Gira en Camapara, the first of many fieldtrips in Honduras.

Collage of our first field trip in Honduras, Camapara, June 2011. Click on the photo for a bigger view!

Before Vanessa (pink t-shirt bottom left), Edgard (grey t-shirt bottom left) and Julia (blue shirt and taking a photo, bottom left) went to Canada for phase one of the Sources-Fuentes project, we all took a trip together in the Honduran countryside. We visited Camapara, a protected watershed near La Campa, Lempira.

During our 3 hour hike up and down steep, muddy slopes, we learned about a project of one of ASONOG's partner organizations, CASM. They are promoting special "ecofogones" which are innovative wood stoves that use much less firewood than traditional wood stoves. This helps to cut down on the work required to cook for the family, and equally importantly, conserves alot more forest. This in turn translates into better quantity and quality of water in the watershed.

Deforestation is a big issue here, as in many places in the world. Camapara's protected areas help to preserve the forests and to ensure the water source is protected.

Yes...Inspired!!!

Being born and raised in Tegucigalpa might not seem that different than being born and raised in San Pedro Sula, Gracias, Santa Rosa or Ocotepeque, of course all of these cities have their particular way of life but in the end they share more similarities than differences. But, the real question here is, What about life in the towns and communities that are not as big or as known as the ones I mentioned before? The reality in these places is very different. The program SOURCES-FUENTES has given me the chance of visiting and sharing with small communities of the western part of Honduras, communities that I’ve never heard of before. I must emphasize that is HONDURAS that I’m talking about, my Country! So far my visits have been to Camapara; a beautiful community in Lempira where I was able to appreciate the importance of water (walking for 3 hours uphill required nothing more than the good old H20!), Belen Gualcho; a place where you can actually smell pine trees instead of the Lysol or Glade scents that I’m used to smell in many places in Tegucigalpa where they’re trying to bring the “woods” or “real nature” into their homes or cars, and San Rafael a small community with beautiful “movie-like” landscapes.

Life in this towns is very different than life in the big cities, yes, you might think that I will start complaining about the fact that there’s no five-star hotel or restaurant to go to, or that it’s sad to see little kids playing with rocks in the central park (btw not sad at all, many ingenious games are being invented) or how I much mud I had in me after visiting a watershed, but No. Those are not reasons to complain about, but I will complain about one thing: In school we’re taught to feel bad about these small communities and how extreme poverty is challenge hard to overcome, but I must say that after visiting communities like these more than feeling bad for them or feeling sad I felt inspired!! Yes, inspired because these communities are offering much more than what textbooks are stating! No, there’s no fancy restaurant in Belen Gualcho, yet they’re producing the best vegetables for the whole western zone of Honduras. No, there’s no government institution managing water in Camapara, but there is a “Junta de Agua” or water association made up of local leaders looking over the watershed and making sure that the water is given to 17 communities in Lempira. So yes, Inspired is what I am!

During this visits I was also able to meet very interesting people like, Juan Carlos Vasquez a participant of the program YLA that is taking place in Belen Gualcho. He and his group are starting a “microempresa” which is a small scale enterprise that is being run by local youth. I was amazed by the amount of effort they’re putting into this project, these are people who are facing many difficulties but are still trying their best to achieve their goal. I also met Janeth in San Rafael a 5 month pregnant women who didn´t consider her pregnancy an obstacle and walk with our group to the main watershed in the community.

It’s actually a sad thing when I think back about my old textbooks and I remember looking at pictures that portrayed images of pity towards the campesinos and the contrast between the pictures of successful politicians that served as a role model in life. I really do hope that those textbooks are not being used anymore!

This new program has given me the chance to learn so much about water, its consumption and management and a lot more, but more than that it has also given me the opportunity to have true role models, forget the big successful lawyer, I admire the Junta de Agua that has to fight many legal battles in order to keep their water source, forget the author of a best seller I admire the person who barely finished 6^th grade but was named the secretary for the local youth group, forget the inventor of GPS I admire the man who can give a tour of the watershed with his eyes closed because that’s the path he has to walk everyday in order to get clean and fresh water.

Many times I heard teachers say that we as students should make our own research, that we shouldn’t just take their words for granted, well now I realize that it’s true! There’s much more to learn and discover outside classrooms and books. And so, I invite you to do the same, let’s all discover the Belen Gualchos and Janeths of the world, let’s start doing our own research in order to create our very own textbooks.

