Par un bon matin de juillet

4 :00 am. : Je rêve que je tue des poulets.
4 :30 am. : Je me réveille au cri du coq (je ne comprends vraiment pas pourquoi les gens disent ‘’chant du coq’’). Je crois que le coq du voisin a traversé de notre côté, encore. On dirait que son horloge biologique est déréglée; il est vraiment trop tôt.
4 :40 am. : Je me rendors de peine et de misère avec mes bouchons en plus d’une couverture enroulée autour de ma tête.
6 :00 am. : Je n’entends pas mon alarme (évidemment).
6 :05 am. : Je n’entends pas mon deuxième alarme.
6 : 10 am. : Je vous laisse deviner (indice : c’est au sujet d’un alarme). Bip Bip Biiiiiiip.
6 :20 am. : Un agencement de mots dans une langue étrangère me réveille. C’est ma mère d’accueil en bobette (seulement!) assise sur le lit à côté du mien (je vous épargne les détails de ma première vision du jour). AAAAAh!!!! Je suis sensée partir de la maison à 6 :30 am. AAAAAAh!!! (J’apprends plus tard que ma partenaire de chambre ne m’a pas réveillé de peur que je sois fâchée. AAAAAh !!!).
6 :21am. : J’ai encore la diarrhée (je chie de l’eau depuis 4 jours. Joie.).
6 :22 am. : (L’avantage de la diarrhée c’est qu’elle réduit mon temps sur le bol) Je passe rapido-express dans la douche.
6 :25 am. : Je m’habille (entretemps, ma maman aux vêtements ‘’défaillants’’ a aussi trouvé de quoi se vêtir; Gracias a Dios!).
6 :27 am. : Je suis de retour sur la toilette (un désavantage de la diarrhée est qu’elle multiplie mes rencontres avec le trône).
6 :29 am. : Je prépare des sandwichs au beurre de peanut pour emporter.
6 :31 am. : Ultime rencontre avec la salle de bain et ses attributs.
6 :33 am. : Je marche d’un pas pressé vers le parc avec ma co-équipière qui traine de la sandale.
6 :46 am. : Je retrouve ma place à l’arrière du pick-up accidenté et encore plein de boue de hier (hier est une autre histoire, haha). Je reprends mon souffle; ouff !
Direction le village de Belen Gualcho. Une autre journée d’aventure à la découverte de leur gestion de l’eau nous attend!

WHO LET THE DOG OUT!

Last week was indeed quite eventful; filled with incredibly positive and not-so-positive moments. It started like any other week, a quiet Monday that many were dreading because of a sleepless weekend. Monday was followed by Tuesday (no surprise there). We had visits planned to Belén Gualcho for Tuesday and Wednesday to learn about the water situation in that community. If there are any Hondurans reading, they might ask: “Why would you go visit this small community hidden in the mountainous occident of Honduras?" Well, Belén Gualcho was actually hit with a Hepatitis A epidemic about a year ago. While we were there, we met with local officials, health centre workers and ministry of environment representatives from whom we learned about challenges they ran into while dealing with the epidemic, temporary solutions they’ve come up with and what they foresee as necessary for the future. We then were able to visit various water tanks, the source of Belén Gualcho’s water, where they dispose of their dirty water, etc. Needless to say, even though this was an educational trip, that did not stop us from taking advantage of the beautiful landscapes around us and taking lots of photos. I must say though, what shocked me the most was the people we were with. Some of the town counsellors spent the entire two days with us and even followed us on our hikes. Talk about hospitality! Overall, they seemed very interested in water related issues.

Unfortunately, this amazing couple of days was followed with a bit of a sour moment for me. After a couple of weeks of difficulty with my living situation, the decision was made for me and my counterpart to change homes (YAY!). While leaving our initial home with all of our luggage Thursday afternoon, our hostess’ dog decided she was angry and bit me in the thigh (OUCH!). Thankfully she didn’t rip my pants and a visit to the doctor wasn’t necessary. Fortunately, that was the only down-side to last week. Friday came and turned out to be an extremely productive day work-wise. Then our weekend activities consisted of a movie night and a trip to Copan Ruinas. What more can you ask for in life!

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.