ocotepeque, to protect the Güisayote Natural Reserve which is a major watershed for Honduras, as well as El Salvador and Guatemala.

Earlier this year the donor, CORDAID of the Netherlands, added a component to encourage organic agriculture for those who live or work the land which is at the nucleus of the reserve. A young man with university training in agriculture is working with them.

This was one of several workshops Rafael has led and had twenty-three people from three different villages. What impressed me was the participation of a varied group of people – from some adolescents to older men and women. I think there were also more women than men present. One community, Llano Largo, couldn’t bring all the people involved in their project. It was great to see the enthusiasm of the participants.

This session was focused mostly on the use of micro-organisms for fertilizer, pesticides, and more.

Some photos follow. More can be found in this set on my Flickr site.

In a field in Pashapa

Rafael explaining how they would test soil for types of fungi 

Preparing a jar for the soil test 

Preparing the barrel for the wet mixture

Mashing garlic for the wet mixture

Adding vinegar

Taking notes 

Taking notes

Adding alcohol brought on a few laughs

The "salad" mixture (chile peppers, aromatic leaves, garlic, vinegar, alcohol)

Adding water

Preparing the dry mixture

The barrels set aside to ferment

42 baptisms at one Mass

Today I was supposed to facilitate the last of the second series of trainings for catechists. in the village of Agua Buena, Concepción. For some strange reason the message never got out and only thee people showed up.

But as I passed through San Isidro La Cueva I saw Padre German and a crowd gathering for Mass.  One of the catechists from there told me there were 42 baptisms.

This is a result of the new process for baptism of children under seven. There are five pre-baptism sessions and a retreat. This enabled many who wanted to have their children baptized but for various reasons hadn’t. Some were single mothers, some were parents not yet married in the church, others hadn’t been in base communities (which was a pre-requisite until Padre German arrived.) The fruits of the change in policy and the introduction of new materials are evident - probably close to one thousand baptisms of children under seven in the next few months and some parents asking about marriage.

I wanted to see what was happening in Sna Isidro. Since there was no training session I decided to stay for the Mass – which lasted almost three hours, with forty-two children under 7 being baptized.

It was a delightful Mass - even though Padre German spoke too long.

Here are some photos:

The provisional chapel in San Isidro La Cueva

Padre German blessing Erasmo and Delmin, the catechists

Signing with the cross

Renouncing Satan

Baptism

Father, what are you going to do to me?

A willing baptism of an infant

Share the light of Christ.

Sharing the light of Christ

More photos can be found in my San Isidro set on Flickr here.

More signs of hope in Honduras

Friday the Dulce Nombre de María parish celebrated the closing of the agriculture project, financed by the Spanish Catholic organization Manos Unidas. I’ve written about this several times before. (Several of the posts can be accessed here.)

The project has been a success, but we are not sure if it will continue. Even though it been only about $2,500 a month, we are waiting to hear from Manos Unidas to hear if they will continue to help finance it.

In early stages the project helped people with tools, fertilizers, and training in improved methods of production of basic grains. It also has helped people learn how to make organic fertilizers and fumigants.

More recently it has included projects of family gardens, as well as the promotion of production of vegetables by organized groups in the community. This helps promote better diet but also generates some funds.

There have also been some efforts in planting trees, both hardwoods and fruit trees.

Agricultural project celebration

Eighteen communities participated in the most recent stage of the project and so it was good to see about 200 come out for the celebration.

It was held in Colonia San José, Dulce Nombre, a small community which was very hard to get to because of a water-soaked road with six inch deep mud at several place. But I got there in the parish truck. (My truck has been in the mechanic’s shop for over a week because of a cracked camshaft.)

There was, of course, a Mass with Padre Efraín, the Dulce Nomrbe pastor, followed by recognition of the communities, songs by the Primos de Occidente of Quebrada Grande and a few cultural events by the young people of the village of Yaruconte.

The two most memorable was a song that Los Primos de Occidente had written on the project, which they promptly named “Huertos familiares/Family gardens”. They sang about “tajadas of plantains and a good salad of fresh vegetables for breakfast.” You can see and listen to it here.

The young people of Yaruconte and several other youth groups had prepared cultural events for their villages. The Yaruconte youth presented an indigenous dance.

   There were also tables of vegetables and fruit that several communities had brought to sell. I bought a few turnips and was given a bag of oranges as I left. 

Looking over the vegetables, I talked with a number of young men who were involved in the project. One was eating a raw carrot, something I seldom see here. He told me he liked carrots. So it appears, at least in one case, the project is helping people diversify their diets.

One event, though, touched me. There is a young man, Toño, from a village who is mentally handicapped. He walked up to the altar and shook Padre Efraín’s hand and then several pastoral workers brought him a chair so that he could sit in front of the altar with them. Instead of marginalizing him because of his differences, he is accepted and welcomed.