Machuca

Machuca una comida típica, según me explico mi madre hospedante aquí en el occidente de Honduras. Es plátano verde (que llaman minimo) previamente cocinado, rallado y luego freído con chicharron y otros ingrediente. Como este plato, cada día aprendo, entiendo y degusto nuevas palabras, ideas, comidas de esta comunidad llamada Santa Rosa de Copan.

Desde que nos bajamos del avión, el 11 de julio con mis compañeros, sentí un aire especial, un olor único y recuerdo haber dicho: “Huele a Latino-América”. Ellos sonreían e afirmaban que mi sensación se debía al calor y la humedad, pero en mi mente era viajar a mis recuerdos de niñez en Colombia. 

Despertarme cada mañana y observar esta histórica ciudad entre montanas me hace sentir afortunada de tener la oportunidad de compartir y aprender de tanta gente humilde, amable y calurosa en este proyecto llamado “fuentes”. Cuando me detengo en la calles a observar los desechos en la calles o cuando miro sobre el balcón de mi casa la deforestación de las montanas causada por el “desarrollo económico” de la ciudad me pregunto: “como serian estas tierras hoy si los indígenas fueran aun administradores de sus riquezas naturales?”. Al mismo tiempo, la influenza norte americana es bastante presente, en varias ciudades hondureñas, pues es lo que he constatado hasta ahora. Es muy curioso de ver los nombres de los negocios en ingles, la televisión con demasiados canales estado-unidenses y la moda de utilizar marcas extranjeras en la manera de vestir. Entonces, hacia donde va la identidad hondureña?

Por el contrario, en una pequeña ciudad que visitamos en ocasión al día del Lempira, pudimos ver los niños y jóvenes desfilando trajes típicos, tocando música de la banda y representando el folclor del país. Ese dia disfrutamos mucho del calor, música, gritos y claro platanitos con una salsa que ni se como se llama.

Nuestro trabajo como equipo ha sido intenso, siempre acompañado de frustraciones y diferencias de opiniones, siendo parte de nuestro reto de trabajo, pues somos seis participantes, tres canadienses y tres hondureños (Yo soy la colombiana del equipo de los canadienses).

 

A pesar de las diferencias, hemos sabido sobrepasar las dificultades de trabajo en equipo gracias a un método de toma de decisiones en el cual todos debemos expresar nuestras diferencias hasta llegar a un punto de entendimiento. También, decidimos nombrar un facilitador de reunión cada vez que estamos discutiendo para poder compartir el liderazgo y asegurarnos que todas las voces sean escuchadas. Esta semana hemos definido un numero de módulos que incluiremos en nuestro taller y dividimos el trabajo de ciertos modules en parejas, otros individual o en tríos para avanzar en la búsqueda de la información necesaria para nuestro taller. Pero luego de un día de trabajo individual, nos dimos cuenta que debemos concentrarnos mas en el publico de los talleres, así tengamos que dividir un poco mas los temas entre problemáticas mas urgentes canadienses y hondureñas, pues dentro de seis semanas estaremos trabajando separados, dando los talleres en diferentes regiones de Canadá, tres de nosotros y en Honduras el resto del equipo.

Para concluir, acaba de pasar un caballo en la parte de atrás de la oficina, esta imagen hizo aun mas alegre el comienzo de nuestro día.

Questing for Knowledge & Public Engagement- Gaetane Daniela

Right now we are learning, creating, inspiring and being inspired by water stories in Western Honduras, Central America

For me, learning is the easy part.  I've got course, after workshop, after clinic, after class, after non-fiction book under my belt-buckle. I am a not-so-closet Geek.  I've invested time and money into diverse and seemingly unrelated subjects, from kayaking, to sheep dog training, to negotiation skills, to African dance, to tractor safety...really, the list is nearly endless.

What I wonder about often, is, what good is any of this knowledge if I don't share it?  With a background in environmental science and agriculture, how do I get some of my learnings, my passions, out into this wide world and affect change? 

Because that's what we all know we really need in this big wide world about now right?  Change. Engagement.  Participation.  Informed influence over the decisions that are important to us, like for example, how we keep our water safe, pure, accessible, and available...  This is what Sources-Fuentes, represents to me.  It's an opportunity, not only to learn, but to share learnings and experiences, with other people, interculturally,  and to inspire youth leaders to get involved in their own communities.  It's daunting.  It's exciting.  It's a small step.  This blog is one of the ways we are involving and inspiring more people.

Welcome to the Sources-Fuentes journey.