The project is important for its results but also for the community organization it promotes. But all this needs to be based on a love of God and neighbor that embraces those who are different. At least in this case, it does.

A water project in San José Quelacasque

The day before I had gone with a group from Caritas of the diocese of Santa Rosa de Copán to San José Quelacasque for the inauguration of their water and sanitation project.

Caritas has worked in San José Quelacasque for four years, first with a Community Management of Reduction of Disasters, project and since January with a water and sanitation project.

It is in many ways, a model project, not just for the latrines, improved piping of water, a system of water meters for houses, but for an improved culture of health which the community has embraced. Thus they hope to conserve their distinction as being the one place in the whole municipality of Gracias where people can drink water from the faucet without worry.

The celebration began with Mass with Padre Loncho, the pastor of the parish of Gracias, Lempira, followed by the blessing of the new water tank. There were songs composed by village members Ester and Joel, as well as several skits from the students. One was particularly funny and appropriate, satirizing a boy sick with diarrhea going to a clinic. There were even pigs rooting around the “clinic” – a true health hazard.

Also, because it was December 6, the feast of Saint Nicholas, San Nicolás showed up and gave out candy. 

After lunch I talked briefly with a representative from the Salvadoran non-governmental organization that has been the conduit for funding. He was impressed with what the people had done and had they had worked together. He noted that the community was poor, relying mostly on the production of basic grains.

If the community continues to be vigilant in its protection and conservation of water and their efforts in maintaining a clean and healthy environment on the community, they will continue to be a model for other communities.

These are small efforts, mostly done with the help of outside agencies but with amazing contributions of the people involved.

These people are the hope for the future of Honduras.

Waiting in Hope

Advent – the season of hoping for the coming of Christ – began yesterday. But hope is what life is about here in Honduras.

People hope for food, for water, for good weather for their fields, for good prices for their coffee crops, for justice. But often they have to wait.

How we wait is important. Do we wait impatiently, always expecting that our needs will be satisfied immediately?  Or do we wait passively, hoping that maybe something will happen for us?

In the past week or so, I’ve had several experiences that hint of other ways of waiting.

On Sunday, November 25, the parish of Dulce Nombre de María celebrated the feast of Christ the King with a procession, Mass, and dedication of a new building. People came from all parts of the parish to celebrate.

The people of Dolores walking in procession with the Eucharist

People walked from Dolores with the monstrance with the Host on a truck. Others came, walking riding rented pick ups, or on the regular buses that serve the area. I am continually amazed at the commitment of these people who will walk hours for a church meeting or celebration.

During the Mass about ten young people from a village were baptized.  Another sign of hope as more young people make the commitment to live out their faith.

Baptisms in the Christ the King Mass

As Communion began, Padre Efraín, the pastor, motioned for me to come and helped distribute the Eucharist. As I placed the host on the tongues of many people I knew, I was filled with a deep sense of faith and of unity with Christ and the People of God there present.

After Mass we blessed the new building with a kitchen, dining room, and a meeting hall which will help the parish’s efforts of evangelization, bringing the Good News to the people, by providing a decent place for training sessions for people from many villages.

Blessing the new building

 Then there was food for everyone since people had brought ticucos, empañadas (pupusas), and even tamales to share.

Sharing ticucos

We used the meeting hall for the first time this past Friday and Saturday for the parish’s annual evaluation and planning meeting. Twenty-five people came in from the parish. Two seminarians who are helping in the parish for a month, as well as René who is discerning his vocation before entering the seminary in January, were also present.

René, with Ignacio and Gustavo, at the Dulce Nombre parish meeting

The evaluation was at times intense as we looked at what had been planned for this year in each of the three ministries of the parish: liturgical, prophetic, and social. We also shared evaluations that several of the sectors of the parish had made.

In all, I think the parish is doing fairly well, with a few areas where we need to improve. But the parish has developed a plan, a calendar, and a series of objectives for the coming year.

This planning, I think, is a sign of a people who are waiting – but expectantly, ready to move forward and respond to God’s call.

Many of the events are training sessions, helping people to become better catechists, lay preachers, retreat leaders for base communities, or leaders of Celebrations of the Word in their villages.

There are other events where they will celebrate their faith – with Masses and Baptisms  and first Communions in the villages, with two youth get-togethers for Mass and soccer, with Masses and blessings of seeds in April and May, and the regular Sunday celebrations and weekly meetings of base communities in the villages.

There are hopes that a Spanish Catholic aid organization will again help the parish by financing an agricultural project.

This is one way of waiting – getting ready to respond to God’s call and celebrating God’s work in daily life.

But I think there is another aspect of waiting, in a positive sense. We need to celebrate our successes (how God has done good with us) and share our dreams.

Last Wednesday I went with Mari who works with Cáritas to the town of Erandique, Lempira – over terrible roads – to lead a workshop for youth in the parish. Hipólito, who is from the parish and works with Cáritas, had invited us as international facilitators to share with the 36 youth who came. Interestingly, Mari is from Cuba and I’m from the US – a nice way to show the young people that we must go beyond national borders and controversies. 

Youth in Erandique working together, with Hipólito looking on

 I started with having the young people share in groups what they had achieved, personally ad as a youth group in the parish. Some found this hard to do and one young woman even said that she felt that she had not achieved much. After this, I asked them to work in groups on what their dreams were for young people in their community in two years.

After I finished Mari used what the young people had shared to help them think about their capacities, their dreams, their sense of leadership, and the need to organize. She helped the young people see the significance of a quote I had shared from Dom Helder Câmara, the late Brazilian archbishop:

When we dream alone, it’s only a dream; when we dream together, it’s the beginning of a new reality.

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But then there are nightmares. 

I am without a car for about a week because on Thursday night, just before the parish meeting, my car began to emit a terrible noise and then wouldn't start. My mechanic moved the car to his shop and found out that the crankshaft had cracked - all the way through. He had never seen this type of damage before. And so I'm getting it repaired - for more than $500. But at least this didn't happen out in a rural village. 

Here's a photo of the cracked crankshaft:

And so I'm waiting for the motor to be repaired - something I don't wish for anyone.

Of various things

Accompanying Caritas

Friday I was in Intibucá for most of the day with the director of Caritas of the diocese of Santa Rosa de Copán meeting with representatives of COCEPRADII, an Intibucá department-based non-governmental organization and representatives of Catholic Relief Services Honduras to work on budgets and job profiles for a three-year project to help local schools, especially in terms of school meals, financed by the US Department of Agriculture.

On the way back I was speaking with a Caritas fieldworker who told me of something that happened at a meeting she was at in Erandique. A young man was feeling ill and so they took him to the local clinic. He was diagnosed with appendicitis and had to be taken to the hospital in Gracias, more than an hour away. But in Gracias there was no surgeon available and so he had to be sent to Santa Rosa. Luckily there was an ambulance and the people involved put together the $26 needed to pay for the trip. Later they found out that there was no surgeon available in Santa Rosa de Copán. Luckily the ambulance was from San Pedro Sula and so he was taken there – a ride of between 2 and 3 hours - where the appendectomy was performed. It took a while for his family to locate him and to connect with him in San Pedro Sula. It was 36 hours since he first got ill and the surgery. He could have died for the lack of surgeons in two major public hospitals. Such is the state of medicine here.

Dulce Nombre youth cultural night

 Late Saturday afternoon I went to Dulce Nombre for a cultural program arranged by the youth group of Dulce Nombre – Alma Misionera [Missionary Soul] – with the assistance of Caritas.

Grupo juvenil Alma Misionera

The youth provided an incredible evening with presentations of music, traditional games, and food. They even got a group of kids from the local school (named after John F. Kennedy) to do a traditional dance.

Atol chuco (dirty drink) -  a local favorite

One of the most imaginative presentations was a rap song on Dulce Nombre. Kelvin and Carlos rapped it, to the applause of the more than 200 people gathered, many from other youth groups that also are doing cultural presentations in their villages.

Here’s the rap song.

Visiting Montaña Adentro

In two weeks a group of university students from St. Thomas Aquinas Church and Catholic Student Center in Ames will be visiting the parish of Dulce Nombre, their sister parish.

I usually try to arrange a stay in a village where we do a project with the people there. This year, at the suggestion of Padre Efraín, the pastor, we’re going to Montaña Adentro, to help them with building there church.

Montaña Adentro is not too far from Dulce Nombre, but it is really “adentro,” inside the mountainous terrain of the parish. The site is beautiful, but it’s up and down several hills to get there – in the mountains. It is a zone of coffee and orange trees.

The town, of about 40 households, does not now have a church, but has its Sunday morning Celebrations of the Word in the village’s one room school house.

Sunday Celebration of the Word in the Montaña Adentro school.

I joined them in their Celebration and had brought the Eucharist to share with them. After the Celebration they were selling “arroz con leche,” rice with milk, a little like rice pudding, to raise funds for the village church’s project.

After the Celebration, I met with the village’s church community council to talk about the visit. They are very pleased with the chance to welcome the group, since they have never had a group come to be with them.

After lunch (see my reflection on eating with the poor here), we went to see the site of the future church.

The site of the church.

On the side of the hill there is an incredible view. I stood around and talked with the men involved. We talked about the possibility of finding a way to store rainwater as well as the usefulness of planting some trees to lessen the effect of the north wind. Antonio suggested grafted avocado trees. 

From the construction site, looking north (with my pickup)

I left about 2:00pm, very happy to have spent time with the people there and looking forward to our visit two weeks from now.

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More photos from the Cultural Night in Dulce Nombre can be found here and more photos from Montaña Adentro here.

A few photos from the cultural event in Camalote are here. This event had to be cut short when the lights went out.

Another video from the Dulce Nombre cultural event - of traditional games - can be found here.